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17 October 2010 By Joel S. Hirschhorn
In trying to understand how so many Americans adore
people like Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Sarah Palin and
Rush Limbaugh I have come to this critical
understanding: Poorly educated, terribly informed,
intellectually deficient and downright stupid people
need idols. They feel angry, frustrated,
ignored, cheated and disillusioned by so much going on
in American society. They find the emotional,
political and philosophical rants by talk show, loud
mouth celebrities matching and justifying their
feelings. Of course, those celebrities work hard to
fan the flames of all that unhappiness and discontent,
and also perpetuate ignorance and hate. They sell
stupidity to gullible dummies, teaching them who to
blame for their misery. I am no conservative or liberal
and I know I sound terribly condescending and will be
viewed as an elitist by those dummies, not that they
read much by those they do not idolize. However, I
have spent considerable time following what these
demon idols say and write to seriously investigate
whether I might be missing something of value. But all
I see are huge quantities of totally incorrect and
distorted information, absolute nonsense, outright
insanity, abuse of logic, exaggerations, toxic half
truths, intentional disinformation, racism and
bigotry, and extreme political views that have no
connection to reality and offer no workable solutions
to the nation's complex problems. Slick sound-bite
slogans push propaganda substitutes for verifiable
facts. How to understand how so many
people can listen to such celebrities and not feel as
nauseous as I and so many other Americans feel when
listening to them? Clearly we must accept the
disturbing fact that there are many millions of
suffering Americans who are mental midgets, a sign of
the dumbing-down of America. No surprise really when
you remember there are millions of people wasting
their money on gambling, lottery tickets, cons and
scams, junk products and unhealthy foods, or unable to
qualify for decent jobs because of a lack of knowledge
and skills. Either they were born stupid (a harsh but
true statistical reality) or the many ups and downs of
life have robbed them of any critical thinking ability
to see through the idiocy that these purveyors of
poison peddle while making obscene millions of
dollars. Consider recent Pew Center
Research poll results that showed 18 percent of
Republicans do not know that the Democrats control the
House of Representatives and 35 percent do not know
who the Vice President is. Research has found Fox News
butchers facts and its devotees are the most ignorant,
and in recent years Republicans have
overwhelmingly gone to Fox to get their news and
information. Note: 80 percent who regularly listen to
Rush Limbaugh or watch Sean Hannity are conservative.
I'm not saying that "No truth, just spin" should be
the Fox motto, but it sure fits. I can easily relate to the many
people treated unfairly, unjustly and even brutally by
the political and economic system. But those who have
drifted over to the dark side of the right-wing,
conservative arena and become addicted to the rhetoric
of delusion have nothing in common with those that
once made the United States a noble nation worthy of
respect. Their idols talk a lot about the Founders and
Constitution, but share none of the fine qualities of
those that created our republic. They also pick and
choose what parts of the Constitution to adore,
mocking the rule of law. As an independent, I too am
extremely critical of the political and economic
system and how the middle class has been purposefully
harmed by a rich and powerful Upper Class that has
turned the nation into a plutocracy serving the greed
of individuals and corporations. I want revolution and
true reforms. I condemn both major political parties
and see elections as useless anachronisms. I too feel disenfranchised, full
of dissent and disgust with broken government, broken
educational and health care systems, crumbling
inadequate infrastructure, widespread corruption and
dishonesty, and an economy dispensing inequality and
injustice. Yet, try as I have, I cannot see any merit
in what these powerful right-wing demigods dish out,
all done to pump millions of dollars into their
pockets and pump up their egos. They sell themselves
as the defenders of the downtrodden and abused, but
this is just a con game designed to keep millions of
dollars coming to them and their fellow fat
cats. When their supporters vote for Republicans they
vote against their own economic interests, unless they
are rich. These false populists are
fundamentally no different than the evil elite forces
that this fraction of the population despises.
Perversely, they have become a part of the ruling
class they routinely condemn. They are the worst kind
of idols, manipulating and soaking their audiences and
admirers. They pitch poisonous, hateful and addicting
fast food rhetoric, words as pleasing as salt, sugar
and fat laden foods and as eagerly gulped down. This
results in mental capacity becoming as clogged as the
arteries in overweight and obese Americans. What is evil? Right-wing
hypocritical hucksters pitching messages of values,
morals, freedom and patriotism crafted to sucker the
least informed, emotionally stressed and unintelligent
Americans for the sake of power and money. These idols
live like royalty (for example, Limbaugh makes $60
million a year and Beck $35 million) while their loyal
fans treasure fantasy expectations and block out
information that would cause too much pain by piercing
the delusions they have succumbed to. By putting their
faith in false idols they become unknowing victims of
the media corpocracy profiting from these idols. What a culture, where so few can
take advantage of so many and make fortunes doing it.
The real goal of the demon idols is to further divide
the nation, not fix it and make it better. Why?
Because divisiveness is what sells and makes them big
money. Shame on them. Those who worship them need more
worthy heroes if they really love their country and
want to make it better for all its citizens. The rest
of us need to ignore the false idols and their
followers, showing them no respect whatsoever,
condemning them at every opportunity. [Contact Joel S. Hirschhorn
through delusionaldemocracy.com.]
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