The School of Rush Limbaugh

Right-wing Extremism, Social Justice, Woke

 

In the film The Brain Washing of MY Dad, Jen Senko first noticed radical changes in her father when she took the bus from New York to visit her family and her father told her how upset he was to the reaction to women with their breasts hanging out at Hooters. How could the Feminazis object to that? This shocked Senko. He had never made such comments before. When she said the feminists might have a point, her father threatened to pull the car over and send her right back to New York.

 

Her father had started listening to Rush Limbaugh on American talk radio.  That was like university for a lot of American working people who listened to the radio a lot. Limbaugh taught them a lot about women. Especially, “Feminazis”, as he called them. He taught that “feminazis tried to make women more like men. Look like us. Dress like us. Have power like us. Have careers like us.” Feminism was clearly heresy. Now people might criticize them as woke.

Senko’s father’s position was simple. He  said, “Limbaugh is one of my heroes.”

 

The Brain-washing of My Dad

Death of Truth, Right-wing Extremism, The Sleep of Reason, Trumpism

 

A few years ago at documentary film festival in Winnipeg I watched an extraordinary film. It was called, alluringly, “The Brain Washing of my Dad.” I have often thought about it wishing to see it again. Then I realized you can watch it on You-Tube and I watched it again. it was worth the revisit.

This documentary film was written, directed, narrated, and produced by Jen Senko, a documentary filmmaker. It is a fascinating film.

Senko called the film a “Family Non-fiction Film.” In that film she described the father of her youth as a kind and friendly man, a goofy man, who never had an unkind word to say about anyone.  He never said anything bad about any group of people. He never demonstrated any racism for example. He was a truck driver who loved his family and his children who loved him. He was an ideal dad who took his kids on camping trips that gave them memories for their entire life. Sort of like my Dad!

Of course, the father, like a friend of mine, another long distance trucker who introduced me to Rush Limbaugh,  also drove a lot on long commutes listening to American talk radio. As I had already learned it was a cauldron of hate. Particularly as my friend, the long distance trucker also told me, “I listened to Rush Limbaugh because he kept me awake.”  This was a radio show without punches being pulled. It was real life radio. And it was filled with visceral hate against liberals, Democrats, elites, and a bit more subtly, blacks. Radio like that could keep a trucker awake, even if he, or later, she, had driven too long without proper sleep. It was never boring and kept one engaged.

Senko told the story of how when she was a young girl walking with her young sister and her dad and they encountered a homeless black man sitting on a sidewalk. The man held out his cup asking for help. Asking for change. She said her father gave him money. So much money it seemed like a lot to her. Of course, she was young, and young people are often overly impressed by sums of money. But actually, what impressed her more was the fact that her father called the homeless black man “Sir.”  He showed him so much respect it struck her as surprising. Her father was teaching his two daughters to treat everybody with respect. This was a valuable life lesson.

She said her family was not really political. She described her father as “a non-political Kennedy Democrat.”[1] And they lived in Arizona! But that did not last.  “When my father started listening to talk radio, I saw him change. A lot.”

It was an extraordinary film.    Here is an excerpt:

“In the 1960s Jen Senko’s Dad never had a bad word to say about any race or people or person. Then in the 80s after my Dad discovered talk radio, he suddenly didn’t like black people, poor people, gay people, feminists Hispanics and especially Democrats. After he discovered Fox News they became the enemy.”

 

Through the documentary film Jen Senko tries to show the transformation of her father from a non-political Democrat to an angry fanatical hate-filled Republican. How did that happen?

Yet the film is really much more than that. The film is not really just about one man who was brain-washed, it is really about a country that was boondoggled.

Politics as Blood Sport

Extremism, Right-wing Extremism

 

Justin Ling in his podcast on CBC, The Flamethrowers, pointed out that many pundits wondered how Donald Trump got elected and how he led the country to a riot on Capitol Hill? Hillary Clinton wrote a book called What Happened?

