...Trump Is What Happens...Rebranding Knowledge as Elitism and Ignorance as Bliss

[babylonsister]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/president-trump-is-what-happens-after-republicans-spend-decades-rebranding-knowledge-as-elitism-and-ignorance-as-bliss?ref=home

President Trump Is What Happens After Republicans Spend Decades Rebranding Knowledge as Elitism and Ignorance as Bliss
‘I don’t think I have to prepare very much’ for the upcoming meeting with Kim Jong Un, Trump says. Here’s how we ended up with president who’s all gut, no knowledge.
Michael Tomasky
06.08.18 5:12 AM ET

snip//

When the conservative counter-offensive really kicked in, back in the 1970s, conservatives who wanted to dramatically remake and reorder American society knew they had a big job in front of them. All kinds of presumptions about how life and society worked were lodged deep in people’s minds. Many—most, indeed perhaps nearly all—of those assumptions were kind of liberal. The Republicans caused the Depression. Roosevelt saved the country. Unions helped us prosper in the postwar era. Science was noble, and experts were to be venerated. Religion was to remain private. The generals got us into an unwinnable war in Vietnam. And so on.

These were all things that the broad majority of Americans believed. They were also, well, you know, true. Republicans did wreck the country in 1929, FDR did save it, experts had expertise that was of value. Conservatives had to get Americans to un-believe all that—to hate unions and mistrust experts, to agree that liberals lost the Vietnam War.

That effort involved two prongs. The first and more obvious was inventing their own set of “facts” whereby, say, Roosevelt prolonged the Depression. The second prong was the discrediting of those who continued to trumpet the old liberal version of reality, and the sharpest knife in that drawer was by far the charge of elitism.

Once Republicans figured that out, the discrediting got simple. All you had to do to puncture someone’s argument was call that person an elitist. It often didn’t matter whether that someone was factually correct. In fact, being factually correct was all the more damning! Knowing the difference, say, between the Lippmann and Dewey points of view was evidence itself that one was too dependent on exterior knowledge, had no internal instincts on which to operate and base decisions.

Well, 40 years later, here we are. We finally have a president of the United States who is all gut, no knowledge. There are consequences to this. Our allies don’t like us. We’re starting trade wars with them that are ahistorical and ungrounded in fact. Trump’s going to Canada today for a G-7 meeting he has no desire to attend and where not much of anyone wants to see him. On the apparently upcoming North Korea meeting, Trump said Thursday, “I don't think I have to prepare very much.”

Of course, instinct works sometimes. Trump may connect with Kim Jong Un—in fact, one might say they’re likely to, as they seem to be about the same emotional age. But instinct fails, too. And when it does, look out. Stalin’s instinct was that he could trust Hitler.

So laugh when Trump blurts out some historical whopper. God knows we all need to laugh. But remember too—the fact that a man that ignorant is our president is the culmination (I hope, anyway) of a long attack on truth set in motion four decades ago that persuaded millions of Americans that knowledge is slavery and ignorance is indeed bliss.

[zipplewrath]

1. Even more

All of that is true, but there is an additional feature of conservatism that leads to this result. I call it "faith based reasoning". I don't necessarily mean religious faith. I mean the way they tend to think, and the way conservative thought was created was that they don't observe the world and figure out how it works, and then work to improve it. They conceive of how the world "should" work, and then move forward on the basis of that world view. There is no cause for actually observing the world and seeing if their view is valid. It is valid because they believe it.

It is where in the intersection between conservatism and the religious right was inevitable. They fit together perfectly. They both operate from the "it is, because it is so" basis. And it is also where the conflict between academia and conservatism arises. Academia demands study and observation to support assertions. Conservatism demands none of that. Conservatism either says "it's always been this way" or "it should be this way so it is". Nothing in there demands that one actually go out and confirm these views.

And so they have to attack those who are learned and those who study, because truth ends up having a real "liberal bias".

[flying rabbit]

2. +1 NT

[jayschool2013]

6. +2 NT

Word.

[Duppers]

11. Great post. 👍

[Arkansas Granny]

3. K&R. A must read article.

[Gothmog]

4. Deplorables are very stupid people which is why they vote for trump

Deplorables are poorly educated idiots

[whathehell]

5. Yep, may as well bring back "Pointy headed intellectuals"

ala George Wallace?

[yonder]

7. +3 nt

[lark]

8. And does he have a nice toned gut - hell no.

His gut is sloppy loose orange fat, disusting and showing his total lack of discipline and yet this is what he touts as his good point. OMG, he is so going to get taken to the cleaners by NK, the most stupid man to ever be elected to anything. I dread when he goes out of country, because he's such a damn embarassment in public.

[strangedaysindeed]

9. I really don't see why

we need to accommodate their willful stupidity.

Everyone with half a brain knows what's coming, instability, Depression and war. Lather rinse repeat.

I know it can seem mean, but there are times when you have to tell people that they are Too Old to drive the car.

[loyalsister]

10. Calling voters stupid is elitist

Claiming a mantle of intellectual superiority plays right into the hands of those who benefit from the division.

[Duppers]

12. +100

Excellent post.

Just one grip re Vietnam - LBJ should have withdrawn not escalated it. We placate conservatives far too much.