“Is wealth a cousin of ignorance?” – Salman Rushdie | Big Think

Salman Rushdie pretty much predicted the future in his new book, The Golden House, wherein the antagonist is "a ruthlessly ambitious, narcissistic, media-savvy villain sporting makeup and coloured hair." Read into that what you will, but Rushdie here posits that he's baffled by the sudden worldwide rejection of knowledge and the elites. He says that…

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Why Religion Influences Politics More Now Than 50 Years Ago | Monica Duffy Toft | Big Think

Religion influences politics more now than it did 50 years ago. To help explain how we moved seemingly backward from global secularism to increased religious involvement in public policy, Professor of International Politics Monica Duffy Toft explains the threefold story of failed modernization, democratization, and globalization, and how they propelled religious figures and ideas into…

“Skepticism: Why critical thinking makes you smarter” – Bill Nye, Derren Brown & more | Big Think

"I like to keep an open mind... but not so open that my brains fall out."Lawrence Krauss (theoretical physicist) It's not always easy to tell the difference between objective truth and what we believe to be true. Separating facts from opinions, according to skeptic Michael Shermer, theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss, and others, requires research, self-reflection,…

“The 10 tactics of fascism” – Jason Stanley | Big Think

Fascism is a cult of the leader, who promises national restoration in the face of supposed humiliation by immigrants, leftists, liberals, minorities, homosexuals, women, in the face of what the fascist leader says is a takeover of the country's media, cultural institutions, schools by these forces. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpCKkWMbmXU Fascist movements typically, though not invariably, rest on…

How to build an authoritarian regime (and how to stop one) — Timothy SNYDER

People are overwhelmed by new ideas brought upon by new technologies. Could new media—like the internet—ruin the world before rebuilding it? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_fcX6zIu44 Get ready for a rocky century: there was 150 years after the book was invented before the Great Enlightenment. Timothy Snyder is the Levin Professor of History at Yale University and the author…