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Thomas Jefferson living in an age of pseudoscience that justifies slavery... And again we are in an age that also uses bad science / pseudo-scientific and philosophical ideas that justify oppression and unequal treatment. (now focused on skin color, sex, and sexual orientation - and discriminating based on...) The sooner Critical thinking and knowledge of fallacies become standard in school the better. (This was the education of the classics. - As kings were educated.)

What to think and not how - is the education of a follower of the next poor idea. and not interested in allowing individuals to become truly free.

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Well said. As I grow older the more I see critical thinking as the mental equivalent of physical skills like running: most folks know how to do it - more or less - but they are too lazy and/or out of practice to do it well. We need to go beyond teaching people how to carefully reason - we need to encourage exercising that skill!

Years ago, people kept themselves physically fit because physical skills were important in agricultural & industrial economies - in today's information economy, people should keep themselves mentally fit (ie. well-practiced in the techniques of critical thinking/evidence-based reasoning). Alas we don't and we suffer for it.

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