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A comment on Carl Sagan's Baloney Detection Kit: Tools for Thinking Critically (2025). Parent comment

Re:Carl Sagan's Baloney Detection Kit: Tools for Thinking Cr... by Fricken on Thursday February 12, 2026 @07:25PM (#46997269)
"As I write, the number-one videocassette rental in America is the movie Dumb and Dumber. “Beavis and Butthead” remain popular (and influential) with young TV viewers. The plain lesson is that study and learning—not just of science, but of anything—are avoidable, even undesirable.”

Mike Judge's satire was lost on Sagan. Carl took his knee-jerk reaction and ran with it.

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Re:Carl Sagan's Baloney Detection Kit: Tools for Thinking Cr... by jhbadger on Saturday February 14, 2026 @09:30PM (#47020504)
I think it was lost on a lot of the audience at the time as well, who saw Beavis and Butthead as cool rather than a critique of anti-intellectualism. That's the problem with satire in general -- no position is so absurd that somebody won't take it at face value rather than satire.
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