I start out with the observation that Trump continues to show that he makes up many things on the fly. And surprisingly, seemingly millions take him at his word regardless of the preposterous nature of many things which pass his lips. Here is my verse. Is this some kind of big scoop? No, of course not. But it is so astonishing how so many continue to fall prey of his rhetoric. That was the impetus for this verse.
My second verse is intended to address the disregard so many have for American democracy. The MAGA people are clearly anti-democracy in their actions. And they justify it in so many ways. The first is not understanding the concept, and it’s nuances. It may be as simple as “America is a republic,” not a “democracy” because “republic” is found within the word Republican Party and “democracy” is found within the word Democratic Party. In fact I’m sure this plays a big part. But here is my verse on the dangers of disregarding of democracy for whatever reason.
I completed a term search in Truth Social on the old standard troupe of the Right Wingers in “republic not a democracy.” The holding of this belief seems overwhelming among this population. And they are free from proper educational forces to correct them.
I repeated the term search on X, and found the same results largely.
We have read about the far right wing ideas on democracy, clearly indicated above from both X and Truth Social. Certainly there are a multitude of misconceptions among this population. Regardless of the reasons behind the misconceptions, we find such a mindset to be difficult to overcome according to the research following focused on misconceptions of science among University students in the Netherlands. But first let’s discuss American democracy as found in a U.S. Government publication below:
Democracy in the United States. The United States is a representative democracy. This means that our government is elected by citizens. Here, citizens vote for their government officials. These officials represent the citizens’ ideas and concerns in government.
Voting is one way to participate in our democracy.
Citizens can also contact their officials when they want to support or change a law.
Voting in an election and contacting our elected officials are two ways that Americans can participate in their democracy.
Assuming political and civic misconceptions to be analogous to science misconceptions, the excerpt from this study may lend a little evidence to the harm of misconceptions. And within the right wing echo chamber, the misconceptions will only be reinforced by others intentionally or unintentionally. This study has some suggestions for reparations of misconceptions when identified. In the world of social media, how much one can really accomplish is probably very small. But it is good to know the problems for accomplishing a truer understanding of political and civic principles.
Uncovering students’ misconceptions by assessment of their written questions
BMC Medical Education volume 16, Article number: 221(2016)
Pre-existing knowledge can positively influence how new concepts in science are learned. However, if new concepts conflict with pre-existing ideas, students may distort or ignore new information. Several terms are used in the literature to describe incorrect pre-existing ideas, including alternative conceptions, alternative frameworks and naïve beliefs. We use the term misconceptions throughout this article to describe students’ ideas that (1) are inconsistent with current scientific views, and (2) result in a misunderstanding or misinterpretation of new information. Recognition of misconceptions is a highly challenging and difficult task for teachers as they tend to either over- or underestimate students’ prior knowledge. Misconceptions are resistant to change and can negatively influence students’ learning performance, which stresses the importance of identifying student misconceptions in order to achieve effective learning and teaching.
Misconceptions cannot be repaired unless they are recognized. Current teaching methods are not always effective in targeting and remediating misconceptions. Several studies demonstrated misconceptions prevailing throughout courses.
Once misconceptions are uncovered: implications for future studies
It is obvious that identifying misconceptions alone is not enough to resolve them. Identification should be followed by remediation. Merely telling the student that their conceptual understanding is incorrect is unlikely to have effect. Students are to be challenged to test their mental models and experience that applying their incorrect beliefs results in incorrect answers. Reparation of misconceptions during an ongoing course could be executed during interactive sessions such as such as small group sessions and interactive lectures. During such an interactive session students can be engaged in a lively structured dialogue with their peers and with the tutor whereby their faulty mental models can be reconstructed. The misconceptions can be used as input for the dialogue and evoke in-depth discussion among students. Future research could be directed to finding the most effective way to accomplish successful reparation. As misconceptions can be resistant to change these follow up studies should preferably include repeated measurement of misconceptions on the long-term to assess the effectiveness of remediation.
That is what I have for today to share. We have a definite lack of education most likely at the heart of many of the misconceptions we endure from the right wing populace. The right wing media has effectively groomed many of these people leading them to misconceptions which are repeatedly reinforced through repeatitions of talking points perhaps with a very small grain of truth attached.
100th posting, October 2, 2023