Mapping the “willful ignorance” of the US Republicans
Mark R. Levin is a talk show host in America and is much considered by his critics to be like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh – idiotic but loud.
In 2009 he wrote a book called “Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto” in which he made a meager attempt at proving global warming to be false – at the despair even of fellow conservatives such as Jim Manzi, a contributing editor at National Review, who went on to call the book a case for “willful ignorance”.
But willful ignorance is the order of the day – and nowhere better can this be seen than in the very Republican circles that Levin treads.
Though this should not have affected Newt Gingrich’s standing – the candidate with a PhD! Surely as the heavyweight he would not water down his message – the people respect a guy who knows what he is doing, right?
With Herman Cain out the contest now (the author of the words uz-beki-beki-stan-stan) Gingrich is having to fill his place for dumbing down and, as aforementioned, willful ignorance.
So right on cue, at a church in Texas recently, he said:
“I have two grandchildren — Maggie is 11, Robert is 9,” he said. “I am convinced that if we do not decisively win the struggle over the nature of America, by the time they’re my age they will be in a secular atheist country, potentially one dominated by radical Islamists and with no understanding of what it once meant to be an American.”
A secular atheist country dominated by radical Islamists is not only a mouthful, but a bloody headfuck.
This is the same chap who was recently lampooned by conservative pundit George Will in the Washington Post for his “intellectual hubris” and “enthusiasm for intellectual fads” not to mention the charge that Newt “would have made a marvelous Marxist, [believing] everything is related to everything else and only he understands how.”
Now more than ever before should Paul Krugman’s words of wisdom about Gingrich should apply: “Newt Gingrich is a stupid person’s idea of what a smart person sounds like”.
It should be noted that after Manzi took issue with Levin’s book calling it willful ignorance, he then went on to say it was “an almost perfect example of epistemic closure.” Gingrich, I suppose, is only doing what is necessary of him.
Eighty-four ethics charges were filed against Speaker Gingrich during his term, including claiming tax-exempt status for a college course run for political purposes. Following an investigation by the House Ethics Committee Gingrich was sanctioned. Gingrich acknowledged in January 1997 that “In my name and over my signature, inaccurate, incomplete and unreliable statements were given to the committee”. The House Ethics Committee concluded that inaccurate information supplied to investigators represented “intentional or … reckless” disregard of House rules. The special Counsel concluded that Gingrich violated federal tax law and had lied to the ethics panel in an effort to force the committee to dismiss the complaint against him. He has always been about the money.
Not the stand up guy he’d like us to believe he is then?
Sorry, back here in reality (you know, the place with 18% real unemployment where people like you and Krugman never seem to want to visit) Liberty and Tyranny was about exposing the mentality of a statist and contrasting it with the mentality of a conservative. The conservative is aware of and is bound by the constitution (surely you have heard of it, it is that thing upon which our republic is founded). I doubt you realize that your sophomoric mutterings about “willful ignorance” are humorous.
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