Would they uncancel the Chicks?

When some of the MAGA finally realize the abyssal depth of their leader's moral dicrepitude, and decide they don't like having been lied to, I wonder if they can go back 20 years, decide they didn't like being lied to by George W. Bush and rethink their misplaced disgust at the Dixie Chicks calling him out on it.

It takes courage to speak truth to power. 

It takes courage to admit you were wrong to yourself.

It takes courage to admit you were wrong to the world.

It takes a lot of courage to admit you believed in someone who was so obviously full of bullshit, like realizing you're the last person in middle school who believes in Santa Claus. You want to be cool, and pretend you didn't once you realize you got what everybody else had already figured out. No one wants to appear gullible. But what's the alternative? Continue to pretend to believe? Make up a conspiracy theory?

It takes moral contortionism to keep trying to defend the overt corruption and ethical trainwreck that is DJT.

It takes cowardice to know it in your heart his level of depravity and remain silent.

The World Needs Smart People and Good Leaders

 There's a lot of news about the future of the work with all the AI talk. One thing is for sure, at least for the next generation or two. The world is still going to need some really smart people, savvy about life and fluent with technology and AI. Another thing that's been made painfully clear -- we need people with a moral compass, people who understand service.

It's not necessary to go to college to really challenge your brain, but the thing about college is that many people are there to get smarter and to learn deeply in a subject they want, so they environment makes it easier to nerd out. It's a good place to expose yourself to a mindset of strong work ethic for true understanding, if that's what you want. (Yes, college is also populated by people who are there because they think their parents want them to, or to "get a good job", but you don't have to let that stop you -- just hang out with the ones who are trying to get smart.) But maybe the bigger reason most of us need college is because the structure and organization, along with the monetary "skin in the game" of tuition supports those of us with less discipline to follow through and actually learn. 

With the advent of AI, it's going to take a conscious effort on the part of the student and the college to provide the your brain with all the intense exercise it needs to reach your optimum smartness. Remember, being smart is the product of knowledge, processing, and intelligence. We don't always have a lot of control over our natural intelligence, but we can take what we have, feed it a lot of knowledge, and work it out until it gets as smart as possible. (That's how those of us with a little less intelligence can become smarter than those with more.)

And I'll say one final thing. You can be smart, but if your emotional intelligence and spiritual development are stuck at a 7th grade level, like some of our current administration, you can see the incredible damage it can cause. The power (and technical acumen) needed to change things can be used for good or evil. WE NEED MORE GOOD!