After reading Saturdays Hastings Tribune featuring stories and letters about a Bigfoot conference, guns everywhere, a creepy Daddy/Daughter Date Night, media bias and some absurd political views, Ive come to the conclusion that many Americans are just plain dumb.

A recent Psychology Today article said Dumbness has been steadily defined lately, by a combination of irresistible forces. These include the triumph of video over print culture; a disjunction between Americans rising level of formal education and their shaky grasp of basic geography, science and history; and the fusion of anti-rationalism with anti-intellectualism.

Yes, there has been a long tradition of anti-intellectualism in the U.S. Much of the reason is because of our declining state of education.

Im thankful we have a great learning environment here, including Hastings College, Central Community College-Hastings, and many scholarly public school teachers who place emphasis on science, research methodology and critical thinking.

Lets hope our teachers, friends and neighbors begin using their brains and the fad of increasing anti-intellectualism, now found in education, politics and business, and advanced by social media, is soon reversed and reflected in stories featured in the Tribune and elsewhere.

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Americans 'plain dumb' - Hastings Tribune