Critical Thinking Is THE Answer
The benefits available to Critical Thinkers are simply STUPENDOUS
Let’s start the New Year by reviewing America’s Number One problem. Although it affects EVERYTHING — it is rarely discussed!
Literally every day we are bombarded by non-sensical words and actions by many of our representatives, our government agencies, the news media, organizations, businesses, celebrities, etc., as well as family and friends! Is it possible that all these people have the same disease? YES, it’s not only possible, it was 100% predictable.
They all have Adult Critical Thinking Deficiency (ACTD), which is infectious (then known as groupthink). So far the FDA, CDC, AMA, Dr. Fauci, Pfizer, etc. have not promoted an ACTD vaccine. As with many medical ailments, the optimal solution is not to get it in the first place. To assure that, there is a K-12 education preventative…
Properly teaching Critical Thinking in K-12, is the single, most impactful societal change that needs to be made. Other than having a reasonable proficiency in the Three Rs, assuring that High School graduates have the ability to do (and interest in) Critical Thinking is the most consequential part of the education process — yet despite a lot of assurances and platitudes, it is NOT being done!
“Education is not learning facts, but training the mind to think” is really about Critical Thinking, and it’s a conclusion from Einstein, not me.
Critical Thinking is a skill set, not something that can be learned and perfected by osmosis. It’s like cooking — with the proper training anyone can be a good cook.
Yet the same state education departments that have special Social Emotional Learning (SEL) emphasis, SEL training for teachers, and weekly SEL classes for students, have nothing remotely similar for the FAR more important Critical Thinking! By and large, the claim that “we are teaching your children how to be critical thinkers” is arguably the biggest con ever inflicted on the American public…
Just some of the numerous personal benefits that K-12 students could profit from by being properly taught Critical Thinking are:
1) Critical Thinking students would learn all of the Social Emotional Learning (SEL) stated objectives — but without the downsides of how SEL is normally taught!,
2) Critical Thinking students would make more informed personal medical decisions,
3) Critical Thinking students are more motivated across the board,
4) Critical Thinking students are more creative (which is a superpower),
5) Critical Thinking students are more independent (a key part of maturity),
6) Critical Thinking students will do much better at managing their time,
7) Critical Thinking students will have better interpersonal relationships,
8) Critical Thinking minorities would have a more level playing field,
9) graduates who went on to college would be less susceptible to propaganda,
10) economically deprived graduates would have the tools to succeed financially,
11) all graduates could easily adapt to rapidly changing employment situations,
12) graduates would more effectively manage their financial resources,
13) graduates would be much better at maintaining their health,
14) graduates would more likely choose a superior spiritual path,
15) graduates would be much better at picking a compatible spouse,
16) graduates would be more effective at parenting their children (per a private communication with parenting guru, John Rosemond),
17) graduates would make more informed voting choices,
18) graduates would be more actively participating citizens and be less likely to have their rights and freedoms extracted by government over-reach,
19) graduates would be less susceptible to being tricked by AI perversions or scams by bad actors,
20) graduates would be happier (e.g., as they have more control over their lives),
Etc.
Additionally, there would be numerous societal benefits from having more Critical Thinking citizens. For example, Critical Thinking has been called “the basis for science and democracy.” Other examples are:
1) more meaningful and productive citizen discussions of societal issues,
2) more cooperation on national issues like energy policy, etc,
3) less societal discord and confrontation,
4) more competent and responsible representatives would be elected,
5) a much better chance of America maintaining its position of leadership,
Etc.
All-in-all, the personal and societal benefits are unparalleled!
Critical Thinking is the Most Powerful, Least Expensive, Widest Impact solution to an extraordinary collection of personal and societal issues — with NO DOWNSIDE!
Some have given up on the public school system, for understandable reasons. One common refrain is: “There are too many problems to fix.” However, astounding improvements can be made to our K-12 system by just properly addressing ONE thing: Critical Thinking.
Another huge benefit is that this is essentially a no-financial-cost solution. Existing K-12 school resources and priorities simply need to be redirected and modified. It can (and should) start immediately.
All that’s needed is a commitment (from educators, legislators, parents, citizens, etc.) to focus on this one phenomenally powerful solution.
What’s stopping us — other than us?
PS - Some sample worthwhile reading on this topic:
— Six Benefits of Critical Thinking and Why They Matter
— What Are Critical Thinking Skills and Why Are They Important?
— Why Is Critical Thinking Important? A Survival Guide
— Developing Your Critical Thinking Skills
— What Is Critical Thinking and Why Do We Need To Teach It?
— Harvard School of Education: Developing Critical Thinking
— Critical thinking in teacher education: where do we stand and where can we go
— Report: The Key to Fixing the US Education System
PPS — To read/download a PDF version of this important information, go here.
Here are other materials by this scientist that you might find interesting:
My Substack Commentaries for 2023 (arranged by topic)
Check out the chronological Archives of my entire Critical Thinking substack.
WiseEnergy.org: discusses the Science (or lack thereof) behind our energy options.
C19Science.info: covers the lack of genuine Science behind our COVID-19 policies.
Election-Integrity.info: multiple major reports on the election integrity issue.
Media Balance Newsletter: a free, twice-a-month newsletter that covers what the mainstream media does not do, on issues from COVID to climate, elections to education, renewables to religion, etc. Here are the Newsletter’s 2023 Archives. Please send me an email to get your free copy. When emailing me, please make sure to include your full name and the state where you live. (Of course, you can cancel the Media Balance Newsletter at any time - but why would you?
