Critical thinking
I attended Miami University, and I loved it. It had its ups and downs at the time, but in retrospect I can't think of any way I'd have rather spent those four years. Not to mention Oxford, Ohio is a great town. I learned more about myself, and the world, inside and outside the classroom, in those four years, than I ever have learned before or after that period. Miami prides itself on liberal education. Your courses were more or less dictated by "The Miami Plan for Liberal Education" which basically said, regardless of your major, you need to take a variety of stuff. You had to take arts classes, science, humanities, and "a class presented from the non-dominant perspective of the US," affectionately referred to as the anti-rich-white-guy class. Sounds totally hippie, I know, but years later, I got it. I realized why this makes for a good education.
The Miami Plan was built on principles, including critical thinking and reasoning (thank you, Dr. Bill Gracie Jr.). They wanted students to have the ability to collect information from a variety of sources, analyze it, process it, and make decisions. I challenge you to name an occupation where that's not a useful skill. Mind you, this was "way back" in 1996, when the internet was "new." How much more relevant is that concept today, now that we're bombarded by information from all angles? Heck, our cars and phones give us information. I'm so old I remember when that was not the case. It's wonderful to have instant access to so much information, but at the same time it's challenging. If you can't critically analyze it and process it, it's just a pile of (useless) data.
So I was stuck today when a facebook friend, an old high school classmate, posted a link to a documentary that's out these days. "2016: Obama's America" is a "fair, un-biased, insightful" piece of journalism, he told his facebook community. Further, he said we should all go see it. The Heritage Foundation thinks it's an amazing work, the Obama campaign says it's a crock, and those two facts are all I need to know to tell you the thing is slanted, certainly NOT un-biased. There's a reason we distinguish between educational films and documentaries; the latter is designed to sway your perspective to that of the director (ask Michael Moore), the former simply to educate you on a topic.
The premise of this documentary is simple: Obama, the do-nothing President, is waiting until his second term to ruin the country. He wants to reduce our nuclear weapons arsenal, downsize America, and right the wrongs of colonialism. If we re-elect him, it will be the end of America as we know it. Forget the fact that your life today is unlikely to be materially different from when the man was elected, just trust us that he's ruining America and a 2nd term will make it worse.
This film was #3 at the box office this weekend. It's wildly popular. It plays on a 4+ year old theme "you don't know Obama, he has a hidden agenda..." Keep in mind, 34% of conservative Republicans think our President is a Muslim. That's twice what it was (16%) in 2008, and twice the national average (17%). Ignorance is demonstrably growing among this demographic. Here are some reviews from actual movie critics:
From The Washington Post's Michael O’Sullivan: "... slick infomercial...destined to irritate the president’s supporters while mobilizing his detractors, even as it is doomed to win precious few converts... fear-mongering of the worst kind."
From Variety's Joe Leydon: "... for the bulk of its running time, the pic comes off as a cavalcade of conspiracy theories, psycho-politico conjectures and incendiary labeling."
Again, I haven't seen it. Maybe the critics, the Heritage Foundation and the Obama campaign are all wrong on this thing. Maybe it truly is an objective, well-substantiated piece of informative journalism. I doubt it.
So I pointed this out to my friend. "Hey Matt, this thing is a joke; are you serious that you think this is un-biased, fair journalism?" He was a smart guy in high school, probably still is. I was genuinely shocked to hear him defend this thing, let alone support it. He knows better. He has critical thinking skills. So what happened to him since high school? How did he respond?
He yelled at me for compromising his 1st amendment rights (to say this is a fair, insightful work), attacked me for pointing out the fact that there IS an ignorant subset of the GOP base, then de-friended me. I laughed. De-friended for pointing out that his critical thinking skills need an overhaul, or perhaps for disagreeing with his perspective, I don't know. We exchanged a few comments back and forth, and next thing I know, I've been de-friended and blocked.
Losing Matt as a friend on facebook is truly unfortunate, but I won't lose any sleep over it. What concerns me is that I wonder how many Matts are out there. Smart people who have critical thinking skills and are actively ignoring them. People who should be elevating the debate in this country, and instead are dumbing it down. People who refuse to listen to any opinion (or facts) that contradict their world view.
