Freedom Rider: America the Stupid
by BAR Editor and Senior Columnist Margaret
Kimberley
"Could
you picture Davy Crockett at the Alamo looking at his BlackBerry getting a
message from Congress? Davy Crockett, we support you, the only thing is we're
not going to send any troops.' I'm sure that would really be impressive to Davy
Crockett." - Rep. Todd
Akin, R-Mo.
There is a sick, twisted logic to Akin's idiotic analogy.
The war with Mexico had a lot in common with the occupation of Iraq. White
Americans decided they had a "manifest destiny" to establish a nation from sea
to shining sea. Mexico wasn't accused of having WMDs, but American politicians
told enough lies to start a war and steal more than half of Mexico's territory.
It makes sense that an image from that era would be used to justify continued
killing in Iraq.
Most Americans were always dumber than people in the rest
of the world and their stupidity is getting worse by the day. The worship of
white supremacy, religious fundamentalism and capitalism are mostly responsible
for the ever lowering collective IQ. Those belief systems are mainstays of
American thought and have now come together in a particularly ugly way.
"The worship of white supremacy, religious fundamentalism
and capitalism are mostly responsible for the ever lowering collective IQ."
A member of the Texas state legislature, Warren Chisum,
recently declared that the earth doesn't move. According to Chisum, the sun and
other planets all revolve
around the earth. He isn't alone either. There is a new and outspoken group
of people who are pushing the notion of "geocentrism"
and insisting that it be called a science.
Chisum may have flunked science, but he passes the most
important test in Texas. He believes in giving more public money to rich
people. Chisum, Chairman of the Appropriations Committee of the Texas House of
Representatives, has sponsored a bill that would give an enormous property tax cut to rich
Texans.
Chisum's belief in robbing the public treasure for the good
of the rich is no less ridiculous than pushing medieval ideas about science.
Texas ranks last among the 50 states on what it spends on its citizens. It
ranks high in the number of gun shows, air pollution emissions, and number of children
without health insurance. Of course Texas has the fewest
number of citizens with high school diplomas. Perhaps stupidity is
Texascentric.
It is too easy to ridicule fundies who agree with the
Inquisition that silenced Galileo in the 1600s. It is much harder to point out
that there is an underlying stupidity that is responsible for most of what is
wrong with this country.
The United States government is still waging a war of
aggression in Iraq because of willful
American ignorance. Most Americans need little encouragement to occupy other
nations, kill people and steal resources. They knew that Saddam Hussein had no
connection to the terror attacks that took place on September 11, 2001. Yet
they were quite pleased to be dumb and politicians heaved a collective sigh of
relief when they got the go ahead from a happily clueless public.
"There is an underlying stupidity that is responsible for
most of what is wrong with this country."
American stupidity will be front and center on the world
stage when the Bush administration attacks Iran. Few Congressional leaders have
expressed complete and vocal opposition to these awful plans. They have only
said that the president doesn't have the authority to wage war. Senate Majority
Leader Harry
Reid said, "The president does not have the
authority to launch military action in Iran without first seeking Congressional
authorization - the current use of force resolution for Iraq does not give him
such authorization."
Reid and his colleagues haven't said that they wouldn't give
him authorization, only that he has to ask first. If Bush makes the case to a
critical mass of the intellectually challenged public, or just starts bombing
and dares Congress to stop him, he will have the war he has long sought.
It isn't very likely that Americans will get smarter
anytime soon. Politicians know that appealing to their worst instincts is
usually a winning formula. The corporate run media is not only unhelpful in
enlightening the public but is in fact complicit in keeping them in the dark.
"Politicians know that appealing to their worst instincts
is usually a winning formula."
The New York Times is once again leading the charge in
helping the Bush administration push bogus information. This time around Iran
is the bogeyman maligned by unnamed sources. It is déjà vu all over again.
Belief in American superiority and particularly the
superiority of white people, will always win the day and will always keep the
nation ignorant. It isn't surprising that politicians evoke the name of Davy
Crockett and peddle nonsense about the sun rotating around the earth. After
all, leaders can only be a reflection of the people they serve.
Margaret Kimberley's
Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BA R. Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City,
and can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgandaReport.Com.
Ms. Kimberley' maintains an edifying and frequently updated blog at freedomrider.blogspot.com. More
of her work is also available at her Black Agenda Report archive page.
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