"Mickey Mouse Is Smarter That Trump"

Click on the link below for a detailed examination of the idiocy of Trump's trade and economic policies and DOGE. If this doesn't scare the Hell out of you, you are not educable:

Jeffrey Sachs Goes Off, Roasts Donald Trump’s Trade Talk

The Manosphere: A Major Problem For The USA

"The 'manosphere' is made up of macho podcasters and influencers, a space where UFC fighters are among those who reign supreme, like Jake Shields. CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan sits down with Shields and also speaks with independent journalist Vera Papisova as part of "MisinfoNation: Extreme America," airing Sunday, April 13 at 8pm ET/PT on 'The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper.'"

Click here for a 7-minute video exposing a dangerous segment of US society that is at the center of the White Supremacy movement, and thus, the Republican Party.

The Norm In The USA

 

It doesn't have to be this way.
The cure is universal critical/science-based thinking
education.

The Wisdom Of Scott Galloway

"Scott Galloway is an entrepreneur, author, professor of marketing at NYU, and host of the Vox Media podcasts 'The Prof G Pod' and 'Pivot' with Kara Swisher. Scott joins Preet to discuss gutting the government, undermining alliances with Europe, masculinity, and togetherness, and why Democrats need to be the party of ideas."

Click on this link for the podcast.

American Mobility Stagnation: A Sign Of Cultural Failure

"A defining feature of America from its inception has been physical mobility. And that physical mobility has been the engine of social mobility. But we’ve seen a great deal of economic and social sclerosis over the past few decades. Our guest this week has how, for many people, America has ceased to be the land of opportunity. Yoni Appelbaum is a deputy executive editor of The Atlantic, author of “Stuck: How the Privileged and the Propertied Broke the Engine of American Opportunity,” and a social and cultural historian of the U.S. He joins WITHpod to discuss how the idea of mobility has changed within the last century, how things might become less “stuck” and more."

Click on the link below for a podcast focusing on this frequently overlooked sign of inequality in the USA:

The Stalled Engine of American Opportunity

Understanding The Introverted Personality

"Why do highly intelligent individuals often seem detached from social life? Is it arrogance, introversion, or something deeper? In this video, we explore the profound insights of Arthur Schopenhauer, one of the most brilliant and unconventional philosophers of the 19th century, to understand why intelligence and solitude often go hand in hand. 

"Schopenhauer believed that the more intelligent a person is, the less they feel the need for social validation. Their minds are rich with thoughts and ideas, making external distractions unnecessary. But does this mean social life has no value at all? Or is it simply a societal illusion we have been conditioned to believe? 

"Through historical examples and philosophical analysis, we will uncover the difference between solitude and loneliness, why superficial social interactions feel draining to deep thinkers, and how embracing solitude can lead to greater intellectual and personal fulfillment. 

"By the end of this video, you may start to question everything you've been taught about social life, relationships, and what it truly means to be fulfilled."

Click on the link below for the video:

Why Smart People Don’t Care About Social Life – Schopenhauer

The USA Should Be Ashamed

"Ukraine is not - as the Russian ambassador said - a 'project'.

"Its statehood has a longer history than Russia. It has been a member of the UN longer than Russia. It has a history, language, identity, and its own aspirations. Poland supports peace, but stable and with respect for the rights of the victim of aggression."

Click here for a 8-minute video from the recent UN gathering to vote on support for Ukraine against Russian aggression. Shortly after the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the UN essentially unanimously voted against Russia's aggression. A few days ago, the US voted with Iran, North Korea, and Russia to NOT once again condemn them.

The speaker is from Poland and puts the present in the context of European history. Memo to the USA: Isolationism in the face of national aggression never works.

What Everyone Gets Wrong About Gambling on Sports

"Do you think it still counts as gambling if you're guaranteed to win? Do you think it would be a net positive to society if 100% of sports bettors used tools to gain an edge? Do you think I should have kept this story to myself? Do you ever get nervous?"

Yes, NOW, one can win by understanding mathematics. However, If you score big, you will be banned from further sports betting. Good luck, math geeks, click here if you think you can make a living at it.

The Southern States In The USA: Why They Are A Problem

Click on the link below for an 11-minute video to better understand why residents of the southern USA are so different than the rest of the country:

Why The US South Is Insanely Poor

The USA And Education: It's Not Great

Click here for a brief video that should embarrass the USA (but won't unless or until anti-science thinking is marginalized.

Unconditional Cash Transfers: An Efficient Way To Help The Poor

"You’d probably guess that a major factor contributing to homelessness is a lack of money. Yet, very few programs provide unconditional and lump sum cash to unhoused individuals as a solution. There are a number of barriers that have impeded the broad implementation of this type of assistance, which include the lack of policymaker support and public mistrust in homeless people’s ability to manage money. Our guest this week found that direct cash transfers actually result in net societal savings over time. Jiaying Zhao is an associate professor, Canada research chair and a Sauder distinguished scholar at the University of British Columbia. She co-authored “Unconditional cash transfers reduce homelessness,” which was published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal. Zhao, who has personally experienced housing insecurity in the past, joins WITHpod to discuss the cognitive taxes of poverty, rethinking the homogenous narrative about who homeless people are, the most surprising findings from the study, intended policy changes and more."

