Ariana Grande, 25 year old singer of the recent popular song ‘7 Rings’, wanted to celebrate her success with a permanent trophy: she got a tattoo on her hand which read ‘7 Rings’, or so she thought.  The tattoo, written in kanji, actually means “BBQ Grill”.  Grande did not get the writing checked before marking herself and posting the result on Instagram.  After having the error pointed out to her (by her massive fan base), her follow up post was baffling.  She wrote, “This spot peels a ton and won’t last” [A].  Consider how much Grande has denied reality at this point; she is refusing to believe the most obvious fact of tattoos: they are permanent.  Grande posted an image of how she had her tattoo fixed the next day (this time with the help of a tutor) [B].  Except that the fix is still broken; it now reads “Japanese BBQ finger” [C].  In response to this information, Grande has remained silent.  She has fixed her tattoo, end of story.  (You can see the original tattoo and her fix in the main image of this post.)  In other aspects of her life, Grande is extremely outspoken about her views on politics (e.g., gun control) and public policy.  In a recent interview, Grande stated, “I’m going to use my privilege to help educate people” [D].

Grande’s failure at the simple act of getting a tattoo does not cause her to question whether she is qualified to educate anyone about complicated topics (the economy, civil rights, politics).  Unfortunately, this sentiment prevails in the United States today.  After generations of people watched Saturday cartoons where the main character, without preparation, simply has to dig down deep to win the competition (e.g. Cars, Space Jam), much of our society seems convinced that this is the case.  Many seem to have forgotten the value of training and preparation.

Let’s consider the election of a new popular congresswoman.  Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, formerly a waitress, upset the incumbent in her district to win a congressional election in a district of New York.  And she now governs with fervor, tweeting her thoughts several times a day and giving interviews often.  Cortez strongly opposed Amazon’s presence in New York.  She has submitted the “Green New Deal”, a resolution calling for sweeping reforms.  And she has conducted several notable questioning sessions where she illuminated possible government corruption.  She is currently better known than the House’s Republican representative with the longest tenure [D.1].  Let’s take a closer look at these activities.

• Partly due to Cortez’s opposition, Amazon decided not to continue with the creation of a business complex in New York (a $2.5 billion campus that would house 25,000 employees with additional offices planned in Virginia).  This reduced the expected future revenue of the city by $27 billion per year (after a $3 billion tax cut provided to Amazon if revenue met expectations) and reduced New York employment by 25,000 jobs.  When asked about it, Cortez was joyous.  She explained that New York had stood up to the richest man in the world, and that the $3 billion would be much better spent on city services [E].  Cortez doesn’t understand the difference between a tax cut (reducing the taxes that Amazon would pay by $3 billion) and a subsidization (the city giving Amazon $3 billion).  As New York mayor Bill De Blasio later pointed out, the $3 billion does not exist and can not be spent by the city [F].
• In the release of the Green New Deal, Cortez also submitted a document called “The Green New Deal FAQ” [G].  Notably, the FAQ doesn’t include any questions in spite of its title (FAQ means Frequently Asked Questions) [H].  In the FAQ, she states that the Green New Deal will “provide economic security to all unwilling to work”.  On the Tucker Carlson show, Carlson asked Cortez’s legal advisor (Cornell law professor Robert Hockett) “Why would we ever pay people unwilling to work?”  Hockett answered, “We never would and AOC has never said anything like that.”  When Carlson went on to state that the quote came from a document provided by the Cortez’s office, Hockett stated, “It’s the wrong document.  That’s not us.”  But it was.  Afterwards, Cortez deleted the document from her website and tweeted a misleading video about the exchange.  Hockett later said that he regretted the exchange with Carlson, and blamed the mistake on miscoordination by Cortez’s congressional office [H.1].  In an incredible show of arrogance, Hockett then compared the Green New Deal to the literature of Ulysses; he tweeted, “Literary historians can talk about pirated versions of Ulysses, discarded drafts, notes that Joyce wrote to himself, even his grocery lists… but at some point shouldn’t we start reading the actual book – the huge game-changing work that got signed and published?” [H.2].  Instead of admitting the egregious error, Hockett criticized others for crticizing Cortez’s mistake.
• In the videos of Cortez during congressional questioning, I always notice the same thing: she is reading from a script [I,J].  She has a very interesting set of questions that are organized very well.  Is she writing them herself?  I doubt it.  (The seem far more intelligent than any answer she gives during candid discussions.)  Instead, I suspect that she is very well prepared by others, probably by the Cornell law professor Robert Hockett.  And when praised for her performance, does she admit that she reads from a script prepared for her by an attorney?  No.  Instead, she praises her own training as a waitress.  After questioning Cohen, Cortez tweeted, “Bartending + waitressing (especially in NYC) means you talk to 1000s of people over the years. Forces you to get great at reading people + hones a razor-sharp BS detector.” [J.1].
• The constituents of Cortez’s district, however, have legitimate gripes with the federal politics in their own area.  They asked Cortez to address the many failures of the post office in her district.  These failures include missing deliveries, poor service, and lost packages.  Cortez, eager to help her constituents, got right on the case.  Her office began making calls, and by the afternoon of March 1st, Cortez tweeted, “USPS is on it! That was oddly riveting. We’re fixing mail! Solving problems!”  One wonders about the incredible inefficiency of a system that requires a congress person to ensure that packages get delivered on time.  (Note that UPS and FedEx are not criticized the same way.)  But Cortez fixed mail in her local area, or has she?  I have tried in vain to find a reflection of the fix, but haven’t been able to do so.  Instead, I see the same 1.5 star review on Yelp [L].  Note that in March of 2018, the post office did an audit of that particular branch and found failure [M].  It too promised to fix the service.  But Cortez is sure, because she made a phone call, that the USPS is on it.  I suspect it isn’t fixed at all.  But you could never tell that to a reality denier who’s image requires that she fixed the post office.

