American ignorance: a case of information overload?
Melissa Lopez, '11 | Staff Reporter
Issue date: 10/2/09 Section: Opinion
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People were talking about the "Czars" in Washington, holding signs saying "Glenn Beck for President," calling Nancy Pelosi a "Jezabel," among other comments. One man told NewLeftMedia reporter Chase Whiteside that Barack Obama's name was in the Bible, and when taken letter for letter, is translated as "the Anti-Christ." I guess if that's true, then there is nothing that even a good Christian Republican can do except pray and hope.
Then there was a teenager who said, "He hasn't even been in the White House for a year and he's already destroyed most of the country, I mean come on, it's crazy." When pressed for details, he was unable to describe the destruction.
The president is not all-powerful; there are multiple parts to the government. For instance, Congress. Anyone remember "School House Rock"? President Obama doesn't just say "health-care reform," snap, and it's done. We all know this, so what is the issue?
While I typically don't give much thought to comments left on blogs or videos, scgry15 wrote on Americablog.com that if you want to make a video of people being ignorant, go find the most ignorant people you can find and tape them.
Good point, and the fact that this video was made by a group called NewLeftMedia says that it's probably going to lean toward lefty views. But the issue still stands: Many people - both left and right - who are out there ranting, do not really know what they are ranting about.
A video by The Young Turks shows a picture of a man holding a sign that said, "Trade freedom for security and you will have neither."
Cenk Uygur of The young Turks said, "This is when you bring this sign out? Okay, when Bush was taking away our fourth amendment rights, and saying he could spy on all Americans, you didn't bring that sign out. But when we're trying to get more affordable health care, all of a sudden we're taking away our freedom for security?" This is a great point. Even when people knew that the Bush administration was taking things too far with the Patriot Act, many went along with it thinking that it might help make us safer. Or they were afraid to speak out.
This is the herd mentality that I was talking about. I think everyone at some time has been part of group-think, and some people live it daily. Reference.com states that groups experiencing group-think do not consider all alternatives and they desire unanimity at the expense of quality decisions.
I think this could describe a lot of the 24-hour news channels: while there is good investigative reporting, and real journalism being done out there, there is also a lot of junk. The result is a bunch of pundits sitting around, taking their own views on something someone has said without getting the facts. They need to keep speaking to fill the time. For example, some insist that Obama wasn't born in the United States - even after his birth certificate was shown. http//www.Snopes.com disproves these critics, detailing the validity of the birth certificate, including a copy of the certificate, a newspaper clipping, and an interview with a pre-school teacher who discussed Obama's birth with the obstetrician.
I think that the people at the tea parties aren't stupid people as some may say; they are just led to believe the crap they hear. I'll admit I got pretty swept up in the 2008 presidential election. But I'm not on television, or the radio. People who influence the masses should be held accountable for what they put out. If you are on the radio shouting that Obama is Hitler, show some proof.
Glenn Beck said on his show that the Obamas have a hidden agenda of socialism because Michelle Obama said "…to get things like universal health care and a revamped education system, then someone is going to have to give a piece of their pie so someone else can have more…"
Beck follows with, "Well, hello and welcome back, Carl Marx."
People will believe anything, especially when they are desperate. If the mass media powerhouses tossed agenda aside and showed the public what is really happening, we could be a much more informed society.
Someone should sit down on CNN to explain in detail the health reform bill and put it into layman's terms so that we could understand it. They only have 24 hours in one day to do it, so why not?
Solution: find a forum to tell the public the truth about what's happening in our government that is understandable and not incredibly boring. I guarantee that the animosity between the left and the right, and the blatant ignorance of our nation's people, will go down dramatically if people just know what is going on.
I think we need to bring back School House Rock.