When Ignorance Is Lethal

The fear many feel when it comes to the Russia investigation is that the public won’t understand the findings and the consequences that may occur. An even greater fear is that people will not believe the results no matter how they come out. Loss of confidence in our press and our institutions are at an all time high.

These trepidations are warranted. The Republicans and especially President Rrump have worked very hard to accomplish this heretofore unmatched and unthinkable strategy. And as a significant part of the population becomes less and less sophisticated and conspiracy-theory motivated, the challenge is clear. Like climate change or income in equality, the Russian probe must be able to be explained at very basic levels.

While there is absolutely nothing wrong with having an investigation carried out with the highest of integrity there are those who will never trust Robert Mueller or his team. This amplifies the necessity of educating a public on how to view and digest facts even more. This administration and the GOP will employ any means at their disposal, including misappropriating the English language to confuse and manipulate data.

America has reached (or been lowered) to a new level, a place where minds cling to simplicity, find a comfort level in tweets that butcher our language into disjointed phrases with obscure meanings, and allow politicians to drag us down with thought processes designed for people to believe on faith rather then critical inspection.

In the United States there is lethal ignorance.

It begins with religious dogma in an attempt to smother empiricism. Continues with propaganda that emanates from spokespeople like Sarah Huckabee Sanders, whose words mimic George Orwell’s 1984 doublespeak: “War is Peace,” then crescendos into Trump calling the media fake and law enforcement institutions corrupt.

A key political goal for this one-party-rule government is to un-educate and leave a population adrift in a sea of un-enlightenment, with very few lifeboats of intellectual curiosity.

The dangers of benightedness are imminent and have serious long-term ramifications. A culture of accepting ignorance as truth will not be easy to reverse. The Russians will be repeat offenders of interference in our elections if their crime against our democracy is not treated as a large problem that needs great minds to come up with an even larger solution.

Ignorance is not bliss but lethal. It will leave this nation, like any nation, at the mercy of even the most manageable events.