Are Elites Trying to Look Dumb to Seem Smart ? It seems there is a new narrative running in mainstream media after the US election where the reported and predicted landslide for Biden didn't happen but the defeat of Donald Trump did. * Elites for lack of a better word for people who may think they are smarter than others. Any comment before a vote is speculation.
The smart people are still stunned by the lack of logic. Un-Logic.
It has been said there are degrees of smart, there is book smart and street smart. It may be that book smart needs a lesson in street smart and vice versa with a third level of intelligence being media savvy for all included. Everyone should be able to change a tire or fix a leaking tap.
So this is a collection quotes and paraphrasing worthwhile ideas heard since the US 2020 Election/Covid 19 regarding misinformation. If people question the text, it is the ideas expressed that are relevant taken from recent BBC World News commentary, Fareed Zakaria GPS in idea blending after action report of a mind numbing con. Not a news story but the bringing together of original ideas for consideration. Since the fall of the USSR, the US has no enemy. Political parties and new media as well as weaknesses in the cable news format has in turn conspired to turn the United States against itself leaving the American voter to save the day by it's record numbers of voters. They all underestimated the American spirit.
While having a short,street corner discussion about the US election, just after voting day,but before the final count, it was said that by my neighbor, he could not believe just how dumb Trump voters were. It made things worse to say that voters had a pretty good idea about the character of D. Trump and voted for him anyway in record numbers even though he lost. He still maintained that the Trump base was just a dumb, poorly educated, etc. White,working class and non college educated, equaling poorly educated was the mainstream media narrative all along.
I always thought that these were the talking points most often repeated in media and I am sure that caused some resentment in that group toward media. This characterization was the first unknowable point I noticed in media going back to 2016.People can be non college educated and working class and be very smart. These are the people you call to fix things, and build things. The degree of smarts seems to be impossible to know with such big numbers of voters just over 60 million for Trump.
With the total 2020 vote count so high, are Americans dumber than we think they are, or are they not as smart as they think they are? The polling stat is misleading and disrespectful when broadcast in media. Or is it something no smart people can explain. Enter the Dunning-Kruger Effect.
Flipping the channel to the BBC one commentator before the vote, asked why Trump was popular with Latinos/Latina? One would assume they would be against Trump because of his immigration policy, but, quite matter of factly he said something not heard on the US news channels, he said they were religious. Inferring South and Central American would be religious (Catholic and against abortion), Venezuelan would be different in their support. The speaker also predicted a Trump win, which was not considered possible according to pollsters at the time.
Going ahead in time to the present. The new television season has finally begun with powerful Covids themes built into the dramas. The series the Good Doctor had the most dramatic and relevant season opener even though many like myself was pretty tired with subject. The airways (cable ways) were filled with total Covid news coverage dominating everyday. BUT, The Good Doctor pulled it off. It made me wonder if these fall shows would have made a difference to the American public cutting through all the politics , confusion and misinformation surrounding the pandemic and election. Grey's Anatomy and a pretty good show also but this old drama is tripping over it's many confused plot lines format.
The show Bull took a different and sometimes smart/goofy and cringe worthy approach to Covid. The most interesting and stunning line was, paraphrasing , why do dumb people think they are always right and why are smart people always questioning themselves? When asked who made that statement, the DR. Bull character would not say other than it was someone smart. Anyway I looked it up. The inference was an explanation for dumbness and the counter argument that maybe smart people aren't so smart ,but still smarter than the dumb ones because they are constantly questioning themselves. A very smart sidestep.
This thinking may a stretch but since the 2016 election so called elites ( essays in the Foreign Affairs over many months and the Atlantic, Fareed Zakaria GPS and daily cable TV with daily soul searching and CNN in particular, exploring without success why Trump won.
I had earlier posts trying to understand the Trump phenomenon since 2016 on this website,trying to filter out the personality and the politics,looking for strategy and trying to read media during that “unprecedented time.”
Saturday Night Live might have put it best by using the word un- president -ed time,” making fun of the over use of the word unprecedented. Very perceptive and smart. Was it really that smart or did they just think it was smart when it was really dumb, right on both counts.
The poverty of language used by Trump might be a “bigly” clue. He didn't sound that smart.
Trump is almost gone, the balance has not shifted by a landslide to the Democrats and progressive anti Trump media has to come up with some sort of face saving new narrative. Trumps base just got bigger in the loss. The Trump base,media commentators always say, he is playing to his base, but all parties have a base. Donald Trump is charismatic and when you watch and listen to him speak without filters, he talks directly to his supporters,not at them like most leaders. Even if he speaks mostly untruths it does not matter because his Twitter fallowing is built upon layers and layers of misinformation,”flooding the zone,” as Bannon would say, and it gets cable media going, that turns out to be entertaining and profitable in itself. Kills two birds with one stone.
