Project for the New American Century 2: Rise of the Dopes

What a decade it's been!

Having had our collective IQ sufficiently lowered to enable the election of a slew of undereducated, incurious, underachieving neo-Republican apparatchiks, whose sole aim is to prove "government is bad" by sucking at their jobs (and at lobbyists' teats), finally reaching the pinnacle of pinheadedness with the placement of George W. Bush in the highest office in the land, we are now hearing the thud of all the swollen, low hanging fruit borne from the sowing of so many bad seeds smashing on the ground at our feet.

The rampaging wrath of the idiocracy from the still reverberating crypto-fascism of Cheney through the stultifyingly incendiary narcissism of Sarah "Duh?" Palin to all the physiognomically challenged scribes and screechers from O'Reilly to Levin to Malkin to Goebbels (oh, he's still got an office somewhere), it is a bumper crop of cranial crap, calcifying around intellectualism like so much scum around a bath tap.

Oh, and guess what? You think what I'm saying is bad? You should hear what your representatives say about you when they get their talking points memos. Would you be shocked to find that they regard you with even more contempt than the cranky, commie, liberal twerps do and that they have less sympathy for you (if they have any at all)? They love your unflinching loyalty to the idea of "conservative values" and the fact that "you lost" because that makes you more vulnerable, more malleable. Your anger is their strength. And they think they're better than you. They laugh at you. Call you names. Yep. They do.

Do the words I just said make you mad at me? You should be mad at yourselves. You know why?

BECAUSE 70 YEARS AGO YOU SAVED THE WORLD!!!!

You. Your heart and faith and guts...and smarts...helped stop the world from falling into the hands of TRUE fascism, of REAL government control, of ACTUAL death panels. Your pride and sense and unalterable courage SAVED THE WORLD! You trained hard, you fought hard, you tasted what the world would mean without freedom. You had humility. You valued education. You knew what it was like to work. To band together. To believe in your country. And you won.

And now look what's happened. A glut of angry, displaced, power-mongers streaming a glut of backward ideas that a once intelligent, discerning people now swallow hook, line, sinker and row boat. And, in an unintentional example of liberal existentialism (and a favorite theme of that voile, treasonous Noam Chomsky, to boot!) if enough people agree with an idea regardless of its patent falseness even when checked against irrefutable truth, the falseness becomes -- POOF! -- the "truth" and by golly, that's good enough fer the angry, vulnerable, malleable mob.

Am I an elitist snob? Yep. I am. An elitist snob for Smarts. Forget diamonds and pearls and penis-cars. Gimme brains every time.

And for those who may bristle (that means "get pissed off") at my sentiments ("what I said") then by all means continue on your path of blind self-destruction. Bring guns to health care town halls and by doing so shoot yourselves in the foot. Make references to Nazism. Continue to believe the guys who tell you Obama will kill granny and that the health care you have right now is just fine while they get paid by the health care and pharmaceutical industries. Believe the propagandists who hate that their days as profiteers are almost at an end. Continue to spout their lies and engage in divisive tactics that they label as patriotic but are really idiotic.

Keep going. Breed down. Please. The rest of us are smart enough to wait.

Comments

[WriteStuffNYC]

There is NOTHING "crypto" about the fascism of Dick Cheney.

[simplysimon2]

Dirt sells. Sex is dirty so it sells. Bumper stickers simplify the complex and make the "debate" dirty. When will all you high minded folk get smart and realize the animals that are pissing on your front doors eats, drinks and lies at the Fox News trough, now called the #1 cable news channel. In the 19th century explorers were searching for the source of the Nile. If you want to find the source for the current discontent, it's easy; turn to Rupert Murdoch's and Roger Ailes' Fox Lying News. They'll set you dirty.

[MeinNH]

Spot on Steven....­from one "elitist" to another.

[Bluedanube]

Many Americans, particularly the Republican Party and their minions in the corporate media celebrate the ignorance of the American public. That ignorance is promoted as nothing more than just "common sense" but then for those manipulating the strings they have to flatter their dummies.

[Bluedanube]

I've been known to eat arugula.

[Konnie]

oh wordsmithie, i do hang on every word......­...so deliciously smarty-pantsy of you.

the only part i disagree with is the last sentence. we can't wait, well at least i can't wait.
i just refinanced my house for the last round of hospital bills. savings are gone, 401k too.
i am scared to death of the next time......­..what will i do then? and since i thought i didn't
need a supplemental policy until i was eligible for medicare..­..its too late - that pre-existing
thingie doncha know.

i am ashamed of my leaders. i am ashamed of the tin foil ass hats......­..i don't know
how limpublicans can get up in the morning and look at themselves in the mirror.
i must be so hard carrying around that much stupid, that much paranoia, and hate.

[ReealOne]

Well Steven... even YOU, with all of your wonderful and "spot-on" articles must know that there is absolute truth that "you can lead a horse to water, but ya can't make him drink it", without risking a kick in the head for trying to help him.

