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Age of Ignorance (projectile vomit alert)
New York Review of Books ^ | March 20, 2012 | Charles Simic

Posted on 12/30/2013 4:56:23 PM PST by CreviceTool

Widespread ignorance bordering on idiocy is our new national goal. It’s no use pretending otherwise and telling us, as Thomas Friedman did in the Times a few days ago, that educated people are the nation’s most valuable resources. Sure, they are, but do we still want them? It doesn’t look to me as if we do. The ideal citizen of a politically corrupt state, such as the one we now have, is a gullible dolt unable to tell truth from bull$hit.

An educated, well-informed population, the kind that a functioning democracy requires, would be difficult to lie to, and could not be led by the nose by the various vested interests running amok in this country. Most of our politicians and their political advisers and lobbyists would find themselves unemployed, and so would the gasbags who pass themselves off as our opinion makers. Luckily for them, nothing so catastrophic, even though perfectly well-deserved and widely-welcome, has a remote chance of occurring any time soon. For starters, there’s more money to be made from the ignorant than the enlightened, and deceiving Americans is one of the few growing home industries we still have in this country. A truly educated populace would be bad, both for politicians and for business.

(Excerpt) Read more at nybooks.com ...


TOPICS: Education; History; Science; Society
KEYWORDS: charlessimic; hannity; ignorance; palin; partisanmediashill; partisanmediashills; simic; thomasfriedman
Some libtard posted this 2012 blog post on Facebook written by the 15th Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. Warning - Wrap your head in tape before reading the entire post filled with nuggets like this:

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:

- Christians are persecuted in this country. - The government is coming to get your guns. - Obama is a Muslim. - Global Warming is a hoax. - The president is forcing open homosexuality on the military. - Schools push a left-wing agenda. - Social Security is an entitlement, no different from welfare. - Obama hates white people. - The life on earth is 10,000 years old and so is the universe. - The safety net contributes to poverty. - The government is taking money from you and giving it to sex-crazed college women to pay for their birth control.

1 posted on 12/30/2013 4:56:24 PM PST by CreviceTool
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To: CreviceTool

YEP, Christians are persecuted in this country. - The government is coming to get your guns. - Obama is a Muslim. - Global Warming is a hoax. - The president is forcing open homosexuality on the military. - Schools push a left-wing agenda. - Social Security is an entitlement, no different from welfare. - Obama hates white people. - The life on earth is 10,000 years old and so is the universe. - The safety net contributes to poverty. - The government is taking money from you and giving it to sex-crazed college women to pay for their birth control.


2 posted on 12/30/2013 4:59:30 PM PST by SWAMPSNIPER (The Second Amendment, a Matter of Fact, Not a Matter of Opinion)
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To: SWAMPSNIPER

All true


3 posted on 12/30/2013 5:05:17 PM PST by barmag25 (Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? NO!!!)
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To: CreviceTool; a fool in paradise
Everyone defines ignorance by what others believe or don't know!
4 posted on 12/30/2013 5:07:13 PM PST by Revolting cat! (Bad things are wrong! Ice cream is delicious!)
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To: CreviceTool

Ronald Reagan
“It isn’t so much that liberals are ignorant. It’s just that they know so many things that aren’t so.”

Educated Liberal is an oxymoron. If they were smart enough to get out of a paper bag they wouldn’t be Liberal.


5 posted on 12/30/2013 5:10:19 PM PST by Macoozie (1) Win the Senate 2) Repeal Obamacare 3) Impeach Roberts)
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To: CreviceTool

Typically, when writers like this speak of “education” — they are in fact talking about indoctrination.


6 posted on 12/30/2013 5:21:59 PM PST by BenLurkin (This is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire; or both.)
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>> because, to the ignorant and the bigoted, lies always sound better than truth...

And to the “enlightened,” the anus is a reproductive organ.


7 posted on 12/30/2013 5:23:45 PM PST by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: CreviceTool

>>The life on earth is 10,000 years old and so is the universe<<

Why add a “Germans bombed Pearl Harbor” joke in the middle of a pretty good rant?


8 posted on 12/30/2013 5:25:23 PM PST by freedumb2003 (Fight Tapinophobia in all its forms! Do not submit to arduus privilege.)
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To: CreviceTool

“Teaching American literature, as I have been doing”

I get the feeling most of this was actually Marx & Engels, and cook books from Todor Zhivkov.

Let’s run down this idiot’s ridiculous list, just for the fun of it.

- Christians are persecuted in this country.

A Colorado couple are facing jail time for not baking a wedding cake due to religious beliefs. Christians are routinely assaulted when protesting infanticide clinics. Case closed.

- The government is coming to get your guns.

I’ll direct him to public statements by California senator Dianne Frankenfeinstein after the Lanza shooting.

- Obama is a Muslim.

Someone explain why he wears an Islamic ring, and declares in writing that he’ll side with Muslims if the political winds shift.

- Global Warming is a hoax.

I’m not even going to address this one. The scam’s over. Turn the lights off, and send some blankets to those scientists trapped in new ice flows.

- The president is forcing open homosexuality on the military.

I don’t think he’d even deny this. the repeal of DADT was spearheaded by him. Might as well claim that Joe Biden is not white.

