Browsing my news feed I found this piece and decided it was scary enough to share with everyone. I think I’d like to read Papantonio’s book and see what she has to say. Here is a radio dealing with her premise and some related information from Raw Story.
“In her book, Papantonio explained, Jacobs found that more than 40 percent of Americans under the age of 44 did not read a single book over the course of the previous year. And their concentration had deteriorated to the point that politicians needed to condense their messages into 8-second soundbytes to grab their attention, leading her to conclude that the country was now “ill with a powerful mutant strain of intertwined ignorance, anti-rationalism and anti-intellectualism,” compounded by schools’ increased emphasis on passing standardized tests instead of comprehensive education on subjects like civics and humanities.
“Chances are, if you are one of those corporate media-following bone heads who still believe that weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq, or Saddam Hussein blew up the Twin Towers, or Obama is a secret Muslim, or Obama wants to take your guns, or Obama has FEMA prison camps set up for Teabag Republicans, then search no further,” said Papantonio, who is also president of the National Trial Lawyer Association. “You truly are the undereducated, child-like, impressionable, irrational, dangerous cog in America’s political system that puts Democracy most at risk.”
Potentially scary stuff. This is the first I’ve heard of “ring of fire” radio broadcasting, so do take it with a grain of salt.
3 comments
May 2, 2013 at 7:26 am
john zande
“ill with a powerful mutant strain of intertwined ignorance, anti-rationalism and anti-intellectualism…”
That should be a meme
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May 3, 2013 at 12:30 am
cocacolafiend
To be fair, that’s exactly what democracy means. Everyone has a vote.
The vast majority of people in my country, including myself, have no education in economics, yet economic strategy is the only real difference between the three major partis. I have no idea who to vote for. I don’t particularly like the idea of either Labour, the Tories or the Lib Dems in power.
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May 3, 2013 at 8:07 am
The Arbourist
Do you think that this situation could be part of the problem? There was a time when you could cast a vote in Britain for Labour and have it count toward representing the ideals of the working class.
What sort of platform are you looking for politically speaking?
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