Tornado Alley (PROG)

[fuagf]

Our American Cult of ‘Defiant Ignorance’

2013- "Sadly, Bernie made before and after mistakes there. Your Electablog
http://www.eclectablog.com/2015/07/white-progressives-get-a-taste-of-anger-frustration-as-blacklivesmatter-activists-upstage-bernie-sanders.html
article is brilliant. It really sunk in on the 2nd reading. Thank you."

Related:

2023 - yes it is, but we are in a sad state of affairs these days. Why everyone thinks they are entitled
for being a white straight person is not the message I grew up with.
Everyone belongs and deserves the same opportunities.

https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=171296651

2022 - The diner is new .. Updated 21.10.2021 Karen's Diner opens in Sydney
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=169229573

2019 - The Republican Party has become a cult
[...]Then in 2003, George W. Bush claimed that he was FORCED to invade Iraq because Saddam Hussein refused to allow the U.N. weapons inspectors into Iraq. Thus, Bush and Cheney had NO CHOICE, but to invade to protect America’s national security.
P - Republicans had absolutely no problem agreeing with Bush when he said this.
P - For four months, Bush’s followers in the Republican Party had no problem insulting and ridiculing the work that the U.N. weapons inspectors were doing in Iraq. Then, in 2003, Bush claimed that the U.N. weapons inspectors WERE NEVER IN IRAQ, and Bush’s supporters had no problem agreeing with that either.
P - Even when Bush’s lies directly contradicted what he had said a few months earlier, his supporters had no trouble immediately accepting this lie. This is EXACTLY the sort of thing that goes on in religious cults! It doesn’t matter how nonsensical and obvious the lie, it will STILL BE BELIEVED if it comes from a high-ranking leader of the cult.
P - Well, that was back in 2003. It’s now 2019, and things haven’t gotten any better.
P - Nowadays, we have millions of Republicans with an unquestioning devotion to Trump and whatever his ideas may be at any given moment. Even when his ideas are blatantly irrational and puerile nonsense.
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=147062009

Arrogance, ignorance, and (White) entitlement have come to define our American experience

Published in
Bouncin’ and Behavin’ Blogs
https://medium.com/bouncin-and-behavin-blogs?source=post_page-----112a212d00e1--------------------------------

Richard Lowenthal·
Jun 28, 2024


Photo by Tony Rojas on Unsplash

This morning I had a dental appointment, and while there I decided to conduct a little social ‘experiment.’

Once my deep cleaning was complete, I told my hygienist — we’ll call her Mary — that I was doing an informal survey of people I knew or ran into around town. Then I asked Mary how she felt about the possible outcomes of our upcoming presidential election, on a scale of 1–10, with 1 being ‘not concerned at all,’ and 10 being ‘extremely worried.’

As I recall, I never did get an actual number from her — but she did share her thoughts and feelings. Mary was emphatic that “if one result happens, everything will be fine, but if the other result happens, there will be a massive uprising.”

I wasn’t about to make assumptions, or let that vagueness pass, so I pressed her a bit. I asked, “Do you mean that if Trump wins, things will remain relatively peaceful, but if Biden wins, many Trump supporters won’t accept this result — and will rise up and get violent?”

She nodded yes, paused, and then asked a simple question that jolted me — and shook me to the core. She asked, quite innocently: “So, Biden is running for president?” I pretended that my jaw hadn’t dropped to the floor, and politely informed her that yes, Biden IS running for president.

I also found myself wondering if she’d been hiding under a rock for the past six months (but in reality, she’s apparently just another sad example of an American know-nothing).

In that moment, I knew that American society and our so-called ‘democracy’ are doomed.

‘It’s the economy, stupid!’ — or is it?

Now, I don’t know anything about Mary’s political leanings or preferences, but she was clearly aware of one major political problem: if Trump doesn’t win outright, he and his followers will instigate mass chaos and violence.

She was also emphatic about her main personal concern, which is the economy and the high prices of food and goods. She complained about earning a “pretty good salary,” yet she still has trouble paying for everything she wants or needs at the grocery store.

What I took from this conversation is: like most Americans, over the years she’s heard enough about Trump and his MAGA followers to know they are defiant troublemakers/’patriots’ (depending on one’s point of view), and will NOT accept defeat gracefully — or at all.

However, again like most Americans, she is also woefully uninformed, indeed quite ignorant, about much of what’s happening in our society. For her, and perhaps for most Americans, that old Clinton-era adage “It’s the economy, stupid!’ is totally accurate — and says everything we need to know about many Americans’ concerns or viewpoint.

But there’s also a disastrous disconnect happening. Our president’s policies and initiatives always matter greatly, and can often influence what happens economically.

Yet, when it comes to who is running for president, what they value and promote, and what our nation’s overall direction will be going forward… well, for many of us that’s a big ‘Meh’ — or worse. It might also be “Who gives a crap?” or just a resigned “Who cares?”

Riigght. “It’s the economy, stupid!” Just give us a roaring economy and boatloads of money, please.

Aside from that: “Who the hell cares?”

An abundance of ignorance, disinformation, and paranoia

But when I talk to my own circle of friends and acquaintances, we all very much care. A lot. And we are also very worried. We all keep up with the news, and stay well-informed about current events.

But apparently, that’s NOT true of most Americans. Today, most of us get our ‘news’ from social media, or from little snippets of videos and ‘news bites’ online.

