Are 15% to 20% of Americans Genuinely, Provably and Incurably Stupid? Can We Talk?

STEPHEN PIZZO FOR BUZZFLASH.COM

After six and half decades on this planet I’ve come to some conclusions. One of them is that roughly 15% to 20% of Americans are genuinely, provably and incurably, stupid. And, while beauty may only be skin deep, stupid goes all the way to the bone. After a decade of failed governance  -- two unnecessary wars and a ruined economy, Republicans had  all but run out of enough moderately-sane voters willing to take any further chances with them. That’s when they glommed onto the idea of corralling America’s moron-demographic to plug the gap. 

But the ignorant are hard to sway with fact-based policy discussions or green-eyeshade budget details. They need to be “energized” with drama, and plenty of it. Maury Povich and Jerry Springer knew that and built their fame and fortunes on knowing how to “energize” the dumb and dumber among us. It’s all about the drama baby... tabloid quality drama is what gets their blood boiling. Allegations, the wilder the better, and the fewer contradicting facts the better.

For example, you don’t use benign terms like, “End of life counseling” with the moron-demographic. (Too many of them might just stare back blankly and ask, “Ah, why would you want to counsel a dead person?”) Maury would advise,  "Death panels,” instead. Death is, of course, the “end of life,”and we’re all going there someday, and as we approach that point of departure I’m sure we and/or our loved ones might appreciate and benefit from some counseling -- including morons. But by calling them “Death panels,” counseling becomes even scarier than death itself. That’s how one gets the moron-blood a-boilin.'

Anyway, I’ve belabored my point more than I had intended. The bottom line is that the GOP, in a desperate bid to regain power, has energized that 15%-20% of genuinely and willfully stupid citizenry. And, if we’ve learned anything from modern history, from Germany circa 1930s, the former Yugoslavia in the 90’s to the genocide in Rwanda during the Clinton years... it’s that once you get the moron-demographic “energized” and they become an angry mob, it’s impossible to control them. 

The early signs of trouble are already there. The ball’s rollin’ and, unless it stalls and soon, someone(s) going to get killed. Already we are seeing a rash of Kristallnacht-like incidents at Democratic Party offices around the country:

“...... several Democratic offices around the nation had been vandalized in the days surrounding the House health care vote. Vandals have struck the Tuscon office of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), the Monroe County Democratic Committee headquarters in upstate New York, Rep. Louise Slaughter’s (D-NY) Niagara Falls office, the Knox County Democratic headquarters in Ohio, and the Sedgwick County Democratic Party headquarters in Wichita, KS. The local Rochester ABC affiliate now has more information on the upstate NY vandalism, including an assassination threat against the children of lawmakers who voted for health reform.    No one was inside when the brick was hurled through the Democratic Patry Headquarters on University Avenue. Attached was a note quoting conservative Barry Goldwater: “Exremism [sic] in defense of liberty is no vice”. 

   [Rep. Louise] Slaughter has been at the center of the push for reform. Last Thursday she received a chilling recorded message at her campaign office. “Assassinate is the word they used…toward the children of lawmakers who voted yes.”

   The FBI is investigating.

In search of a constituency the GOP sowed the wind, and now they, and the rest of us, will reap the whirlwind. 
I have a new favorite saying. I don’t know who said it first, but it applies in spades: It goes like this:
“Don’t tell me what you believe, tell me what you’ve done and I’ll tell you what you believe.”

Now, it’s bad enough for a political party to pander to the lowest common denominators among us, but when a major media outlet decides to jump into that dangerous game, it’s really something.  Thus the story that follows [concerning CNN hiring a right wing nut job media shill, Erik Erickson.] by Jon Carroll of the San Francisco Chronicle:

And CNN gives this right-wing foamer credibility by hiring him. I guess they think he's providing "balance," but is it really balance when one participant is willing to accuse a Supreme Court justice of bestiality while the other is willing to accuse a Supreme Court justice of, say, overly strict constructionism?

This constant stream of stupid invective has a larger purpose, I think. For one thing, it causes reasonable people to tune out. I mean: Who needs it? Here are some Erickson Twitter posts for just one day: "Turned on twitter today and there was a barrage of angry feminists upset with me telling them to get in the kitchen and learn to cook"; "Good thing I didn't suggest the feminists ... you know ... shave. They'd be at my house trying a post-birth abortion on me"; and "Feminists have no sense of humor, but clearly God did in creating feminists."

See, that's going to make you crazy. George Bernard Shaw said: "I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig; you get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it." And because we know the pig likes it, we check out and leave the field to the people who believe that feminists are violent, don't shave, can't cook and have no sense of humor. Man, if anyone was saying anything funny around here, maybe we would laugh.

Did you know that Glenn Beck eats fried bunnies? I assume not.

Enough said.

BuzzFlash Afternote: We highly recommend reading the book "Idiot America" for more background on this subject.

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