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Are You Really that Smart If You Can’t Recognize B.S.?
American Thinker ^ | 20 Sep, 2022 | Alicia Colon

Posted on 09/20/2022 4:28:38 AM PDT by MtnClimber

How about the ability to recognize that the media and certain politicians on both side of the aisles are self-serving and unconcerned about your best interests unless it lines their own pockets?

My husband, who was a Marine during the Vietnam War, was always talking about the IQ levels of fellow soldiers, and he would express surprise at the low level of intelligence of some draftees.

We would then get into arguments on the validity of IQ testing, which I questioned did not take into consideration an individual’s environment. But considering the past decade as the utter complete dumbing down of our populace, maybe I should reconsider my dismissal of testing. What exactly does a person’s IQ mean?

Modern intelligence tests often focus on abilities such as mathematical skills, memory, spatial perception, and language abilities. The capacity to see relationships, solve problems, and remember information are important components of intelligence, so these are often the skills on which IQ tests focus.-(verywellmind.com)

Now what’s missing from this description? How about the ability to reason? How about the ability to figure out what is total nonsense and check out who’s spouting that nonsense? How about the ability to recognize that the media and certain politicians on both side of the aisles are self-serving and unconcerned about your best interests unless it lines their own pockets?

Having a degree from an ivy league university and several letters after your name doesn’t necessarily mean that you can reason well and not fall prey to indoctrination from the public academia system.

That’s why my husband and I scraped and saved to have all six of our kids attend parochial school and our kids are doing same with our grandchildren. Full disclosure--they are all super smart and conservative.

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Education; Society
KEYWORDS: communism; neoconned; neokoolaid; propaganda; theneokoolaid
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To: rolling_stone

My son is a police officer, a patrolman and he said he learns a lot just watching people he comes into contact with and listening to what they say rather than talking all the time to them. He will ask a question and then watch and listen to their reactions, their body language and he has learned to figure out who’s BS’ing and who’s telling the truth or just nervous.

He said there is one officer on their department who honestly believes anything he is told. Says you could hold him up through the mail.


41 posted on 09/20/2022 10:08:29 AM PDT by sarge83
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To: sarge83

yes observing can give many clues its a learned tool of good officers..the more interviews or interrogations one does the better one usually gets at discerning deception.


42 posted on 09/20/2022 10:37:40 AM PDT by rolling_stone
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To: rlmorel

...it is important to be in harmony with whatever group they identify with, and everything else is secondary.

____________________

The definition of *in harmony* changes daily, if not hourly. Transgress once and you become suspect. After that, everything is scrutinized for correctness and the poor leftist is soon a non-person, if not an outright enemy.


43 posted on 09/20/2022 11:24:35 AM PDT by reformedliberal (Make yourself less available.)
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To: maddog55
"Having a degree from an ivy league school and lots of letters after your name means you e reached the highest level of indoctrination."

44 posted on 09/20/2022 11:32:03 AM PDT by Hiddigeigei ("Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish," said Dionysus - Euripides)
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To: reformedliberal

LOL, it made me laugh, you nailed it.

And that is the thing.

Like the American Communists being totally against getting involved in WWI until the Nazis launched Operation Barbarossa, and in seconds, without any prompting or coordination, they all did a 180 and began noisily advocating for the USA to get involved in the war.

It is why Cognitive Dissonance is so prevalent on the Left. They have to be able to stay in conformity with the “Hive Mind”, and any rationalization or justification formulated for a given situation has to live in the same space as one that may be completely at odds with it.

And we wonder why they appear to be deranged. It is because, often, they are.


45 posted on 09/20/2022 1:28:34 PM PDT by rlmorel (Nolnah's Razor: Never attribute to incompetence that which is adequately explained by malice.)
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To: rlmorel
they all did a 180 and began noisily advocating for the USA to get involved in the war.

Yep that's when Woody Guthrie wrote "This Machine Kills Fascists" on his guitar.

46 posted on 09/20/2022 1:32:55 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: dfwgator

Effing Woody Guthrie!

Gad...thing is, they all vibrate in unison like millions of tuning forks.

If the frequency needs to be changed, they can do it at the drop of a hat!

(Heh, yet another theory of the origin of “What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?”)


47 posted on 09/20/2022 1:43:31 PM PDT by rlmorel (Nolnah's Razor: Never attribute to incompetence that which is adequately explained by malice.)
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To: MtnClimber

Intelligence and common sense don’t go hand in hand...lol


48 posted on 09/20/2022 1:59:11 PM PDT by joe fonebone (And the people said NO! The End)
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To: imardmd1

Wow... One hell of a lot words that sum up what I said in sentence. Liberal indoctrination is a forced one thought only mindset. Conservative indoctrination, if you want to call it that is free thought and common sense.


49 posted on 09/20/2022 7:42:54 PM PDT by maddog55 (The only thing systemic in America is the left's hatred of it!)
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To: MtnClimber
Having a degree from an ivy league university

Is not, IMO, a sign of any great intelligence.

50 posted on 09/20/2022 7:44:35 PM PDT by NorthMountain (... the right of the peopIe to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
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To: cuban leaf
at least half of the stories on Babylon B are not really true.

