At the climax of a debate regarding the merits or lack of same of Trump University, CNN “legal expert” Paul Callan said this—about three seconds after I sat down to watch, in my pajamas, before a single sip of coffee:
“I find myself thinking about Thomas Jefferson, author of the Constitution…
Did the legal expert correct himself the second he heard this infamous factoid of the uneducated escape his mouth? No.
What about Chris Cuomo, the cocky CNN moderator of this “debate”? Did he correct Callan? Did he even realize what he said was a historical howler? You couldn’t prove it by his next statement to the Trump spokesperson via video feed: “Well, Callan has pulled out Thomas Jefferson on you for his grand finale! What’s your response?”
His response should have been,
“Yes, Chris, Callan just “pulled out” some fictional figure named Jefferson who wrote the Constitution in Paul’s false-fact-crowded brain. Now if he had attended Trump University, he would know that Thomas Jefferson wasn’t even a participant in the Constitutional Convention. He was in Paris at the time. Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, Mr. Callan. A real “legal expert” would know that, and so would a competent journalist, Chris. And you guys call Donald Trump ill-informed!”
It wasn’t his response, though. Of the three, being a Trump mouthpiece, he is the one least likely to know what Jefferson did or didn’t do. His actual response was: “When Callan pulls out the Constitutional Convention, I know he’s really in trouble.”
You know, that famous convention they had in Boston in 1860, where Thomas Jefferson’s Constitution was signed by John Hancock, Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt. That one.
We’re all in trouble.
These are the people Americans will depend upon to “explain” the issues and candidates this election cycle.
KABOOM!
More on this topic later, after I find the super glue and that missing piece of my skull….
Ethics Alarms 
Do you understand, now, why I think we are doomed? This kind of willful ignorance, stupidity, self-aggrandizement is going to blow up in our faces, sooner rather than later. I call your attention to the current presidential election.
The dumbing down of the public continues unabated.
I expect the public to be ignorant. It is inexcusable for those who presume to inform the public to be ignorant.
Jack Marshall said, “I expect the public to be ignorant. It is inexcusable for those who presume to inform the public to be ignorant.”
This comment spurred some hours of subconscious critical thinking, then a little while ago a thought emerged from the darkness.
The dumbing down has been happening for quite a while. Dumbing down is a generational thing and get’s worse and worse as time goes on.
Inexcusable or not; aren’t individuals in the media also part of the public and their ignorance sheds light, in a very public way, that that there is and has been a “dumbing down of the public” for quite a while and it has resulted in the ignorance of those who presume to inform the public and the general acceptance of the ignorant masses that the media is presenting the facts?
Remember this funny video of how truly dumbed down ignorant people can be in this video:
So, if what I said above is even sort of reasonable then; if someone in the media has not been properly taught the facts (dumbed down) and later in life that person shares their dumbed down ignorance via the media, don’t they further extend the dumbing down ignorance to those that blindly believe them; then the result is the dumbing down of the public continues unabated.
So did my meager writing skills make any sense at all?
Okay; discuss.
Yes. All correct. Or, as my father liked to sa, “In the land of the blond, the one-eyed man is king.”
Typo’s within; you’re on a roll. 🙂
Looks like Jack just has a major aversion to typing the word “blind.”
You’re right. I also type “deaf” as “leaf” and “dead” as “bread.”
Would they accept a queen do you think? Monarch is an appealing job, I can smile and wave and cut ribbon like a champ. I could also very solemnly accept oaths of fealty and knight people.
I am confronted regularly with ill-educated people who have been enabled by someone equally ill-educated (but sometimes well-intentioned) to speak to a group of listeners as though their words are worth hearing. Yesterday, however, I heard 2 young men, newly graduated from college, delivering eulogies for their deceased classmate. These young men spoke as eloquently and intelligently as I have ever heard from the many (of any age) who have spoken at the many funerals in which I participate as part of my job in the Catholic Church. I have not felt so much hope for the future in many, many months as I did in the presence of these young men, who were educated at an excellent Jesuit high school and went on to an excellent university. They of course were lucky to attend a private high school, although I know that this high school provides financial aid as needed for academically worthy students, so it’s not the money. But what of the millions who are relegated to public education for one reason or another? There is no guarantee that someone will emerge from private education without biases or misinformation or worse. But yesterday the church was filled with about 400 people, including at least 200 young adults, who all outwardly appeared to have the same level of dignity and self-awareness as the 2 eulogizers. I await the world that ignores the Paul Callans and Chris Cuomos and Donald Trumps in favor of people of depth and intelligence. Will we be smart enough to be able to identify them when they emerge?
We may identify them, but I fear their depth and intelligence will be marginalized as virtues compared to beauty, power, wealth, fame and self-glorification.
Sorry. Did not intend to imply that no one educated by public schooling could ever be as intelligent as the speakers yesterday. Obviously that could not be true. I just know that the standards in private school are generally higher than in most public schools. Sincere apologies to all here who received public education and didn’t turn out to be ill- or under-educated.
Ironically, the graduates who need to read your comments can’t understand them…
In the immortal words of my father-in-law, ¡Híjole! That roughly translates to, “Oh my!”
jvb
There are no limits on untruths. Only on truths. That is why many different ancient teaching have the same conclusion: “TRUTH IS VICTORIOUS, never untruth.“