The Assault on Reason: Our Information Ecosystem, from the Age of Print to the Age of Trump, 2017 Edition
Now With a New Preface and Final Chapter: “Post-Truth: On Donald Trump and the 2016 Election”
What has happened to our country and how can we fix it?
We are in the midst of a deepening crisis for our democracy. After the strangest election cycle in modern American history it is important that we address the grave threats to our way of life that were glaringly revealed in this campaign. In The Assault on Reason, Nobel Peace Prize winner and former Vice President Al Gore examines how faith in the power of reason—the idea that citizens can govern themselves through rational debate—is in peril. Our democracy depends on a well-informed citizenry and a two-way conversation about ideas, but our public sphere has been degraded by fake news and the politics of fear, partisanship, and blind faith. Now updated to investigate the rise of Trump and post-truth politics, The Assault on Reason is a call to rebuild the vitality of American democracy by restoring the nation’s information ecosystem so that we can start making good decisions again.
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People have always preferred slightly stupid people as heroes. Which is trusted…Lancelot with his muscles & sword, or Merlin with his greater knowledge??
People mistrust those who are smarter than them, look how the word elite has changed!
Ive never once considered Gandhi
slightly stupid. Or Shackleton for that matter. Or Darwin. Or Armstrong and Aldrin.
I dont automatically mistrust those with greater intellect. Dont think anyone i know would either.
Methinks theres some flaws in your idea, if only because children have a tendancy to trust their schoolteachers , not mistrust.
As I observe (sometimes in horror) the appointees Prez 45 places into positions of governmental oversight, I’m constantly reminded of a quote attributed to Leo Rosten: “First-rate people hire first-rate people; second-rate people hire third-rate people”. The person occupying the White House is a second-rate person. And I’m being extremely kind with that description.
Trump is what you get when you neglect an infected body politic for too long.
Trump is a direct political descendant of Reagan’s. The difference between the two is not in their messages or actions but their deliveries: Reagan was smooth in his deceit and amorality, Trump is not.
Just like his POTUS, he will not go away.
They are like grime and dust – requiring
continuous attention. He truly needs
his own TV show. Come on OWN, you got late
night slots available, between infomercials.