And so it goes ...

This is what I wrote before concerning the primitive minds of neocons, right-wing madhaters and all those politicos who keep "toeing the party line":

"They lie, they misrepresent, they use decoy arguments and make ad hominem attacks. For them, the use of duplicity, of secrecy, of arguments of (non-existent) conspiracy, of fact (and non-fact) selectivity/cherry-picking, of quacks/fake experts, as well as putting forth logical fallacies, are simply means to an end.

And this 'end' is the following: to promulgate, support and defend their beliefs or their ideologies.

Truth be told: these are the only things that truly matter to them."

Of course, such behavior constitutes nothing more than intellectual sloth-driven incompetence:

"Intellectual sloth is a human character flaw. It pushes any person who is guilty of it to wallow in ignorance, finding security in absolute ideologies, philosophies of thoughts, tenets of faith or various dogmas, without seeking to understand them fully or even less to question them. A person guilty of intellectual sloth is constantly in search of the quick-and-easy and instant gratification (...) Incidentally, a person guilty of intellectual sloth is egocentric and selfish, even greedy, in his/her immature search for facility and instant gratification. Furthermore, such a person refuses to accept any fact of reality which confronts, rattles, or even invalidates, the comfort of one's 'convictions'. To this effect, such a person will be arrogant, if not contemptuous, towards anything and anyone that confronts his/her ignorance generated by intellectual sloth (...).

(...) one who is afflicted with intellectual sloth is often deluded by intellectual vanity and invariably becomes a slave of expediency. Furthermore, everything is about image and appearance, instead of substance. Truthiness, instead of truth. All of these characteristics underlie incompetence - whether as nations, as communities, as citizens, as blue-collar/white-collar workers, as parents, and/or as thinking, reasoning human beings. In short, intellectual sloth transforms any adult person who is guilty of it into an irresponsible and reactionary child or adolescent, who lives only in the 'now' while remaining blind to 'yesterday' and 'tomorrow'. Such a person thus becomes incompetent - in dealing/composing with reality, or in at least trying to understand it (...)"

Let us review some recent news items (among so many to choose from) which further underlie my, ah, assertions - shall we?

1) Bush Dismisses Iraq Critics: ‘War Fatigue’ Is Affecting Their ‘Psychology’, Bush To Declare Gains In Iraq On Some Fronts, President Hopes To Move Past Furor Over Libby Sentence Commutation and Bush: Insurgents in Iraq same as 9/11 attackers - This is a classic example of an intellectual sloth-driven incompetent (in dealing/composing with reality) who refuses to accept any fact which confronts, rattles, or even invalidates, the comfort of his 'convictions'. To this effect, of course, he is arrogant, if not contemptuous, towards anything and anyone that confronts his ignorance generated by intellectual sloth. Furthemore, an incompetent will always find justifications and quaint rationalizations in supporting/defending his incompetence - including lying, misrepresenting and blaming others (on a related note: is al-Qaeda weaker ... or not? Incompetents often trip over themselves with their extensive tap-dancing and cherry-picking of facts ...)

2) Top Intel Analyst Says Surge Is Failing, Kristol Counters It’s Going ‘Better Than Anyone Expected’ and Escalation Architect Kagan: ‘Whatever You Can Say About The Current Strategy, It Has Not Failed’ - Bill Kristol and Fred Kagan keep behaving like Bush above (rather, I suspect that Bush gets the behavior from Kristol and Kagan - but I digress). This is quite expected of those two, especially since they are compelled to promulgate, support and defend their beliefs and ideology - the only things which truly matter to them. Hence, they lie and misrepresent, while being dismissive and contemptuous of those who prove them wrong - understandably, since they are deluded by intellectual vanity and are both intractable slaves of expediency (ergo Kristol's stance on attacking Iran and ... even Pakistan - after all, violence is the last refuge of incompetence). Then again, Kristol and Kagan have nothing on the Master Liar Extraordinaire.

3) Senate Conservatives Rush To Cheney’s Defense, Webb Amendment Protecting U.S. Troops Fails, Lieberman On The Webb Amendment: 'Give The American Soldier A Break…' and Wait Until Terrorists Strike The U.S. Again: Then We will Be Validated - Incompetents always defend/support other incompetents and they will lie, misrepresent, disassemble, obfuscate and blame others in doing so (with Iran being the favorite scapegoat à la mode recently). The promulgation and support of ideology is paramount above everything else - it is the only thing which truly matter to them. And the facts of reality be damned in the process (including the sanctity of the Constitution of the U.S.A. or the well-being of the troops or innocent lives lost or et al.). Greenwald has more on this matter, even if he does not mention intellectual sloth-driven incompetence - the actual root of the problem.

4) Huckabee Takes Personal Shot At Michael Moore and Boehner Calls Anti-Surge GOP Senators 'Wimps' - Again ... incompetents lie, misrepresent, use decoy arguments and make ad hominem attacks. Why? Because their intellectual sloth-driven, petty minds make them act like reactionary adolescents. This is especially laughable in the case of Boehner, who is reputed for weeping whenever he is arguing his "points". That is why I call this "Lie and Cry".

And last, but not least, 5) Chertoff Bases Warning Of Terror Risk On 'Gut Feeling' - Forget facts. Forget reality. Thrutiness, spin and appearances are all that matter. Why else go through such lenghts at censoring/rewriting science and cherry-picking facts (one more recent example here)? Beliefs and ideology must be validated at all costs. Digby calls this Red Queen Politics. I call this generalized intellectual sloth and the rule of the tabloid politics of fear and ignorance - and these are still working quite efficiently. And the problem here is that it is not confined to politics, but throughout society - indeed, it now constitutes a veritable cancer on the body democratic, economic, politic and society.

Now, you may look over these few news items and wonder: "How have we come to this"?

All I can say is that the answer will be found if you look in a mirror.

Once again: Mea culpa, mea culpa, vox populi.

And so it goes ...


(Cross-posted at DKos, at Suzie-Q and at Diatribune)