Thanks for reading Critically Thinking About Select Societal Issues! Please pass a link to this article on to other associates who might benefit. They can subscribe for FREE to receive new posts (typically about once a week).
EXACTLY ZERO!
My bet for the number of people in here who will counter my post with anything remotely in the realm of sound argument. To do so, you'd have to understand the arguments and be willing to ask questions on anything requiring clarification. That takes time and effort -- and the demands that come with critical thinking (where you arrive at conclusions, not jump to them). Talking about the importance of critical thinking is not critical thinking. Critical thinking takes work. Critical thinkers do not read something and essentially say, "Well, I can't understand everything you're saying, therefore I can't understand anything."
If you "can't" grasp the entire post, why not start with a single screenshot? The answer is obvious: Because you're not looking to listen and learn, you're looking to respond (and entire industries are engineering that "need"). When you don't understand something and/or it is even perceived as threatening your interests, you fall back on Old Faithful: Blame the source, blame the length, blame the website, blame the writing, blame anything and everything but you and your blameless way of life.
If you wanna start solving problems, it's gotta get ugly -- or as ol' Bill perfectly put it: "I must be cruel only to be kind; Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind." -- Shakespeare.
That the decline of America over the last 30 years doesn’t unfold for standard scrolling with ease — is not a flaw in my argument and array of illustrations: It’s a flaw in your willingness to work through it — absorbing each building block of information your brain is well-equipped to handle. Or at least it used to be before information became so funneled in a fashion to your liking — you don’t even know what to do with anything that isn’t.
A prominent personality once said:
"That the reaction is not to think it through, not to question, not to assemble facts, not to make arguments — but instead to wave banners and spout slogans such that you could hardly distinguish what they were doing from a manifesto that would come out of [does it matter?]"
When the context suits you, such words are solid gold. What you do when it doesn’t — determines the worth of your word.
What I do takes work -- time and effort to consider. What you're all doing here is entertainment. Prove me wrong -- please! Multi-dimensional problems demand multi-dimensional solutions, and that's the only reason I'm here. If you're not interested in hearing me out and having meaningful discussion, we have nothing to talk about and I wish you well. I am asking you politely: If you're not interested in serious-minded discussion actually acting on your concerns -- please don't waste my time by responding at all. Thank you!
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The rules have changed, as in — there are none. By failing to recognize that, you cannot adapt to deal with it. Conventional means have no chance of breaching the envelope of intransigence around armies of unreachables in the trench warfare of our times. All of America is trying to plow through problems when you should be going around them (think asymmetrical "warfare").
“[W]e must accept responsibility for a problem before we can solve it.”
— M. Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled
In a nation that incessantly blames and complains (seemingly for sport) — no one’s taking responsibility for anything. The ever-rising ocean of partisan pettiness is gluttony under the guise of concern. In reference to its opening image on Without Passion or Prejudice, I wrote: “Half the country is with me on this and I just lost the other half. Had I started with the image below, it would be the opposite half.” When you make up your mind on lickety-split perception alone — in what parallel universe does that qualify as critical thinking?
But in the force fields of fallacy that people hide behind today, you can claim to be a critical thinker and not do anything that remotely reflects its requirements. What was once understood as a demanding process that puts your mind to the test: Is now one Tweet away from glory in the Gutter Games of Government. In this fantasyland where liars are loved as bastions of virtue and people telling you what you wanna hear are “geniuses”: You can “win” an argument without even knowing what the issue’s about.
And the professionals answer to America suffocating in an atmosphere of absurdity? Endlessly rehashing the same old problems in the same old ways. It’s all an illusion of progress — perfectly captured by John Wooden’s “Never mistake activity for achievement.” But there’s an opportunity to turn it all around — by taking the problem and turning it into a solution. A student wrote of her psychology professor: “Tim Wilson taught me the importance of breaking problems down into more manageable pieces.” Lo and behold, at the bedrock of my idea is exactly that. If you want to start solving problems, first you need to clear the clutter that’s crippled this country. To do that, you don’t go after everything, you go after one thing that ties to everything. And you do it by holding one man to his own “standards”: A professional know-it-all with a cult-like following unlike anything I’ve ever seen.
As I’ve been in the trenches battling hermetically sealed minds for decades, that’s saying something. His disciples see him as some kind of saint-like Sherlock Holmes. And that — is an opportunity! How do we make people realize they’ve been lied to? You have to knock down one small pillar that’s easier to reach. I’ve got the perfect pillar — on the biggest and most costly lie in modern history (which shaped everything you see today). I don’t need mass appeal to make this happen, I just need to get to one man. Long before brain imaging to understand human behavior, we already had all the tools we needed for a hopeful humanity. We didn’t take advantage of the gifts we were given, and what a shocker — we don’t make good use of those fancy new insights either. Your field is forever fighting the forces of human nature whereas my solution banks on it.
I have a very specific target audience to get this in gear, so it wouldn’t take much. One email could set off a chain of events that could open the door to the kind of conversation this nation’s never had. Imagine! There was a time when we did.
From the Earth to the Moon to “WUT”
https://onevoicebecametwo.life/2024/04/24/from-the-earth-to-the-moon-to-wut/
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Thank you, John. This is an excellent resource to educate the great masses who have no knowledge of either critical thinking skills or to the scientific method. Both are lacking in the public schools.
Your relentless promotion of this will be paying dividends in the not-too-distant future , I hope.