Idiot America

This is my first book recommendation here at Minstrel in the Gallery and I'm proud to have selected a remarkable tome for your consideration. Idiot America, how stupidity became a virtue in the Land of the Free is a brilliant overview of how half of our own countrymen misuse their gray matter. The author, Charles Pierce, skewers Creationists, Denialists and let's face it, the entire Christian Right, with able mastery and deftness.

Our journey begins at the Creation Museum in Hebron, Kentucky where one exhibit features a Triceratops sporting an English riding saddle, ostensibly to help a human rider herd those pesky Brontosauruses into their Dino-Garages. Believers actually flock to this place and since I live in nearby Ohio I've seen quite a few "Prepare to Believe" television commercials singing it's praises. When you have the pastor that runs the place ginning up the believers by declaring "Now we can take back the dinosaurs from the Evolutionists!" you know that Charles Pierce is going to be shooting fish in a barrel.

Mr. Pierce follows up on some basic premises... #1. That something is true and valid if it sells. #2. If you say it loudly enough it must be true and #3. If enough people believe in something then it must be true. These rather odious dictums are used on a regular basis by Fox News and other conservative media outlets to sway public opinion. The "elites" don't know any more than my old Uncle Charlie because somebody who had an advanced degree once said something he disagreed with. The only problem is that old Uncle Charlie doesn't know squat and the media outlets he's chosen to follow let him believe it.

I have quite a few international readers here at Minstrel so I can safely say that if you really want to understand how many Americans think then look no further than this book. Some of the stuff is hilarious but if you're like me, an average American, it can sometimes make you depressed that your own country has come to this. But read it for a laugh, that's what I do. You may even learn a little not only about the Culture Wars but about the American psyche itself.