One person called it un-logic knowledge based on un-true assumptions. When challenged people say they don't know and don't care,they only care about what Trump does and not what he says. Very powerful charisma.
In the end Trump was selling majority rule. Because of the current trend of identity politics, minority groups feel they are victims, one after another until almost everyone is included. The majority (mostly people made from minorities, former immigrants, people who are resentful of the amount of news coverage to minority issues and blaming it on majority demographics. The majority now a victim of it's history. Same in Canada. This was the conclusion in a book called Why We Are Polarized by Ezra Klein. This is one of the most interesting observations that has merit I have heard.
“In the face of facts, it is emotionally necessary to disagree.”Another smart person said.
The sheer volume sets groups against each other. Every white,college educated person is made to feel responsible for every bad thing done to minorities in the last 400 years. This crosses news, entertainment and advertising spectrums. We see open resentment in one group as a result and it is successfully tearing away at the fabric of democracy that demands majority rule. Those in the majority,the other half are the most willing to help but there are regionally specific political breakers in government that slow the process down to a standstill. Maybe media and politicians should stop disrespecting half of whole group to gain traction for reform by inferring Trumps base are dumb when they are mostly disrespected. These people have voted in many elections for different parties, and will vote in many more. Democracy is not sustainable in the current cable TV/ social media climate..
For every red line Trump crosses it gives the green light for others around the world. Paraphrasing Tzipi Livni former Minister of Justice of Israel. This line crossing is fueled by political a parties and social media around the world. A rising China is taking advantage of the chaos in the US and is selling pervasive surveillance technology to prevent democracies from growing around the world.
So who said dumb people think they are always right? It sounds like Dr. Bull said it. But there is a study called the Dunning-Kruger Effect that spells out the argument. David Dunning is quoted as saying “If you are incompetent you cannot know you are incompetent.”
Does that make me incompetent or not smart as well as illiterate.
Dunning goes on to say, people overestimate their own intelligence, have low cognitive skills,and lack self awareness There is more but... An old saying, the dumber you are, the smarter you think you are. It is a good argument. But, many have been successful thinking and over estimating what they can do. Think resume or mountain climbing or any new adventure never been tried. For two elections Trump was underestimated. Who is that on. He is a tenacious counter puncher. Trump turned Black Lives Matters and Defunding the Police into a pro Trump issue. Timing and opportunity. Trump out worked Biden.
Do voters make intelligent choices? My experience is people who are afraid of losing their wealth vote conservative, and if they are afraid of losing their jobs they vote progressive. Either way it is a fear motivated selection. If you add, people do not vote with their heads, they vote with their hearts the mixture still doesn't favor intelligence.
Related Topic of not fallowing public health orders , In a Hardtalk interview on the BBC ,WHO 's Dr. David Navaro talking about why people are going against science and safety warnings, he said that people may feel they are being “disrespected”in the messaging. Polarization messages from media and political parties and candidates disrespects voters and the safeguards around Covid,the subjects are different but connected.
While watching a few reruns of all in the family, it seems that the Archie Bunker character has more use for certainty than facts. His self confidence comes from having a job, keeping a job, owning a
house,raising a family,having a predictable future and his WW2 service. He is certain he is the king of his castle, his throne, his armchair and the kitchen table his court. Of that he is certain and that time has passed. If a person had to be smart to vote they wouldn't ask for an X. The voter is always up for grabs.
Today too many smart people are uncertain of ever owning a home, expect to have several jobs, and aren't sure if they should bring a new life into this world. This is a pessimistic time and people can be exploited by politics and misinformation.
Times have changed. Today's American voter is uncertain about their job, their future ,the wars they fought in from Vietnam to the multiple and disastrous wars in the Middle East that involved the draft and call up and casualties of millions of Americans, Globalization's mis-steps, never ending recessions have created indelible scars on the American people that don't just get forgotten in election frenzy and fever. These scars sit squarely in the laps of so called intelligent,white,college educated political parties, elites and corporations that benefit and not southerners, northerners, those in the Midwest ,territories nor either of the three coasts who vote once every four years. Now all these leaders are selling the idea they are smarter because they are never sure of what they are doing. This is burying the lede.
If media believes that insulting the voter, then they may keep questioning their own values to no conclusion but chaos. The 2020 US election was the nearest to total chaos the US should ever come. opinion by Ken Gigliotti
*A Winnipeg Free Press Nov.21 2020, Faith Page story, one my favorite columnists John Longhurst's story, Biden Guided by Faith, 80% of Evangelicals voted for Trump in 2016, about the same in 2020, White Catholics, 57% voted for Trump 2020, (down from 64% 2016),in 2020 Biden a Catholic got 67% of Hispanic vote and Trump 32%.There is another story on the GPS page, Shy Trump Voter- Theory Fails to explain Why Polling Misses Mark by David Byler, and next to it on the same page Where To,Q? About how the Q movement has gone quiet leaving it's followers “into a crisis of faith.”
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