Originally a comment by maddog on Make do and mend.
Steve Allen coined the word Dumbth, and wrote a book of the same title, about American prideful, willful pig-ignorance, and absurd levels of hostility to intellectual accomplishment and technical or scientific expertise.
Trying to find a middle or common ground with everyone leads to compromises like “everyone is entitled to their own opinion.” That “finding middle ground,” or “both sides-ism,” is what has led American journalists to pussy-foot around calling a spade a spade, and treating one party’s lies, evasions, and disinformation as if it were of equal standing with another’s facts or actual expertise. Too many people think that their ignorance and stupidity are just as good as genuine knowledge. It’s insane. There are things that are actually wrong, and the press should honor its duty to say so plainly.
Tocqueville noticed a similar anti-intellectual streak in the American character. It’s the spirit that gives rise to the myths of American self-reliance (“Yankee ingenuity”), pioneer independence, and “Manifest Destiny,” all rolled into “American exceptionalism.”
I remember being taught “Manifest Destiny” as if it were an obviously honorable and patriotic thing. Then you look at the consequences — direct effects, not “side effects” — including genocide, displacement, enslavement, racism, theft and treachery. That’s the legacy of “Manifest Destiny” and “American exceptionalism.”
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