Stupid is as Stupid Does: The Triumph of Moronicity in American Life

The most remarkable thing, perhaps, about contemporary social media is the displays of utter stupidity one finds on it on a daily basis. Take this gem from Facebook today.

A Facebook poster, who frighteningly teaches in the Palmer Independent School District, stated today that George Stephanopoulos, currently the moderator of ABC television's This Morning on Sunday and co-host of ABC's Good Morning America, is a communist. What is remarkable about this statement is its total idiocy. Such a moronic assertion reveals that this poster has no idea what Marxism is and that, most likely, his source for this statement is some cynical or moronic demagogue who manipulates Americans for political and economic gain for a living or who is an idiot him or her self.

As anyone who has taken an introductory sociology or introductory social or cultural anthropology course knows, if they remember anything about their college days other than the partying, is that Marxism is a symbol system in which economics is the key symbol around which all other Marxist symbols revolve. Marxism maintains that economics is central to human life and that economics is the motor of human history. Ironically, I suspect that if one left out the fact that this is a Marxist argument most American neoliberals would agree with this statement.

The notion that a media figure like Stephanopoulos is a communist too is utterly moronic. If Stephanopoulos was a communist it is, first off, unlikely that ABC would hire him. Stephanopoulos may know a bit about Marxism. After all he attended Columbia University in Manhattan and took a degree in political science. I seriously doubt, however, that he would describe himself as a devoted Marxist or that he, like 99% of the American population, spends much time thinking about social theory.

The poster goes on to make another immensely moronic statement, specifically that Dale Hansen, sports anchor at Dallas TV station WFAA, is a communist because he supports NFL players in their ongoing protest and recognised those protests for what they are, a protest against racial inequality and the police killings of unarmed Blacks in contemporary America. That far too many believe such tripe proves once again the truth of Giles's statement that the earth is doomed...