Click on this link for a classic episode of "Why Is This Happening: The Chris Hayes Podcast"

What Trump’s Win Says About American Society

"To make sense of the election, we must first understand the discontent that gave Donald Trump the victory. This is the theory of Harvard professor and political philosopher Michael Sandel. He joins the show to discuss the polarization that fueled Trump's campaign, and the failure of the Democrats to present themselves as the party of change."

Click this link for an interview with a philosopher/professor with an encompassing view of the overarching problem in US society today that has been simmering and growing for many decades.

Even In The Best Of Times, The Poor Have Always Been Neglected

"A Golden Age is a period of 'peace, prosperity, and happiness.' Early Greek and Roman poets used the phrase to describe how people lived in an almost idealized time and place. It is a point in history where art, science, and philosophy thrive, and where economic growth is unparalleled. But not everyone gets to enjoy that prosperity..."

Throughout known history, humanity has always ignored the needs of the poor. Memo to MAGA: the USA has never been great. Click on the link below for a history lesson on this fact:

What It Was Like To Be Poor Throughout History

School Lunch Programs Help Society

"John Oliver discusses school lunch programs in the US, and why giving kids free lunch is in all of our best interest."

Click this link for information supporting the need for school lunch programs and their improvement:

Identity Politics And Chimpanzees

Cooperation is better than domination - - -

"The dark side of identity politics occurs when the dominant race/religion/gender (in today’s America that’s white Christian men) identifies people who aren’t part of their group as an 'other' and uses this otherness as a rallying cry to enlist members of the powerful in-group against the 'outsiders.' 

"This is what the GOP has been doing for years! Ever since 1968, when Richard Nixon picked up the white racist vote that Democrats abandoned in 1964/1965 when LBJ pushed the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act through Congress."

Click on the link below to understand that MAGA equals Chimpanzee behavior:

How Republicans Get You To Cheer For Murder 

The Disease Of Anti-Immigration Continues To Spread

"Border security around the world continues to take turns for the dark and dystopian as right-wing sentiment against migrants and refugees continues to escalate to the extreme."

Click on the link below for a 2-hour in-depth podcast addressing the rational and irrational fear of "The Other."

Migrants and Refugees on Fortress Earth: Our politicized, fortified, industrialized borders in the US and Europe.

Your Identity: Is It Interfering With Your Understanding Of Reality, And Others?

" - - - people don't feel they need to have any particular expertise to have opinions about (religion and politics). All they need is strongly held beliefs, and anyone can have those."

"The more labels you have for yourself, the dumber they make you."

We all identify with our family and other human groups. It is part of our psyche. The problem with such identification is that it can dampen our empathy for, and cooperation with, others not in the groups we identify with. Click on the link below for an article addressing this area of human experience:

Keep Your Identity Small

Cult History And Thinking: How To Penetrate It

"In an age of cultish in-group/out-group politics and media, we seek to find messaging for progressive partisans to achieve electoral success."

Click on the link below for how cults are formed historically, and presently, and how the USA can marginalize them to save freedom and our democracy:

Messaging left-wing politics amid cultish politics

Imagine A World Without Religion

"There has seldom been a war that religion did not support.

"Scholars say that before the rise of patriarchal religions, human beings lived fairly peaceably in kinship-based communities under matriarchs who established a more tolerant morality than the later, father-worshiping kind.

"Pre-patriarchal cultures were very indulgent of their children, giving them much physical affection and little punishment. They also tended to be permissive about physical pleasures and sexuality. There were no homosexuality taboos, no concubinage, no prostitution. The sexes had equal status although the families were matrilocal and matrilineal. Most property was owned by the women, whose life-giving magic was considered essential to fertility in general. Descent was reckoned only through mothers, among people who had not yet understood biological fatherhood. There was no caste system and no full-time military. Religion was some variant of nature worship with no strict codes, a Mother Goddess being primary and her consorts secondary. Such cultures were generally nonviolent and valued spontaneity, humor, and sensual enjoyments."

Click on the link below for more information that you probably were not aware of:

https://freethoughtnow.org/religion-has-always-supported-war/

The Reason Today's Young Are Pissed Off (And, Rightly So)

"In a scorching talk, marketing professor and podcaster Scott Galloway dissects the data showing that, by many measures, young people in the US are worse off financially than ever before. He unpacks the root causes and effects of this "great intergenerational theft," asking why we let it continue and showing how we could end it."

Click on the link for the video:

How the US Is Destroying Young People’s Future