[ExI] Trump asks "​Why Can’t We Use Nuclear Weapons?​"​

[Will Steinberg]

Sorry in advance for my (sparing) use of the shift key.  Sometimes it
really seems like you need to yell.  Or rather, sometimes you really,
really want to:

--

All right, "Hillary is as bad as Trump" people, I will even ignore for the
duration of this email the fact that not doing everything in one's power to
prevent Trump from attaining office is tantamount to condoning nuclear war.


HOWEVER:

We are on an email list for smart people.  Transhumanism is for smart
people.

You are all proud of being smart.  The topics we discuss here--physics,
astronomy, neuroscience, anthropology--fill you with true joyous passion.

Think back to when you found the first friend or clique who was as
intelligent as you.  Was it the most amazing moment of your life thus far?
I know for me it was.  Finally!  People I could actually, deeply, honestly
talk to, instead of just speak at.

That's what this email list is.  It's all the joy you ever had at being
surrounded by others whose thoughts are as quick, as non-linear, as
symbol-rich as your own.

I have to ask, then:

WHY DO YOU SUPPORT, EXPLICITLY OR IMPLICITLY, AN ENEMY OF INTELLIGENCE?

Donald Trump is not just, as Spike might say, a "prole".  There are people
out there who might think somewhat less quickly and less complexly than
people like us, but who appreciate the work of scientists and inventors.
People who go to college even though they aren't geniuses, because they
understand the value of learning.

Donald Trump is not one of those people.  Donald Trump is not *like* those
people.  This is a man who willfully rejects learning and intelligence.  A
man who one week stated that he thought Russia had a territorial right to
Crimea and the next week showed that he DID NOT EVEN KNOW THAT RUSSIA HAD
ACTUALLY PHYSICALLY EXERCISED THAT CLAIM.  A man who not only constantly
demonstrates, as a *candidate for the presidency of the United States of
America*, a complete lack of domestic and foreign policy knowledge, but who
also, when his total ignorance of some particular geopolitical topic is
demonstrated beyond the shadow of a doubt, very clearly takes NO STEPS
towards remedying this ignorance.

In short, when Donald Trump sees that he does not know something, the
knowledge of which is publicly agreed upon to be of import for an American
president, he does not believe that it is important to learn it.

There is the adage that the wisest man knows that he knows nothing.  I
think this needs to be appended.  The wisest man knows that he or she knows
nothing, and strives to correct that lack of knowledge when it is
discovered.

It's the absolute CORE AXIOM of wisdom--that when you find out you don't
know something that you 'should' know, you understand the implicit need to
fill in that knowledge gap.

Donald Trump is anti-learning.  That is different than being prejudiced
against intelligent people, or being a luddite, or disliking
"know-it-all-ism".

Donald Trump is opposed to LEARNING.  And there are smart people on this
list who think he can be responsible for the future of the children of
America.

Tell you what, I have a proposition:

Myself, and anyone else on this list who thinks Hillary Clinton would make
a better president and is willing to accept the terms of this proposition,
will never again on this list make statements that indicate we support the
impetus for people to be non-corrupt.  And we won't ever criticize
corruption either.

IN EXCHANGE, anyone on this list who thinks Donald Trump would make a
better president will never again on this list make statements that
indicate you support the impetus for people to be intelligent, and you may
never criticize anti-intellectualism either.

Does that sound like an all right agreement?  What do you say, Trump
people--are you willing to rescind your love of knowledge and learning?
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