Posts like this are why I subscribe. Interesting observations and insights on an important socio-cultural event that aren't simply reducible to partisan cheering or booing.
I find especially insightful the observation that we are a crude society in general and that Trump fits right in with that in many ways, even as his opponents like to single him out for criticism on that count. Often, the progressives who hate him with a passion are some of the most vulgar people imaginable.
I noticed late in my college career (this would be mid-2000s) brighter fellow students saying things to me like, "Wow, well-written, you obviously didn't plagiarize that." I think the rise of Wikipedia marked the first rapid advance of cheating. In the old days, if you were assigned an essay on, I don't know, why Carthage lost the Punic Wars, it was a lot harder to turn in anything but a deeply awful product if you didn't understand the matter.
So, not that something isn't lost in the culture, but a large part of me thinks that the ease of cheating has greatly encouraged the culture of cheating. My mother tells me that she had a very old teacher in the late 1960s that was completely out of it and, like clockwork, would fall asleep about 15 minutes into every class. Everyone in the class would then proceed to cheat on the current assignment. On days of tests or quizzes, they cheated on those. But that was the only teacher she had like that, and she didn't cheat anywhere else.
Posts like this are why I subscribe. Interesting observations and insights on an important socio-cultural event that aren't simply reducible to partisan cheering or booing.
I find especially insightful the observation that we are a crude society in general and that Trump fits right in with that in many ways, even as his opponents like to single him out for criticism on that count. Often, the progressives who hate him with a passion are some of the most vulgar people imaginable.
Thanks!
Another symptom: the prevalence of cheating
https://x.com/herandrews/status/1854191662127259748
I noticed late in my college career (this would be mid-2000s) brighter fellow students saying things to me like, "Wow, well-written, you obviously didn't plagiarize that." I think the rise of Wikipedia marked the first rapid advance of cheating. In the old days, if you were assigned an essay on, I don't know, why Carthage lost the Punic Wars, it was a lot harder to turn in anything but a deeply awful product if you didn't understand the matter.
So, not that something isn't lost in the culture, but a large part of me thinks that the ease of cheating has greatly encouraged the culture of cheating. My mother tells me that she had a very old teacher in the late 1960s that was completely out of it and, like clockwork, would fall asleep about 15 minutes into every class. Everyone in the class would then proceed to cheat on the current assignment. On days of tests or quizzes, they cheated on those. But that was the only teacher she had like that, and she didn't cheat anywhere else.
Very thought provoking!
"Trump’s stormy personal life. . . "
I see the pun there.