Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan once said

 The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media...especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.

This is a thing that is connected to a thing that bothers me about getting my "news" online. If I follow a link to a news story I will often find nothing but a brief news video clip, no words, no reporting, no context...  How are we, as a nation, supposed to be informed in there is no information available?  Which is ironic considering how easy it is to share information. 

One of the major problems with this, of course, is that people have stopped being informed unless they deliberately reach out to inform themselves and spend time researching the isues. The media is almost a caricature of itself by being the clown and by producing headlines with no substantive story behind it. You get overreaction to certain types of stories and a lack of coverage of other stories. You get stories designed to scare but not inform you. You get bombastic, empty windbags who are celebrities. You get news stories from a single point of view. 

Hopefully it becomes clear that we, as consumers of the news, are being led rather than informed. You cease to be informed at all, rather, the nation of consumers of this stuff becomes reactive, frightened, poorly-informed, sheltered citizens who don't really know what is happening.

A country uninformed and frightened is a country that is primed for a religious backslide.

I am not in touch with all of America or American culture (on purpose) so it is difficult for me to determine what the trends are, especially with regards to religious, political, or philosophical trends.  The "sides" are always so loud and verbose that it's difficult to know what is true and what is propaganda. I often wonder what is truly happening.

Carl Sagan wasn't very optimistic about this country's religious bent and its trend toward being less informed and more superstitious...  

Maybe it is because I don't pay attention to every single damn thing out there, but I find myself feeling generally optimistic about our future most of the time. Then some stories will come up in the news and I will fall into a kind of existential depression...

I admit to being on a downward spiral with regards to this nation's future at this moment, probably due to the recent election.  But I am honestly wondering where you stand on this...what do you think?
 
Do you think that atheism or gaining momentum OR is superstition gaining ground?????? Or is there a third thing? Or a fourth...?

I would like to offer a special WELCOME

to readers in Algeria.

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