By Leonard Pitts Jr
“I love the poorly educated!”
—Donald Trump “Think! It ain’t illegal yet.”
—Funkadelic It’s time we talked about the most consequential political divide in this country.
That divide is not between liberals and conservatives. Rather, it is between the ignorant and the informed, between those who have information and can extrapolate from it and those who do not and cannot. There is an education gap between left and right, and it poses a grave threat to our national future.
This gap has been empirically proven. A 2015 Pew Research Center study, for instance, found that only 24 percent of Americans with postgraduate degrees and 29 percent of those with college degrees identify as consistently or mostly conservative. The corresponding numbers for liberals were 54 and 44, with the rest not identifying strongly with either ideology.
But empirical proof is superfluous. The t***h has been obvious since the knowledge-starved likes of Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin and Louie Gohmert first became stars of the political right. It has been obvious since Stephen Colbert found it necessary to coin the word “t***hiness.”
Now, however, that ignorance has reached the highest levels of American governance. Did The Great Trumpkin really sign an executive order without knowing what was in it? Did he really reportedly have to ask what Vladimir Putin was talking about when the Russian president brought up an arms control treaty in a phone call? Is his Twitter feed really a blizzard of embarrassing misspellings? Was there really a misspelling in his official inauguration poster? Did his Education Department — repeat: his Education Department — really misspell “W.E.B. Du Bois” and then, misspell its apology? Did he really praise Frederick Douglass, stone cold dead since 1895, as “an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job and is getting recognized more and more?”
Sigh. Yes, all of it.
As he has already legitimized coarseness, misogyny and bigotry, the so-called president now legitimizes ignorance.
I’m aware of the potential for coming off like a snob or a bully in appearing to score people for lack of education. For what it’s worth, my mother lacked education; she had about seven years of formal schooling — par for the course for a black girl in 1930s Mississippi. The woman had a reverence for knowledge, though. She was never book smart, but she was one of the wisest people I’ve ever known.
So I’m here not to mock those who lack information, but to lament those who fail to value it. We are asked, implicitly, repeatedly, to believe that failure equals authenticity.
Meantime, a new poll says that a third of us don’t know that the Affordable Care Act and “Obamacare” are one and the same. And Jennifer Williams, an editor at Vox.com, recently received a note from a reader who was “disappointed with your facts,” and advised “teaching people the correct history” — all while talking about how we went to war “with Saudi Arabia” after Sept. 11.
That’s not “authentic” — or funny. No, it’s frightening. See, those people v**e. They make decisions. Indeed, one of their decisions is in the White House.
The need to fix American education could not be more stark or urgent. We must re-double our efforts to teach our children not what, but how to think. The world is not growing less complex or challenging while we dither about, literally pretending ignorance is bliss.
With apologies to The United Negro College Fund: A country is also a terrible thing to waste.
Leonard Pitts Jr. is a Miami Herald columnist.
Nickolai wrote:
By Leonard Pitts Jr
“I love the poorly educated!”
—Donald Trump “Think! It ain’t illegal yet.”
—Funkadelic It’s time we talked about the most consequential political divide in this country.
That divide is not between liberals and conservatives. Rather, it is between the ignorant and the informed, between those who have information and can extrapolate from it and those who do not and cannot. There is an education gap between left and right, and it poses a grave threat to our national future.
This gap has been empirically proven. A 2015 Pew Research Center study, for instance, found that only 24 percent of Americans with postgraduate degrees and 29 percent of those with college degrees identify as consistently or mostly conservative. The corresponding numbers for liberals were 54 and 44, with the rest not identifying strongly with either ideology.
But empirical proof is superfluous. The t***h has been obvious since the knowledge-starved likes of Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin and Louie Gohmert first became stars of the political right. It has been obvious since Stephen Colbert found it necessary to coin the word “t***hiness.”
Now, however, that ignorance has reached the highest levels of American governance. Did The Great Trumpkin really sign an executive order without knowing what was in it? Did he really reportedly have to ask what Vladimir Putin was talking about when the Russian president brought up an arms control treaty in a phone call? Is his Twitter feed really a blizzard of embarrassing misspellings? Was there really a misspelling in his official inauguration poster? Did his Education Department — repeat: his Education Department — really misspell “W.E.B. Du Bois” and then, misspell its apology? Did he really praise Frederick Douglass, stone cold dead since 1895, as “an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job and is getting recognized more and more?”
