New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani made one of his sharpest calls yet for change in the Democratic Party on Thursday night as he rallied with his slate of progressive congressional candidates in Tuesday’s New York Democratic primaries.
How do you campaign without needing to eventually appeal to the brain addled masses you describe? That’s a losing strategy if you’re suggesting every aspiring political figure completely removes practically 90% of the direct action, let alone why would they play their hand in that and surely get censored on major TV anyway? And here we both are on this weird niche half forum/half reddit… so what are you trying to say?
I’m saying We The People are so brain-rot we don’t even notice that New York City politicians are avoiding New York City Dr. Bandy X Lee since year 2017.
I’m saying people have abandoned nonfiction relevant serious books printed on paper. And people are incredibly defense about it instead of seeing how 3.5 second shit-commenting and shit-posting has wrecked the USA. And New York City Fox News, Rupert Murdoch media mindsets have had enormous influence into prizing ignorance.
Celebration of Ignorance
“Science is more than a body of knowledge; it is a way of thinking. I have a (year 1995) foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time — when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness. The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30-second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance. As I write, the number-one videocassette rental in America is the movie Dumb and Dumber. “Beavis and Butthead” remain popular (and influential) with young TV viewers. The plain lesson is that study and learning — not just of science, but of anything — are avoidable, even undesirable.” ― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, 1995, page 59
year 1995 media 10-second sound bites == year 2025 Bluesky and Twitter media reaction comments / images.
Nation of Suckers
“Finding the occasional straw of truth awash in a great ocean of confusion and bamboozle requires vigilance, dedication and courage. But if we don’t practice these tough habits of thought, we cannot hope to solve the truly serious problems that face us and we risk becoming a nation of suckers” ― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, year 1995, page 38
How do you campaign without needing to eventually appeal to the brain addled masses you describe? That’s a losing strategy if you’re suggesting every aspiring political figure completely removes practically 90% of the direct action, let alone why would they play their hand in that and surely get censored on major TV anyway? And here we both are on this weird niche half forum/half reddit… so what are you trying to say?
I’m saying We The People are so brain-rot we don’t even notice that New York City politicians are avoiding New York City Dr. Bandy X Lee since year 2017.
I’m saying people have abandoned nonfiction relevant serious books printed on paper. And people are incredibly defense about it instead of seeing how 3.5 second shit-commenting and shit-posting has wrecked the USA. And New York City Fox News, Rupert Murdoch media mindsets have had enormous influence into prizing ignorance.
Celebration of Ignorance
“Science is more than a body of knowledge; it is a way of thinking. I have a (year 1995) foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time — when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness. The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30-second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance. As I write, the number-one videocassette rental in America is the movie Dumb and Dumber. “Beavis and Butthead” remain popular (and influential) with young TV viewers. The plain lesson is that study and learning — not just of science, but of anything — are avoidable, even undesirable.” ― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, 1995, page 59
year 1995 media 10-second sound bites == year 2025 Bluesky and Twitter media reaction comments / images.
Nation of Suckers
“Finding the occasional straw of truth awash in a great ocean of confusion and bamboozle requires vigilance, dedication and courage. But if we don’t practice these tough habits of thought, we cannot hope to solve the truly serious problems that face us and we risk becoming a nation of suckers” ― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, year 1995, page 38