Hardly anyone reads newspapers anymore, and most also don’t watch the news on TV. Sadly, the online sources they DO pay attention to are usually highly partisan — and often highly unreliable.

Thus, in this ‘land of abundance,’ we’ve gotten used to an abundance of ignorance and disinformation
as well — and have accepted this dismal state of affairs. Even worse, we now expect
our citizens to be minimally engaged and poorly informed.

But an ignorant, uninformed citizenry simply cannot protect, maintain, or run a functional semi-democracy. It’s a literal impossibility. (And today’s rampant paranoia makes it all even worse.)

As Ben Franklin is reputed to have said, our founders fashioned “a (democratic) republic — if we can keep it.”


Photo by Jose M on Unsplash

A widespread ‘cult of defiant ignorance’

The problem is, we need informed, involved citizens to keep our semi-democracy running. Yet somehow, the U.S. has always (slyly) promoted a widespread ‘cult of ignorance,’ in which science, learning, and ‘intellectuals’ are all deeply distrusted or even hated.

The famous science fiction author, Isaac Asimov, wrote several impassioned essays lamenting our American ‘cult of ignorance.’ In the most well-known piece ..https://aphelis.net/cult-ignorance-isaac-asimov-1980/ , he wrote:

“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism
has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false
notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”

Of course, a prime example of this defiant and false belief system in action is the rise of Donald Trump and his MAGA movement. Trump has been called a ‘sociopath’ and a ‘malignant narcissist’ — accurately — but to me, it’s clear that he also suffers from ‘oppositional-defiant disorder.’

Interestingly, that disorder is often used to describe at-risk youth and angry, troubled adolescents. But based on observation of Trump’s attitudes and behavior over many years, I’d say it’s irrefutable that he often acts like an angry, petulant child or a defiant, ‘other-blaming’ adolescent.

[Insert: Don't forget Trump himself said he really hadn't changed much since first grade. See:
How is it possible "Jack Smith has a sprawling case against former President Donald Trump.”" Why, dear boy, because your violations of American law while trying to overturn the 2020 election results were sprawling, said the old lady to the ex-president with still much of the temperament of his First Grade. Really haven't changed much since then, the man-boy said.
P - "When I look at myself in the first grade and I look at myself now, I’m basically the same. The temperament is not that different."
https://theweek.com/speedreads/575962/donald-trump-tells-biographer-hes-same-now-first-grade
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=173500214]

His vengeful, aggressive public persona is well-known, as is his tendency to attack, ridicule, and insult others. And guess what: these exact tendencies are all encoded into his MAGA ‘platform’ (if it can be called that), and his devoted followers adore his loud, aggressive, and oppositional/defiant style.

That’s exactly what I’m referring to in the headline of this article: our ‘cult of defiant ignorance.’ For Trump and MAGA, “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge” has become one of their foremost mantras and guiding ‘principles’ — along with heavy doses of White supremacy, misogyny, racism, and ethnic hatreds.

A toxic, deadly stew

Still, the question remains: just why are Americans so ignorant and arrogant?

Well, the statistics about Americans’ education (or lack thereof) are both depressing and infuriating. Likewise, the statistics about Americans’ (minimal) knowledge of current events are discouragingly horrific.

But my purpose here isn’t to round up mountains of evidence and throw them at you, but to try to deeply understand what the heck is going on in this ‘land of the free.’

And here’s what I’ve come up with: when we (or any society) combine mass ignorance with mass selfishness and excessive ‘individualism,’ we end up with a toxic, deadly stew of public apathy and non-involvement.

When the public good and working toward the ‘greater good’ are viewed as irrelevant, annoying impediments to personal gain and ‘advancement’ — as they usually are in our capitalist system — something is very, very wrong.

It’s SO wrong, in reality, that it’s an absolute wonder that our social and political systems have lasted as long as they have.

We’ve created an unmitigated social, political, and ecological disaster

I’d take this analysis a step further, though. If, into this ‘toxic, deadly stew,’ we toss our long-term, mindless emphasis on consumerism and ‘individual-satisfaction-through-endless-consumption,’ we wind up with an incredibly poisonous and dysfunctional society and ‘social philosophy.’

It’s actually quite simple: individualism plus ignorance, plus selfishness, plus defiant arrogance, plus ongoing, destructive consumerism equals/creates an unmitigated social, psychological, political, and ecological disaster.

Of course, there are many loud apologists for our American system of capitalism and semi-democracy — but to me, they are almost universally blinded by the glorious self-image we try to project. You know, ‘the land of the free,’ ‘with freedom and justice for all’, ‘a chicken in every pot,’ etc.

But after living in the U.S. for 70 years, I have to say: in the end, all those ‘glorious’ images and imagined wonders just serve to make us insufferably arrogant and entitled. The reality on the ground is far, far different, so the vast disconnect between our ideals and our American reality has become a tremendous, unbridgeable chasm.

And our ignorance, defiance, and (White) entitlement just keep compounding the problem.

Truly, in the United States of America we are all in bondage to a perverse and sickening cult of arrogant, defiant ignorance.

We’re lost and in bondage, and we desperately, desperately need to break these awful chains.

But… will we? Will we ever?

It’s looking more and more doubtful with every passing year.

[Note: A follow-up article — Part 2 — has been published here ..
https://medium.com/bouncin-and-behavin-blogs/our-american-cult-of-defiant-ignorance-part-2-41b263eb04b6 .]

https://medium.com/bouncin-and-behavin-blogs/our-american-cult-of-defiant-ignorance-112a212d00e1