Guiding American Stupidity

My grandmother full of wise proverbs, once told me a familiar saying that I now use often: “One fool makes many.” That could never be more true in this country. Americans seem to be grappling with the image of buffoonery more than ever. Believe it or don‘t, there are many dim-witted people, pundits, media personalities, politicians, entertainers and authors who build careers on American stupidity and make the image of American stupidity appear much worse.

Several months ago, Bill Maher was on CNN and referred to the American people as stupid. People immediately began emailing their disapproval of his slighting statement. Still, Maher refused to withdraw the statement and stood by it adding that Sarah Palin (the political opportunist who writes on her hand to remember “taxes”… ) could be president in this country. He was funny, and it was painfully true. As an American myself, I’m in no way saying that it’s typical for Americans to be unintelligent, nor is it true. We have the best and brightest here as well. However, there are MANY not so bright people all over the country and there’s an annoying, constant display of American stupidity lately that can’t be ignored.

It’s not Bill Maher or foreigners making fun of us Americans unjustly. Funnymen just like to point it out sometimes. These people are doing it to themselves; they’re coming out in the droves, insisting they represent real America, and they will not shut up or go away. These people are the ones that have the whole world laughing at us.

For starters, Joe the Plumber, the man made famous in the last presidential election is not done with his 15 minutes. Unbeknownst to most, “Joe” was never legitimately a plumber, never in a position to buy a plumbing van let alone a business, isn’t really named Joe, and became the credential-less, mascot-like spokesperson for the politician who’s budget plans would not work out best for him. Instead he decided to speak out against the man who gave him his fame and who‘s plan did work for him. Yeah, “that one”. Anyway, I read a blog that a conservative radio station hired him to connect with the “average Joe’s” in Israel to get their perspective of current events. One Israeli asked him if a vote for Obama meant death to Israel and he told them “YES”. Good plan, lets get stupid people together to share ideas, finance it all, and publicize it. Very productive to society. Samuel “Joe the Plumber” Wurzelbacher also once said he would never let his children near a gay person, and that the definition of “queer” is strange and unusual. This is who media stations in this country set up with a mic, an audience, then send him about as an ambassador.

In general, we’ve allowed an inept president to lead us for almost a decade, and with hardly any public opposition as he quietly obliterated the surplus and helped create a disastrous economy we‘re correcting now. We finally had the good sense to elect an intelligent man to lead, but many of these Americans choose now to distrust this presidents judgment, decide they’re all economists and experts and block him on all fronts.

If you watch the news or comb through you tube and similar sites, you’ll see many scary videos featuring scores of angry American people, holding signs and yelling in protest. What they’re protesting isn’t quite clear. Each one you question individually utters a completely different confused, nonsensical statement most likely regurgitated from things they’ve heard from conservative talk radio or TV.

One group was tailgating in support for Sarah Palin. Despite some decorative “Palin for President” signs, she wasn’t running for anything to my knowledge, and she’s no longer in any political office at the moment because she quit on the stool and never even finished her stint as governor. She’s just traveling around, selling books and is getting paid to speak for any group that will have her. Now she’s been adopted by the Tea Party. The point of her existence in a nutshell now seems to be making money riling up the stupid or people desperate for a conservative Messiah, convincing them everything’s going terribly wrong and the time is now to change it. When folks in the tailgating mob I watched were questioned, none of them were able to intelligently verbalize WHY they liked and supported her, or what political views of hers they admired and agreed with. They just dodged it obviously unable to respond and just kept referring to her as a “real American”. What is a ‘real American’ I wondered. What’s a fake American? What else do they want from her and what are they really expecting her to do? Whatever, I decided not to waste anymore of my time in reflection about it.

Other groups I watched had people, some bearded wearing costumes, crying aloud that we need to stop the spending and that we were losing the country and bla bla bla. Being concerned about government spending makes sense to me, giving them the benefit of the doubt that they knew anything about it. But losing the country to what or to whom? As expected, some blabbered asinine statements that included the words “Obama”, “Marxism”, and “Socialism” in it. I don’t believe these people ever knew what Marxism or Socialism was in the first place. Regardless, I’m assuming they felt they were just the bright, chosen flock to rescue America from it and save this great nation from the bad men. This passion filled congregation of the dumb all over the country is a new epidemic I’ve never seen before.

One of the reasons the stupid are uniting in their stupidity is partly because of a few not AS stupid puppeteers. There are many bright and sensible people here, but they’re busy thinking things over for themselves and trying to be educated, informed voters. In contrast, there are many, many simpletons all over the nation that are being corralled, inspired, misled, and set loose onto the streets. Many diabolic opportunists, politicians, and conspiracy theorists use scores of the ignorant to their advantage. They rise to platforms, build bases using fallacies and misinformation, then persuade and empower the dumb with seemingly patriotic, inspiring calls to action. Some resort to this for political reasons, others for monetary reasons, and some just enjoy indoctrinating people with their beliefs and opinions. Regardless it serves their purpose. Below are just a few names of those who’ve successfully built careers on American stupidity.

Sarah Palin, Anne Coulter, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh to name a few, have catered to loyal audiences, sold books, and still are paid to speak at various functions all over this nation. Who are these organizations that find any of the aforementioned people worthy of speaking at forums? Time and time again, these folks have proven themselves to be ignorant, but still their fan bases grow, their books are read, and their programs supported.

