--- "B." <docile_body at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> But his point is these things are consciously
> trained
> into people. Having taken all that into account,
> hammering away relentlessly with facts is about all
> he
> can do, no? Or maybe write a Broadway musical...? He
> said he isn't good at organizing, just getting info
> to
> people so that THEY can organize with it.
>
[WS:] I think the above puts the cart before the horse. In reality, the irrationality that you mention is an integral part of the popular discourse everywhere, not just in the US. However, in many countries that popular discourse doews not enter the official discourse - it merely lingers as rumors and superstition derided by the officialdom and the literati class.
In the US, by contrast, the opposite is true. Due to ingrained anti-intellectualism, populist discourse is the language of the official, mainstream culture, and the rational discourse remains confined to the obscure niches occupied by the literati. Therefore irrationality is so widely spread in the US not due to some elite conspiracy and indoctrination, but because it is legitimated by populism and anti-intellectualism.
Rational arguments will do little to change that, because they are not seen as legitmate as populist beliefs are.
Wojtek