This past week Republicans have reached the acme of their ongoing war against knowledge. For many years, I believed the Republican assault on education was a pandering position, one they did not really mean, but repeated to garner the support of the angry masses, people who assumed that they were better merely by the act of being less educated. Then one day Republicans awoke to a knocking at the door, only to find those very people demanding a seat at the table. They got a seat, but it was at the children's table, where they throw food at each other and tell fart jokes. In the meantime, Democrats sit at the grown-up's table, and fiscal conservatives stand around the kitchen counter, drinking, staring over at the kids, and shaking their heads. Well folks, the kids have taken over. That truly hit home this week, when ignorance proudly took center stage in Washington.
The first comes from Rep. Joe Barton (Ignoramus- Texas), who proudly Twittered:
I seemed [sic] to have baffled the Energy Sec with basic question - Where does oil come from?
The exchange can be found on the Front Page, but is worth reposting here:
Rep. Barton, you see, has probably never heard of Pangea. If he has, he undoubtedly thinks it is a Central American country sending millions of illegal immigrants here to take "Real American's" jobs, while electing crypto-fascist communist socialist Islamo-dark people.
But wait, there's more.
You guys have heard of the "atmosphere," right? Remember Seventh Grade Science class? the atmoshpere hs lots of stuff in it, you know, like oxygen, and nitrogen, and even a little carbon dioxide? Does this look familiar?
Well, it doesn't look familiar to Michelle Bachmann (Blithering Idiot- Minnesota):
Rep. Bachmann, you see, doesn't understand that the placement of that little dot actualy makes a difference. "Carbon Dioxide," she says, "is a natural gas." Hey Shelly, hydorgen cyanide is natural, too.
But they don't care. That is the absurdity, they really don't care. They are not merely ignorant, they are PROUDLY ignorant. If all education (for the masses) in this country were stopped at the seventh grade, producing an ignorant but compliant work force, their work would be done.
I don't know if you've seen Idiocracy, but if you haven't, you should. It is more than a comedy. It is a dire warning of the world of the future, should Republicans ever get complete control of the government.
On the other hand, that is exactly what they want, isn't it? They might be stupid, but they can still be proud.
And then, once that has happened, perhaps we can finally