Obama's Rutgers Graduation Speech: Ignorance Not A Virtue, Rejection of Facts Leads To Decline
Link to FB posting of this excerpt below and a few bits of the transcript in the section.
The comments about anti-intellectualism and ignorance not being a virtue beginning at 23:48.
https://www.facebook.com/BusinessInsider.Politics/videos/1015027085240290/
"Class of 2016, let me be as clear as I can be: In politics and in life, ignorance is not a virtue," President Obama told Rutgers University graduates in a commencement address urging broad engagement with the world.
His remarks, which stressed "reason" over "anti-intellectualism," have been widely interpreted as a critique of the de facto Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump, though he did not explicitly name him:
"Facts, evidence, reason, logic, an understanding of science: These are good things. These are qualities you want in people making policy. ... That might seem obvious. ... We traditionally have valued those things, but if you're listening to today's political debate, you might wonder where this strain of anti-intellectualism came from."
Obama continued, "When our leaders express a disdain for facts, when they're not held accountable for repeating falsehoods and just making stuff up, when actual experts are dismissed as elitists, then we've got a problem."
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