Regardless of one’s political affiliation, the Shirley Sherrod incident has shown us a very important point: critical thinking skills seem absent inside the beltway for sure, but more importantly, absent from the “mainstream” media. Everyone latched onto Sherrod like police dog clamping down on a criminal’s arm. Of course no one bothered to check and make sure they were actually biting a criminal.
Critical thinking skills and the ability to use rational thought are vital to the survival of the species. We saw that break down this week as every politician (right, left, and center) and every news outlet (right, left, and center) took the word of a single person and ran with it. There was no verification of facts, no burden of proof, no skepticism, no questioning of the source, etc. The accumulation of logical fallacies was like watching an algae bloom in the Gulf of Mexico: spreading its devastating effects the bigger it gets.
I have no vested interest in Sherrod. I could care less if she works at the USDA or not. And that is because to me this is not about the politics: it is about the lack of critical thinking skills and skepticism on the part of so many. That is a scary thought when you start to think about the bigger issues that could be coming our way in the future.
by Blair Scott
People aren’t motivated to get the truth, they’re motivated to get on the bandwagon and affiliate with social groups. The world simply doesn’t make sense if you think of the average Joe as an amateur philosopher/scientist. He’s not. Even highly functional people with high IQ’s and decades of education can be found believing ridiculous things with not a shred of evidence.
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Right now, X% of Americans still believe Sherrod was giving a racist speech instead of a talk about the need to shift away from a racial conflict perspective. Just like X% of Americans still think Saddam Hussein had something to do with 9/11 or had WMD’s. It’s not about the truth, it’s about belonging to the ingroup.
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Of course, one of the biological purposes of belief is facilitating advantageous group membership. The ability to form correct beliefs is less important than the ability to join the dominant social group.
After the ACORN smear campaign, you’d think people would be more alert to “edited” videos like this one. Of course, not everyone has time to watch the full speech to get the context, but that’s what we watch our “trusted” news programs for. When they fail to go to the source, firestorms like this get quickly out of hand. To any well-practiced skeptic, the whole thing sounded like quote-mining right from the start.
As long as there are folks who’s joy in life is to posts “FIRST!” as comments to political blogs, there will be a rush to be first with a political story and that virtue will trump accurate most every time.
Shame on them for doing it. Shame on “us” for not holding them accountable, not demanding better. Not shutting it off. Not a lot of things.
i agree totally. since the overall population wants, and has consequently been fed, mostly snippets and sound bites for a decade or more, actions like this are what we get. the only upside to this is that those of us who are critical thinkers make a good living remediating the errors and oversights of those that aren’t.
Well Blair this is what you get with this progressive/liberal pc bullshit culture.We are driving out good talent because you have to watch every thing you say/do and explain yourself for everything no matter how long ago.None of us are perfect,people change overtime and things must be seen in context yet in this gotcha culture that doesn’t fly.This lady got a raw deal and i’m saying this as a conservative white man.
We are getting the leadership we wanted-clean record,nothing there including brains.The media went bozo over a talk about something 20 yrs ago but didn’t say a word about how many congressmen read the financial reform bill before voting on it.
Please explain how this is exclusive to “progressive liberal…”. It’s my take that right/left/middle are all guilty.
Orthodoxy,Autocracy,Nationalism.
Maybe now, everyone not Fixed News will look and think twice before running with a Fixed News exclusive. I’d love to know why everyone feels it’s necessary to let those evil slugs of humanity run the show after time and time again they throw bullshit at everyone and we treat it like chocolate pudding.
CPT_BRUMBL3Z says:
July 23, 2010 at 10:24 am
I just knew someone would make Blair’s point…CPT, the administration fired Sherrod before the story broke on Fox News.
Does that change the fact that too many non-Fox Noise people decided to run with it all and not verify sources? Does that change the fact we have over reactionary politics and media? Does that change the fact that Cluster Fox, whether they ran the story pre- or post-termination, has willfully misconstrued, lied about, and exaggerated the entire story, then proceeded to blame EVERYONE ELSE for doing what they proudly did with smiles on their faces?
And for the record, I find it hard to believe Fux Noobs ran the story after the firing, I’ll need some sourcing there. If I’m wrong, then its an exception to my experience.
CPT…the thread is about “critical thinking skills”.
Critical Thinking as Defined by the National Council for Excellence in Critical Thinking, 1987
A statement by Michael Scriven & Richard Paul for the
{presented at the 8th Annual International Conference on Critical Thinking and Education Reform, Summer 1987}.
Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action.
http://www.criticalthinking.org/aboutct/define_critical_thinking.cfm
…is, from my experience, not something you do very well.
KA,phreedm
Michael Hoffman has alot of material on jewish bolsheviks and their bloody war on christians in eastern europe/USSR.Check it out.
reason, why should I care what some conspiracy whackaloon writes? Hoffman is clearly a religious loon.
You preaching about critical thinking and reason would be like Osama bin Laden preaching about freedom and liberty.
Either source me that Sherrod was fired first, or shove your double standard up your boil encrusted ass.
UN COURT RULES KOSOVO DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE LEGAL.USA approves decision,so when we restablish CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA there can be no argument from US gov’t.Thank you President Obama.
The finance reform law just enacted-now begins process of writing the regulations.Isn’t this the devil in the details part.
Will USA stay in Afghanistan until end of 2014 as NATO agreed? Will it influence how you vote?