The Dumbing Down of America Under Bush

America has become a nation of idiots.

I think the point where I really started to worry was when people began using the phrase ‘freedom fries’ as a substitute for ‘french fries’. It spread like syphilis at a Roman orgy after France refused to take part in the invasion of Iraq, when anti-France sentiment grew here in the U.S. and two Republican congressmen decided to officially change the name in the restaurants and snack bars run by the House of Representatives. ‘Dang it all, Jeb, if the Republican gov’ment says it, then we should too! Those fancy French people, they’s all disloyal and anti-American and stuff!’

As if that weren’t enough, frighteningly, we seem to be endlessly entertained by crotch gags, like the ‘Ow My Balls!’ segments on America’s Funniest Videos. Some of the most popular programs on television are those that depict people eating bull testicles, transforming themselves into scary plastic mannequins via dozens of plastic surgery procedures, intentionally trying to hurt themselves in the stupidest ways possible and competing for the dubious affections of a man wearing a giant clock around his neck.

Then there are the email forwards. Christ on a bicycle, people, would you please verify that the information you’re about to send is correct before forwarding it to 98 of your closest friends, relatives, business associates and random acquaintances? I don’t know how many times I’ve had to direct the sender of a ridiculous email to Snopes.com to get the real story. It seems that many people are content to simply believe whatever is convenient for them to believe. If they want to convince themselves that Barack Obama really did go to terrorist training school, refuses to recite the Pledge of Allegiance and was sworn into office using the Koran rather than the Bible, they damn well will.

I could go on all day, but you get the point.

We’ve been set up to live like zombies, soothed by television and consumerism, told exactly what to think and how to live our lives. We self medicate with a round of Bud Light after work, let commercials and advertisements dictate how we spend our hard-earned money and avoid news and commentary that threatens our own intentionally narrow views of the world.

For those who actually make a weak attempt at educating themselves about current affairs, local news offers a bleakly sensationalized 30-minute roundup of clips designed to keep the viewer interested with inane lead-ins (“Is YOUR CHILD going to get RABIES from SEX-PROMOTING bracelets given to them by PEDOPHILES at school? FIND OUT NEXT!”). What’s more, many local news stations have published clips provided by the government that are no more than thinly veiled propaganda designed to sway public opinion. What little real information gets through is watered down, hurried through, and hardly noticed at all – or the viewer simply takes the few minutes of world news coverage to have a bathroom break before returning for sports or the weather.

Even ‘respectable’ publications like Time Magazine and Newsweek have taken part in the game: both have featured dramatically different international vs. American cover stories. Time Magazine chose to run “Why We Should Teach the Bible in Public School” in the U.S. in March 2007 while its Europe, Asia and South Pacific covers highlighted a story on the resurgence of the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. A few months prior, Newsweek had put photographer Annie Liebovitz on its U.S. cover while a story about how America is losing in Afghanistan ran on its international covers. Do publications intentionally talk down to Americans, or is it really just that we’re so vapid, the important stories don’t sell?

The worst part is, Americans display an almost childlike refusal to accept the idea that there is anything wrong with the culture that has been building for decades and has been brought to a mind-boggling dumb crescendo under the Bush administration. Our fellow citizens use patriotism as a shield against the unwelcome spear of reality.

What is clear is that the Bush administration has intentionally designed the downfall of American intellect to fall into line with its narrow, savagely partisan neo-con agenda. Guilt Christians into believing that Republican policies follow the teachings of the Bible? Check. Throw the ‘Anti-American’ label on anyone who doesn’t display mindless patriotism? Check. Push hot-button issues like gays, guns and God to the forefront of discussion to cause a deep political divide? Check. Tactics like these have allowed Bush and Co. to run rampant for nearly a decade, tossing around words like ‘terrorism’, ‘national security’, ‘Jesus’ and ‘CIA intelligence’ whenever convenient to prevent people from asking too many questions.

Science and education have suffered dramatically under Bush’s reign. The No Child Left Behind Act, rather than improving our public education, has caused damage that will be difficult to repair. The dropout rate in many cities is higher than 50%, and many current college students (who completed middle school through high school during the Bush occupation of the White House) lack basic life skills like figuring out how much to tip at a restaurant. Forget deciphering statistics, evaluating laboratory results or interpreting literature. A quarter of the general population still thinks the sun revolves around the earth, and more than I care to identify claim that dinosaur bones were put on earth by God as a test or that all the dinosaurs drowned during the ‘great flood’ of Noah’s Ark fame.

The Bush administration has also stifled science, making it harder for foreign-born scientists to work and live in America due to ‘terrorism concerns’ and willfully obstructed and ignored science that contradicts their own religious beliefs or prevents their powerful corporate and political friends from achieving their own goals. Among the more well known examples is that of Jerry Thacker, a fundamentalist who called homosexuality a ‘deathstyle’ – he was appointed to a presidential AIDS advisory committee until public outrage prompted his ousting. The Bush administration even intentionally prevented scientists from releasing information that confirmed global warming as fact.

Many people are starting to awaken from our Bush induced idiot coma, but will it happen in time for the 2008 election? You can bet that the Swift Boat propaganda machine is already working on attacks against Obama and attempts to make McCain look like the savior of mankind. Four years ago, it seemed like Bush had already done so much damage that there was no chance in hell the people of this country would be dumb enough to reelect him. We all know what happened. Sometimes, culturally cultivated stupidity knows no bounds.

If McCain is elected, then there truly is no hope for this country. He’ll undoubtedly start a war with another country – Iran, perhaps? – and complete the death blow Bush and Co. started eight fateful years ago. Anyone who believes that McCain differs from Bush in any important, discernible ways need look no further than McCain’s own words to see the truth; in this 2005 interview with Tim Russert on Meet the Press, he made it very clear.

RUSSERT: The fact is you are different than George Bush.

SEN. McCAIN: No. No. I–the fact is that I’m different but the fact is that I have agreed with President Bush far more than I have disagreed. And on the transcendent issues, the most important issues of our day, I’ve been totally in agreement and support of President Bush.

McCain, even if he is personally open to environmental legislation, would be helpless against a Republican cabinet in any attempts to actually pass beneficial laws. Not only would he initiate more pointless, expensive wars, he would retain the imbalance of power that keeps Americans at the mercy of greedy corporations, give more power to pharmaceutical and insurance companies that messed up our health care system so much in the first place and continue the conservative stronghold that has held America hostage for the better part of a decade. And that’s just the beginning.

We see the term ‘elitist’ thrown around like it’s a bad word: it’s part of what ruined John Kerry in 2004. They’re already starting to get their digs in on Obama: he eats arugula! Elitist! The funny thing is, don’t we want our leaders – especially our President – to be smarter and better than us? Leaders are supposed to emerge from the masses as those who see a better way, and can – you know – lead us to a brighter future on the horizon. Many Americans voted for Bush over Gore in 2000 because they found him ‘more charismatic’ and because ‘he made them laugh’. As a result, instead of a President, we got a court jester. Great job, America! Let’s not mess up that badly again this November.

Barring another dazzling display of American stupidity (because, naturally, not all of us are idiots), Barack Obama is going to save this country. It won’t be pretty or easy to get out of Iraq, but it will happen. The government will again embrace the warm but firm embrace of science, subsidies will start to shift from fossil to renewable energy, and all will be good. Eight years of Obama followed up by eight years of a Stewart/Colbert ticket should set us up nicely for a great 21st century.

Photo credit: Brian M + The Propaganda Remix Project

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