Anti-Agnotology

.

NEWS FLASH: Unknownst to the white-coated cretins at St. Mumbles Home for the Terminally Verbose, but knownst to us, The WORD has run off AGAIN, stowing away in the bookmobile Sunday afternoon while the guards were crocheting and watching football. He returns, conveniently, just as classes recommence for the “Spring” term, in hopes of dispelling at least a little agnotology in time for the Iowa caucuses and the rest of the 2016 crazy season. —TP

 
Self-Delusion

“Ignorance is not just the not-yet-known, it’s also a political ploy, a deliberate creation by powerful agents who want you ‘not to know.’” 

—Robert Proctor, Stanford science historian who coined the term agnotology, “the deliberate propagation of ignorance,” “The man who studies the spread of ignorance,” BBC, Jan. 6, 2016

• Editorial Comment: No, you do not have the right to remain ignernt.


PeezPix by Ted Pease

Celestial








Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email every weekday morning during WORD season. This is a free “service” sent to the 2,000,000 or so misguided subscribers around the planet. If you have recovered from whatever led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. But all contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard
.