H.L. Mencken: “No man ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.”
To be fair, people in former times who believed things which we (those of us who are minimally well-educated) now know to be untrue, that doesn’t mean that they were altogether stupid; they may not have had access to the knowledge that would have clearly falsified their mistaken ideas, or to plausible alternative explanations of phenomena that did exist, and which the erroneous beliefs of their time did purport to account for. We today may make similar errors.
To be fair in another respect, some other people never forgave me for refusing to be made stupid via the force of their violence. That in retaliation for refusing to be lied to or about. I have neither the desire to name them now, nor to seek their acquaintance anew.
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To be fair, people in former times who believed things which we (those of us who are minimally well-educated) now know to be untrue, that doesn’t mean that they were altogether stupid; they may not have had access to the knowledge that would have clearly falsified their mistaken ideas, or to plausible alternative explanations of phenomena that did exist, and which the erroneous beliefs of their time did purport to account for. We today may make similar errors.
(no subject)