 

Ling reached this conclusion:

“What happened? Well Right-wing radio happened. I know it sounds a bit quaint to talk about the power of radio in 2021. By now most of us have a multi-media broadcast platform sitting in our pockets. But there is something special about the direct intimate connection between the human voice over the airwaves. At its most effective, it is an arrow straight to listeners hearts. For nearly a 100 years, broadcasters have harnessed that power to keep politics in America at a steady boil. Before there was Fox News, before there was The Drudge Report, there was decades of rage and loathing blasting out of 50,000 watt flame thrower towers.  All that heat would radically transform the character of radical right-wing politics in America. By the time Donald Trump was elected president, American conservatism was barely recognizable from even a decade prior. This was politics as blood sport. For broadcasters like Michael Savage, Mark Levin and Rush Limbaugh ideas were almost beside the point. And when you are in a war for hearts and minds and when winning is the only thing that matters, truth is the first casualty of the conflict.”

 

Ling is right. Right-wing radio was immensely important. But so was right-wing television. So was the Christian nationalist movement. So was the long history of credulity in the US going back to the Puritans that created a country filled with people who want nothing more than to be true believers. There are many forces that brought about the election of Donald Trump and the attempted insurrection he led. All of these currents met and flowed into each other to create this monstrous murky river of democratic decay, resentment, hate, racism, extremism and tortured reality.

Charlie Sykes, the Wisconsin broadcaster who stepped down from Right-wing radio after Trump arrived and he realized he had played a shameful role in fracturing American politics and that there was no place for him any longer, and his kind in this new conservative movement. He said,

“I was a part of this media ecosystem that contributed to the alternative reality media that we created. That we had succeeded in delegitimizing the mainstream media…There came a point we realized we had delegitimized all news.”

 

 

Justin Ling described it this way:

 “Instead of just being the other side of the story we had created this hermetically sealed bubble, echo chamber, whatever term you want to use that became impenetrable.’

 

Now of course, as Ling pointed out,  nothing was never hermetically sealed. He said,

“Some nasty stuff was leaking in and festering. Whatever right-wing radicalism takes, American talk radio played a central role in shaping the modern movement. And everywhere that the right-wing movement succeeded, it did so by following the talk radio playbook. And even as technology changes the simple power of radio is connecting with huge audiences …It comes by fibre optic cable now, but all the voices are there: a voice in the darkness, striking the matches, and stoking the fire. ”

 

What else can you say when Alex Jones, so admired a president of the United States, and millions of listeners, says, “This is what we are dealing with ladies and gentlemen, a Secretary of State having sex in a giant vat of feces?” Or other radios hosts say things like this: “That is what black fathers do, they simply leave?” Or “We are living in a Zionist matrix in this country.” Or “We have defacto vaccination quarantine camps already.” Or “What we need in this country is a good old fashioned American revolution.” Yeah, what else can you say?

Sadly, Clarence E. Manion got it absolutely right when as an early right-wing extremist he bellowed over the air waves, “This is not a political war, this is not an economic war, this is not even a military war, this is a religious war at bottom.”  That is what is was. And that is what it is. This new crusade is not over yet. Not by a long-shot.

After talk radio, right-wing television helped, to bring in a religious war to America.

 

 

From Election Fraud to riot

Death of Truth, Domestic Terrorism, Right-wing Extremism

 

In the election of 2020 American presidential election  there was fraud about voter fraud. Namely many lied that there was widespread voter fraud in the 2220 presidential election. This alleged fraud was not based on evidence. It was based on unsubstantiated claims made by the president and his henchmen. This lie is now threatening to undermine American democracy. As Ling said just before the 2020 election, “Dozens of American states are introducing laws to restrict voting rights of millions of people, particularly people of color. And it is all based on a supposed fraud that never happened.” That is voter fraud! To claim fraud where one knows there was no fraud, is fraud.

 

Trump was told repeatedly by his own people led by his own Attorney General William Barr that there was no significant fraud in the 2020 presidential election that Trump lost. Trump hated the thought of losing the election so much that he preferred believing a lie, which he knew to be a lie.

According to Justin Ling,

“Right-wing radio has been laying the ground work for this for years. In the days and weeks before the 2020 election they begin watering that lie. And after the votes are counted, it becomes one of the biggest lies in American history. An allegation that a deep state conspiracy rigged the presidential election. It alleges the states were involved, the Democrats were involved, the company that makes the voting machines was involved, the media was involved and they all conspired to install Joe Biden as president.  ”

 

Of course, the man who never saw a conspiracy theory that he did not like, Alex Jones jumped onto this wagon with startling enthusiasm. He said,

 

“The evidence overwhelmingly shows now, and I have a giant stack that confirms it, law enforcement is investigating that Dominion  illegally called the servers and covered up the paper trail, and of course, we knew that. Now by the hand counts they found that Trump won by a giant landslide. The same tactics were used in every other state. They stole the election.”

