Yes, things are going just going smoothly, handled by really knowledgeable people who know the ins and outs of government and how it is supposed to function.
We are saving billions of dollars on cutting public services so that Trump and his cabinet can write themselves a 4 trillion dollar taxcut. Way to go!!!
https://www.npr.org/2025/02/25/nx-s1-5308095/doge-staff-resignations-elon-musk
If you want to nitpick it, I guess, we can also say that the USA was never a real democracy and racism has always remained alive and well and despite Guys’ optimistic assessment, that perhaps hope was an illusion all along - for anyone but the fat cats??
As for gloomy outlook, what can I say, garbage in, garbage out, it’s sort of a natural law. And trump is about as big a dumpster wreck as can be.
Such as, having our UN delegates side with Russian’s dictator Putin against the free world! In what world is that okay? MAGA man, this ride to our self-destruction is just starting.
You should be glad about these resignations and remember it’s never the end of the world.
You are not the first one who has uttered these words about the future of a country and was proven wrong.
Besides those words speak volumes about your perspective of humanity.
You are on ignore as of now.
We should be cutting the tax cuts for the wealthy. That would yield an instant savings of 4 trillion dollars without having any adverse effects on government public services .
Not in mine. It’s not okay. That’s a different question than the 'what world" question I asked.
The name Benedict Arnold keeps popping up in my mind.
And if I weren’t atheist the movie “Omen” presents some frightening parallels to the present.
We aren’t talking about the end of the world, just the end of a functioning American and a civil society under the rule of law.
Don’t worry it’ll catch up to you too, . . .
By NATALIE ALMS
MARCH 1, 2025 09:50 AM ET
The General Services Administration deleted 18F, a government tech consultancy that helps other agencies with their technology, early Saturday morning.
The office has been deemed “non-critical,” Thomas Shedd, director of GSA’s Technology Transformation Services, emailed staff at 1am. The agency’s acting head, Stephen Ehikian, told GSA staff Monday that the agency, which works across the government on tech, procurement and real estate, would be conducting a reduction in force.
Other GSA offices “have already or will be impacted” as part of GSA’s layoffs being done under the direction of the White House, wrote Shedd.
“The 18F Office has been identified as part of this phase of GSA’s Reduction in Force (RIF) as non-critical,” wrote Shedd.
“This decision was made with explicit direction from the top levels of leadership within both the Administration and GSA,” he continued. “There are no other TTS programs impacted at this time, however we anticipate more change in the future.”
MAGA wants to vandalize our government as much as possible - and folks like Guy . . . oh never mind, don’t have the time for you.
David Dunning: “I also address a vexing question: If self-perceptions of competence so often vary from the truth, what cues are people using to determine whether their conclusions are sound or faulty? …”
A couple key questions:
Can one face their mistakes willingly, examine them, learn and improve from them? Because honesty does matter, and truth is worth pursuing if never really achievable - {that is since “Truth” demands a defined frame of reference, before it can mean anything - and is rarely absolute.}
Or is one’s ego so wrapped up in their own self-image and projected-image that any admission of weakness or faults is anathema?
“Only the one who knows not to know is learned, unlike the one who has the illusion of knowing and who even ignores his own ignorance.” Attributed to Socrates, makes it a summary of a passage from the apology of Socrates, by Plato. We find the same idea in Lao-Tseu
The Dunning-Kruger effect: This cognitive bias is articulated in a double paradox: on the one hand, the only way to realize that you are incompetent, is to become … competent; On the other hand, ignorance gives oneself more self -knowledge than knowledge. It is indeed only by digging a question, by inquiring, by investigating it, that it is discovered more complex than you would have suspected. We then lose her assurance, to regain it little by little as we become competent - but tinged with prudence, now.
“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” Isaac Asimov
The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance is the illusion of knowledge. S. Hawkins
"Ignorance causes such a state of confusion that we cling to any explanation in order to feel less embarrassed. This is why, the less we have knowledge, the more certainties we have. You have to have a lot of knowledge and feel good enough in your soul to dare to consider several hypotheses. »Boris Cyrulnik
We were warned !!!
Which totally brings us back to the title of this thread. 
That’s an ignorant statement that Isaac is identifying. It’s only the people who profit off the ignorance of others that attempt to make a logical argument for it. They will use big words, references that don’t really support them, and patterns that sound logical but are actually fallacious. I call it out on this forum constantly.
It’s not enough to identify ignorance. We need to identify the source. When it is an ignorant person, educate them. When it is a person preventing education, contain them, make policies and programs to combat them.
I agree. Unfortunately these same people who insist on freedom of speech, will burn books that do not agree with their truth!
This is observable in the arguments of theists complaining that they are persecuted by secularists, but are actively seeking to introduce religion in the classroom and clearing the libraries of any history that is critical of the practice of slavery at that time.
I don’t understand the “yeah but”. We’ve been taking religion for hundreds of years. What strategy do we need to look at it? Add? Change?
Well we could start with something like this,
I found that there’s plenty of mystery, wonder, and spiritual footing to be found within a deep sober science-based understanding of this miracle planet Earth’s evolution, and especially how that Pageant of Evolution is reiterated and reflected within my own body.
The story of how my body evolved and got to be the master piece we inhabit is fantastic. Utterly mind blowing and with room for meta-physical overtones which are beautiful, part of the living mystery - but we shouldn’t take ourselves too seriously.
I’ve “touched the All” it was sublime, moving, and it subtly changed me, even as I knew it was the product of my own mind interacting with the environment (and others).
So, please don’t tell me God is up there reaching down for a personal relationship with me or you. That conviction isn’t about respecting some super natural creator entity, it is nothing less than human Ego gone berserk.
I don’t need it. Because I understand I was created out of this Earth’s processes and I’m surrounded by other Earthlings of every variety, all of whom also have lives and value, and that I owe them some consideration. After all, they are part of my family!
Sure. But I wasn’t asking you
Excuse me.
Would have left it at, but CFI wouldn’t let me.
Quite the interesting, dare I say curious, response.
Why so touchy?
We did Add and Change. Freedom of speech, and beliefs. The Establishment Clause.
But the Establisment Clause is being torn up as we speak. We are in the midst of Fahrenheit 451
Trump pledges to bring back prayer in schools and …
Nov 11, 2024 · Returning prayer to public schools and promoting “school choice” nationwide are two of 10 priorities to “rebuild” America’s education system announced by President-elect Donald Trump in a video Nov. 10.
I just don’t get it. How does something bad happening now make you think we can’t do what we’ve done before? I realize there are new challenges now but what do you think? Do you think we can just coast? That are grandparents ded for a better world and we just get to live in it?
No, but these are not new challenges. These are old challenges that were addressed.
But we are not coasting now, we are going backwards! It’s remarkable how a single person can change the lives of 300 million people without any apparent control or limitation.
It seems to be confusion about who “we” are. I don’t mean this like “us vs them” but there are always a range of people, good and bad. When I talk about challenges I mean the challenges of passing on the good stuff