.....As I’m sure you know, newspapers are going down the drain, and they’re going down fast, man. In the last year or so, we’ve heard about serious downsizing over at the
OC Reg and the
LA Times. People are scrambling to keep their jobs. It’s sad.
.....It’s also sad to see what some of these papers are willing to do to juice up their readership. The OC Register seems to have decided to focus on
“cute baby” contests. The Reg is pandering to silliness and stupidity, and since this is Orange County, that's bound to work.
.....Yesterday, the Reg asked people a question guaranteed to elicit the stupid:
“What does patriotism mean to you?” .....Actually, despite the title, the Reg really asked a slightly different question:
“How do you define patriotism?” Some people, of course, provided perfectly intelligent, albeit hackneyed, answers. Patriotism, said one woman, is standing up for what you believe in. OK.
.....Naturally, lots of people approached by the Reg didn’t really answer the question, evidently understanding it instead as a prompt to say “patriotic” things. For instance, according to a Westminster resident, patriotism means “freedom.” “We're free to do what we want, most of the time,” he says.
.....That’s some definition of patriotism, boy. I wish they’d have asked me. I woulda said, “patriotism is my Chrysler 300.” I woulda asked the reporter if he wanted a Coke, whereupon I would have handed him a bone.
.....A Santa Ana man defines patriotism as “This country is the best place to be in the world.”
.....Well, OK. These people were probably pretty rattled by the reporter and camera person. We don’t want to read too much into their answers.
.....Still.
ASSERTIVE/CONFIDENT + IGNORANT = STUPID
.....Most people aren’t really stupid, of course. But, clearly, most people are very ignorant. Maybe they’ve got an excuse—they’re awful busy, etc.—but, without question, they don’t know their asses from holes in the ground.
.....What's worse, most of ‘em don’t seem to be aware of their ignorance. I say that because they’re often pretty confident in their “stupid” views. They assert them boldly, loudly. They're like little Bill O'Reillys.
.....Obviously, most voters are ignoramuses. Election campaigns are incredibly stupid, and voters are clueless. Mostly. I suspect that I'm stating the obvious. But this is a
problem, right? Democracy doesn't work when people are stupid. It goes seriously off the rails.
.....Have you heard about
Jeff Shenkman’s new book? Shenkman is an associate professor of history at George Mason University and he’s the founder/editor of GMU’s
History News Network. His latest book is
Just How Stupid Are We?: Facing the Truth About the American. According to
Publishers Weekly,
Shenkman … makes the provocative argument that as American voters have gained political power in the last 50 years, they have become increasingly ignorant of politics and world affairs—and dangerously susceptible to manipulation. The book provides a litany of depressing statistics—most Americans cannot name their representatives in Congress, only 20% hold a passport, 30% cannot identify the Holocaust—as Shenkman inquires whether Americans are capable of voting in the nation's or even their own best interests. …[H]is concern is genuine and heartfelt. …[He] illustrates how politicians have repeatedly misled voters and analyzes the dumbing down of American politics via marketing, spin machines and misinformation…......It must have been easy to write this book. But Shenkman seems like a smart guy. Some impressive people, including our pal
John Wiener, have praised the book.
.....Shenkman’s made the rounds, I guess, on the usual talk shows. Here he is on the Daily Show (June 11):
.....One thing Shenkman doesn’t say on his “Daily Show” appearance is that there’s an
asymmetry in our stupidity. Sure, there’s assertive ignoramutude clear across the political spectrum, but, as you move toward the conservative end, you get
lots more stupidity.
For instance, a majority of the people who reelected George W Bush thought that Saddam Hussein was behind 9-11. (The people who voted for Kerry weren't nearly so clueless.) Really.
.....Lots of ‘em
still think that.
.....They’re mega-stupid.
• Here's a video in which Shenkman lays out his view (in the new book) more systematically:
Just how stupid are we? He discusses the Iraq war and the history of American elections.
•
Bryan Caplan, an economist, offers a theory regarding the irrationality of voters. For a review of Caplan's book (The Myth of the Rational Voter), see
Fractured Franchise (in the New Yorker).
• I do not doubt that one can be conservative and intelligent. I do not regard the relative stupidity of "conservative voters" as an argument against conservatism. Still, in all honesty, I continue to be
mystified that apparently intelligent people ever saw anything in George W. Bush other than a lout. I mean that. It is a puzzle. Can you help me out?
