No. of Recommendations: 8
Freedom is too important to let it be exercised by the knuckle-dragging proletariat.
Actually, if you're an originalist, that's exactly how the Founders set it up. Knuckle-draggers need not apply. Later, it was expanded (even to include women and black people!), but it wasn't until relatively recently that the two conventions weren't tightly controlled by the "elite" from both sides. You would get to vote from whomever that elite selected.
I think the overall point is that education enhances (in general) critical thinking skills. Those skills include knowing what is credible and what is not, and parsing what is and is not said (by media, politicians, etc). Without those skills, you are more easily deceived. Not that highly-educated people can't be deceived. Happens all the time. It's just more difficult. Really has nothing to do with "smarts". There are a lot of smart people who never had the opportunity for higher education, and so didn't receive the kind of training we're discussing.**
And then there is willful ignorance. When presented with data that migrants do not commit an excess of crime compared to the native population (for example), the MAGA-ites ignore it. (Actually, they ignore anything that does not align with their already-made-up minds.) I suppose anyone can fall victim to that, but at this moment in history, it is dominated by the right-wing.
**Mine was hard science, which is another level again. The scientific method demands rigorous critical thinking. But even liberal arts persons will have that as part of their training, even if it isn't explicit. The analyses they engage in are different that hard science, but they are still analyses subject to critique and dissection.
