America's continued descent into the cesspool of theocracy
Heather Cox Richardson has written an excellent essay about American conservatism, its morally repugnant stance against equality, and how it mirrors Orbán's vile dictatorship in Hungary.
At the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) last weekend, Daily Wire host Michael Knowles said that “for the good of society…transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely—the whole preposterous ideology, at every level.” He worded his statement in such a way that it would inevitably create outrage that he could then angrily refute by insisting that “eradicating transgenderism” was not the same thing as eradicating transgender people. This sort of word game is a well-known right-wing tactic for garnering media attention.
There's four problems: 1. Theocratic idiots 2. Tax laws that keep them ignorant, fat and oversupplied with funds. 3. The constitution's lack of fair representation. 4. A stupreme [sick]court committed to (a) enforcing all of the above, and (b) returning us to the 1950s, if not the 1850s.
All this, but it's also deeper than that: people aren't educated in how to rank their beliefs by the quality of evidence for and against them. Uneducated people make poor choices (when voting) and politicians cater to their "base". So the politicians will weaken education, which creates even more ignorant voters.
In the meantime, poor education leads to personal stress that leads to failing societies and poor health outcomes.
Education isn't the only force influencing a society, of course, but it is IMHO one of the most significant ones.
To that end, I've been futzing around with a causal loop diagram about the role of education in society. This is still very much WIP, but so far here's what I have.