Sigh. Yes, all of it.
As he has already legitimized coarseness, misogyny and bigotry, the so-called president now legitimizes ignorance.
I’m aware of the potential for coming off like a snob or a bully in appearing to score people for lack of education. For what it’s worth, my mother lacked education; she had about seven years of formal schooling — par for the course for a black girl in 1930s Mississippi. The woman had a reverence for knowledge, though. She was never book smart, but she was one of the wisest people I’ve ever known.
So I’m here not to mock those who lack information, but to lament those who fail to value it. We are asked, implicitly, repeatedly, to believe that failure equals authenticity.
Meantime, a new poll says that a third of us don’t know that the Affordable Care Act and “Obamacare” are one and the same. And Jennifer Williams, an editor at Vox.com, recently received a note from a reader who was “disappointed with your facts,” and advised “teaching people the correct history” — all while talking about how we went to war “with Saudi Arabia” after Sept. 11.
That’s not “authentic” — or funny. No, it’s frightening. See, those people v**e. They make decisions. Indeed, one of their decisions is in the White House.
The need to fix American education could not be more stark or urgent. We must re-double our efforts to teach our children not what, but how to think. The world is not growing less complex or challenging while we dither about, literally pretending ignorance is bliss.
With apologies to The United Negro College Fund: A country is also a terrible thing to waste.
Leonard Pitts Jr. is a Miami Herald columnist.
By Leonard Pitts Jr br “I love the poorly educated... (
show quote)
I love manatee steaks with a side of Ridley turtle soup. I also like clubbing baby seals so I can skin em, and use their carcases for polar bear bait.
Arkansas shiner minnows, and California delta smelts are AMAZING on pizza too!!
Shut up dude!
archie bunker wrote:
I love manatee steaks with a side of Ridley turtle soup. I also like clubbing baby seals so I can skin em, and use their carcases for polar bear bait.
Arkansas shiner minnows, and California delta smelts are AMAZING on pizza too!!
Shut up dude!
Howdy Arch,
I enjoy a Spotted Owl with dumplings once or twice each year.
I'd sure like to get my hands on a couple of dozen of those baby seal furs.
Let me know next time you go clubbing.
Would a Louisville slugger be a good tool for the job ?
Wolf counselor wrote:
Howdy Arch,
I enjoy a Spotted Owl with dumplings once or twice each year.
I'd sure like to get my hands on a couple of dozen of those baby seal furs.
Let me know next time you go clubbing.
Would a Louisville slugger be a good tool for the job ?
You bet! Go for the youth model. Gets the job done, and less cumbersome. I've been using my old lead ended tire knocker for years. Works great!!
I gotta clean it up real good though.
Those D.O.T. boys sure get sketchy if they see blood on it!
Nickolai wrote:
By Leonard Pitts Jr
“I love the poorly educated!”
—Donald Trump “Think! It ain’t illegal yet.”
—Funkadelic It’s time we talked about the most consequential political divide in this country.
That divide is not between liberals and conservatives. Rather, it is between the ignorant and the informed, between those who have information and can extrapolate from it and those who do not and cannot. There is an education gap between left and right, and it poses a grave threat to our national future.
This gap has been empirically proven. A 2015 Pew Research Center study, for instance, found that only 24 percent of Americans with postgraduate degrees and 29 percent of those with college degrees identify as consistently or mostly conservative. The corresponding numbers for liberals were 54 and 44, with the rest not identifying strongly with either ideology.
But empirical proof is superfluous. The t***h has been obvious since the knowledge-starved likes of Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin and Louie Gohmert first became stars of the political right. It has been obvious since Stephen Colbert found it necessary to coin the word “t***hiness.”
