This is an anti-Palin piece so some of you might not want to click on it, but some of the lines are worth it:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2009/07/16/lyons/index.html
July 16, 2009 | “The rise of Idiot America … is essentially a war on expertise … In the new media age, everybody is a historian, or a scientist, or a preacher, or a sage. And if everyone is an expert, then nobody is, and the worst thing you can be in a society where everybody is an expert is, well, an actual expert.”
— Charles P. Pierce, from “Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free”
Pity the poor “real Americans,” because they sure feel sorry for themselves. Self-pity appears to be the latest national craze. Not that we haven’t got real troubles, but everywhere you look and listen these days, some big crybaby’s blubbering about how people like him or her get no respect from (take your pick) “Ivy League elitists,” the “scientific establishment,” “so-called sophisticates,” the “mainstream media” and so on.
But hey, Americans don’t come any realer than me. I learned that recently from MSNBC news-chat personality Mika Brzezinski. Discussing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s supporters on “Morning Joe,” Brzezinski allowed as how us country folks (I live in a rural county with a lot more cows than people) constitute the nation’s moral backbone. “God, I hate to say it,” Brzezinski allowed, “but in the cities where there are a little bit more liberal elite populations, you are not going to find what is representative of America.”
Sigh. We already tried that. It brought us George W. Bush, a synthetic cowboy who dropped the “rancher” pose the minute he left the White House. Back in 2001, metropolitan pundits — seemingly unfamiliar with the oeuvre of Hank Williams and Garth Brooks — kept telling us about the superior moral instincts of us “red state” voters.
Brzezinski’s the daughter of former Carter administration national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, and attended several fancy private schools. So I’m guessing she doesn’t know a lot of drinkin’ and cheatin’ songs either.
…
An authentic product of what author Charles P. Pierce calls the “Three Great Premises” of America’s decayed TV celebrity culture. First, “Any theory is valid if it moves units,” i..e. sells advertising. Second, “Anything can be true if someone says it loudly enough.” Third, “Fact is that which enough people believe. Truth is measured by how fervently they believe it.”
The cultural left is sometimes as prone to dimwit populism as the right. Witness the Rev. Al Sharpton moving an audience to tears by assuring Michael Jackson’s children that he wasn’t “strange,” but his critics were. Sleepovers with other people’s children? Compulsive plastic surgery? Gobbling pills? Mainlining IV drugs? Sorry, Reverend, “strange” doesn’t begin to describe that poor soul.
About PaulVK
Husband, Father of 5, Pastor
Leadingchurch.com 
Gene Lyons Salon piece on the rise of idiot America
This is an anti-Palin piece so some of you might not want to click on it, but some of the lines are worth it:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2009/07/16/lyons/index.html
July 16, 2009 | “The rise of Idiot America … is essentially a war on expertise … In the new media age, everybody is a historian, or a scientist, or a preacher, or a sage. And if everyone is an expert, then nobody is, and the worst thing you can be in a society where everybody is an expert is, well, an actual expert.”
— Charles P. Pierce, from “Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free”
Pity the poor “real Americans,” because they sure feel sorry for themselves. Self-pity appears to be the latest national craze. Not that we haven’t got real troubles, but everywhere you look and listen these days, some big crybaby’s blubbering about how people like him or her get no respect from (take your pick) “Ivy League elitists,” the “scientific establishment,” “so-called sophisticates,” the “mainstream media” and so on.
But hey, Americans don’t come any realer than me. I learned that recently from MSNBC news-chat personality Mika Brzezinski. Discussing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s supporters on “Morning Joe,” Brzezinski allowed as how us country folks (I live in a rural county with a lot more cows than people) constitute the nation’s moral backbone. “God, I hate to say it,” Brzezinski allowed, “but in the cities where there are a little bit more liberal elite populations, you are not going to find what is representative of America.”
Sigh. We already tried that. It brought us George W. Bush, a synthetic cowboy who dropped the “rancher” pose the minute he left the White House. Back in 2001, metropolitan pundits — seemingly unfamiliar with the oeuvre of Hank Williams and Garth Brooks — kept telling us about the superior moral instincts of us “red state” voters.
Brzezinski’s the daughter of former Carter administration national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, and attended several fancy private schools. So I’m guessing she doesn’t know a lot of drinkin’ and cheatin’ songs either.
…
An authentic product of what author Charles P. Pierce calls the “Three Great Premises” of America’s decayed TV celebrity culture. First, “Any theory is valid if it moves units,” i..e. sells advertising. Second, “Anything can be true if someone says it loudly enough.” Third, “Fact is that which enough people believe. Truth is measured by how fervently they believe it.”
The cultural left is sometimes as prone to dimwit populism as the right. Witness the Rev. Al Sharpton moving an audience to tears by assuring Michael Jackson’s children that he wasn’t “strange,” but his critics were. Sleepovers with other people’s children? Compulsive plastic surgery? Gobbling pills? Mainlining IV drugs? Sorry, Reverend, “strange” doesn’t begin to describe that poor soul.
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About PaulVK
Husband, Father of 5, Pastor