Not at all. I am saying that cultivating an ethos of distrust in public education along with the corresponding lack of investment in the same was deliberate as a step to leaping from healthy skepticism in believing what the powers that be put forth and thereby undermining the public’s ability to evaluate policy, political positions and basic science has culminated in a general public that now distrusts our very foundations and institutions and is hugely ignorant of actual US and world history and of the rights laid out in the US Constitution and Bill of Rights and that this is a deliberate strategy in part put forth or at the very least encouraged by Russia and more recently by Putin. It relies on ignorance of history, civics, and science and an over-reliance on black/white thinking with an absolute rejection of nuance or understanding.
This is how Trump came to power. This is how many in the US came to distrust science and US institutions and instead put their faith in someone who is well known to be a racist and a conman and a cheat who bankrupted businesses multiple times and who has a reputation for stiffing contractors but who rose to popularity in part because he gave voice to fears and petty bigotry and directed dissatisfaction with standards of living for the masses towards people of marginalized communities, particularly but not limited to immigrants, persons of color and non-straight , non-cis people instead of examining the growing economic divide between the wealthy and the average person until we have a handful of uber-wealthy individuals and a struggling working class who find it easier to blame immigrants and persons of color than to demand better compensation and a better social safety net, including universal excellent and accessible health care, universal access to excellent education, fair and decent housing and clean air, safe food and water for all from those who control the purse.
The enemy is not non white people or LGBTQ people or trans people or women holding positions of power, influence and authority but a system that allows wealthy individuals and corporations to avoid paying their fair share in taxes or adequate compensation for employees. We have allowed money to influence elections to an obscene degree. Whether we will acknowledge it or not, we have simultaneously provided the means for hostile foreign powers to use money to influence our elections. I have first hand knowledge of this as far back as the 1980 presidential election when foreign powers illegally made campaign contributions to candidates they believed would be more friendly to their needs rather than the needs of the electorate.
www.whitehouse.gov
www.factcheck.org
