There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.’

Isaac Asimov said this almost fifty years ago. It still doesn’t answer the “why” but it shows how long (at least) this has been going on.

“Dunning-Kruger 2028” would make an amusing yard sign.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gung_ho

The wikipedia article doesn’t mention the “pull together” (as in rope pulling) interpretation. That was from a book about Mao that I read a long time ago, I can’t remember what it was. The book had a bit about Evans Carlson traveling with Mao’s army and meeting him. I am certainly not a Chinese speaker so I’m happy to have my inaccuracies corrected.

sounds like a communist slogan

I’ve always been amused by the fact that “gung ho” (which in Mandarin means “pull together”, as in pulling on a rope in unison) started out as a slogan of the Chinese Communist Party under Mao and then migrated to the US during WWII because of an openly-communist Marine. Its real meaning is more like “be a team player” but it was somehow transformed into “eagerly shoot brown people”.

Also, the Marines’ “ooh rah” chant sounds exactly like the Soviet Red Army’s chant. More weird shit.

People are literally starving

Which means it’s working exactly the way they want.

He finally tuned in and turned on.

33⅓% Gaslighting 33⅓% Obstruction 33⅓% Projection

The bass lines were cool.

I mean, he’s obviously gotten plastic surgery at various times in the past. That shit needs constant retouching.

I’ve no doubt he can fit Putin’s dick in there along with Peter Thiel’s.

the only person who helped the injured man

They took er jobs!

I enjoy asking people to name all ten commandments whenever they bring that shit up - they can never do it. “Uhhhhhh … do not cover thy ass?”

In my view, the “collapse” of the Soviet Union was actually just the elites sloughing off their actual obligations to the masses, allowing them to enjoy their wealth and power openly while the ordinary people rot away. For the most part, the government officials who had been in charge of state assets in the USSR ended up owning them personally, creating the “oligarchs” we know and love today.

The Art of the Deal

TBF trump didn’t write this book … or even read it, according to the guy who ghost-wrote it for him.

Where I live (Philly suburbs) you always used to see people playing organized soccer on all the local fields early Sunday mornings yelling in Spanish. Now those fields are always empty.

This reminds me of the Chinese expression “the nail that sticks up gets hammered down.”

I forgot about his TV show on E! too, which was in the late '90s.

national(?)

It was definitely national by 2006. I was listening to his show in Cleveland in the '90s.

Lol “laws”.

Murdoch’s age is just insane. His fucking father was a stain on humanity during fucking WWI, and that dude was already in his 30s at the time.