On Obama, Muslims And Intellectual Sloth
Just a quick thought concerning the "New Yorker cover-gate" (see also here for more), especially with regards to the number of folks out there who still think that Barack Obama is muslim, got sworn in on the Quran, attended a madrassa and/or remain unsure whether these ludicrous, uniformed médisances are true or not.
Here's my hypothesis as a potential explanation for this: considering the atrocious levels of public misinformation these days, coupled to rampant intellectual sloth among the public, thereby making most folks want to be served an opinion rather than making an informed one by themselves, the underlying cause as to why such factless, ungrounded "rumors" concerning Obama still persist lies with the names of four "well known" African-American muslims of the recent past:
Muhammad Ali (who dared to refuse to go to Vietnam);
Louis Farrakhan (a somewhat controversial fellow);
Malcom X (another somewhat controversial fellow);
and, more recently, Keith Ellison (who did dare to use the Quran to be sworn in).
(And I could also add Andre Carson as well)
Now, couple these with the still pervasive undercurrent of fear and muslim paranoia which followed 9/11 ... and see? Once again - it looks like this is all about intellectual sloth-driven ignorance, fear and, yes, even racism-based stereotyping of political, activist, public African-Americans as obligatory polemicists/revolutionaries and/or (gasp!) muslims.
Just an hypothesis (definition here), mind you.
At least, hopes on race relations are high among Americans, apparently ...
Here's my hypothesis as a potential explanation for this: considering the atrocious levels of public misinformation these days, coupled to rampant intellectual sloth among the public, thereby making most folks want to be served an opinion rather than making an informed one by themselves, the underlying cause as to why such factless, ungrounded "rumors" concerning Obama still persist lies with the names of four "well known" African-American muslims of the recent past:
Muhammad Ali (who dared to refuse to go to Vietnam);
Louis Farrakhan (a somewhat controversial fellow);
Malcom X (another somewhat controversial fellow);
and, more recently, Keith Ellison (who did dare to use the Quran to be sworn in).
(And I could also add Andre Carson as well)
Now, couple these with the still pervasive undercurrent of fear and muslim paranoia which followed 9/11 ... and see? Once again - it looks like this is all about intellectual sloth-driven ignorance, fear and, yes, even racism-based stereotyping of political, activist, public African-Americans as obligatory polemicists/revolutionaries and/or (gasp!) muslims.
Just an hypothesis (definition here), mind you.
At least, hopes on race relations are high among Americans, apparently ...
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