How the Media's Proud Know-Nothingism Helped Create the American Idiocracy
Gandalf Grey
How the Media's Proud Know-Nothingism Helped Create the American Idiocracy
By David Sirota
Created Nov 21 2009 - 12:41pm
The term "idiocracy" means a nation run by idiots - and the term idiot is
defined [1] as "an utterly foolish or senseless person" and/or a "person of
the lowest order in a former classification of mental retardation, having a
mental age of less than three years old." There are many reasons to conclude
that America has become a full-fledged Idiocracy - bad decisions after bad
decisions after bad decisions really have suggested that the last decade has
seen the ascension of utterly foolish, senseless people of the lowest order
in a former classification of mental retardation.
And yet, as I show in my newspaper column out today [2], if there was still
any shred of doubt that we had avoided becoming an Idiocracy, it was only
fully snuffed out in the last week by David Broder and Jackson Diehl - two
of the alleged "deans" of the Washington media intelligentsia.
Here is Broder [3] attacking President Obama for taking the time to
carefully consider whether to send an additional 40,000 American troops into
an increasingly Vietnam-like Afghanistan quagmire:
The more President Obama examines our options in Afghanistan, the less he
likes the choices he sees...The urgent necessity is to make a decision --
whether or not it is right.
That was followed by Diehl who made much the same argument in a subsequent
column [4].
Let's set aside the nauseating spectacle of two crotchety old men,
comfortably protected in their plush Washington offices demanding a
president send 40,000 troops potentially to their deaths without regard for
whether that's the right decision. Let's just put that grotesque immorality
in the corner, and pretend it's not important - and let's go to the deeper
message of aggressive pro-idiocy.
Broder and Diehl are paid to think carefully about issues and then offer
their opinions on those issues. That's not part of what they're supposed to
do - it's what they do. It's the way they make a living, it's what they're
supposed to derive their credibility from - indeed, it's their entire raison
d'etre.
And yet, these supposed leading lights of the intelligentsia, these
professional thinkers, are overtly preaching anti-intelligence. They are
quite clearly insisting that the proper course of action for a president is
to avoid applying intelligence and avoid thinking at all. And both of them
aren't even being subtle about it.
Read my column here [5] for my take on exactly what all this means - and why
it is so deeply disturbing.
--
NOTICE: This post contains copyrighted material the use of which has not
always been authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material
available to advance understanding of
political, human rights, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues. I
believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright
Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107
"Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike,
that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans--born in
this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud
of our ancient heritage--and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing
of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to
which we are committed today at home and around the world.
"
-John F. Kennedy, 1961
Dave Heil
> Published on The Smirking Chimp (http://www.smirkingchimp.com)
>
> How the Media's Proud Know-Nothingism Helped Create the American Idiocracy
>
> By David Sirota
>
> Created Nov 21 2009 - 12:41pm
>
>
> The term "idiocracy" means a nation run by idiots - and the term idiot is
> defined [1] as "an utterly foolish or senseless person" and/or a "person of
> the lowest order in a former classification of mental retardation, having a
> mental age of less than three years old." There are many reasons to conclude
> that America has become a full-fledged Idiocracy - bad decisions after bad
> decisions after bad decisions really have suggested that the last decade has
> seen the ascension of utterly foolish, senseless people of the lowest order
> in a former classification of mental retardation.
I don't know how the author of the stolen article can complain. He
voted for him; now he has to live with his choice.