Joe DiGenova probably coined a new expression, “incandescent ignoramus,” to describe one of today’s witless, pop-star politicians. That remarkably compact description befits his legal training and point of view.
One evening earlier this month radio host Howie Carr took a listener’s call. It was also brief and to the point: “Trump is a scumbag.” This scholarly analysis surely reflects another remarkable intellect and, doubtless, decades of study at some prestigious institute of Malted Arts.
It may be a bit unfair to mock this hapless, anonymous, incandescent ignoramus, but it is not unfair to deplore political and media dunces using far more words to deliver no substance, sense, or supporting facts in their unrestrained partisan advocacy.
Joe Biden said that we (Democrats) prefer “… truth to facts …”. That is a snippet without context and fairness demands saying he badly fumbled whatever point he meant to make. That he did not hear himself and immediately correct the mistake is telling for those of us who already have a dim view of his intelligence and integrity.
What we heard was, “We prefer telling you what to believe to giving you facts and letting you decide what is true.”
Incessantly, lately, we read and hear the same in major metropolitan daily papers and major network media outlets: “We won’t clutter your feeble little mind with pesky, disputable and complicated facts; ‘Here is the truth you must believe.’”
Consider these recent examples:
Within 19 minutes of Donald Trump taking the oath of office, the Washington Post published an article admiring the emergence of an effort to impeach him. Books written by Dan Bongino, Alan Dershowitz, and Gregg Jarrett along with reporting by John Solomon and Sarah Carter, and the two-hour You Tube documentary “Ukraine, The Democrats’ Russia” by Glenn Beck scrupulously document the treachery that began in 2015, became widespread abuses within the DNI and the DOJ in 2017, was thoroughly refuted by the Mueller Report in April 2019, and is still defiantly being called the truth by partisans like Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff, CNN, MSNBC, the Washington Post, and the New York Times.
You Tube shadow bans the documentary, by the way: You must know the title to find it.
Having wrung the last bit of use from the collusion ruse, Democrats and their media collaborators created a new fiction that, in a July phone call, President Trump pressured Ukraine President Zelensky to “dig up dirt” on Joe and Hunter Biden.
Unexpectedly and unfortunately for them, the president released the transcript of that conversation and the chronology of Schiff’s conspiring with the “whistleblower” has been published. Everyone who cares to know has the facts of what was said and how the ruse was created. But, despite the facts being known, Adam Schiff presented an account of the call as unspeakably offensive as it was fictitious, and Nancy Pelosi humiliated herself by asserting Schiff’s fictional account was the “truth.”
Fox News put out a poll saying that 51% of voters favored impeachment and removal of the president. Later, it was learned that the poll sample included 50% more Democrats and 70% fewer independents than the population. Why FNC would engage in anything so dishonest has not been revealed but nobody can (honestly) conclude that the poll was anything but deliberate, malicious deception.
Thankfully, Fox has not rationalized or denied that deception.
But there is more.
Voters interested in facts, not “truth,” might research what the uber-rich really pay in taxes; how government subsidies and regulation have affected the cost of education, housing and medical care; or, after hearing Ronald Reagan Jr., what practicing Christians actually do believe and how they live their faith.
Anyone who has read this far has long been troubled by and angry at the purveyors of fact free truth and has previously resolved to no longer consume their rubbish. Beyond destroying their credibility, these outlets apparently have no concern for the tsunami of contempt they have created for themselves and all they advocate.
Alarmingly, though, we are daily reminded there remain hordes whose knowledge of facts may be even less than that of Howie’s caller. They hold views ingested as truth, not formed from facts. Being a responsible and informed voter takes time and hard work but, by failing to do it, we risk our fate being determined by incandescent ignoramuses with advanced degrees in Malted Arts.
Another View is a weekly column written collaboratively by Dale Landrith of Camden, Ken Frederic of Bristol, Paul Ackerman of Martinsville, Jan Dolcater of Rockport and Ralph “Doc” Wallace of Rockport.
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