For most of human history, the folks on the left side of the bell curve were ignored, as far as their opinions about community issues. This makes sense, obviously, as we don’t want to take advice from the stupid, the insane or the malicious. Human societies have had a variety of ways to handle it, mostly by keeping these people off the stage. Today, we give these people a megaphone and encourage them to fill the public space with their bellowing and hooting. Turn on any of the news channels and you get a full blast of stupid.
Mass communications has made it easy for all segments of society to “make their voices heard.” Most of these voices are just noise. They offer nothing of value. Twitter and Facebook make it easy for blockheads to reach out and “share” the ideas buzzing around in their heads. It’s why I call social media the “moronverse.”
Here’s a great example posted on NRO today:
Here is an excerpt from an Alternet article by Kali Holloway republished by Salon. See if anything about the GDP figures jumps out at you.
The top five members of Congress are worth more than the GDP of entire countries. At $200.5 million, Republican Dave Trott’s personal wealth is greater than the GDP of both Peru and Iraq ($200,269 and $195,517, respectively). Democrat Jared Polis is worth $213.2 million, more than the GDP of Algeria and ($208,764). Democrat John K. Delaney is worth $222.4, greater than the GDP of the Czech Republic ($208,796). Another Democrat, Mark Warner, is worth $254.2 million, which beats out the GDP of Greece ($241,721). While Republican Darryl Issa, the richest man in Congress, is worth an incredible $448.4 million, which makes him worth more than the GDPs of Bolivia, Croatia, Sri Lanka and Hong Kong put together ($30,601; $57,869; $67,203; and $274,027, respectively). And that’s still $15.6 million less than he was valued at last year.
The larger theme of the story, that members of Congress are shockingly wealthy, is poorly understood as well. The average member of Congress is about 57 years old, and they are mostly married, mostly savers and investors, and mostly college graduates in two-income households. Their net worths are about the same as other similar households.
The author of that nonsense is a regular at AlterNet. She has since locked up her Twitter feed, but it was full of the sort of things one expects from a low IQ lunatic. Lots of ranting about bogeymen, real and imagined. Since Miss Holloway is a member of the Cult, she is haunted by the usual suspects. Her work for AlterNet is mostly the sorts of things Jerry Springer Nation finds interesting, like pop culture and base humor. As an ornament, she is required to go on about race in the usual ways.
The hilarious part of her innumeracy is that it never occurred to her that Hong Kong’s GDP could not possibly be $275K. It’s as if she has never heard of Hong Kong, which you would think is impossible. In fairness, it is no sin to be as stupid as Miss Holloway. There are a lot of people getting through life who probably think Hong Kong is a Chinese restaurant. The sin is in giving this poor woman a platform. It is inevitable that she will embarrass herself and become the object of mockery by mean people like me.
The lunacy is the problem here. Miss Holloway is a true believer and she checks a couple of boxes so her coreligionists at these sites publish her work without challenging it. Why would they? She is, after all, one of them. That means she must be good because otherwise they would not be good. The hive minded are incapable of self-examination so they can never challenge the other members of the hive.
“The less justified a man is in claiming excellence for his own self, the more ready is he to claim excellence for his nation, his religion, his race or his holy cause.”–Eric Hoffer, The True Believer.
The cult of liberalism is Ms. Holloway’s holy cause.
All is lost. Idiocracy is here and thriving. Distribution about the mean is why the left is called the left. Must be at least two STDs west of the mean to be properly called a leftist. See Al Sharpton for the “proof”.
Surprise! Kali Holloway edits article without admitting her errors. Rookie.
I’m guessing she means millions as she quotes the politician’s wealth in millions and then, I think, shorthands the GDP figures. Of course she’s still an idiot for not realizing that even the poorest of countries have GDP’s in the billions.
Great blog. I came here from Nod to the Gods. I love your writing
This was on par with the typical Matthew Yglesias screw up