Now, however, that ignorance has reached the highest levels of American governance. Did The Great Trumpkin really sign an executive order without knowing what was in it? Did he really reportedly have to ask what Vladimir Putin was talking about when the Russian president brought up an arms control treaty in a phone call? Is his Twitter feed really a blizzard of embarrassing misspellings? Was there really a misspelling in his official inauguration poster? Did his Education Department — repeat: his Education Department — really misspell “W.E.B. Du Bois” and then, misspell its apology? Did he really praise Frederick Douglass, stone cold dead since 1895, as “an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job and is getting recognized more and more?”
Sigh. Yes, all of it.
As he has already legitimized coarseness, misogyny and bigotry, the so-called president now legitimizes ignorance.
I’m aware of the potential for coming off like a snob or a bully in appearing to score people for lack of education. For what it’s worth, my mother lacked education; she had about seven years of formal schooling — par for the course for a black girl in 1930s Mississippi. The woman had a reverence for knowledge, though. She was never book smart, but she was one of the wisest people I’ve ever known.
So I’m here not to mock those who lack information, but to lament those who fail to value it. We are asked, implicitly, repeatedly, to believe that failure equals authenticity.
Meantime, a new poll says that a third of us don’t know that the Affordable Care Act and “Obamacare” are one and the same. And Jennifer Williams, an editor at Vox.com, recently received a note from a reader who was “disappointed with your facts,” and advised “teaching people the correct history” — all while talking about how we went to war “with Saudi Arabia” after Sept. 11.
That’s not “authentic” — or funny. No, it’s frightening. See, those people v**e. They make decisions. Indeed, one of their decisions is in the White House.
The need to fix American education could not be more stark or urgent. We must re-double our efforts to teach our children not what, but how to think. The world is not growing less complex or challenging while we dither about, literally pretending ignorance is bliss.
With apologies to The United Negro College Fund: A country is also a terrible thing to waste.
Leonard Pitts Jr. is a Miami Herald columnist.
By Leonard Pitts Jr br “I love the poorly educated... (
show quote)
************************************
Thank you for your post. Ever since Bush's "No child left behind" education in this country has suffered. But what can one expect from one who purchased his degrees while attending class intoxicated? And now we are engaged with a "new" era led by one who is almost completely illiterate. Of course he loves the uneducated - he speaks at a 4th grade level and they do not criticize him. He must trust in his table of advisers because he doesn't like to read and, therefore, doesn't know what he is signing. "President Bannon" is a good example. While Trump is unaware that the Republicans will rid themselves of him as soon as he has served his purpose.
Hey, Trumpeteers, be careful of what you are wishing for! ! ! ! ! You won't recognize your country once this Administration gets through. I just hope they rid themselves of him before it's too late.
Nickolai wrote:
By Leonard Pitts Jr
“I love the poorly educated!”
—Donald Trump “Think! It ain’t illegal yet.”
—Funkadelic It’s time we talked about the most consequential political divide in this country.
That divide is not between liberals and conservatives. Rather, it is between the ignorant and the informed, between those who have information and can extrapolate from it and those who do not and cannot. There is an education gap between left and right, and it poses a grave threat to our national future.
This gap has been empirically proven. A 2015 Pew Research Center study, for instance, found that only 24 percent of Americans with postgraduate degrees and 29 percent of those with college degrees identify as consistently or mostly conservative. The corresponding numbers for liberals were 54 and 44, with the rest not identifying strongly with either ideology.
But empirical proof is superfluous. The t***h has been obvious since the knowledge-starved likes of Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin and Louie Gohmert first became stars of the political right. It has been obvious since Stephen Colbert found it necessary to coin the word “t***hiness.”
Now, however, that ignorance has reached the highest levels of American governance. Did The Great Trumpkin really sign an executive order without knowing what was in it? Did he really reportedly have to ask what Vladimir Putin was talking about when the Russian president brought up an arms control treaty in a phone call? Is his Twitter feed really a blizzard of embarrassing misspellings? Was there really a misspelling in his official inauguration poster? Did his Education Department — repeat: his Education Department — really misspell “W.E.B. Du Bois” and then, misspell its apology? Did he really praise Frederick Douglass, stone cold dead since 1895, as “an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job and is getting recognized more and more?”
Sigh. Yes, all of it.
As he has already legitimized coarseness, misogyny and bigotry, the so-called president now legitimizes ignorance.
