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The Culture Wars Are Over and the Idiots Have WonA veteran journalist's acidically funny, righteously angry lament about the glorification of ignorance in the United States.In the midst of a career-long quest to separate the smart from the pap, Charles Pierce had a defining moment at the Creation Museum in Kentucky, where he observed a dinosaur. Wearing a saddle.... But worse than this was when the proprietor exclaimed to a cheering crowd, "We are taking the dinosaurs back from the evolutionists!" He knew then and there it was time to try and salvage the Land of the Enlightened, buried somewhere in this new Home of the Uninformed. With his razor-sharp wit and erudite reasoning, Pierce delivers a gut-wrenching, side-splitting lament about the glorification of ignorance in the United States, and how a country founded on intellectual curiosity has somehow deteriorated into a nation of simpletons more apt to vote for an American Idol contestant than a presidential candidate. With Idiot America, Pierce's thunderous denunciation is also a secret call to action, as he hopes that somehow, being intelligent will stop being a stigma, and that pinheads will once again be pitied, not celebrated.From the Hardcover edition.
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In a way, this book reminded me quite a lot of guns, germs and steel in that it took a theory explained in the first few pages and then showed you repeated examples of the theory explaining historical examples. It just so happens that all the examples happened in the last 10-20 years instead of millennia. If it wasn't about such a depressing topic it would be amusing. It also is written blissfully unaware of the coming Trump presidency.