Dudley Henriques wrote:
I agree with this analysis and have felt this way generally since the bomb
was dropped.
I would only add to this that there is now, and always has been, a
contingent of people in the United States, ( in the world actually)
comprised of those not involved directly by these things, who will react to
something like this based completely on their negative emotional response to
it ; without ever considering they are completely out of the loop of solid
data used in making such decisions. It's a very interesting factor really;
people having the right of free decision, but lacking the real first hand
knowledge required to exercise that right intelligently by not being in the
loop of decision that has affected their "vote" either way. Yet, based on
what they have heard or read, they form rock solid opinions that are totally
inflexible to change of any kind. I've always wondered how these opinions
can be so solidly formed based on out of the loop information, yet not be
subject to change by the influx of additional out of the loop information.
I've always been fascinated by this interesting observation :-)
Dudley Henriques
International Fighter Pilots Fellowship
Commercial Pilot/ CFI Retired

Dudley -

Unfortunately, it's a little appreciated fact that half of the world's
population is below average in intelligence (the percentage sometimes
seems higher in the newsgroups... :-)

Further, many of them were never taught (or never learned) logical
thinking, problem solving skills, or the scientific method.

Finally, many choose to make decisions based primarily on their
emotional reactions instead of rational thought.

Neither good nor bad; just the way it is.

In light of this, what you (correctly) describe is certainly not
surprising.

Happy Holidays anyway