I’m aware of the potential for coming off like a snob or a bully in appearing to score people for lack of education. For what it’s worth, my mother lacked education; she had about seven years of formal schooling — par for the course for a black girl in 1930s Mississippi. The woman had a reverence for knowledge, though. She was never book smart, but she was one of the wisest people I’ve ever known.
So I’m here not to mock those who lack information, but to lament those who fail to value it. We are asked, implicitly, repeatedly, to believe that failure equals authenticity.
Meantime, a new poll says that a third of us don’t know that the Affordable Care Act and “Obamacare” are one and the same. And Jennifer Williams, an editor at Vox.com, recently received a note from a reader who was “disappointed with your facts,” and advised “teaching people the correct history” — all while talking about how we went to war “with Saudi Arabia” after Sept. 11.
That’s not “authentic” — or funny. No, it’s frightening. See, those people v**e. They make decisions. Indeed, one of their decisions is in the White House.
The need to fix American education could not be more stark or urgent. We must re-double our efforts to teach our children not what, but how to think. The world is not growing less complex or challenging while we dither about, literally pretending ignorance is bliss.
With apologies to The United Negro College Fund: A country is also a terrible thing to waste.
Leonard Pitts Jr. is a Miami Herald columnist.
By Leonard Pitts Jr br “I love the poorly educated... (
show quote)
I guess he/they love you then?
Alicia wrote:
************************************
Thank you for your post. Ever since Bush's "No child left behind" education in this country has suffered. But what can one expect from one who purchased his degrees while attending class intoxicated? And now we are engaged with a "new" era led by one who is almost completely illiterate. Of course he loves the uneducated - he speaks at a 4th grade level and they do not criticize him. He must trust in his table of advisers because he doesn't like to read and, therefore, doesn't know what he is signing. "President Bannon" is a good example. While Trump is unaware that the Republicans will rid themselves of him as soon as he has served his purpose.
Hey, Trumpeteers, be careful of what you are wishing for! ! ! ! ! You won't recognize your country once this Administration gets through. I just hope they rid themselves of him before it's too late.
************************************ br Thank you ... (
show quote)
Educated i***ts! Alicia, your right. YOU and your fellow educated moonbat i***ts won't recognize this country once Trump "Makes America Great Again". It will not be an American moonbat utopia where no one's self-absorbed, narcissistic feelings are hurt, so they are the victims and will be segregated into like minded groups who do not feel "safe" in the broad community.
Did you crawl out from your safe space to spew that moonbat drivel?
Alicia wrote:
************************************
Thank you for your post. Ever since Bush's "No child left behind" education in this country has suffered. But what can one expect from one who purchased his degrees while attending class intoxicated? And now we are engaged with a "new" era led by one who is almost completely illiterate. Of course he loves the uneducated - he speaks at a 4th grade level and they do not criticize him. He must trust in his table of advisers because he doesn't like to read and, therefore, doesn't know what he is signing. "President Bannon" is a good example. While Trump is unaware that the Republicans will rid themselves of him as soon as he has served his purpose.
Hey, Trumpeteers, be careful of what you are wishing for! ! ! ! ! You won't recognize your country once this Administration gets through. I just hope they rid themselves of him before it's too late.
************************************ br Thank you ... (
show quote)
I don't recognize it now after 8 years of liberal bulls**t on steroids.
Nickolai wrote:
By Leonard Pitts Jr
“I love the poorly educated!”
—Donald Trump “Think! It ain’t illegal yet.”
—Funkadelic It’s time we talked about the most consequential political divide in this country.
That divide is not between liberals and conservatives. Rather, it is between the ignorant and the informed, between those who have information and can extrapolate from it and those who do not and cannot. There is an education gap between left and right, and it poses a grave threat to our national future.
This gap has been empirically proven. A 2015 Pew Research Center study, for instance, found that only 24 percent of Americans with postgraduate degrees and 29 percent of those with college degrees identify as consistently or mostly conservative. The corresponding numbers for liberals were 54 and 44, with the rest not identifying strongly with either ideology.
But empirical proof is superfluous. The t***h has been obvious since the knowledge-starved likes of Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin and Louie Gohmert first became stars of the political right. It has been obvious since Stephen Colbert found it necessary to coin the word “t***hiness.”
