Glenden BrownIt would be funny if it weren’t so scary
Head over the AlterNet and read the whole interview with author Susan Jacoby - HowAnti-Itellectualism Is Destroying America.
The money quotes:
Steve Colbert interviewed Georgia Rep. Lynn Westmoreland on “The Colbert Report.” Westmoreland co-sponsored a bill that would require the display of the Ten Commandments in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, but, when asked, couldn’t actually list the commandments.
In the 2004 election, nearly 70 percent of Bush supporters believed the United States had “clear evidence” that Saddam Hussein was working closely with al Qaeda; a third believed weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq; and more than a third that a substantial majority of world opinion supported the U.S.-led invasion, according to the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland. The political right and allied culture warriors actively ignore evidence and encourage misinformation. To motivate their followers, they label intelligent and informed as “elite,” implying that ignorance is somehow both valuable and under attack. Susan Jacoby confronts our “know-nothingism” — current and historical — in her new book, The Age of American Unreason.
[Snip] both Hillary Clinton and John McCain endorsed a gas tax holiday for Americans this summer. Every economist, both liberal and conservative, said this would do nothing to help matters. And when Hillary Clinton was asked by the late Tim Russert, “Can you produce one economist to support the gas tax holiday?” she said, “Oh that’s elite thinking.”
Now to say that economists have nothing intelligent to say about whether a gas tax will give people economic relief is like saying that you don’t ask musicians about music; you don’t ask scientists about science. It’s not just an attack on a political idea; it’s an attack on knowledge itself.
Atrios used a line for a long time “reality has a liberal bias” to describe the way conservatives respond when facts disagree with their theories.
August 19th, 2008 at 6:55 am
Amen. I remember back when we were still busting on milbloggers, even when you proved them wrong, they would say, “It a free country and thats my opinion”
August 19th, 2008 at 6:57 am
It’s the Age of Truthiness. We are all Stephen Colbert now.
August 19th, 2008 at 6:59 am
Another good book that discusses this anti-intellectualist trend is “Just How Stupid Are We” by Rick Shenkman. Don’t confuse me with the facts. I have faith in God and I know this is what God wants us to do.
August 19th, 2008 at 10:17 am
I can’t exactly quote the Code of Hammurabi, but I think it would be great to post it in the House & Senate. Famous legal codes can only be posted if the person advocating their location has them memorized?
The problem with relying on this “intellectualist” trope is that 6 scientists will have 11 opinions.
Sometimes it’s better to rely on common sense.
The “Gas Tax” holiday wasn’t supposed to do anything but make people feel better (that’s why Barack has his own version now).
Chemical weapons and uranium were found in Iraq. Just not in the quantities we thought they would be.
I’d like to see evidence of this quote:
August 19th, 2008 at 11:13 am
JD, I think the source of that would be Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland. Here’s an HTML link http://64.233.167.104/u/pipa?q=cache:joXuMir0M2sJ:www.pipa.org/OnlineReports/Iraq/IraqBeliefs_Apr04/IraqBeliefs%2520Apr04%2520pr.pdf+saddam&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=9&gl=us&ie=UTF-8 but the original web page is no longer found on the site.
August 20th, 2008 at 12:23 am
bekkieann:
from your link:
It looks as if that number is 45%, not 70%.
August 20th, 2008 at 6:54 am
JD, I may have an incorrect source, but do you feel any better about 45% being so uninformed?
August 20th, 2008 at 10:05 am
bekkiann, it’s not that your source is incorrect, it’s that the previous number wasw wildly overstated.
But I don’t feel so bad that 45% of people thought (at a certain indeterminate time) that Iraq was supporting al Qaeda.
50% of folks thought John Kerry was a good choice for president.
I accept that folks will believe things that aren’t necessarily true. I also accept that at a certain point in time, the CIA was relying on information from Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi. He has since recanted and claims that there wasn’t any bomb/poison/CW training given by Saddam’s folks to al Qaeda.
The point being that the poll you linked to is undated. In 2002, LOTS of people thought that there was a link. Since then, the numbers have fallen quite dramatically.
The 70% referenced by Glendon is serious hyperbole any way you look at it.
Finally, there is no evidence that this 45% or 70% even voted.
August 21st, 2008 at 9:53 pm
Hmmmm…’back then alot of people thought there was a link’. Wonder why that might have been the case. Neither Rice, nor Bush, nor Cheney…none of the people in cherry-picking positions would reveal anything contrary, attempting to cover that 1in a hundred fearsome possibility.
Maybe they had some plan to invade Iraq. Ya think?