Dumb, Dumber and Even Dumber
Welcome to the annual running of the dumb asses.
I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time -- when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness...
The dumbing down of Americans is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.―Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
Carl Sagan died a WHILE ago. 1996—to be precise.
A quarter of a century has passed since his passing and the dumbing down of Americans continues at full pace. And I am losing patience.
Here’s an example of how I am losing patience. I have openly pondered recently whether—as a nation, indeed, as a species—we’d be better off if one of the symptoms of the COVID virus was that your head exploded. Literally exploded.
I know. It would get ugly quick but, you must admit, it would end all of this ‘it’s no different than the flu’ bullshit. People would be lining up—standing a generous dozen feet apart to account for the delta, and the soon-to-come delta plus, variant—for their vaccinations. Tucker Carlson would have to eat his hat and no one would be making bank spreading virus lies.
I’m being delusional. Of course, people would still be making bank lying about the virus and Tucker Carlson would be unfazed when Lindsey Graham’s head exploded in a live interview. The dunce confederacy will never be deterred so easily.
Listening to The Daily podcast the ‘other day’ where they were interviewing “the unvaccinated” made my head explode several times. The first guy claimed he was leery of getting vaccinated because, to him, it was similar to being a “first adopter” when it comes to technology. He wanted to wait and see how things turned out.
(Like evolution. Hey, man, like, I’m on the fence in regards to evolution. I’m waiting to see how it turns out.)
Then he goes on to say he is fiscally conservative and socially liberal and really more of a libertarian but, toward the end of the interview, he fesses up to voting for the twice-impeached corpulent resident of Mar-a-Lago. . . . in 2020. In my mind, he had negated every coherent, though misbegotten, thought he had thrown out there previously.
He was a cult 45 member who could not be reached, understood or persuaded. By common sense, facts or fifteen minutes on a medieval rack. But, I mused, what if a person was walking by him and their head exploded. . . ?
Another person was a Russian immigrant who taught high school math and believed her personal health awareness was all that was necessary to fend off the virus. She may have even said she was an avid kombucha drinker and she figured that should be sufficient to ward off a simple virus. In fact, she didn’t believe in any vaccinations.
So, none of these vaccines can be found in this purist’s body:
They didn’t ask her so I am going to presume she was a staunch cult 45 member and the only other thing that went through my mind was. . .“f**king Russians”. Just today I heard Andrea Chalupa of Gaslit Nation describe Russia as the “Florida Man of all nations”. (You should really click on that link.) She should know. She’s spent years studying all things Russian and Ukrainian.
(I apologize to any of my readers who are Russian or of Russian heritage but it just seems to me the ‘blowback’ of the dissolution of the Soviet Union has been negatively reverberating around the globe for three decades. Something about a controlled economy suddenly becoming the wild west of—an even more irresponsible—capitalism has made the world an even less safe place for the rest of us. Because capitalism run wild is the very recipe for the complete abandonment of scruples and Russians seem to have fully embraced that “feature”. Because it IS a feature, not a bug.)
Meanwhile at one of the January 6th trial hearings being held around the country, a couple who breached the Capitol building that day, had their lawyer use the defense that they were the victims of a “cult-like personality”. This is not the first I have heard of this defense tactic. It echoes the “Twinkie” defense used for Dan White after he walked into Harvey Milk’s office at the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and murdered the man in broad daylight. His lawyers placed some of the blame on his childhood penchant for Twinkies and Hohos and junk food.
It worked. To some degree. He managed to avoid the death penalty.
No one feels responsible for their actions in America these days.
Doing dumb-ass things that should have got you shot, but instead gets you 30 and 60 days of home detention and two measly years of “probation”, is going to do absolutely nothing to deter the next “running of the dumb-asses” at the next Capitol Hill insurrection. The Ohio National Guard opened fire on student protestors at a peace rally at Kent State on May 4, 1970 killing four and wounding nine.
A peace rally. Involving—primarily—students. Not rabid, for-the-most-part-bearded, camouflage-wearing, flagpole-wielding, incoherent-screaming white folks battering their way into the nation’s capitol hell bent on overturning an election by any means necessary.
As Greg Olear pointed out in his column today, insurrectionists throughout history normally found themselves dangling at the end of a rope. Or, more creatively, shot out of a cannon in the general direction of Poland.
Even the king of dumb-asses has been advising his sycophantic fans to go get the vaccine. For his terse, apathetic effort, he got booed at his latest Klan rally in Alabama. Tough crowd. It just goes to show how effective the misinformation has been.
Not even the Sauron of America’s Dumb Asses can get them on board.
I imagine Carl Sagan, Bob Ross and Mister Rogers all sitting around a kiddie pool with their bare feet in the water. Oh, let’s just throw Martin Luther King into the mix as well. All of them getting along famously in the “afterlife” and all of them mystified at humanity’s inability to find common ground, embrace the science and look on the brighter side of things. All of them chagrined their efforts did not pay off as they had hoped.
All of them pleased as punch it’s no longer their problem to deal with.
Thanks to PoliticsGirl, I’ve been introduced to Drew’s Comments. Explore his YouTube channel. His most recent posts are about vaccinations. Right on.
Also, AAR Steve Laboff sent along a link to a website titled fuckedantivaxxer.com
You absolutely must read about the radio personality, Phil Valentine, anti-vaxxer who saw the light, but much too late. RIP Phil.
Yep, but the idea of Lindsey’s head exploding all over Tuck somehow doesn’t bother me. Oh, if it could just be limited to those select few (thousand).