7 thoughts on “Why Are Americans Dumber Than Dumb, and Geography Nitwits to Boot? – Tikun Olam תיקון עולם إصلاح العالم
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  1. You have a good blog here, sir. This is my first time contributing so bear with me:

    This is not as acute a point as it appears to be. Studies in other countries-Britain, I believe-show that other people are often just as ignorant.

    One should not be anti-intellectual but all the same hasn’t the American intelligentsia often asked for it? They have often hated their own people, quite virulently. No other intellingentsia-with the exception of the Russian intelligentsia under the Tsars-has ever shown this.

  2. “One should not be anti-intellectual but all the same hasn’t the American intelligentsia often asked for it? They have often hated their own people, quite virulently. No other intellingentsia-with the exception of the Russian intelligentsia under the Tsars-has ever shown this.”

    Baloney! Have you never heard of loyal opposition?

    Zhu Bajie, American intellectual

  3. Right you are, Zhu Bajie. Seems to me that those American intellectuals like Chomsky, Finkelstein, et al are operating not from a reflexive hate-America position but rather from a highly ethical one – might we even be so brash as to say, from an ethical core that in origin and tradition might once upon a time have been termed Jewish? “My country right or wrong” could just as well be the mantra of fascists and Nazis as that of our own flag-waving, “anything-goes” patriots. I don’t mean to suggest that all who wear little metal flags in their lapels, like our unitary executive and his snarling handler, necessarily parrot that “right or wrong” reductio ad absurdum or are fascists. I actually know some nice people who do in order, I suppose, to guarantee that their fellow citizens know damn well that they are real Americans first and other things afterwards. One problem, though, Zhu, is that it might be wise to define just who or what one is “loyal” to. For example, to say that I oppose the Bush regime with heart, soul, emotion and viscera is not to say I am loyal to HIM – God forbid! I am being loyal to whatever he is not and to those representatives of whatever he is not.

    Norman Weinstein, occasionally an intellectual, being too lazy to be one full-time

  4. One does not mind criticising America. One would wish, however, that it were done with a constructive purpose in mind, and not connected with flag-burning or supporting brutal dictatorships.

    Also, criticising the critics does not really make one a chavinist.

  5. As John Cleese said:
    “You should stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the ‘World Series’ for a game which is not played outside of America. Since only 2.15% of you are aware that there is a world beyond your borders,your error is understandable. “

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