The other half weren't true when they were published, but have since been overcome by events.

51 posted on 09/20/2022 7:46:10 PM PDT by NorthMountain (... the right of the peopIe to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
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To: Hiddigeigei

Yep...high schoolers have as much reluctance as the PhDs


52 posted on 09/20/2022 7:46:33 PM PDT by maddog55 (The only thing systemic in America is the left's hatred of it!)
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To: JesusIsLord

About halfway through that Jedi mind trick, I level my blaster and hold down the trigger ...


53 posted on 09/20/2022 7:48:11 PM PDT by NorthMountain (... the right of the peopIe to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
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To: maddog55
I'm not sure from what you have said that you really understand what "indoctrination" means. "Indoctrination" is a term defining a neutral process, no emotion or morality connected to it.

Indoctrination is simply transferring the knowledge of the features of a system of belief and how to practice it (the doctrines) to (a) student(s).

That's all. It is not evil. The system that it teaches may be undesirable in nature, but the process is not.

54 posted on 09/21/2022 2:39:59 AM PDT by imardmd1 (Fiat Lux ["Let there be Light, God's Light"])
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To: imardmd1

Definition of indoctrinate

transitive verb
1 : to imbue with a usually partisan or sectarian opinion, point of view, or principle

Forcing a belief system on anyone and telling them anything else but what they are being told is wrong, racist and facist is what I call evil... It’s an evil process.

Your word games are irrelevant.


55 posted on 09/21/2022 4:34:21 AM PDT by maddog55 (The only thing systemic in America is the left's hatred of it!)
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To: maddog55
Definition of indoctrinate
transitive verb
1 : to imbue with a usually partisan or sectarian opinion, point of view, or principle

The definition that you supplied from another source is correct, but your following account of it is incorrect. Indoctrination is neutral, as I said.

You say that to indoctrinate is to force something on another, That is not included in a precise definition.

Someone may us the function that way, but it is the motive and the method that is depraved, not the process itself.

Your way of trying to force your wrong opinion on me is just as wrong.

For instance, if one wants to be a well-instructed servant of God, one submits oneself to indoctrination in the teachings of the Bible, which are very often quite different to the opinions of the surrounding society.

What did people of faith do, from the beginning, that were converted from another belief system? At the first, it was from the Jewish religion as practiced in Jesus' time:

"Then they that gladly received hisPeter's wordof Christ's doctrine were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. 
And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers" (Act 2:41-42 AV; bolding added for emphasis).
The apostles indoctrinated the willing new believers according to the command of Christ, as they had been personally indoctrinated by Him previously. The apostles imparted this new system of belief and practice for the spiritual growth and personally changed behavior of the newly inducted members.

Going forward, those persons well-indoctrinated by the apostles were yhen expected to preach the doctrines they had received and applied to be rescued from a sinful existence, and so on through the ages.

Indoctrination in Biblical truth is at the very core of Christianity. Another term for it is "discipleship," and it caused the global spread of The Faith.

This procedure has been stolen, adapted and misapplied by God-rejecting human-defiling systems of belief, but that is not the only way to use the indoctrination process.

I could say more, but whether or not you accept what I've written, at least the errors of your thinking is apparent to other readers. And my intention is only to correct, not to offend, although the reaction is up to you.

You said:

Forcing a belief system on anyone and telling them anything else but what they are being told is wrong, racist and facist is what I call evil... It’s an evil process.

That is NOT a definition of indoctrination, it's only your misconception, not to be reinforced.

56 posted on 09/21/2022 7:47:28 AM PDT by imardmd1 (Fiat Lux ["Let there be Light, God's Light"])
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To: imardmd1

You really don’t get it.... Kind of like showing a blind man your new car and expecting him to say I love the color.

Definition of brainwashing

1 : a forcible indoctrination to induce someone to give up basic political, social, or religious beliefs and attitudes and to accept contrasting regimented ideas
2 : persuasion by propaganda or salesmanship

FORCIBLE INDOCTRINATION, that would be impossible if it’s just a process.

I really don’t care about your religious babble, but then again you’re probably just trying to indoctrinate me.


57 posted on 09/21/2022 1:41:12 PM PDT by maddog55 (The only thing systemic in America is the left's hatred of it!)
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To: maddog55
I'll just let the flag of your ignorance hang out. You are attempting to prove that the process of indoctrination is necessarily both forcible and evil. But holding that opinion only proves that you're also unteachable.

Can;t help you there. Goodbye! <>

58 posted on 09/21/2022 7:25:16 PM PDT by imardmd1 (Fiat Lux ["Let there be Light, God's Light"])
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To: MtnClimber

I have known people who are smart in one thing and absolutely stupid in other things even when they have the evidence in front of them.


59 posted on 09/21/2022 10:09:07 PM PDT by minnesota_bound (Need more money to buy everything now)
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To: imardmd1

You’re worse than a tick, you can’t let go.

The good news is in your limited one sided view of a word is I’m unteachable and that’s a good thing because I never gave in and my kids and grandkids will never give in to the liberal indoctrination being forced upon them through schools and liberal socialist governments.


60 posted on 09/22/2022 4:17:30 AM PDT by maddog55 (The only thing systemic in America is the left's hatred of it!)
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