Dumbing US Down

In this recent opinion piece, Dr. David Schwartz commiserates with the late Kurt Vonnegut about the condition of our country's government, which has turned into a joke, purchased by the oligarchs and run by psychopaths.  He says what I've been warning of for years:

It is no secret that the Koch brothers and others of the super-rich seem to have undertaken a final push to consolidate control through the conversion of a marginally democratic to an essentially fascist state; extreme right-wing, authoritarian, and demagogic. This kind of government is ideal for control of a populace by the moneyed elite. To carry this out requires the employment of many ‘kept’ politicians to excite and misdirect scared and angry – and ignorant – voters. Lest the citizenry realize who stole their money and storm their castles with torches, the rapacious elite need politicians who will carry out the work of re-directing anger at teachers, or labor unions, or the poor.

But Dr. Schwartz says, the folks doing all of this are not your grandmother's psychopaths.  They actually believe in what they are doing.  So he proposes that they are second rate, second string psychopaths.

I disagree.  I think they are ignorant disciples, and it's part of the plan to dumb us all down.  Intelligence becomes mocked, and ignorance is king.  Cutting our education funding helps to bring the future voters into line, making them prime sheeple for the next round of craziness.

Ignorant disciples, ideologues, take more effective actions than psycopaths, who may not share your same agenda and may move on when they have another interest.  But true believers will stay the course until the end result is accomplished.