/2012/04/02/nyr-age-of-ignorance/
{"item":{"status":"visible","url":"\/2012\/04\/02\/nyr-age-of-ignorance\/","trash":"","name":"nyr-age-of-ignorance","parent":"","title":"NYR: Age of Ignorance","date":"2012-04-02 11:30:41","filepath":"posts\/20001492_nyr-age-of-ignorance.xml.json","type":"post","content":"<img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-1493\" style=\"margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;\" title=\"quote\" src=\"http:\/\/www.8bitrobot.com\/media\/uploads\/2012\/03\/quote.png\" alt=\"quotation\" width=\"64\" height=\"43\" \/>\"In the past, if someone knew nothing and talked nonsense, no one paid any attention to him. No more. Now such people are courted and flattered by conservative politicians and ideologues as \"Real Americans\"defending their country against big government and educated liberal elites. The press interviews them and reports their opinions seriously without pointing out the imbecility of what they believe. The hucksters, who manipulate them for the powerful financial interests, know that they can be made to believe anything, because, to the ignorant and the bigoted, lies always sound better than truth:\n<pre style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Christians are persecuted in this country.\nThe government is coming to get your guns.\nObama is a Muslim.\nGlobal Warming is a hoax.\nThe president is forcing open homosexuality on the military.\nSchools push a left-wing agenda.\nSocial Security is an entitlement, no different from welfare.\nObama hates white people.\nThe life on earth is 10,000 years old and so is the universe.\nThe safety net contributes to poverty.\nThe government is taking money from you and giving it to sex-crazed college women to pay for their birth control.<\/pre>\nOne could easily list many more such commonplace delusions believed by Americans. They are kept in circulation by hundreds of right-wing political and religious media outlets whose function is to fabricate an alternate reality for their viewers and their listeners. \u201cStupidity is sometimes the greatest of historical forces,\u201d Sidney Hook said once. No doubt. What we have in this country is the rebellion of dull minds against the intellect. That\u2019s why they love politicians who rail against teachers indoctrinating children against their parents\u2019 values and resent the ones who show ability to think seriously and independently. Despite their bravado, these fools can always be counted on to vote against their self-interest. And that, as far as I\u2019m concerned, is why millions are being spent to keep my fellow citizens ignorant.\"\n\n--Charles Simic (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/blogs\/nyrblog\/2012\/mar\/20\/age-of-ignorance\/\">NYR Blog<\/a>)"}}
