No hope for American democracy — more US people think that Iran has nukes than Israel

27 August 2021

Is the US (at its core) a lunatic asylum?

Some days, I think so.

Read the following Brookings overview of a finding by the University of Maryland's (July 2021) Critical Issues public opinion poll:

[M]ore Americans think Iran possesses nuclear weapons than think Israel does.

While Israel has been known to possess nuclear weapons for decades (without officially acknowledging it) and Iran is not known to have ever possessed any, the American public perception presumes a different reality:

60.5%, including 70.6% of Republicans and 52.6% of Democrats, say Iran possesses nuclear weapons —

compared to 51.7% who say Israel does, including 51.7% of Republicans and 51.9% of Democrats.

What does this (and other facts like it) demonstrate . . .

. . . about republican democracy's most basic premises?

For instance, how about the foundational point that a supposedly free electorate needs to have some grip on Reality's basic facts?

If people know and want to know nothing accurate, how is it that they would be competent enough to pick elected representatives, who are not equally reckless examples of vacuous mind?

Contemplate the election of the narcissistically lazy nitwit, Donald Trump, to the presidency.

Followed by the similarly idiotic election of the overtly dementia-leaning Joe Biden to the same office.

Point made?

Ignorance, even determined ignorance, is typical of the United States

As is our easily demonstrated inability to think rationally and analytically.

Thus . . .

Hopes for democracy are (arguably) crushed by the US public's preponderant character.

See, in that regard:

Dennis C. Rasmussen, Fears of a Setting Sun: The Disillusionment of America's Founders (Princeton University Press, 2021)

As a necessary replacement for republican democracy's foundationally absent 'knowledgeable public' — Oligarchs wield:

propaganda's Mighty Hand

to get our population

of disproportionately numerous ignoramuses

aimed the way(s)

that the Wolves at the Top

want them to go.

And as a result, Iran miraculously has nukes and Israel does not.

That conclusion arriving in spite of the exceedingly obvious fact that both countries' well-publicized behaviors indicate precisely the opposite.

The moral? — Whom should we blame, anyone?

Probably not.

The middle and leftward x-axis of the Gaussian Distribution Curve is and always has been qualitatively average and below. Read 'stupid' with regard to our chosen context today.

Ergo, most Things Human eventually fail, when assessed in light of their own foundational premises.

I try not to become irritated.

But sometimes, maintaining equanimity is a bit of a challenge, given the American public's (widely shared) technological circumstances. All of which make it historically easier than ever before to uncover comparatively solid facts.

The planet's societal slog continues:

Will China pick up the Societal Fitness Baton?

Won't that go in Autocracy's unhappy direction?

It would have been nice, if we Americans had done better with our experiment in freedom. Taking Liberty's Mechanisms more seriously would have been a good start.

And there's the problem. No one really wants a knowledgeable and motivated American public. We intentionally select for sheep to fleece. Being a muttonhead, in a flock of the same, is psychologically comforting.

Up until the time we turn into figurative lemmings and run off a cliff (as the mistaken metaphor has it).

I sometimes amuse myself by envisioning most of us whipping along in that bison-like Rodent Herd.

And wondering what would be meandering through our silly minds, while we plummet — encased in that mob of rattish bodies — to the ocean below.

Knowing, all the while — during this abrupt transition from earth to air — that we never bothered to learn to swim.

'Oh shit!' — just about covers it.

PeteFree.com

No hope for American democracy — more US people think that Iran has nukes than Israel