Opus 2019-001 Sometimes I Feel Like a Genius, part 1 of 2

How do people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez deal with being memed as stupid by the entire internet?  Since I have not listened to her speak I don’t know if it is true or just a conception she has cultivated.  She has a lot of competition.

Remember the congressman who thought Guam would tip over if it got too many people.

Remember when a certain presidential candidate said he had not visited all 57 states yet.  He won.

I can excuse ignorance in the young.  It is harder to accept the way in which people who know nothing keep putting themselves in a position where they feel they are special enough to tell us how to live our lives. 

Are we any better if we accept what we are told without looking into it.  I realize that we cannot investigate everything.  There is too much going on and too much effort to confuse the issues.  But we need to do some basic research.  Dig a little.  You have heard the concept of a Baloney Meter.  You have heard of common sense.  When people tell me things with a serious face that conflict with everything I know, I have a few questions.  It is amazing how many valid conclusions we can make if we just take a moment to think and compare what they are saying with what we know. 

One of the scares that is easy for the masses to believe is the concept of overpopulation.  For decades the fear mongers have been telling us that we only had a few years before massive starvation would hit us and the world would go to war over food.  If you lived in the middle of any large city this would hit a chord with you.  You would look around and say, “Yes.  It is crowded.  We need to do something.”  Since a majority of American live in large cities they are easy to fool.  When they bring it up I ask them if they have ever been out of Southern California.  Most have no idea that you can drive across a thousand miles of mid-America and see few people.  Picture the drive from Denver to Kansas City.  Picture going across Montana and Wyoming.  Can’t picture it?  You need to get out more.  A few years ago I did the math and the entire population of the world could fit into Texas living in single family homes.  Texas might object but it is still a fact.

To be concluded...

homo unius libri