Let’s take Anne Coulter for instance. I already knew she was completely bombastic, bigoted, and prone to outrageous comments. I used to give her credit though, believing she was bombastic like a fox; her wild statements were deliberated to sell books and to increase her popularity. Even though I agreed with nothing she ever believed or said, initially I thought of her as a smart woman. I eventually realized that she truly is just a dumb blonde, and she truly believes in her outrageous rhetoric. She isn’t intelligent at all. She’s scary and in all seriousness, she might have some serious psychological issues. When she’s challenged and her misinformation is publicly discredited, and corrected, which is pretty often, she’s known for stuttering public melt downs. She’s also on record saying the Jews need to be “perfected”, we should invade all Muslim countries, kill their leaders and convert them all to Christianity, Al Gore is homosexual, and she believed that Canada sent troops to Vietnam along with us. She has absolutely no knowledge of world history and puts her foot in her mouth with incessant historically incorrect, offensive statements. Anne Coulter is a unique, and strong combination of vicious and stupid. Regardless, she sells books here and is still asked to speak.

Rush Limbaugh has been a rank pollution to the air waves for many years. The fat Rush Limbaugh once said America’s obesity problem is because we give the poor people their food through our generous welfare programs without teaching them “to fish”. Of course it has nothing to do with our culture of unremitting marketing and promotion that includes the food industry---baiting children early with cartoon caricatures to fast food and junk foods etc.. Nor does it have to do with our cultural preference for meats, sugars, junk food and foods with empty calories---preferred, cheaper, and more readily available than fresh, healthy foods---especially in urban areas. Nor does it have to do with the steady increase of internet and video game usage in children and a decrease in the interest in playing sports and outdoor physical activities. No, according to Limbaugh, it’s because of poor people on welfare. Honestly, what would we do without Rush Limbaugh’s intelligence, insight, and accurate research?

What upsets me the most is when he famously said he wants president Obama “to fail”. If Obama fails, wouldn’t that mean we’re all screwed? That’s what my common sense tells me. You heard it from his own mouth: Rush Limbaugh wants the president of the United States “to fail”. He wants America to plummet into despair so that he can be right and tell us that he told us so. Rush Limbaugh is too stupid to know that he shouldn’t be so obvious. Most other Republican pundits at least fake that their main concern is the good of the American people at all times, and not just party posturing. If Obama had the answer to solve many of the countries problems, Limbaugh wouldn’t want him to carry it out and get the credit. Limbaugh is a hero and visionary who’d rather be right and have people see things his way than America succeed. People tune in to this fat faced, hate mongering simpleton daily. Rush Limbaugh is never correct about anything and is helplessly lost in his own perspective. The only thing that concerns me more than Rush Limbaugh are the people that take him seriously.

I honestly don’t know where to begin with Glenn Beck. There’s stupid written all over his face. He’s a pathological fraud and he’s crazy. He once stated we should “nuke” everyone and country that doesn’t agree with him during one of his rants. He’s known to have put Vicks under his eyes so that he could cry for the effect. Also and without a smidgen of reasonable evidence to support himself, he stated that president Obama doesn’t have respect for white people. I wish I were making this stuff up, but unfortunately I’m not like these guys. And unfortunately I could go on. Years ago when media networks used to have class, boundaries and standards, Glenn Beck would’ve been fired and written off. Instead, manifesting no respect for news reporting, commentating or intelligent conversation, Rupert Murdoch continues to pimp his golden dumb ass out for ratings. And believe it or not, he has partisans----many.

The aforementioned media personalities are stupid Americans, but stupid with ambition, charisma, abilities, and they know how to incite the stupider. They know their demographic well. Way outside the realms of truth, they know what their people want to hear. They aren’t intelligent and they don’t operate with a sense of social, or moral responsibility. They don’t fact check or correct their incorrect statements. They believe what they preach and they feed their, hatred, fear, and ignorance with their mean dispositions. Those who don’t want to be open minded absorb their rhetoric.

The “one fool makes many” proverb spreads like a wild fire. The intelligent start to become affected and infected by the stupid. More and more people start doing less research or fact checking, and begin to rely on these media sources that report whatever they want. It’s just assumed that these people in suits entrusted to communicate with millions wouldn’t report false news, when they lie, fabricate and distort the truth boldly and ceaselessly like never before.

Our true crime is our tolerance of stupidity in this country. We allow it to dominate our airwaves. We let it be nurtured by various groups, fester and grow. We vote it in to offices just because of party loyalty and other weak reasons. Instead of admitting when a specific commentator, media personality or politician is way off with an ignorant or untrue statement, smart people of the same party, or some other subconsious connection to the person usually wiggle around it, ignore it, or try to convince others how they may have a point. We shouldn’t have these clowns comfortably communicating to millions. In Canada, Anne Coulter was forced to cancel her speaking tour due to the immense pressure from thousands of angry protestors that did not want her, her stupidity, or her hate to have a stage. We need to raise our standards and do the same. Ratings, celebrity, and controversy shouldn’t take precedent over social responsibility.

Regardless, there’s a new era trying to emerge. And the angry tailgaters do have a point. There is an enemy that threatens the growth of this country. America is an intriguing country and it’s very young. It’s still growing and has been in a fascinating state of evolution for decades. The tailgaters are correct that there is an ominous presence that threatens to stunt this country’s growth and hold us back from true social, economical and industrial progress. There’s a presence that threatens to keep us from learning and advancing in all aspects of society. The true threat to America is them; the angry tailgaters who don’t anything about anything. It’s the lady that stood up in the McCain rally to stutter Obama was a Muslim. It's the people totally oblivious to the fact that their victims and their opinions are being shaped and directed by "Big Brother" who own and edit all the media programs and suppress the needs of the people, simultaneously promoting the needs of the big corporations, making them feel they share the same wants. It’s the congregations of the dumb who you can’t argue with because they’re are convinced they’re right. Thinking they’re the answer, these people are the true threat to America and the country’s growth in all aspects. Unfortunately, and busy tailgating, screaming at town hall meetings, protesting, getting their information from the wrong sources and reading/listening/watching inaccurate news, they’re just way too stupid to know it.