Once again, a great article, and to the point. It's mind-boggling to watch folks around you, who you once thought were sane, protest and rail... against their own best interest. Why? Simply because it's easier to believe in conspiracies and well repeated lies, (even when the lies are proven) than to accept the truth.

It's as if we've entered some twilight zone where suddenly, up is down, wrong is right, ignorance is bliss and championed, while intelligence is taboo, and where Sarah and Newt are considered "leaders".

I'm sure that by now, the GOPers and special interest health-care crowds have always known that if you repeat a lie often enough and LOUD enough, that folks will believe it... but NEVER in their wildest dreams did they think that after it's been proven that they are breaking the backs of this country, that an awful lot of folks would not only believe and support them... but are willing to lay down one by one and help them break their backs.... and then thank them for doing it. Yep, we've truly entered the twilight zone.

[Bluedanube]

Bush set the intellectual bar so low that now Obama is seen as a political/­intellectu­al genius yet because that bar was so low his "brilliance", based on his actions and how healthcare reform is shaping up, has a very dull lustre.

[TomR]

It may be time to watch Idiocracy again. It's amazing how prescient that film is.

Without the cost-saving measures of a public option, the progressives need to kill that health reform legislation. Otherwise, health insurance costs will continue to rise and the Democrats will have effectively killed any chance for the American people to support and be helped by health insurance reform.

Health insurance reform is for the American people. So, next time instead of Public Option, call it The American Plan:
http://www.brianfalldin.com/2009/08/how-to-frame-health-care/

- Tom

[MNinWI]

what a great idea!

[hippynanainblingland]

Dear MNinWI: I am a Nin from Puerto Rico, 66 years old, and I'm wondering if we might be relatives. Would you be interested in comparing notes?

[devadasi]

I would be happy to pay $300. a month for a good health care plan. Under our current system a good health care plan with a private insurer would cost $800.a month for an individual. I'm currently paying $325. for a health insurance plan that is lousy.....­...I'm counting the years when I will finally be eligible for medicare.

[devadasi]

thank you Steven your articles are always a breath of fresh air.....yo­u articulate so much of what I think and feel about the current situation. I'm disgusted with what is going on. I've been involved in democratic politics off and on for a long time and one thing I know for sure--we are very fortunate as a nation to have Obama as our President, some one who is is smart, thoughtful, compassinate and articulate; how people fail to realize this is beyond my comprehension.

[Patel10314]

I would love to see Steven Weber on TV or movies more often.

[ReealOne]

Here, here! He's quite the versatile actor.

[Social Construct]

As a fellow elitist, I salute you! If I had gotten the memo, I'd give you the secret handshake, too.

[SirReal1]

Steven,

It is worth noting that the "dumbing down" process IS NOT a recent phenomena!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/14/AR2009081401495.html?sid=ST2009081402964

Though I do feel we've attained a new pinnacle.

[Cobia]

Not a 'pinnacle' by any means; more like a trench, a deep, dark abyss of ignorance and stoopid. And the (R) base willingly hurl themselves into that bottomless pit excavated by the neo-religio-cons.
Ain't plate tectonics great? Subduction and self-destruction await them.

[hippynanainblingland]

But not before they do some more damage, I fear . . . remember, it's that bottom third (in IQ/ignorance quotient) that tends to think a "well regulated militia" means "each and everyone", and love their personal mini-arsenals to the death . . . and they are not loath to use them . . . but that's OK . . . the Mother could use a culling of its alpha species, its current cancer . . . nor am I unwilling to be among the first to go.

[hippynanainblingland]

But not before they do some more damage, I fear . . . remember, it's that bottom third (in IQ/ignorance quotient) that tends to think a "well regulated militia" means "each and everyone", and love their personal mini-arsenals to the death . . . and they are not loath to use them . . . but that's OK . . . the Mother could use a culling of its alpha species, its current cancer . . . nor am I unwilling to be among the first to go.

[Evansdale]

The language is too flowery for my taste but the sentiment is spot on!

[Steven Weber - Huffpost Blogger]

Um...okay.­..

[ReealOne]

And if you don't "git it" Steven... that means that you're one of them "high-falutin', edjicated elitin' types" who flaunts your command of the english language. Now look what you mad 'em go and do... pull out the 'dictionary word book'... but they 'ain't' mad atcha".

OMG help me... I'm becoming well-versed in the language of the "dumbed-down effect." Who knew that the day would come when I would realize that I wasted all those years getting educated, and having a sense of intellectual curiosity. Woe is me.

[simplysimon2]

I'm not the only one.

[SirReal1]

It is called "English"!

While a very daunting language to learn, it does have a wide support base. It even has a handy reference called a "Dictionary". This is a large (often Red in color) book, full of explanations of some of the more difficult to learn terms used in the language.

If the language is difficult, perhaps the purchase of one of the many dictionaries available would help.

[bedfordny]

Mine is blue. (wink, wink)

[canobserv]

what you call "flowery".­......most call the english language..­..........