This post from Uncle reminded me of John Stossel’s campaign to ban dihydrogen monoxide. It’s about what I call ignoracracy– control of the people through ignorance, or the “Ignorati”– those who use that tactic. Stossel got plenty of signatures on his petition. He told people things like; dihydrogen monoxide, used heavily in industry, corrodes metal, and it kills thousands of people each year including children. Congress is doing nothing about it! All totally true of course.
Yellow journalism could be seen as a form of ignoracracy, except that we can turn it off or look away at will.
Education would be the obvious antidote, except that education is owned by the Ignorati.
The dihydrogen monoxide campaign always makes me think of the film students who go to liberal college campuses and all girls schools and collect signatures to “end woman’s suffrage”. Most people are far too willing to take cherry picked facts at face value. A people that is both ignorant and gullible is easily manipulated, combine that with a stubborn unwillingness to admit you have been fooled, and it becomes increasingly difficult to undo the damage even after you realize you have been had.
Old Windways, Stupid people are also super willing to jump on conspiracy bandwagons as well as eat up junk science simply because they like the feeling of being “in the know” despite their self-appointed denied access.
I will make a point that I use “Stupid” not just for people of low intelligence, hell you don’t need an IQ above 100 to reason through a lot of these little shell games, but the people who prefer not to exercise their minds, and cast a critical eye.
There is no eye blinder than the one that refuses to see.