"Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back." Carl Sagan

[kpete]

[Beringia]

1. Here is the whole quote

“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”

[Mike 03]

2. This echoes a quote someone posted yesterday that was similarly chastening.

having to do with it being nearly impossible to save a Democracy once it's come under the power of an autocrat/dictator.

God I hope they are wrong. Both of these quotes have me wondering what Timothy Snyder thinks about our present predicament.

[Darwin2019]

3. I highly recommend this book by Carl Sagan

"the Demon-Haunted World, Science as a Candle in the Dark"

a manifesto for clear thinking