What Underlies the G.O.P. Commitment to Ignorance?

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

Paul Krugman

As everyone knows, leftists hate America’s military. Recently, a prominent left-wing media figure attacked Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, declaring, “He’s not just a pig, he’s stupid.”

Oh, wait. That was no leftist, that was Fox News’s Tucker Carlson. What set Carlson off was testimony in which Milley told a congressional hearing that he considered it important “for those of us in uniform to be open-minded and widely read.”

The problem is obvious. Closed-mindedness and ignorance have become core conservative values, and those who reject these values are the enemy, no matter what they may have done to serve the country.

The Milley hearing was part of the orchestrated furor over “critical race theory,” which has dominated right-wing media for the past few months, getting close to 2,000 mentions on Fox so far this year. One often sees assertions that those attacking critical race theory have no idea what it’s about, but I disagree; they understand that it has something to do with assertions that America has a history of racism and of policies that explicitly or implicitly widened racial disparities.

And such assertions are unmistakably true. The Tulsa race massacre really happened, and it was only one of many such incidents. The 1938 underwriting manual for the Federal Housing Administration really did declare that “incompatible racial groups should not be permitted to live in the same communities.”

We can argue about the relevance of this history to current policy, but who would argue against acknowledging simple facts?

The modern right, that’s who. The current obsession with critical race theory is a cynical attempt to change the subject away from the Biden administration’s highly popular policy initiatives, while pandering to the white rage that Republicans deny exists. But it’s only one of multiple subjects on which willful ignorance has become a litmus test for anyone hoping to succeed in Republican politics.

/SNIP More at link.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/28/opinion/tucker-carlson-general-milley-republicans.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur

[underpants]

1. Racists and polluters

It’s that simple and that basic. Less government- less taxes- etc. it all points towards weakening the government from going after racists and polluters.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

9. I would add abusers to that list.

[CrispyQ]

2. Ignorant people are easy to manipulate.

"As people do better, they start voting like Republicans - unless they have too much education and vote Democratic, which proves there can be too much of a good thing." ~Karl Rove

This is why the GOP focused on filling positions on Boards of Education across the country back in the 80s. They funded think tanks to craft their message & bought up media outlets to broadcast it. Our side wrongly thinks all you need are facts to convince people of your point. We are seriously behind the 8-ball on messaging. The right has been more successful in defining our side than we have—socialists, tax and spend democrats. We need a marketing department—stat!

[Thomas Hurt]

3. Fascism is an ideology of racism, fear mongering and scapegoating.

The GOP is no longer just a conservative or republican party they are a christofascist party. The majority of them seek a christofascist theocracy to replace our republic.

[LakeArenal]

4. Manipulation and greed.

[ananda]

5. Truth and facts are pesky obstructions to their belief system.

...

[bluecollar2]

6. They don't have the intellectual agility

To commit themselves to excellence?

[GoodRaisin]

7. Fox News is not just pandering to white rage, they are driving it.

They see CRT as an opportunity to scare white people.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

8. So many years of RW talk radio and Faux News has taken a toll

on the easily manipulate hearing constantly of how anything progressive is akin to the worst of the worst.