The Problem Isn’t That Trump Knows Nothing, It’s That He Wants To Know Nothing

********** Via Louis Rene Beres for The Hill "The enemy is the unphilosophical spirit which knows nothing and wants to know nothing of truth." – Karl Jaspers, "Reason and Anti-Reason in our Time" (1952) The starkly anti-intellectual character of President Donald Trump's presidency is not unique in American history. What is notable about this president's open disregard for serious learning is not that he knows nothing of any real importance, but that he emphatically wants to know not

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3 thoughts on “The Problem Isn’t That Trump Knows Nothing, It’s That He Wants To Know Nothing”

When Hamilton and Jefferson spoke those words, the great majority of the population were illiterate. They’d be amazed by the literacy rate that has been achieved that Republicans are doing their best to reverse. https://nces.ed.gov/naal/lit_history.asp

There’s a reason that Mr. Destructo proudly declared, “I love the poorly educated,” on the evening of his Nevada primary win. It’s basically the Republican motto, their equivalent of e pluribus unum. It’s the poorly educated whose buttons they push on the issues of guns, gays, muslims, women’s rights, African Americans, etc. So well does it work that Republicans will get them to vote against themselves on the question of raising the minimum wage. And so determined are Republicans to increase the number of poorly educated Americans, that they have done their level best to destroy the education system in America. This didn’t start with Trump.

This June 24, 2015, US News article reported how, “Over the last five years, Congress has cut federal funding for K-12 education by nearly 20 percent, about five times more than overall spending cuts, according to a new report.” https://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/data-mine/2015/06/24/report-federal-education-funding-cut-by-5-times-more-than-all-spending

And of course Trump’s plans to continue their goal of having every American reach the pinnacle of being the most poorly educated with the appointment of Betsy Devos and slashing the education budget:
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/03/trumps-education-budget-revealed/519837/