Now, however, that ignorance has reached the highest levels of American governance. Did The Great Trumpkin really sign an executive order without knowing what was in it? Did he really reportedly have to ask what Vladimir Putin was talking about when the Russian president brought up an arms control treaty in a phone call? Is his Twitter feed really a blizzard of embarrassing misspellings? Was there really a misspelling in his official inauguration poster? Did his Education Department — repeat: his Education Department — really misspell “W.E.B. Du Bois” and then, misspell its apology? Did he really praise Frederick Douglass, stone cold dead since 1895, as “an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job and is getting recognized more and more?”
Sigh. Yes, all of it.
As he has already legitimized coarseness, misogyny and bigotry, the so-called president now legitimizes ignorance.
I’m aware of the potential for coming off like a snob or a bully in appearing to score people for lack of education. For what it’s worth, my mother lacked education; she had about seven years of formal schooling — par for the course for a black girl in 1930s Mississippi. The woman had a reverence for knowledge, though. She was never book smart, but she was one of the wisest people I’ve ever known.
So I’m here not to mock those who lack information, but to lament those who fail to value it. We are asked, implicitly, repeatedly, to believe that failure equals authenticity.
Meantime, a new poll says that a third of us don’t know that the Affordable Care Act and “Obamacare” are one and the same. And Jennifer Williams, an editor at Vox.com, recently received a note from a reader who was “disappointed with your facts,” and advised “teaching people the correct history” — all while talking about how we went to war “with Saudi Arabia” after Sept. 11.
That’s not “authentic” — or funny. No, it’s frightening. See, those people v**e. They make decisions. Indeed, one of their decisions is in the White House.
The need to fix American education could not be more stark or urgent. We must re-double our efforts to teach our children not what, but how to think. The world is not growing less complex or challenging while we dither about, literally pretending ignorance is bliss.
With apologies to The United Negro College Fund: A country is also a terrible thing to waste.
Leonard Pitts Jr. is a Miami Herald columnist.
By Leonard Pitts Jr br “I love the poorly educated... (
show quote)
did Pitts or you fall on your head as an infant???
Nickolai wrote:
By Leonard Pitts Jr
“I love the poorly educated!”
—Donald Trump “Think! It ain’t illegal yet.”
—Funkadelic It’s time we talked about the most consequential political divide in this country.
That divide is not between liberals and conservatives. Rather, it is between the ignorant and the informed, between those who have information and can extrapolate from it and those who do not and cannot. There is an education gap between left and right, and it poses a grave threat to our national future.
This gap has been empirically proven. A 2015 Pew Research Center study, for instance, found that only 24 percent of Americans with postgraduate degrees and 29 percent of those with college degrees identify as consistently or mostly conservative. The corresponding numbers for liberals were 54 and 44, with the rest not identifying strongly with either ideology.
But empirical proof is superfluous. The t***h has been obvious since the knowledge-starved likes of Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin and Louie Gohmert first became stars of the political right. It has been obvious since Stephen Colbert found it necessary to coin the word “t***hiness.”
Now, however, that ignorance has reached the highest levels of American governance. Did The Great Trumpkin really sign an executive order without knowing what was in it? Did he really reportedly have to ask what Vladimir Putin was talking about when the Russian president brought up an arms control treaty in a phone call? Is his Twitter feed really a blizzard of embarrassing misspellings? Was there really a misspelling in his official inauguration poster? Did his Education Department — repeat: his Education Department — really misspell “W.E.B. Du Bois” and then, misspell its apology? Did he really praise Frederick Douglass, stone cold dead since 1895, as “an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job and is getting recognized more and more?”
Sigh. Yes, all of it.
As he has already legitimized coarseness, misogyny and bigotry, the so-called president now legitimizes ignorance.
I’m aware of the potential for coming off like a snob or a bully in appearing to score people for lack of education. For what it’s worth, my mother lacked education; she had about seven years of formal schooling — par for the course for a black girl in 1930s Mississippi. The woman had a reverence for knowledge, though. She was never book smart, but she was one of the wisest people I’ve ever known.
So I’m here not to mock those who lack information, but to lament those who fail to value it. We are asked, implicitly, repeatedly, to believe that failure equals authenticity.
