Ugh, makes me want to spit

Saw this link on Andrew Sullivan's blog post Willfully Ignorant. The article Sullivan links to, by Dick Polman, is about that large swath of the electorate who despite the 24/7 coverage on cable (and networks for those Antenna people!) media are blithe in their ignorance about the Candidates and especially Obama.

I'll let you all read the various quotes and statements in the article. I'm sure you'll recognize hearing these same sort of "they must be living under a rock" statements from (God forbid!) friends and family and especially those random conversations we can't help but over hear in our daily lives, between people on the street or in the office, etc etc. What I will do though is give you the money quote.

"The importance is not that they are misinformed, but that there is such a gross lack of awareness about a presidential candidate who has written so fully and completely on his background and his childhood." But Hart is being too kind. These people - and millions like them, by his estimate - are willfully ignorant because they won't take five minutes to educate themselves on the basics.

Granted, they surely lead busy lives, they have every right to assign politics a low priority, and there is no reason to assume that they would like Obama any better if they armed themselves with accurate information. Fine. But at least they would not be so oblivious. All it takes to raise one's political IQ, in this era of instant communications, is a few clicks on the mouse or a few readings of a decent newspaper.

(The emphasis is mine and the link - worth it - is one that I've embedded)

And follow that money quote up with the very first comment to Mr. Polman's thesis:

Typical of the elite liberal media - they think everyone is dumb except them. And if you actually figure out how to get out of bed and find your poling place, if you don't vote Baraq Hussein Obama, you're just a dumb hick who can walk.

Posted by MiddleNameHussein

Way to go for proving the author's point.

What both the article author and Sullivan point out is there's a culture of anti-intellectualism in this country that allows people to dismiss the "egg heads" and "latte sippers," but what about the proud idiots?

If we remotely criticize the woefully nescient for their self perpetuating state of ignorance it's considered un-American. At times it boggles the mind and well just makes me want to spit.

A list of posts that I've written trying to explain or refute or illustrate this woeful ignorance:

Obama is an apostate Muslim and will be killed

Obama is a member of the Trinity of Hell (a real eye-roller)

And a reminder that "Not all Anti-Obamists are hard working, white Americans"

And there are many more examples of simple media such as e-mail and youtube videos that perpetuate these lies and half-truths. And with only a few clicks of the Mouse one could just check out SNOPES.com and see that they've been receiving viral spam, the question is will they do it? One can only hope.

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