These were al lies.

Many Trumpsters believed, and many still believe, that the election was rigged but they could not overturn the results. Because they had no evidence of fraud.  It doesn’t matter that Republicans investigated the claims and universally dismissed them. It doesn’t matter because their belief in their leader is a theological belief not amendable to contrary facts. Religious beliefs work that way.

 

Even on and after January 6, 2021 many of the Trumpsters were firm in their belief that Donald Trump would not be removed from office. It just could not happen. Some believed that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama would be facing treason charges.

 

January 6th saw the explosion of the hyper believers led by people like the Oath Keepers and Alex Jones.  Jones made a stirring speech to the crowd that was on its way to the Capitol. He shouted through his megaphone in his typical growly bombastic style:

“We are not just going to take the country back, but the whole world back from Communist Chinese. USA. USA.USA. We’re not giving in to the grabbers. We’re never surrendering. The Great Reset is triggering the Great Awakening. And the Great Awakening will trigger the Great Rebellion and the Destruction of the New World Order.”

 

And there were cries to “take back our country,” and “Hang Mike Pence. Hang Mike Pence.” Another said, “We’ve got the gallows set up outside this Capitol, now it’s time to start fucking using them.”  Another said, “This is now effectively a riot.”  That last one was right! One said, “At 1349 hours declaring it a riot.” Again, that one was right.

 

America had entered a period of insurrection ushered in by decades of lies on American talk radio,.

 

The Land of Fantasies

Death of Truth, Epidemics/Pandemics, Health, Mennonites, reason, The Sleep of Reason, Trust and Distrust

 

I thought I was done with posting about vaccines, measles, and Mennonites in Canada. It turns out that was not quite the case.

I just read yesterday in CBC News that Alberta has confirmed that it now has more measles cases than the entire United States even though it is 60 times larger than Alberta! How is that possible?

 By now you know my theory. Alberta is home to a stupendous number of true believers–credulous people who don’t need evidence to support their beliefs.  The funny thing is that Alberta has always been that as long as I have known about it.

In the 50s the big craze was Social Credit.  Albertans believed the whacky political leaders who came up with crackpot economic theories. They believed them wholeheartedly. And of course, many of those believers were Mennonites. Social Credit ruled in Alberta for decades as a result of the devotion of Albertans. Many Mennonites in Manitoba espoused those theories too.  I remember Social Credit rallies in Steinbach when I was growing up.

In the last couple of years Alberta has given birth to the truckers convoy and their fantasies.

In the entire United States they have had 1,288 measles cases. That’s a lot for a disease that was considered eradicated. Alberta has now had 1,314 cases. That is an astounding comparison given that the US has more than 60 times as many people.

 

I know some people think measles is a pipsqueak disease but of those cases, Dr. Lynora Saxinger, an infectious disease specialist, told CBC News, “there have been 102 hospitalizations, including 15 ICU admissions, as of July 5. No deaths have been reported.” And this is all for a disease that should be eradicated, except for the vaccine deniers who refuse to take the available treatment.  There is no good reason for that to happen, but too many people in Alberta have not been listening to the health experts but instead have been “doing their own research.”

 Is it really a good idea to do your own research?

We don’t always have the time or ability to test scientific ideas. Can you imagine going to make an appointment to see a dentist and then insisting he or she tell you in advance what anesthetic they use so you can do your own research on line to determine whether your dentist was right or wrong? How could I possibly do better research than my dentist who has gone to many years of university to learn things like that.

 

I know experts are not always right, but is it likely that we will do a better job of choosing the right anesthetic? Or the right treatment for measles? Or polio? I really can’t match that expertise. Expertise is important. We should never be slaves to experts, but unless we have good reasons, and by that I mean rational reasons, based on evidence, to the contrary, we should believe them.

