re: #284 EPR-radar

Along the way, they have found that the stupider and more evil the electorate is, the better Republicans do in elections. Therefore Fox News and hate radio.

Far, far more sinister: the kind of religious schools they want will produce children with an ethos that does not match current understandings of personal freedom and Constitutional rights.

How “smart” they are in testing sense, or in whatever practical field they end up pursuing, what will be entirely different is their sense of how to be American.

Freedom of press versus taboos about criticizing those who speak with God’s authority?
Freedom of speech versus blasphemy (broadly interpreted)?
Right to privacy versus the sanctity of married, monogamous sex aimed at procreation?
Et cetera.

Take a look at a place like Saudi Arabia: the people aren’t stupid, they also aren’t uneducated. But what they are is boxed inside an ethos instilled into them by the collaboration of state and religious institutions, in which there’s no such thing as absolute rights, let alone equal rights. Individual dissenters might pop up, but the majority can win just through inertia. And when truly loud dissent happens, part of the ethos is that those people deserve to be stepped on by the force of the state.