Hirschhorn: Loud Talk, Small Minds
In trying to understand how so many Americans adore people like Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh I have come to this critical understanding: Poorly educated, terribly informed, intellectually deficient and downright stupid people need idols. They feel angry, frustrated, ignored, cheated and disillusioned by so much going on in American society. They find the emotional, political and philosophical rants by talk show, loud mouth celebrities matching and justifying their feelings. Of course, those celebrities work hard to fan the flames of all that unhappiness and discontent, and also perpetuate ignorance and hate. They sell stupidity to gullible dummies, teaching them who to blame for their misery.
I am no conservative or liberal and I know I sound terribly condescending and will be viewed as an elitist by those dummies, not that they read much by those they do not idolize. However, I have spent considerable time following what these demon idols say and write to seriously investigate whether I might be missing something of value. But all I see are huge quantities of totally incorrect and distorted information, absolute nonsense, outright insanity, abuse of logic, exaggerations, toxic half truths, intentional disinformation, racism and bigotry, and extreme political views that have no connection to reality and offer no workable solutions to the nation’s complex problems. Slick sound-bite slogans push propaganda substitutes for verifiable facts.
How to understand how so many people can listen to such celebrities and not feel as nauseous as I and so many other Americans feel when listening to them? Clearly we must accept the disturbing fact that there are many millions of suffering Americans that are mental midgets, a sign of the dumbing-down of America. No surprise really when you remember there are millions of people wasting their money on gambling, lottery tickets, cons and scams, junk products and unhealthy foods, or unable to qualify for decent jobs because of a lack of knowledge and skills. Either they were born stupid (a harsh but true statistical reality) or the many ups and downs of life have robbed them of any critical thinking ability to see through the idiocy that these purveyors of poison peddle while making obscene millions of dollars.
Consider recent Pew Center Research poll results that showed 18 percent of Republicans do not know that the Democrats control the House of Representatives and 35 percent do not know who the Vice President is. Researchh has found Fox News butchers facts and its devotees are the most ignorant, and in recent years Republicans have overwhelmingly gone to Fox to get their news and information. Note: 80 percent who regularly listen to Rush Limbaugh or watch Sean Hannity are conservative. I’m not saying that “No truth, just spin” should be the Fox motto, but it sure fits.
I can easily relate to the many people treated unfairly, unjustly and even brutally by the political and economic system. But those who have drifted over to the dark side of the right-wing, conservative arena and become addicted to the rhetoric of delusion have nothing in common with those that once made the United States a noble nation worthy of respect. Their idols talk a lot about the Founders and Constitution, but share none of the fine qualities of those that created our republic. They also pick and choose what parts of the Constitution to adore, mocking the rule of law.
As an independent, I too am extremely critical of the political and economic system and how the middle class has been purposefully harmed by a rich and powerful Upper Class that has turned the nation into a plutocracy serving the greed of individuals and corporations. I want revolution and true reforms. I condemn both major political parties and see elections as useless anachronisms.
I too feel disenfranchised, full of dissent and disgust with broken government, broken educational and health care systems, crumbling inadequate infrastructure, widespread corruption and dishonesty, and an economy dispensing inequality and injustice. Yet, try as I have, I cannot see any merit in what these powerful right-wing demigods dish out, all done to pump millions of dollars into their pockets and pump up their egos. They sell themselves as the defenders of the downtrodden and abused, but this is just a con game designed to keep millions of dollars coming to them and their fellow fat cats. When their supporters vote for Republicans they vote against their own economic interests, unless they are rich.
These false populists are fundamentally no different than the evil elite forces that this fraction of the population despises. Perversely, they have become a part of the ruling class they routinely condemn. They are the worst kind of idols, manipulating and soaking their audiences and admirers. They pitch poisonous, hateful and addicting fast food rhetoric, words as pleasing as salt, sugar and fat laden foods and as eagerly gulped down. This results in mental capacity becoming as clogged as the arteries in overweight and obese Americans.
what is evil? Right-wing hypocritical hucksters pitching messages of values, morals, freedom and patriotism crafted to sucker the least informed, emotionally stressed and unintelligent Americans for the sake of power and money. These idols live like royalty (for example, http://www.forbes.com/lists/2010/53/celeb-100-10_The-Celebrity-100.html) while their loyal fans treasure fantasy expectations and block out information that would cause too much pain by piercing the delusions they have succumbed to. By putting their faith in false idols they become unknowing victims of the media corpocracy profiting from these idols.
what a culture, where so few can take advantage of so many and make fortunes doing it. The real goal of the demon idols is to further divide the nation, not fix it and make it better. Why? Because divisiveness is what sells and makes them big money. Shame on them. Those who worship them need more worthy heroes if they really love their country and want to make it better for all its citizens. The rest of us need to ignore the false idols and their followers, showing them no respect whatsoever, condemning them at every opportunity.