 

It is the same with vaccines. How can I know which vaccines are good for me or not?  That is not an easy job. Most of us, I would submit, are not qualified to do the research ourselves on line. Rather, I would submit, get a physician you know and trust, and follow the advice you get. That’s what I do.  Now if I have carefully researched an issue and rationally concluded my doctor was wrong and I was right I should not follow the physician’s  advice, but I would say this won’t happen often. If I am entrusting my child’s health to my own “research” rather than my doctor’s research I had better be awfully sure I am right and she or he is wrong. Otherwise would I not I be guilty of child abuse in not following the good advice if my child was harmed?

We should not be a slave to experts; nor should we be blind to their benefits.

 

Evidence not Faith

Death of Truth, Epidemics/Pandemics, Health, Mennonites, The Sleep of Reason, Trust and Distrust, Vaccines

 

That respected American philosopher Archie Bunker  proudly claimed to have robust faith. In fact, it was so robust, he said, that “faith is something that you believe that no one in his right mind would believe.”

 

The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche did not go quite so far as Bunker did. He did not value faith. He challenged it. He said, “Faith” means not wanting to know what is true.”

 

Because faith or even belief can interfere with the search for truth, we have to be constantly vigilant against pre-conceived beliefs and their pernicious effect.  Nietzsche says that “great spirits are skeptics.” Nietzsche also had nothing but contempt for people of faith, because they believe what they want to be true, not what the evidence convinces them is true. I know many of my readers will strongly disagree with that. He also said, “Men of conviction are not worthy of the least consideration in fundamental questions of value and disvalue. Convictions are prisons.”

 

Of course, it is not easy to keep our minds free from our wants, interests, and preconceptions—convictions in other words.  That takes great work. We have to sculpt ourselves as the ideal observer. The ideal observer is the one who knows everything relevant, is free from animus, and free from bias. In other words, we have to recognize our interests and keep them at bay. Bias and prejudice are extreme barriers to finding the truth. It is never easy to be unbiased. It is always extremely difficult. We also need the best information and must not let hatred interfere with our judgment. We will never achieve the status of the ideal observer but we must come as close as we can. Then we can be satisfied that our judgements are valid. Only the best and strongest can do it well. That is why Nietzsche said “Freedom from all kinds of convictions, to be able to see freely, is part of strength.” And also, only the great-souled person can accomplish it.

 

Attacking one’s own convictions is the basis of critical thinking. No truths must be seen as sacred.  We must be willing to challenge them all.   Nietzsche also said, “Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies.” That is why Nietzsche asks, “Is there any contrast at all between a lie and a conviction?” Or, “in the son that becomes conviction which in the father still was a lie.”

 

For exactly the same reasons Nietzsche rejected all parties. He was always an independent thinker. He was never a party man, because then he would have to subordinate his free search for the truth to the platform of the party. He refused to do that, just as he refused to have faith. That is why he said, “Now this wishing-not-to-see what one does see, is almost the first condition for all who are party in any sense. Of necessity the party man becomes a liar.” Members of the party believe what they are told to believe, whether there is evidence to support the belief or not.

 

Parties in this sense can be very informal too. For example, there is the party of those who believe in the efficacy of vaccines.  They automatically believe vaccines are good. I have to admit I am close to this. I remember as a wee lad fearing the deadly disease of polio. When a vaccine was discovered and made available, I was overjoyed. It was a miracle I thought. And it was—a scientific miracle. But that was not faith either. As a result, I tend to automatically think vaccines are good for me. But if I find credible evidence that my belief in the efficacy of a vaccine is wrong, I must be willing to change. If we have faith, we stick to it, even if the evidence suggests otherwise. That is not something I want to do in important matters that require my attention to make a decision. I don’t want faith. I want the evidence.

 

I don’t really want to have faith to make such a decision. I want evidence evidence available, which is usually scientific evidence. That is not faith.  Faith is what we use when there is insufficient evidence to make a decision.  Then we must make the decision in favor of what is most likely. That means, we make the best decision we can in the light of that evidence. That really is not faith either. That is making the best judgment we can. Once evidence becomes available we will follow that. If that evidence is contrary to our earlier belief we must change.

For most of us, this is not what our Mennonite mothers taught us.

 

 

Mennonite Mothers are to Blame

Conspiracy Theories, Critical thinking, Death of Truth, Epidemics/Pandemics, Ethics, Health, Mennonites, Philosophy/Ideas, Rebel, religion, The Sleep of Reason, Trust and Distrust

 

Let’s get back to Mennonites.  We have noticed that in many places in North America the resurgence of measles on account of vaccine resistance has occurred in areas with a large number of Mennonites. Why is that? Is that a coincidence?

