Post AnuCyD1cMTfBeVCiES by VirginiaHolloway@urbanists.social
 (DIR) More posts by VirginiaHolloway@urbanists.social
 (DIR) Post #Ansq3olGzgAs29IwBk by luckytran@med-mastodon.com
       2024-11-09T23:34:33Z
       
       0 likes, 2 repeats
       
       Today would have been Carl Sagan's 90th birthday. He wrote this in 1995. Carl was absolutely right. #CarlSaganDay
       
 (DIR) Post #AnuCmkyCKV3fSI8xKS by starkraving666@jorts.horse
       2024-11-09T23:40:56Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @luckytran I was with him until the second half where he arrived at the "dumbing down" conclusion, which itself is such a tired, facile take that ignores all of the material conditions he just identified.  Swing and a miss.Still appreciate the post though
       
 (DIR) Post #AnuCmlwoh7Y0UIVMoa by JTO_is_Typing@mstdn.games
       2024-11-10T00:15:03Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @starkraving666 @luckytran Sagan also blamed The Simpsons.
       
 (DIR) Post #AnuCmmbEGrsEVdPdo0 by tomjennings@tldr.nettime.org
       2024-11-10T16:42:47Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @JTO_is_Typing @starkraving666 @luckytran The Simpsons? That's a huge miss. One of the most consistently smart shows on TV, while Groenig still ran it. Oh well no one's perfect. This is why I don't do "hero". He was a great person; we are all flawed and miss things.
       
 (DIR) Post #AnuCyD1cMTfBeVCiES by VirginiaHolloway@urbanists.social
       2024-11-10T11:03:56Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @starkraving666 @luckytran Are you saying the average American isn’t wildly less aware of, or interested in, knowledge than 40 years ago?
       
 (DIR) Post #AnuCyDzWljaMeJEYc4 by tomjennings@tldr.nettime.org
       2024-11-10T16:44:51Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @VirginiaHolloway @starkraving666 @luckytran I honestly think it's hard to start and probably top broad a question. There is so much, vastly more, to "know" with every decade that passes.
       
 (DIR) Post #AnuDkF7FtHeG2MkGTA by VirginiaHolloway@urbanists.social
       2024-11-10T16:53:31Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @tomjennings @starkraving666 @luckytran Fair enough.  To clarify my thinking, and make it more contextual, "Can there be any doubt that the average American knows less about politics, the economy and civics than they did 40 years ago?"I saw a quote recently from a journalist who said that many people they asked "are you bothered that Trump may be an authoritarian" replied, "what's that?".
       
 (DIR) Post #AnuG4qyl1iI7APj516 by tomjennings@tldr.nettime.org
       2024-11-10T17:19:41Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @VirginiaHolloway @starkraving666 @luckytran Right! I agree that somehow we know less about politics now. But the amount of money applied, and the mediation, and the secrecy of so much post WW2, leads to this moment. It's pretty terrible.
       
 (DIR) Post #AnuMzJccJs2TwWg09Y by JTO_is_Typing@mstdn.games
       2024-11-10T18:37:06Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @tomjennings If the show hadn't grown beyond Bart spouting catch-phrases and Homer strangling him, I'd give him a pass, but it had shown considerably greater artistic value by even the end of the 1st season, while The Demon-Haunted World... was published during the 6th.  Just ahead of "Bart's Comet," which wouldn't be the basis for an astronomy course, but the point of it was hubris.