"They will be hearers of much, without learning anything;
they will appear to know much, yet for the most part know
nothing; and they will be miserable to be around, having
become wise-seeming, without actually being wise."
- The Phaedrus – Plato, 370 BC. -
Plato might just as well have been describing today’s, political commentators, media experts, and news-mongering pundits in general. These people know the buzz. They know what’s going on, what’s right and what’s wrong, what’s cool and what isn’t?
John Lennon wrote the line, “I Heard the News Today, Oh Boy!” fifty years ago. It still sounds modern.
The News is still full of theatrical alarm over events of no lasting consequence, tedious disquisitions on stupid trends not worth comment, and political analysis focused on personalities, but uninterested in policy.
Talking-heads on TV, Cable, and Website assure us they have the answers to whatever needs asking. Expert guests reinforce the credibility of the hosts. Facts and opinions are presented untainted by doubt.
Perhaps we should be a little suspicious of their carefully coiffed hair and makeup-tans.
Can people who devote so much attention to appearance really be trusted to devote equal attention
to substance?
Probably not.
Nonetheless Their audiences are generally persuaded these folks know what they’re talking about. After all, nearly all of them are credentialed graduates of impressive academies. Surely they must know what they’re talking about.
I thought the same before I started noticing repeated silly errors that reveal foolish assumptions that are the by-product of inadequate education.
Talking-heads on TV regularly call that tall thing in front of speakers a “podium”. They innocently believe they’ve named it properly. They have not. The proper name for that piece of furniture is lectern. Lecterns stand before the speaker, both stand upon the podium.
So what. They got the name wrong. What difference does it make?
The difference is that indifference to error in language fosters error in thinking.
There is much hand-wringing these days about “Assault Rifles”. There is no such thing. Many serious people have been deluded by this misnomer into believing scary looking rifles like the AR-15 are fully automatic machine-guns.
They are not. They fire one bullet at a time, just like any other rifle. They are totally incapable of “spraying bullets”. Real machine-guns have been illegal since Machine-gun Kelly went out of business.
Inaccurate language promotes inaccurate thought.
The Talking-Heads also confuse the public by conflating Point-of-Law with point-of-view.
News reports on judicial rulings constantly mislead; they regularly declare that some Judge is for, or against, some something. This is phony reporting. Judges are only permitted to rule on Point-of-Law. Judges cannot rule on whether a law is good or bad. Judges can only rule on whether a Law is legally permissible.
Media-fed ignorance of Law has tricked many into believing Judges decide matters of right and wrong. This in turn has led to pointless argument on the social/political beliefs of judicial appointees.
There are only two qualifying questions of Legal suitability. Do you understand the Law? Do you swear to uphold the Law?
The Media seems equally fuddled about Science.
I hear a lot of talk about settled-science. Settled-science is an oxymoron. If something is settled, you can be sure it’s not science. Science is dedicated to unceasing challenge. Every new fact alters every old theory.
The much-ballyhooed theory of manmade climate change is said to be settled-science. Thousands of real climatologists beg to differ, though they’re rarely allowed
to present their data on TV or Cable, and if they make too much fuss, they can kiss any future government grants goodbye.
The facts are available, just not in the foolish buzz of mainstream culture.
Earths entire population (seven billion) would fit comfortably into Texas, with room to spare. 75% of the globe is ocean, 25% is land, only about 25% of Earth’s land surface is habitable.
There’re aren’t enough people occupying enough
of Earth’s surface to wreck much of anything, except locally and temporarily.
Well, even so, aren’t humans still spewing out world-changing quantities of toxins and leaving a massive deadly carbon footprint?
Not by Earth standards.
Volcanoes on land and more so under the sea, along with random awe-inspiring solar ejections alter climate massively more than humans ever have or ever will - even with centuries of malicious effort.
Humans cannot change climate no matter how much they vainly imagine they can.
It’s not the Buzz-Stars fault. They are products of the last half century of shoddy and manipulative education. From pre-school to their graduate studies they were deliberately taught much that is false, and little that is true.
Nonetheless public understanding is dumbed-down because of the constant cultural Buzz of misinformation powered by ignorance of true history, serious literature, and actual science.
The Buzzers are protected in their ignorance by
a public that doesn’t know any better.
There is an Elite in every age that knows the truth.
They’re not going to tell you.
You might get uppity and unmalleable.
Do I exaggerate? Not much.