I don't care who you vote for, but voting from a position of ignorance is unacceptable. If you have a friend who is among the 34% of this country who thinks the President is a Muslim and you don't correct him/her, you're part of the problem. If you know someone who thinks Mormons like multiple wives and you don't correct them, you're part of the problem. There are plenty of valid reasons to hate both candidates in this race. Religion, race, and shady conspiracy theories about place of birth and hidden agendas are not among them.
The Miami Plan was built on principles, including critical thinking and reasoning (thank you, Dr. Bill Gracie Jr.). They wanted students to have the ability to collect information from a variety of sources, analyze it, process it, and make decisions. I challenge you to name an occupation where that's not a useful skill. Mind you, this was "way back" in 1996, when the internet was "new." How much more relevant is that concept today, now that we're bombarded by information from all angles? Heck, our cars and phones give us information. I'm so old I remember when that was not the case. It's wonderful to have instant access to so much information, but at the same time it's challenging. If you can't critically analyze it and process it, it's just a pile of (useless) data.
So I was stuck today when a facebook friend, an old high school classmate, posted a link to a documentary that's out these days. "2016: Obama's America" is a "fair, un-biased, insightful" piece of journalism, he told his facebook community. Further, he said we should all go see it. The Heritage Foundation thinks it's an amazing work, the Obama campaign says it's a crock, and those two facts are all I need to know to tell you the thing is slanted, certainly NOT un-biased. There's a reason we distinguish between educational films and documentaries; the latter is designed to sway your perspective to that of the director (ask Michael Moore), the former simply to educate you on a topic.
The premise of this documentary is simple: Obama, the do-nothing President, is waiting until his second term to ruin the country. He wants to reduce our nuclear weapons arsenal, downsize America, and right the wrongs of colonialism. If we re-elect him, it will be the end of America as we know it. Forget the fact that your life today is unlikely to be materially different from when the man was elected, just trust us that he's ruining America and a 2nd term will make it worse.
This film was #3 at the box office this weekend. It's wildly popular. It plays on a 4+ year old theme "you don't know Obama, he has a hidden agenda..." Keep in mind, 34% of conservative Republicans think our President is a Muslim. That's twice what it was (16%) in 2008, and twice the national average (17%). Ignorance is demonstrably growing among this demographic. Here are some reviews from actual movie critics:
From The Washington Post's Michael O’Sullivan: "... slick infomercial...destined to irritate the president’s supporters while mobilizing his detractors, even as it is doomed to win precious few converts... fear-mongering of the worst kind."
From Variety's Joe Leydon: "... for the bulk of its running time, the pic comes off as a cavalcade of conspiracy theories, psycho-politico conjectures and incendiary labeling."
Again, I haven't seen it. Maybe the critics, the Heritage Foundation and the Obama campaign are all wrong on this thing. Maybe it truly is an objective, well-substantiated piece of informative journalism. I doubt it.
So I pointed this out to my friend. "Hey Matt, this thing is a joke; are you serious that you think this is un-biased, fair journalism?" He was a smart guy in high school, probably still is. I was genuinely shocked to hear him defend this thing, let alone support it. He knows better. He has critical thinking skills. So what happened to him since high school? How did he respond?
He yelled at me for compromising his 1st amendment rights (to say this is a fair, insightful work), attacked me for pointing out the fact that there IS an ignorant subset of the GOP base, then de-friended me. I laughed. De-friended for pointing out that his critical thinking skills need an overhaul, or perhaps for disagreeing with his perspective, I don't know. We exchanged a few comments back and forth, and next thing I know, I've been de-friended and blocked.
Losing Matt as a friend on facebook is truly unfortunate, but I won't lose any sleep over it. What concerns me is that I wonder how many Matts are out there. Smart people who have critical thinking skills and are actively ignoring them. People who should be elevating the debate in this country, and instead are dumbing it down. People who refuse to listen to any opinion (or facts) that contradict their world view.
I don't care who you vote for, but voting from a position of ignorance is unacceptable. If you have a friend who is among the 34% of this country who thinks the President is a Muslim and you don't correct him/her, you're part of the problem. If you know someone who thinks Mormons like multiple wives and you don't correct them, you're part of the problem. There are plenty of valid reasons to hate both candidates in this race. Religion, race, and shady conspiracy theories about place of birth and hidden agendas are not among them.