- Schools push a left-wing agenda.

Oh, the video tapes we have of left wing teachers and the filth they spew. This is also confirmed by several studies analyzing professors and their political leanings.

- Social Security is an entitlement, no different from welfare.

It’s an entitlement and there is no question about that. It’s one that was paid into and then raided by the government, who now print extra money to pay it back.

- Obama hates white people.

Explain the Holder and Perez appointments.

- The life on earth is 10,000 years old and so is the universe.

I know very few people who claim this, and I know quite a few pastors.

- The safety net contributes to poverty.

Absolutely unassailable. The charts bear it out. The ‘safety net’ has ONLY increased poverty in this country.

- The government is taking money from you and giving it to sex-crazed college women to pay for their birth control.

Let’s draw a flow chart

MY MONEY -—> TAXES TO GOVERNMENT ——> BIRTH CONTROL MANDATE PAID FOR BY THE GOVERNMENT

I’m just glad this crap has very low readership.


9 posted on 12/30/2013 5:25:36 PM PST by Viennacon
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To: CreviceTool

I love it. Progressives have been in charge of education since Dewey.

I guess the smart ones like Hank “Guam might tip over” Johnson, Al “Freddie’s fashion mart”Sharpton and Obama “57 inhilators” soretero are the ones we should aspire to


10 posted on 12/30/2013 5:25:59 PM PST by Organic Panic
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To: Viennacon

Bravo! Prof. Viennacon


11 posted on 12/30/2013 5:30:07 PM PST by CreviceTool (A Good Samaritan with a handgun saved my life...)
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To: CreviceTool

The arrogance of the “educated class” is on full display.

It seems that liberals are increasingly becoming dependent on Science and Academic theories in order to both advance and ridicule their opponents.

They use academic theory in Economics to push policy.

They use academic theory in “Social Sciences” to construct a society that “Should” be ideal.

They use scientific consensus along with unproven models to advance AGW, that dove tails into an attempt to alter or control human nature.

It is an “Appeal to Authority” that actually says more about their insecurity, than our intelligence.

I find it very curious that as the scientific pursuit of knowledge, with its foundations in materialism/reductionism, uncover greater and greater mysteries of how things work, they are creating more questions than they are answering.

It’s ironic, as they invoke “metaphysical” explanations for a scientific process based in materialism.

They are attempting to establish “uncertainty” as the foundation of all things. This in turn, creates fear and leads some people to accept their authority.


12 posted on 12/30/2013 5:33:21 PM PST by Zeneta
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To: CreviceTool
An educated, well-informed population, the kind that a functioning democracy requires...

How ignorant is this writer in that they don't know America is a Republic and not a democracy.

“A Republic, if you can keep it.” Benjamin Franklin

13 posted on 12/30/2013 5:33:37 PM PST by philman_36 (Pride breakfasted with plenty, dined with poverty, and supped with infamy. Benjamin Franklin)
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To: CreviceTool

leftists have dumbed down America so much that they have no idea how much smarter the “ignorant” ones are than them.


14 posted on 12/30/2013 5:33:50 PM PST by GeronL (Extra Large Cheesy Over-Stuffed Hobbit)
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; bigheadfred; Bockscar; cardinal4; ColdOne; ...

> Widespread ignorance bordering on idiocy is our new national goal. It’s no use pretending otherwise and telling us, as Thomas Friedman did in the Times a few days ago, that educated people are the nation’s most valuable resources. Sure, they are, but do we still want them? It doesn’t look to me as if we do. The ideal citizen of a politically corrupt state, such as the one we now have, is a gullible dolt unable to tell truth from bull$hit.

Hence, Obama; hence, Thomas Friedman; hence, the partisan media shill who wrote that swill. Thanks CreviceTool.


15 posted on 12/30/2013 5:37:00 PM PST by SunkenCiv (http://www.freerepublic.com/~mestamachine/)
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To: SWAMPSNIPER

If there was a literacy test required for voting, the democrats would never win another election and we all know it.


16 posted on 12/30/2013 8:54:19 PM PST by MNnice
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To: CreviceTool

Conservatives sure have their problems, but this really takes the cake.

I find it amazing how liberals can believe they’re more intelligent, when everything they involve themselves in eventually does a complete 180 in some way or another:

Obamacare causes people to lose medical coverage.

Global warming becomes global cooling.

The anti-war presidential candidate becomes a commander in chief who keeps the war going and actually makes things worse.

Raising taxes lowers revenue.

The war on poverty increases it.

Assistance for minorities brings about their misery.

Gun laws increase gun violence.

The selfishness of the me generation is disguised as the compassion of liberalism.

Without fail, they achieve the opposite of what they set out to do.


17 posted on 12/30/2013 10:25:41 PM PST by reasonisfaith ("...because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved." (2 Thessalonians))
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To: MNnice

“If there was a literacy test required for voting, the democrats would never win another election and we all know it.”

Yet, they vote with Democrat with 100% accuracy in precincts around Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland and Philly with turnouts exceeding registrations. These same people couldn’t spell CAT if you spotted them the C and the T.


18 posted on 12/31/2013 8:08:51 AM PST by CreviceTool (A Good Samaritan with a handgun saved my life...)
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