this post was submitted on 16 May 2025
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She has little education beyond high school. The president needs to be better educated than she is.
That probably makes her better educated than the current POTUS.
Yes, but he is one of the least well educated presidents.
Who was worse?
Washington, Jackson, Van Buren, Taylor, Fillmore, Lincoln, and Grover Cleveland got a high school (ish) level of education.
Andrew Johnson got tutored while he was an apprentice.
In modern times, I think only republicans have not gone further than undergrad (Reagan, HW Bush, Trump), going back to Roosevelt (FD not Teddy).
And oddly HW Bush was the most qualified candidate to hold the office as an ex-VPOTUS, chair of the RNC, UN Ambassador, CIA chief, Congressmen, and an ex-war hero. Even more oddly was that despite these qualifications he was merely okay at being POTUS
Of all of them, how many have been called "dumbest student ever?" https://studyinternational.com/news/trump-student-wharton/
I'm not the person you've been replying to.
I'm just answering with who has been less educated, which is decidedly different than how much of a dumbass they are. A position Trump holds a massive lead on compared to any other president in history (quite possibly any "leader" in history)
I know how to read usernames, thanks.
I'm asking if paying for a diploma really counts as "education."
OK, so you've just decided to be an ass because I answered a question.
Noted.
Sure, Jan.
He is among a handful that only have a college degree. Most POTUS had post-graduate educations.
So should I just repeat my question, or what?
No, he's not the worst. There are others with less or the equivalent of high school only or less.
You sure? Paying for a diploma doesn't necessarily result in education.
https://studyinternational.com/news/trump-student-wharton/
Yes Andrew Jackson, Trump's favorite, had almost nothing
A democratic leader needs to accurately represent their constituents and surround themselves with knowledgeable experts. No matter how well-schooled someone is, no one person can know everything involved in running a country.
As our Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott once said, "No man is a suppository". Lol.
True but you need to know more than someone who only has a GED is going to know about macroeconomics and diplomacy.
A degree doesn't prove a person actually applied themselves and absorbed the information, and auto-didacts can absolutely study macroecon and diplomacy.
The lack of a degree is what is relevant here because it proves what they haven't been educated in.
She lacks all of the relevant math to be able to study macro. It's not a subject that lends itself to self teaching.
You can absolutely self-teach math and macroecon. I'm not trying to claim that Swift has, or would, or that it is an easy thing to teach, but the idea that it is somehow outside the bounds of the auto-didact is absurd.
Im guessing you have zero education in either. It would take her a decade to catch up given how far back her education is compared to the norm.
Think about how much your average person who has a GED knows, there is zero reason to expect Swift to be better educated than that person.
Yes, and presumably anyone in the position we're talking about is somebody who would have devoted a decade to their education in the field. Do you think I'm talking about "I do my own research" types? No, I'm talking about real actual auto-didacts.
Definitionally we aren't talking about "your average person who has a GED," Jesus fucking Christ.
We are talking about Taylor Swift. There is absolutely no indication she has these abilities you are assigning her. She really IS someone who just has a GED in terms of their education.
you:
me:
The topic started about Swift, but your claim was bigger than her. Thus my response was to your larger claim, not about Swift.
And as we were talking about Swift I figured you were calling her an auto-didactic person
I was not. But counter-point, we have no idea idea what Taylor Swift does with her free time. For all we know she love economics and has spent the last decade devoting all her free time to the deep study thereof. The point is this is hardly outside the realm of feasibility, and there's no reason to over-celebrate degree or downplay the real viability of autodidacticism.
Im guessing you have no background in this subject, would that be correct?
Argue with the substance of my argument, not its author.
She’ll have a full cabinet, policy crafted by an army, and practical experience under her belt. She’s clearly charismatic. AFAIK she’s not anti science or conspiratorial or anything… So what if she’s not a Harvard Graduate? As much as I’d like an STEM PhD in the White House, compared to most alternatives, I almost view that as a plus.
And again, she will have so much power. It would be like Trump, where she can swing unpopular stances through sheer force of will (like Trump is doing in the current Middle East visit: https://www.axios.com/2025/05/15/trump-israel-syria-policy-reverse-biden )
None of that matters when the person making the final call knows less about how her job works than most of the voters. We need well educated leaders not people you can be almost certain do not know anything about the subjects needed to govern effectively eg the law, economics, history, diplomacy, and what the various parts of the government do.
We should never select anyone that undereducated. It will always end badly because the leader cannot know what they are doing.
Ehh, I agree in principle but have grown cynical.
The American voters clearly don’t care about actual qualifications. The presidency is an attention contest, pure and simple. Truth is relative. Even if we get a highly qualified president in (and I don’t believe that’s possible anymore) they’re going to be totally beholden to Facebook and Twitter politics memes.
I’d rather have someone that can dominate the narrative and wield actual political power to do decent things, even if their decisions aren’t always the best. Like… who else could bring millions into civic engagement?