In my view, the problem is that many Mennonites live in a culture of belief. What I mean by that is that often Mennonites robustly indoctrinate their young. From a very early age, Mennonite mothers (and of course fathers) are careful to foster Christian faith in their offspring. They teach those children that they must have faith. Faith in God and the inerrant word of God evinced in the Christian Bible. I know that many religious groups do the same thing, but Mennonites definitely do and they do it thoroughly. Their children must believe what they believe without evidence.

 

Personally, I consider this a mistake. That is a very bad habit to get into. By doing that Mennonites (and others who do it too) shackle their children. If parents don’t give their children the opportunity to think for themselves their children will not learn to think for themselves in the real world. They won’t learn if they are not given the opportunity. That means they must be allowed to make their own mistakes. Even if we think they are wrong. We should give them evidence to encourage them to change their minds. Not indoctrination. Children must learn to think and think critically. This is true even when it comes to important matters such as choosing to believe or not to believe what their parents have taught them. In fact, this thinking skill is most important in the most important matters.

If children do not learn to think for themselves, they will be constant prey for charlatans, con-men, and hucksters.  That goes for religious hucksters as well. And there are legions of them. They are ubiquitous. It is much better for children to learn to think for themselves and make decisions based on evidence and logical arguments or inferences rather than faith inculcated by their parents. Thinking is a good habit to get into. Believing without evidence is a very bad habit to get into. I know when we are very young we need to believe our parents to keep us out of children or get hurt. But when we are old enough we must learn to think for ourselves or we will be in big trouble. And if enough children overly credulous when they get older society will be in trouble.

Those are skills that are worth much more than any belief. Such skills are literally invaluable.  That is what parents should teach their young charges.

To take away their right and obligation to think for themselves is to rob them of what they will most need after their parents are gone, namely, the ability to think and overcome challenges which they will inevitably meet. I know parents mean well when they try to inculcate their children, but they are misguided when they do it after their children are old enough to think for themselves. And to the extent they are old enough, they should be allowed to make decisions for themselves.

It is only by trying to think that we can learn to cultivate a spirit of questioning, of scrutinizing evidence, of weighing evidence and making rational decisions.  These are the skills children will need as they grow and have to make important decision such as whether or not to take vaccines. Robbing children of that skill could be considered child abuse, because it robs them of one of the most important skills they will ever need and they will otherwise be unable to learn.

Parents can guide such learning and offer help to them in learning these skills, but to take away their decision-making power is unfair to them.

Children must also learn to avoid the trap of wishful thinking. It is one of the easiest traps to fall into. The most difficult thing in the world is to disbelieve what you want to be true.  The easiest thing in the world is to believe what you want to be true.

The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche said it was not important to have the courage of one’s convictions. It was much more important to have the courage to attack one’s convictions.”  That is what we have to learn to do. That is the basis of critical thinking. It is perhaps its  most important element.  Nietzsche also said, “Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies.”

He also said, “if you wish to strive for peace of soul and pleasure, then believe; if you wish to be a devotee of truth, then inquire”

Nietzsche realized he was radical in this respect. He showed thinking is fun. He said, “I am dynamite.” I think he meant to say that he was on this earth to break up encrusted ‘truths.’ He was here to attack them, to expose them.

I think many Mennonite mothers, but not all of them, and many Mennonite fathers, but again not all of them, have taught their children to believe what they have been indoctrinated to believe, and that is a dangerous thing as is shown by the fact that too many Mennonite children  have refused to believe measles vaccines are better for them than the alternatives, such as, in extreme cases, such as the woman in Ontario, eating wild flowers.

 

 

Will to Believe

Death of Truth, Epidemics/Pandemics, Ethics, Mennonites, Philosophy/Ideas, reason, Skeptical Philosophy, Trust and Distrust

 

We live in a dangerous society. We see that every day.

One of the problems is the willingness to believe that is so prevalent among people.  For example, Professor Arthur Schafer said that in 1970 there was a strong willingness in the Canadian public to believe that we faced a likely insurrection just because 2 politicians were kidnapped.  The evidence of insurrection was extremely weak, yet when Pierre Trudeau implemented the War Measures Act and civil liberties such as Habeas Corpus were suspended and hundreds of people in Quebec were detained on very thin evidence that they posed a threat, people loved Trudeau.  He was tough. This was his most popular moment. People should have suspended their belief, but instead took a leap of faith. They wanted to belief it was true. People love to do that.

