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Critical Thinking

Critical Thinking LogoImagine a world where every person had complete access to the truth
AND
had sufficient education to separate it from propaganda.
A goal of this site is to provide unbiased access to the truth. This section, in particular, is devoted to helping readers recognize the truth, in the midst of all the propaganda.

Mr. Fish | Mitch and Stiffy / truthdig.com

Section(s): 

Selling the ‘Supply-Side’ Myth

  • Any rational assessment of America’s economic troubles would identify Ronald Reagan’s reckless “supply-side” economics as a chief culprit, but that hasn’t stopped Republican presidential hopefuls, led by Newt Gingrich, from selling this discredited theory to a gullible GOP base.
  • Reagan Insider Stockman: 'GOP Destroyed US Economy'

Robert Parry, Consortium News

Rep. Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., laughs at a joke told by President Ronald Reagan in Atlanta, Jan. 26, 1984. (photo: Joe Holloway, Jr./AP)

Despite Newt Gingrich’s claim that “supply-side” economic theories have “worked,” the truth is that America’s three-decade experiment with low tax rates on the rich, lax regulation of corporations and “free trade” has been a catastrophic failure, creating massive federal debt, devastating the middle class and off-shoring millions of American jobs.

It has ”worked” almost exclusively for the very rich, yet the former House speaker and the three other Republican presidential hopefuls are urging the country to double-down on this losing gamble, often to the cheers of their audiences — like one Florida woman who said she had lost her job and medical insurance but still applauded the idea of more “free-market” solutions.

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Related:

Reagan Insider Stockman: 'GOP Destroyed US Economy', Paul B. Farrell, MarketWatch
Get it? Not "destroying." The GOP has already "destroyed" the U.S. economy, setting up an "American Apocalypse."

 

The Cancerous Politics and Ideology of the Susan G. Komen Foundation

Komen's own memo to its affiliates spreads lies about Planned Parenthoo and Komen's actions belie its own claims to care about racial, ethnic and income disparities in access to breast cancer screenings.

Jodi Jacobson, Common Dreams

This week (Jan 29 - Feb4) it became clear there are things more important to the Susan G. Komen Foundation--the fundraising giant that each year during breast cancer awareness month virtually swathes the United States in pink, a la Christo--than ensuring women are able to access exams for early detection of breast cancer.

What could be more important to an organization ostensibly dedicated to the elimination of breast cancer? Answer: The politics and personal agendas of the organization's senior staff and board, both of which have been infiltrated by right-wing ideologues and both of which were instrumental in a decision to deny further support from Komen affiliates to Planned Parenthood clinics that provide breast exams. In fact, it is now clear that some anti-choicers on Komen's board and senior staff are actually willing to sacrifice poor women to breast cancer to satisfy their own agendas.

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5 Dishonest Ad Campaigns Coming Your Way For Election 2012

  • These five themes will dominate the airwaves as the election season heats up.
  • Republican Attacks Have Racist Undertone

Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet

This article is made possible with the generous contributions of readers like you. Thank you!

Making Americans angry, pretending they’re political outsiders, fanning race-based fears, attacking liberals and unions, and casting Obama as a "failed" and "illegitimate" president will be cornerstones of the Republican road to retake the White House, according to an analysis of the first wave of GOP political ads in the 2012 campaign. 

These five themes can be found in the Republican television and radio ads seen from last year and into next Tuesday’s (Jan 31) Florida primary, as broadcast by the GOP’s presidential candidates or their allied super-PACs. Whether candidates have since dropped out is irrelevant, because this first wave of ads is a test-marketing phase to see what sticks.

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Related:

Republican Attacks Have Racist Undertones, Andrew Rosenthal, New York (NY) Times
Talking about race in American politics is uncomfortable and awkward. But it has to be said: There has been a racist undertone to many of the Republican attacks leveled against President Obama for the last three years, and in this dawning presidential campaign.

 

Foxes and Reptiles: Psychopathy and the Financial Meltdown

  • Many of the thought patterns and animal spirits driving economic events are generated by psychopaths and situational pyshopaths, and to prevent another such economic catastrophe we must take this into account as we design regulations, checks and balances.
  • Psychpaths Among Us

Jonathan Zap, Reality Sandwich

Thanks to Evergreene Digest reader Romi Elnagar for this contribution

At a time when corporations are buying up elections – not to mention the 24-hour-news cycle – help ensure that a source for truly independent journalism lives on. Support Evergreene Digest today by using the donation button in the above right-hand corner.

The present financial meltdown  may only be the latest example of the incalculable harm done to civilization, and countless individual lives, by psychopaths, a subspecies of Homo sapiens.  The purpose of this essay is twofold. First, I will provide a brief tour of the psychopath subspecies so that you understand who they are and how they operate. You probably already know psychopaths, and it is overwhelmingly likely that at some point in your life a psychopath that you encounter personally will try to harm you. Second, I will draw the correlative between psychopathy and the present financial meltdown and provide a suggestion of a relatively simple change that could decrease the likelihood of the sort of abuses that could lead to future meltdowns.

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Related:

Psychpaths Among Us,  Robert Hercz, hare.org
Thanks to Evergreene Digest reader Romi Elnagar for this contribution
Dr. Robert Hare claims there are 300,000 psychopaths in Canada, but that only a tiny fraction are violent offenders like Paul Bernardo and Clifford Olsen. Who are the rest? Take a look around

 

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