Under blood red skies...

Photograph of  Puyehue volcano, near Osorno in southern Chile.

Courtesy of NewScientist.

Quote of the Day: On the deluded masses

When people hold certain ideological beliefs strongly enough, no amount of facts will get in their way. If you believe that the current deficit is the result of excessive government spending (passed by Democrats, even though they only controlled Congress and the White House for four out of the past thirty years*), no pile of charts will be big enough to convince you otherwise — just like if you believe that tax cuts increase tax revenues, that the deficit has produced high interest rates, or that Barack Obama was born on Mars, no amount of evidence will convince you otherwise.

- James Kwak, "Who Created this Mess"

I've been struggling with this matter in the past few weeks.

Personal growth and development necessitates that each of us occasionally review and validate the overarching ideas that govern our worldview.  When dealing with religion, politics, and cultural issues, we are dependant on our limited educational and personal experiences and not hard empirical fact.  However, one would assume that most people when presented with facts that contradict prevailing opinions about the world, they would then tact and reassess their stances.  All too often though in this age of modern stupidity -as in the example on the right with regard to global warming and taxes or on the left with regard to the utility of the welfare state- people not only reject legitimate criticism and facts, but engage in buttressing their own faltering delusions.

The above quote, highlights the issue in America surrounding some of the more pedestrian claptrap that manifests itself as serious discussion in the media.  It seems despite the ease with which people can look up facts on the internet and access knowledge, the less some people are interested in thinking.