One example is people supporting terrorism; it shocks me that some people who claim to be feminists can support such an unthinkingly misogynistic group as Hamas. Of course, some genuinely care about the Palestinian people and don't approve of Hamas, but a shocking number seem to have not considered the issue at all. I want to be clear that Israel has problems and I'm not saying that they are perfect; it is a very complex issue but many are unable to see it with nuance. The group "Queers for Palestine" is farcical in its support of a state which would eradicate it without a thought.
Another is the unquestioning faith in trans ideology, which has been laid bare in the recent Cass review in the UK. Again, few are able to see the nuance that gender transition is absolutely helpful to a small number of people, but that the treatment has been unethical in some (not all) cases. I support trans people in general, and definitely want them to be treated with respect, but that doesn't mean that every autistic child who believes they are trans should go through irreversible treatments. Nicola Sturgeon (former first minister of Scotland, and a university graduate) fell from political grace after taking the stance that a male rapist should be allowed to be sent to a women-only prison, which she didn't even realise would be unpopular.
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By "grounding" I mean that people should have an understanding of what has been discovered and postulated before them, so that they can form ideas of their own. If everyone starts from square one, they have to discover so much for themselves that they will rarely make any significant progress. Indoctrination is not the goal, and learning about the important thinkers of the past may lead to seeing the flaws in their thinking and developing improved ideas.
I could never reach the brilliance of Rousseau or Newton if I started from the point at which they did, but by building off their work, I can be much closer (though still very far away). We stand on the shoulders of giants.
Most degrees do not create an educated person. An educated person needs a grounding in science, history, philosophy, literature, and - especially in our new age of disinformation - critical thinking and psychology.
I studied one of the hard sciences, and while educated in this field, I was sorely lacking in many areas. Even with my training around scientific thinking, I was unable to clearly see the biases that were injurious to my clarity of thought.
Look at universities and you see students with unhinged political beliefs, based on wild emotion tethered to neither evidence nor reason. These are not educated people, and it almost seems like some of them may have been wiser had they not pursued higher education at all. Regarding climate change, most university graduates are frustratingly ignorant and unwilling to think clearly about the solutions.
It is imperative that schools teach critical thinking and provide a desperately needed grounding in various subjects, rather than pursuing the sole purpose of ensuring their students tick the correct boxes to pass their exams. If this system were present, few would benefit from university and the profit-seeking motives of these institutions could be brought back in hand.
> If you are sedentary, intellectually inclined, and not cut out for a job in the trades, school may be good for you.
The intellectually inclined are also badly affected by school. The slow pace of learning stifles intellectual curiosity, and causes severe boredom. School is a nightmare that grinds them down while not allowing them to pursue their interests.
I developed a program to help with this — it's called "gitprof", since it helps with Git profiles. It's not completely flawless but it works fine, and I find it very helpful.
In my case, it only took a few months to be more effective with Vim than without it. Since I spend most of my time working, Vim is a great improvement to my quality of life. The benefits of Vim include not just productivity, but also comfort.
Lately I've taken to reading almost only classic literature; since books published before 1923 are in the public domain, the ebooks are very cheap indeed (i.e. completely free via Project Gutenberg).
The other advantage of this approach is that classic works are better than the books I was reading before, and there are enough of them to last me several years at least.
Another is the unquestioning faith in trans ideology, which has been laid bare in the recent Cass review in the UK. Again, few are able to see the nuance that gender transition is absolutely helpful to a small number of people, but that the treatment has been unethical in some (not all) cases. I support trans people in general, and definitely want them to be treated with respect, but that doesn't mean that every autistic child who believes they are trans should go through irreversible treatments. Nicola Sturgeon (former first minister of Scotland, and a university graduate) fell from political grace after taking the stance that a male rapist should be allowed to be sent to a women-only prison, which she didn't even realise would be unpopular.
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By "grounding" I mean that people should have an understanding of what has been discovered and postulated before them, so that they can form ideas of their own. If everyone starts from square one, they have to discover so much for themselves that they will rarely make any significant progress. Indoctrination is not the goal, and learning about the important thinkers of the past may lead to seeing the flaws in their thinking and developing improved ideas.
I could never reach the brilliance of Rousseau or Newton if I started from the point at which they did, but by building off their work, I can be much closer (though still very far away). We stand on the shoulders of giants.