(1) there is a large segment of American society that views the pursuit of money as the only activity worth pursuing. I guarantee yo that this does, indeed, make for dullards.
(2) the affluent, powerful people in America have now organized themselves, and funded themselves, into a tremendous number of "think tanks" and other organizations all geared to persuading the rest of us to become dullards in the pursuit of dollars.
In fact, one of the most ironic facts in modern America is that wealthy conservatives now spend millions upon millions of dollars to fund "thinkers" who twist facts and language in order to produce "analysis" proving, for example, that people really aren't poor in America.
Really, they spend multiple millions, annually, to produce political and social cover for policies that increase and entrench poverty! Check out some of the crazier papers from the Heritage Foundation and the Hoover Institution.
Who are these less-than-honorable tanks of thought? These are the major ones that propagandize on economics, poverty, employment, etc., all described in detail on the People for the American Way site:
American Enterprise Institute
Americans for Tax Reform
Cato Institute
Club for Growth
Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies
Free Congress Research and Education Foundation
Heritage Foundation
Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace
Leadership Institute
National Center for Policy Analysis
National Taxpayers Union
There are also hundreds, literally hundreds of smaller think tanks that do similar things. Add in the fact that such entrenched groups as the Chamber of Commerce and various "Clubs" serve the same purpose, and it's pretty clear that America is, by an large, subjected to pro-business, pro-capitalism, pro-free market/free trade propaganda to an amazing degree. And the American brand of these philosophies requires that we minimize, or outright deny, the adverse consequences that the policies have on individual citizens. No legitimacy to government for us, no way a tax can serve a useful purpose, no way that a "social" program could be anything but a miserable, preordained failure which uses funds stolen from the rich.
And what do we have in opposition? Not much. A stray centrist or leftist think tank, a few economists with consciences, a few commentators whose vision has survived the propaganda blitz. Reaganism has indeed triumphed so far.
dollars4dullards would like to play some small role in explaining/exposing the economic propaganda. It would really like to. But that's a serious sea of shit we're fighting folks, a serious, serious sea of shit.
And we/I can use all the help we/I can get. So feel free to join in, either on d4d, or in the larger fight. Drop a comment when the spirit moves you, start your own site, write to the local paper, leave a comment on the web site for one of our esteemed mainstream media outlets....do something.
After all, a thought is a horrible thing to waste on a tank, especially when the tank is in the tank for the status quo, and the status being quo'd is what you now see when you look around at America.
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