Meantime, a new poll says that a third of us don’t know that the Affordable Care Act and “Obamacare” are one and the same. And Jennifer Williams, an editor at Vox.com, recently received a note from a reader who was “disappointed with your facts,” and advised “teaching people the correct history” — all while talking about how we went to war “with Saudi Arabia” after Sept. 11.
That’s not “authentic” — or funny. No, it’s frightening. See, those people v**e. They make decisions. Indeed, one of their decisions is in the White House.
The need to fix American education could not be more stark or urgent. We must re-double our efforts to teach our children not what, but how to think. The world is not growing less complex or challenging while we dither about, literally pretending ignorance is bliss.
With apologies to The United Negro College Fund: A country is also a terrible thing to waste.
Leonard Pitts Jr. is a Miami Herald columnist.
By Leonard Pitts Jr br “I love the poorly educated... (
show quote)
Get the stinkin' radical secular liberal progressive Marx/Alinsky "lefty's (D), out, nitwit, and "WE" would be just fine!!! "(D)RAIN THAT SWAMP!!!" GOOOOOOOOO PRESIDENT "45" DONALD J. {BORN AGAIN} TRUMP (R)!!! What IS that "crushing" noise I hear???
buffalo wrote:
Educated i***ts! Alicia, your right. YOU and your fellow educated moonbat i***ts won't recognize this country once Trump "Makes America Great Again". It will not be an American moonbat utopia where no one's self-absorbed, narcissistic feelings are hurt, so they are the victims and will be segregated into like minded groups who do not feel "safe" in the broad community.
Did you crawl out from your safe space to spew that moonbat drivel?
************************
Your comment just proves your ignorance, like your leader. I grew up in NYC where there was no reason to suspect members of a minority group. Yes, I always felt safe there and didn't learn of the extent of fear-based ignorance until I traveled West. I guess it's because you were raised in the dog-eat-dog fight between settlers over property. It is evident that this fear and bias is passed down through families. I'm fortunate to have been raised in an area where neighbors just naturally helped each other just because we were all "people." I do feel for you having your ideology based on greed and selfishness - and fear. To quote your leader - SAD!
Alicia wrote:
************************
Your comment just proves your ignorance, like your leader. I grew up in NYC where there was no reason to suspect members of a minority group. Yes, I always felt safe there and didn't learn of the extent of fear-based ignorance until I traveled West. I guess it's because you were raised in the dog-eat-dog fight between settlers over property. It is evident that this fear and bias is passed down through families. I'm fortunate to have been raised in an area where neighbors just naturally helped each other just because we were all "people." I do feel for you having your ideology based on greed and selfishness - and fear. To quote your leader - SAD!
************************ br Your comment just prov... (
show quote)
Scuse me ma'am, but I live a stones throw from you, and we help each other here. Neighbors help neighbors. That's how it works.
Could it be your attitude in our laid back world?
Alicia wrote:
************************
Your comment just proves your ignorance, like your leader. I grew up in NYC where there was no reason to suspect members of a minority group. Yes, I always felt safe there and didn't learn of the extent of fear-based ignorance until I traveled West. I guess it's because you were raised in the dog-eat-dog fight between settlers over property. It is evident that this fear and bias is passed down through families. I'm fortunate to have been raised in an area where neighbors just naturally helped each other just because we were all "people." I do feel for you having your ideology based on greed and selfishness - and fear. To quote your leader - SAD!
************************ br Your comment just prov... (
show quote)
My ignorance? You totally missed my point. Who needs their safe spaces? In the moonbat America that has flourished under obammy, it is the self-absorbed narcissists when they get their feelings hurt and see themselves as victims and therefore must have, no demand, their little safe spaces. THEY are the ones that are not going to be able to function in the real world (broad community). Progressivism (moonbatism) has failed. Is that a little clearer?
Ah, yes, New Jerk City. With some of the highest income tax in the country, some of the least affordable housing in the country, where everyday products are twice the national average. A cost of living nearly 70% higher than the national average and that does not include Manhattan that is double the national average. I have been to NYC once and it is the nastiest s**thole I have ever seen.
I have never lived in fear.
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