sykhic

With demographic and economic changes and the power/scale of social media the U.S. is facing, I think the intermediate future does not look good for political discourse.

I think you missed my point. I was responding solely to the above quote that you made.

It's gotten quite bad in the U.S. Common political discourse has devolved into a back and forth of insults, hyperbolic accusations, and sometimes just plain insanity. I agree with you that this will probably be something that will last a while.

If only we could get people to realize that believing something to be true merely because it reinforces a pre-conceived idea or because it's plausibly true is not a path toward finding the truth. How do you have a discussion with someone who believes the political equivalent of a flat Earth?

I do not sweep under the rug the ills our society and government have done. Nor do I diminish their accomplishments. Indeed I don't do this for any nation now that I understand that the blind patriotism I was raised with is a destructive thing.

Empires come and go. The American empire is in decline. It may rise again to greater heights and glory. It might not. Eventually it will be replaced. There is no longer any moral superiority in our leadership.

It seems foolish to decry Google doing business in China whilst importing billions and billions of dollars of Chinese made goods. Google works with the American government to do mass surveillance on its citizens. I'm not going to get in a tizzy if they decide to do the same in China.

It's not necessarily that morality has gone down in the U.S; it's that trust in the morality of America's leaders has gone down. I see this as a sign of a decline in the faith of America's institutions. Also with globalization the distinction between nation-states begins to erode. This is especially so in the case of business.

I do not have proof in the mathematical sense that Michelle Obama is a woman. I merely have an overwhelming preponderance of the evidence that she is a woman and absolutely no evidence to the contrary. Indeed, interestingly enough you wrote:

...you can genuinely say SHE is a female?

Emphasis mine. I do not need definitive proof. Collect all the statements you believe to be true. Now collect all of the statements you can actually, definitively prove true. The intersection of these two sets is quite small. This is true for everyone.

You have to give a better example if that's was your best shot to make Jones looks like a loon.

You believe that Alex Jones thinking Michelle Obama is a man is not sufficient evidence that he is a loon and you have the temerity to claim that my approach to reasoning and facts is precisely what's wrong with the country.

Thank you for your post. It was instructive, illuminating, and hilarious all at the same time. That is a rare feat.

This is a man spouting off that there is evidence that Michelle Obama is a man [1]. If that's not a fringe idea I'd like to know what you think one is. To me a fringe idea is one that is so obviously wrong that it is not worth considering its merits.

Doubtless there are many fools willing to consider the 'facts' surrounding Michelle Obama's gender but they are wackos. His ideas are not worth debunking. They are prima facie false. Discussing his punditry gives credence to the notion that his ideas are worthy of consideration. They are not.

His followers will not see him for what he is. They are clearly impervious to facts and reasoning. Anyone willing to follow the rantings of a man spouting off Alex Jones' nonsense is beyond being able to be reasoned with.

[1] https://duckduckgo.com/?q=alex+jones+says+michelle+obama+is+...

Do you have evidence that this happens in the ER? When my wife did her ER rotation it wasn't like this.

We have a study that shows women with heart attacks do worse in ERs unless they are treated by a female doctor. You are presenting facts (without attribution) about surgeons. ER doctors are not surgeons. So what evidence do you have from the ER that contradicts the apparent conclusion of the study?

Is funny that those who fight gender biases the most are some of the most biased.

It's quite ironic that you wrote the above sentence given your post. The only evidence you provide is about surgeons and conclude that male superiority in medicine is the most likely reason for the statistics in the study. That is quite a stretch there.

It seems clear to me that if there were only 5 million people in the world then human caused climate change wouldn't be an issue. Isn't that obvious? I'm not advocating that we get to that level. I'm just pointing out that there exists a number for the population such that human caused climate change would no longer be an issue. I don't think it's disputable that this is so.

I'm not advocating mass killings or anything like that. Just pointing out an obvious thing. If where were way less people then pollution, etc. would not be an issue.

I think the downvotes come from your sentence about significant developments going under reported. I don’t think this happens at all. If someone discovers something great or profound in math no one cares about the age of the discoverer. Wiles was given a special prize because he was past the age of 40 when he proved Fermat's Last Theorem.

There is nothing special about Western intervention vs. intervention by other regional powers. Nations with power rarely use it for the well being of the world. But shouldn’t one strive to have governments do what you consider to be right?

I don't think of people who prefer Windows and Dell as status seekers or in otherwise derogatory terms. To each his own!

Apple has its own set of frustrations but none of them, in my experience, compare to the hell of dealing with Dell and Windows. Never again for me. I recommend to people to use Macs. I think it’s rational to use Apple products. My iPhone 6 Plus still gets updates and works well. My iPad Pro is better than any other tablet I’ve looked at.

There is also a coupled fear of a poor person getting something they don't deserve. This has foundations in religion and in the development of the nation. There was a time (over a hundred years ago) when a man(family) could do it on their own and live off the land. This inculcated in us the idea that being poor is associated with being a slouch. Such a time has long since passed but that ethos is still in the collective consciousness.

There is also a pathological fear of taxes. It is widely believed that government is always more inefficient than a privatized solution. We had a Vice-Presidential candidate laugh at the notion that paying taxes is patriot and this while her son was in the military during a time of war! A lot of people think of themselves as some sort of Daniel Boone character that can do it on their own if only government got out of the way.

We do have a national healthcare system for elderly, members of the military, and most children. Everyone else can fend for themselves.