More recently, many people believe that immigrants are the major cause of crime. There is no evidence to support that and a lot of evidence to undermine that belief. Yet it is commonly believed.

This is exactly why irrational beliefs are so dangerous. They can spread like a virus leading to others believing what you believe, even though there is no evidence to support that belief, but even worse, can lead others to believe other irrational beliefs because they have been conditioned to do that by the culture of belief.

It is an obvious fact that some politicians lie.  Some —we know them well—even lie all the time.   The evidence of weapons of mass destruction concocted by the CIA to support actions President George W. Bush who wanted to take against Iraq in order to invade it are just one example. “Credulity is a rampant disease in modern societies,” according to Arthur Schafer. Not only that, but it is one of the most dangerous diseases our world has ever faced.

It is very easy to confuse people. We are not a skeptical rational society, even though, according to Schafer, our very capacity to survive, not just flourish, is dependent upon our diligently, conscientiously, and thoughtfully looking at evidence to support our beliefs.

We can’t always wait until we have decisive knowledge either. Take the case of climate change. The issue is so important because we are facing possible extinction. Sometimes we have to act on probability based on the best evidence and analysis that we can muster. It would be nice if we had perfect knowledge but that is seldom found in the real world. Really, that is never found in the real world. Probability is the best we can muster.

Do we have to pretend that we have certainty? Will people not act unless we exaggerate the level of certainty? Can we live useful effective lives while living with uncertainty? The problem is that there is so much that is uncertain and so little that is certain we really have to learn to embrace uncertainty.

Schafer said, “if you don’t have a healthy scepticism, you are really sunk. As a society we don’t have nearly enough.” We don’t need more credulity. We have to learn critical thinking.  Being infected with irrational beliefs is not healthy. That is asking for trouble—serious trouble. That is why it is so important to root out irrational beliefs that are not based on evidence—genuine evidence, not wishful thinking.

Of course, in recent times we have learned another problem, namely, that many people don’t trust authority anymore. That is what has happened with vaccines. Too many people have lost confidence that they are getting the straight goods from government and are not willing to believe authorities when they tell us it is vitally important for almost all of us to get vaccinated.  We need a rational scepticism in other words. We need to look critically at claims by authorities that vaccines are safe. Then if there is no good reason to doubt them, we should believe them.

We must also turn our sceptical lenses on to the critics. If Robert F. Kennedy for example, is not giving us the straight goods on vaccines we should reject his criticisms.  Irrational criticism—criticism that is contrary to the evidence—is just as dangerous as irrational belief. Neither belief nor criticism should be based on wishes, hunches, or instincts. All must be based on good evidence. The best evidence in fact. Sometimes this makes our job hard because it is not always easy to choose which side is right or rational.

As a result, Schafer concludes that Clifford has got it right and those who feel a liberal tolerance to those who espouse superstitious or irrational beliefs have got it wrong. “It is not permissible to believe whatever makes you feel good,” says Schafer. It is ethically wrong. And we ought to be willing to say so. According to Schafer those who take the attitude that it is permissible to believe whatever makes one feel good is sort of like stealing. “Such beliefs are equivalent to stealing from your fellow citizens by making yourself credulous” says Schafer.

We have to remember that giving up reason and evidence, as the only valid basis for beliefs, is not just unwise it is dangerous. If we base beliefs on sacred texts, authority, or wishful thinking we can come to believe absurdities.  Voltaire got it right when he said, “Those who make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”

We have to remember that irrational beliefs can have very serious consequences. We should not do anything to encourage them. We ought to do everything we can to stamp them out. We should be cultivating a spirit of questioning, of careful scrutiny of evidence, of diligent searching for the best and most reliable evidence, and of conscientious analysis of arguments based on evidence. We should do everything we can to foster critical thinking for it is in such horribly short supply and our lives depend on it. That’s why it is unethical to believe without evidence. The ethical life is the rational life. The superstitious life is based on moral flaws.

That’s why we should not tolerate irrational beliefs such as the belief espoused by that Mennonite woman in Ontario who said eating flowers was better at combating measles than vaccines.