Think about the amount of reality that Cortez is denying.  She can’t manage the release of a resolution correctly (in fact, she can’t even title an associated document accurately), but she is confident in her ability to manage the US economy.  Her obstruction that resulted in New York’s loss of 25,000 jobs, a new housing complex, and $27 billion per year in revenue does not cause her any reflection at all about her ability to create jobs.  And the government’s inability to even deliver packages in her own district does not cause her to think that perhaps the government isn’t ready to become a socialist enterprise.  Similar to Grande, Cortez describes herself as an educator [N].  Also similar to Grande, Cortez’s failures do not make her question her credentials to educate.  When questioned, Cortez (in front of an audience of children) did not offer logic in defense of her own ideas.  Instead, she yelled “You try.  You do it.  Cause you’re not.  And until you do it, I’m the boss.  I’m the boss.”

When Anderson Cooper asked Cortez about her inaccuracies, Cortez lamented that too many people are too concerned about her being “factually correct” [O].  And what’s to be expected from a congresswoman who doesn’t know the three branches of government [P]?  In her strive to make a difference, she forgot to become prepared to make a good one.  And neither she nor her many supporters (she has a larger twitter following than the speaker of the House) dare let reality change the facts.

(I’d like to note that I contacted Ocasio-Cortez for comment on these issues.  She has not responded.)

Inspired by the lack of preparation required to be a proponent of public policy, an elementary school teacher used her students to lobby senator Diane Feinstein to vote for the Green New Deal [Q].  The children had never read and didn’t understand the Green New Deal; they were pawns.  Feinstein attempted to explain to the children that the Green New Deal was irresponsible legislation.  But they would have none of it.  Indoctrinated by their teacher, who regularly inserted herself into the conversation, the children would not be swayed by reason or facts.  As Feinstein stated (to the children), “You come here and say it’s your way or the highway.”

Children are undeterred.  Over 1700 children in many countries left school and marched for politicians to act about climate change on 3/15/09 [17].  They don’t understand the science, haven’t looked at the data, don’t understand the difficulty of extrapolation, and have no concept of the uncertainty of the predictions.  But they left school (which, presumably, should teach them to understand these things) to march for the government to act on climate change.

Note that the children are not to blame.  They’re children, after all.  It’s absurd, though, that children (uninformed and innocent) are taught that they should be able to sway policy without preparation, study, or logic.  And I think it’s malicious for politicians to use children (and scare them, as they have) as pawns in attempts to gain additional power.

Perhaps the children will soon run into the reality that their uninformed opinions are still just that.  Or perhaps they won’t; in which case, it seems that we will have bad tattoos and unqualified educators for generations to come.

[A]  https://www.elitedaily.com/p/the-tweets-about-ariana-grandes-misspelled-japanese-bbq-grill-tattoo-are-calling-her-out-15909510

[B]  https://www.marieclaire.com/celebrity/a26095585/ariana-grande-barbecue-7-rings-hand-tattoo-fixed/

[C]  https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/celebs/a26102188/ariana-grande-new-tattoo-cover-up-mistake/

[D]  https://www.bustle.com/p/why-ariana-grande-isnt-afraid-to-get-political-thats-never-going-to-change-9725593

[D.1]  https://www.businessinsider.com/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-more-famous-than-top-republicans-trump-cabinet-2019-3

[E]  https://www.nbcnews.com/video/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-reacts-to-amazon-nixing-long-island-city-campus-1442730051615

[F]  https://www.foxnews.com/politics/de-blasio-ocasio-cortex-claim-spending-amazon-tax-break-money

[G]  https://apps.npr.org/documents/document.html?id=5729035-Green-New-Deal-FAQ

[H]  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTjKJbotjLo

[H.1]  https://dailycaller.com/2019/02/09/ocasio-cortez-adviser-tucker-carlson-wrong/

[H.2]  https://twitter.com/rch371/status/1094361958646722560

[I]  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRM1t4RU69c

[J]  https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2019/feb/28/michael-cohen-ocasio-cortezs-questioning-establishes-who-democrats-should-grill-next-video

[J.1]  https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1100924600697929728

[K]  https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1101581808699928576

[L]  https://www.yelp.com/biz/us-post-office-bronx-30?sort_by=date_desc

[M]  https://www.bxtimes.com/stories/2018/9/09-postoffice-2018-03-02-bx_.html

[N]  https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1101495091850563584

[O]  https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2019/01/06/ocasio-cortez_people_being_more_concerned_about_me_being_factually_correct_than_morally_right.html

[P]  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2xDm-Y4l_4

[Q]  https://www.nbcnews.com/video/video-sen-feinstein-confronted-by-child-activists-on-climate-change-1447154243570

[R]  https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/03/kids-climate-march-strikes-around-the-world-fridaysforfuture/