A lot of truth in this

[Basil]

On the theme of critical thinking, it appears the photographer responsible for this image, a fireman in Belgium, stated it was intended as a joke. A search of "fire hose across railroad tracks" leads to several websites with similar stories:

"Hey, this past week our funny photo went viral throughout the whole world. Thousands of shares and likes in many different countries! Once and for all: the picture was taken in Belgium, in a small village called Bornem.

"After a minor intervention, we had some time left near the railway to make this picture. Since there were no trains running at all for a week due to maintenance works, we can state that our joke was a real success! Thanks to our entire team, 2nd sqdn Firefighters Bornem!"

So while the current teaching of critical thinking may not be up to snuff - the world still has a sense of humor.

Probably a lot of similar images that show ridiculous situations are actually set ups meant to poke fun.

 

[Popeye]

And in all seriousness, I often question the lack of critical thinking in 1930's Germany. I am German, and I often ponder how the population came to believe the division of the people; to believe that one type of person is superior to another type - basis solely on ancestral genes, not knowledge, skill, or contribution. Unfortunately, there are many similar parallels in history , and sometimes society does not learn from the past.

 

[NutmegCT]

Mike - in times of great stress (the economic disaster of the 1930s), people look for someone to blame. Beginning in 1918, Germans were told by leaders of many factions, that the Bolsheviks and Jews caused the German surrender after WW1, the great inflation of the Weimar years, and the economic horrors after the US stock market crash of 1929.

Those Germans who understood critical thinking, were shouted down, and eventually put in the camps.

Niemoeller:

First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me

 

[mikephillips]

Or left for other countries if they could.

 

[NutmegCT]

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/voyage-of-the-st-louis

 

[GregW]

I believe the St Louis was the ship my grandmother sailed on successfully before that tragic voyage. I'm not sure how many years before though.

 

[NutmegCT]

Gustav Schroeder (1885-1959) was a German sea captain who was appointed captain of the MS St. Louis. In May 1939, the St. Louis set sail from Hamburg, Germany, to Cuba with over 900 Jewish refugees aboard. The majority of these Jewish passengers were families with legal documents to emigrate. Although the St. Louis belonged to the Reich, Captain Schroeder refused to apply Nazi laws on board his vessel, and he ensured that his crew treated all Jewish passengers like any other passenger. All passengers on the ship had legal landing permits for Cuba, but after sailing across the Atlantic, the refugees were denied entry by the Cuban, American, and Canadian authorities.

Captain Schroeder was forced to turn the ship back towards Europe, but he refused to return to Germany before finding a safe haven for his Jewish passengers. He developed a contingency plan to shipwreck the St. Louis near the English coast in order to force the British authorities to take action, but he never had to follow through. The passengers were able to disembark in Antwerp, Belgium, after the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee reached an agreement with the governments of Belgium, Great Britain, France, and the Netherlands to take in a certain number of people. In 1957, Captain Schroeder received a medal from West Germany for helping the St. Louis passengers, and in 1993, Yad Vashem posthumously recognized him as Righteous Among the Nations.

https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn515358