Okay, up front, this piece is (a) a little wordy, and (b) a bit snarky a times. Stipulated. But if I were trying to boil this down to a few words, I'd try "the worst, shallowest, and most counter-productive elements of our society, from both ends of our political spectrum, are being enabled ("actively cultivated" in the essay) by elites whose motives are less than patriotic.
Below is link to the piece. Hopefully we can have a Clean Debate Zone-worthy conversation about it.
gfile.thedispatch.com
A taste of the essay:
Simply this: Our elites are actively cultivating idiocy, both in the Greek sense and in the modern moronic sense. The bases of both parties, each in their own ways, crave dumbed down “solutions” swathed in the gossamer of gobbledygook and rationalized by irrationalism. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is only figuratively talking out of her ass when she mumbles magic incantations inspired by the mumbo-jumbo of modern monetary theory. But she gets closer to literalism when she joins other elites at the Met Gala with “tax the rich” scrawled on her backside. I get that “tax the rich” is just a slogan—but it’s an idiotic one given that we do, in fact, tax the rich. But if you’re an idiot in the Greek sense, someone who doesn’t know much about politics or public finance, you might take that slogan literally and think we don’t.
When conservatives say we shouldn’t add trillions to the national debt, progressives respond, “You didn’t care about the debt when you were in charge.” And they’re right! But this response is sophomoric: You were horribly irresponsible with the credit card, so now it’s our turn to be horribly irresponsible!
The politicians—in both parties—who are the thirstiest for social media virality sound like Bart Simpson running for class president against Martin Prince. “He says there are no easy answers! I say he’s not looking hard enough!”
Donald Trump said last night, “Nobody has done more for Christianity or for evangelicals or for religion itself than I have.” Spare me your “take him seriously, not literally” garbage. That’s the intellectual equivalent of buying indulgences—it gives you permission to take very stupid things seriously rather than denounce the stupidity on display.
I honestly don’t think Trump or Ocasio-Cortez know better. But in a serious country we should want elites who do. And simply knowing the truth isn’t enough. Rubio knows that Biden isn’t pushing Marxism. Biden et al know that getting rid of drive-thru voting is not Jim Crow. J.D. Vance knows that most of his prattle is nonsense. I would like to think that Maxine Waters knows slavery was worse than a couple of border guys riding horses, but I’m not sure. (I’m also not sure which is more damning—ignorance or self-awareness.) Ron Johnson knows the election wasn’t stolen, and he says so when he thinks the cameras aren’t around. Good luck getting him to say it in public, though.
Below is link to the piece. Hopefully we can have a Clean Debate Zone-worthy conversation about it.
Ratifying the Idiocracy
The bases of both parties, each in their own ways, crave dumbed down “solutions.” Our elites are indulging them.
gfile.thedispatch.com
A taste of the essay:
Simply this: Our elites are actively cultivating idiocy, both in the Greek sense and in the modern moronic sense. The bases of both parties, each in their own ways, crave dumbed down “solutions” swathed in the gossamer of gobbledygook and rationalized by irrationalism. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is only figuratively talking out of her ass when she mumbles magic incantations inspired by the mumbo-jumbo of modern monetary theory. But she gets closer to literalism when she joins other elites at the Met Gala with “tax the rich” scrawled on her backside. I get that “tax the rich” is just a slogan—but it’s an idiotic one given that we do, in fact, tax the rich. But if you’re an idiot in the Greek sense, someone who doesn’t know much about politics or public finance, you might take that slogan literally and think we don’t.
When conservatives say we shouldn’t add trillions to the national debt, progressives respond, “You didn’t care about the debt when you were in charge.” And they’re right! But this response is sophomoric: You were horribly irresponsible with the credit card, so now it’s our turn to be horribly irresponsible!
The politicians—in both parties—who are the thirstiest for social media virality sound like Bart Simpson running for class president against Martin Prince. “He says there are no easy answers! I say he’s not looking hard enough!”
Donald Trump said last night, “Nobody has done more for Christianity or for evangelicals or for religion itself than I have.” Spare me your “take him seriously, not literally” garbage. That’s the intellectual equivalent of buying indulgences—it gives you permission to take very stupid things seriously rather than denounce the stupidity on display.
I honestly don’t think Trump or Ocasio-Cortez know better. But in a serious country we should want elites who do. And simply knowing the truth isn’t enough. Rubio knows that Biden isn’t pushing Marxism. Biden et al know that getting rid of drive-thru voting is not Jim Crow. J.D. Vance knows that most of his prattle is nonsense. I would like to think that Maxine Waters knows slavery was worse than a couple of border guys riding horses, but I’m not sure. (I’m also not sure which is more damning—ignorance or self-awareness.) Ron Johnson knows the election wasn’t stolen, and he says so when he thinks the cameras aren’t around. Good luck getting him to say it in public, though.