~ The Author ~
Joel S. Hirschhorn is the author of Sprawl Kills – How Blandburbs Steal Your Time, Health and Money and Delusional Democracy – Fixing the Republic Without Overthrowing the Government. He is a former Director of Environment, Energy and Natural Resources at the National Governors Association and a senior staffer for the U.S. Congress.
“But all I see are huge quantities of totally incorrect and distorted information, absolute nonsense, outright insanity, abuse of logic, exaggerations, toxic half truths, intentional disinformation, racism and bigotry, and extreme political views that have no connection to reality and offer no workable solutions to the nation’s complex problems.”
Thus, you have provided the essence of what I really want to say in this comment. Thanks.
What did you do? Steal Obama’s teleprompter? You need to send this article to him (unless it was already engraved on his teleprompter) so that he can include the utterly absurd content into his next State of the Union diatribe and illustrate more clearly to the American people how totally incompetent and downright stupid he really is.
Tempted as I have been in the past, I rarely respond or comment on the stuff I read at this site or others. Part of the reason is that I don’t like having to register or join. I’m not a joiner.
But this commentary! You win! I can’t not comment. I have been rendered totally helpless in my attempt to resist further. You did it Joel! You opened the Pandora’s box of my repressed and hitherto withheld thoughts and emotions! Even I can only handle so much. UNCLE! UNCLE!
There is a lot wrong in this country. That’s a given. There are a lot of things both written and spoken that fuel anger, hatred, frustration, etc. I can usually exercise a great deal of tolerance for the occasional idiot that wanders onto a website that I read and offers up their head for the blade. It’s a free country – at least for the time being, and then only as free as we, the American citizens, exercise that freedom – and if someone wants to publicly put their stupidity out there where everyone in the world, literally, can gaze upon it with mouth opened, wide eyed awe at the extent of said stupidity, then I say, “Hey, go for it!” But this little rant of yours latched onto something inside me that wouldn’t let go, and after I read it again, I became a little irritated.
Your inane dissertation insults my people. By “my people”, I mean the American people. While I might be considered by many to be an ultra-conservative extremist, my political views do not diminish the unconditional love I have for my people. I spent a very large portion of my life serving in a capacity that protected the American people, the Constitution, and the American way of life. I took an oath to put my life on the line for those three things, and I meant what I said. Those people included you, ignorant and lopsided as you are. You have a right to say whatever you like, and I would defend your right to do so. I also have a right to say whatever I like, and I would like to say that you have got to be as close as I’ve ever come to making me seriously question the prudence of taking that oath. People like you, with outlooks like yours, are the root of everything that is wrong with this country. You might be an accomplished writer and from reading your little bio above, you have been privileged to hold occupational positions that I’m sure, judging from your rant, are convincing vindications of the Peter Principle, but if you read what you wrote, it should convince even you that your retirement job should be as a poster child for the slogan “You can’t fix stupid.” A senior staffer for the U.S. Congress? Well, now, that says it all.
When you listen to these idols – as you describe them – you might want to listen to what they are actually saying instead of tuning them out until you hear a snippett that supports your outrageous comments. Glenn Beck, for instance, has been teaching history. It’s not the history you want to hear, nor is it history that you learned in whatever school you went to, but it’s history nevertheless, and you would benefit from absorbing it, verifying it, and remembering it, because it affects your very existence. Rush Limbaugh doesn’t normally say anything that he doesn’t have documented evidence of prior to commenting on it, and Sarah Palin simply says stuff that, for the most part – at least that which I’ve heard – is what a majority of Americans think and believe. You can opine on them all day long for what it’s worth, but leave the American people out of it. They have been “dumbed down” by people like you, in positions like those you have held and presumably are currently holding. The idiots in the House and Senate couldn’t function without flunkies like you providing them with their opinions, just as Obama could never have gotten as far as he has without having someone else doing his thinking for him. Thus, you and those like you, are directly responsible for the “dumbing down” of American citizens. They can only judge based on what information they have to judge by, and at least the majority of them are intelligent enough to be watching or listening to Fox News rather than Rachel Maddow, Keith Olbermann and Chris “Tingle” Mathews.
Regardless of all that, they are still my people, “dumbed down” as they might be, and when you insult them, you insult me. When you insult me, do so carefully and with tact, backing up your insult with information other than inflammatory bullshit allegations like racism, bigotry, and “toxic half truths”.
Now return the teleprompter to your master so he can deliver your/his line of crap at his next union meeting.
Blanket condemnation of speakers and audience. No facts. I’m sure you’d be a fine alternative for all those poor dumb and dumbed down extreme right wingers.
We ARE divided and we SHOULD be divided because there are things which SHOULD NOT BE COMPROMISED! Your demonization of right-wingers who seek leaders true to our Constitution while disregarding the blatant hypocrisy of the leftists who have spoken and violated the same oaths is telling. There are those of us who look for a leader but do not look for a king or a god……just a man, frail and mortal, who has the integrity to live his belief in our nation and our Constitution.
“Those who worship them need more worthy heroes if they really love their country and want to make it better for all its citizens.”
1. Are there any?
2. Name some!