Where I started off on my last entry, I was addressing the degree to which we are influenced by experiences including such things as what we read. That thought began while reading a book. In this book, the author referred to another book which I had recently read. This, ultimately, comes around to the point I was hoping to make. Every single book<\/i> I have read in the past couple of months has referred to another book I had recently read<\/i>. This really gives me an appreciation for what some call “the echo chamber.” I read books on science and reality. What if I instead had read the outpouring of right-wing nuttery made available by the Fox “News” juggernaut or the dozens of right-wing publishers? Would a lack of ability in science have made me into the sort of right-wing loon I now despise? Would an unwillingness to question authority or ask for evidence have left me in the grips of the religiosity on which the plutocrats so greatly depend? Would I be vulnerable to nearly continuous steam of propaganda that has proven so effective against seemingly sane people? The unfortunate answer is yes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Where I started off on my last entry, I was addressing the degree to which we are influenced by experiences including such things as what we read. That thought began while reading a book. In this book, the author referred to another book which I had recently read. This, ultimately, comes around to the point […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.desertscope.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.desertscope.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.desertscope.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.desertscope.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.desertscope.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=312"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.desertscope.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":314,"href":"https:\/\/blog.desertscope.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312\/revisions\/314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.desertscope.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.desertscope.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.desertscope.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}