ALTERMAN: DUMBED DOWN DISCOURSE

The great conservative victory in public discourse is how effectively they have dumbed it down.

I was prepared to agree with much of this Times OpEd and looking forward to reading the extended, book-length version of the piece that argues that “the right has out-organized, out-fought and out-thought liberal America over the past 40 years” as it parallels an argument I’ve been making in my speeches and writings for the past five years or so, and I could use some data.  Unfortunately, I completely lost confidence in the authors’ ability to distinguish anything at all when I read their contention that “The Ford Foundation is as liberal as Heritage is conservative.”  This, to put it plainly, is unsupportable nonsense, though it is exactly the form of nonsense that conservatives find so useful to peddle and that lazy journalists and hosts and producers of moronic cable and radio shows like to tout. 

As I’m sure even the Times editors who signed off on this piece are aware, the Ford Foundation supports peer-reviewed social science research that commands the respect of professionals working in the fields who produce and consume it.  Perhaps some of that work is funded with a mildly liberal agenda, but it remains largely unimpeachable as a source.  The Heritage Foundation, on the other hand, is an entirely political operation that demonstrates little but contempt for such academic niceties.  As Heritage President Edwin Feulner explained back in 1995, "We don’t just stress credibility. We stress timeliness. We stress an efficient, effective delivery system. Production is one side; marketing is equally important.”  Burton Pines, a Heritage vice president, has added, "We're not here to be some kind of Ph.D. committee giving equal time.  Our role is to provide conservative public-policy makers with arguments to bolster our side."  I spend a lot of time explaining all this in What Liberal Media (which, by the way, has a new chapter).

The great conservative victory in public discourse that the authors are unwilling to admit is how effectively they have dumbed it down...

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3449870/

Conservatives create a "reality" they desperately want to believe. They then are unable to distinguish between the creation and the empirical evidence.

Thanks for the link.

"Really, where is one to begin in the presence of self-evident idiocy? ... it’s all one can do to keep from breaking out laughing upon hearing it."

A genuinely hearty laugh -- the kind of laugh you laugh when you watch the Three Stooges -- is actually a perfect response to all expressions of self-evident idiocy.

Another perfect response is to inquire gently and with sincere concern: "Do you really believe that?" -- such that the speaker suspects that the commitment papers are being drawn up in a back room.