For a couple of decades I have been preaching that our political system is bordering on stupid…..that the vote is now moved by innuendoes and lies more than truth and facts.

I recently read an opinion on reason.com that says it all……

I’ve never been a big believer in the wisdom of voters. Indeed, I’ve devoted much of my academic career to writing about the dangers of widespread political ignorance, going all the way back to my first academic article. It was published in 1998, at a time when most experts tended to be relatively optimistic about voter competence. Since then, I published a book on the subject—Democracy and Political Ignorance– and many other articles exploring various dimensions of the problem, its implications for legal and political theory, and possible solutions.

In these works, I explained how most voters often don’t know even basic facts about the political system and government policy, and those that know more (the “political fans”), often tend to evaluate political information in a highly biased way. I also argued that information shortcuts and “miracles of aggregation” largely fail to offset ignorance and bias, and sometimes even make thing worse. Moreover, this sad state of affairs is not the result of stupidity or lack of information, but of generally rational behavior on the part of most voters: a combination of “rational ignorance” (lack of incentive to seek out political information) and “rational irrationality” (lack of incentive to engage in unbiased evaluation).

Since the rise of Trump and similar right-wing nationalist politicians in other countries, academics and political commentators have become more aware of the dangers of public ignorance. I wish I could say my own take on the subject has been vindicated. But in one crucial respect, the Trump era has shown I wasn’t pessimistic enough.

Political Ignorance is an Even Worse Problem than I Thought

The last few elections, including the most recent, is proving the Power of Dumb….

There is a power that dumb things have in this world. It is not the power of imperviousness to criticism, but rather of being so permeable that all criticism passes through with no effect, like the invisible neutrinos that stream through our bodies every second. Grappling with the dawn of the Second Trump Era will require an acceptance of the disquieting truth that Dumb Things and Important Things are about to merge into a single excruciating category of existence.

Donald Trump is an ignorant, overconfident, narcissistic, grievance-ridden man — a dumb man, who over time has attracted around him an asteroid field of dumb allies who are but lesser versions of himself. His invariable instinct to act without knowledge is dumb; his unwavering instinct to make consequential decisions based upon minor personal whim is dumb; his unshakeable belief in his own laughable reasoning is dumb. No sober analysis would grant him any benefit of the doubt. He possesses the poisonous combination of great power and the utter absence of concern for responsibility. He knows little and does much. He lives the child’s fantasy of arranging the immediately visible parts of the world for his own flattery and receiving in return the praise of all the people who wish that they themselves could live such a charmed and feckless existence. 

In 2004, a Bush White House official was famously quoted in the New York Times Magazine deriding the ​“reality-based community.” 

https://inthesetimes.com/article/donald-trump-elon-musk-election-2024-dumb

This past vote has illustrated just how despicable the American voter has become….this is an opinion piece….

The electorate affirmed that the worst human being to hold the presidency deserves a second turn in the job. Despite Trump being eight years older and obviously losing his mind; despite the fact that he ran a corrosive campaign on naked malevolence; and despite his having promised to mass arrest, cage, and deport immigrants, Americans rewarded him with ultimate power.

Toward the end of the 2024 election, the candidates made their closing arguments. Trump painted the United States as a dark, terrifying and infested place, festering with pet-eating immigrants, violent criminals, and deviant trans people. America was a savage hellscape where good, “normal” Americans were forgotten as their white, heterosexual world was reshaped by Democrats into something alien and repulsive.

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/trump-voters-failed-america

I am so glad that I still have the desire to look at all sides and then make my decision without any interference from social media….I guess I still practice the lost art of critical thinking.

How dumb can this situation become?

I hope everyone has a great holiday weekend and that all will remain safe.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”