The Dumbing Down of America - Here's Why

[FStephenMasek]

The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America.

Thanks, that is exactly the reference I had planned to give. It is a good book, although very thick.

 

[vitanola]

Thanks, that is exactly the reference I had planned to give. It is a good book, although very thick.

Our own Miss Main has had personal experience with the author of the book that you seem to admire;

I knew this author back in my reporter days -- she was on the school board in one of the towns I covered twenty-odd years ago. I can honestly say that those were not dull meetings -- you never knew if she was going to come across the table at the superintendant or not. One memorable evening she threw an entire box of tea bags in his face after a particularly noisy argument -- the Mad Tea Party, we called it the next morning. Agree with her or disagree, she was always Good Copy. (What made it even funnier was that the superintendant's name was Marx -- a word she spit out whenever she spoke to him like it was wormwood in her mouth.)

Have you read her work? Have you heard her speak? "Bavarian Illuminati"? The Carnagie and Ford foundations deliberately stirring up wars to prepare the world for the eventual Dictatorship of the Proletariat? President REAGAN directinf the leaders of the Ford Foundation to compel it and its subsidiaries to bring about the merger of the United States and the Soviet Union on the Soviet Union's terms?
A Skull and Bones plot to destroy American prosperity and allow us to be conquered by the Soviets, leading to "One World Government?


REALLY???

Very thick? I would agree with you there!

 

[MikeBravo]

I have found 'catamite' a useful pejorative. I seldom have cause to use any but this one is fun. It also perplexes folks to be complimented on their mastication skills.

Yes, it's a most cromulent word

 

[MikeBravo]

I only learned "concatenation" when looking for the way to combine two or more digital files.

I've only ever seen it used in computing in reference to concatenation of strings. To be fair it's not a commonly used word and many people would not know it.

 

[MikeBravo]

Apparently it's not a ballgame unless people are getting stupid drunk. The last ballgame I attended with my son was nearly ruined due to drunken idiots yelling obscenities and being a nuisance. Park management did their job of locating and evicting the morons but no one should have to pay current ticket prices and listen to a minute of this nonsense.

"It wasn't until I stopped drinking that I realized how boring baseball was"
Homer Simpson

 

[Foxer55]

If you want to get a good idea on the dumbing down of Americas, take a look at the Drudge page now and then. I swear, everyday its everything from people hacking former presidents to cops out killing cops to Judge Judy ruling the daytime airwaves. Man, its a sick world out there.

 

[vitanola]

If you want to get a good idea on the dumbing down of Americas, take a look at the Drudge page now and then. I swear, everyday its everything from people hacking former presidents to cops out killing cops to Judge Judy ruling the daytime airwaves. Man, its a sick world out there.

Drudge? Probably today's nearest equivalent to the New York Graphic, though perhaps without the brilliance of Winschel and Sobo, or the editorial restraint of Gavereaul.

The difference being that back in the 1920's the Graphic was generally considered by the Quality to be a guilty pleasure, one which was indulged privately.

The Graphic also had better crossword puzzles.

 

[Foxer55]

vitanola,

Drudge? Probably today's nearest equivalent to the New York Graphic, though perhaps without the brilliance of Winschel and Sobo, or the editorial restraint of Gavereaul.

Its either the government media organs or Drudge. Only thing Drudge is doing is collecting links to other news. It sure is a helluva lot more credible than the statist propaganda.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Drudge? Probably today's nearest equivalent to the New York Graphic, though perhaps without the brilliance of Winschel and Sobo, or the editorial restraint of Gavereaul.

The difference being that back in the 1920's the Graphic was generally considered by the Quality to be a guilty pleasure, one which was indulged privately.

The Graphic also had better crossword puzzles.

Now that you mention it, could there possibly be any better slogan for Internet journalism than "Honk! Honk! It's The Bonk!"

 

[vitanola]

It sure is a helluva lot more credible than the statist propaganda./B]

Surely you jest.

 

[tonyb]

Is there no refuge?

 

[LizzieMaine]

It'd be nice if there was a modern equivalent of "The Newspaper PM." Salon tries, but falls a good way short.

 

[tonyb]

I haven't read through all dozen or so pages of this thread, but I think I get the gist of it, or what had been the gist of it, before it veered in a "political" direction, which is allegedly forbidden in this joint.

Back when I was even more prideful than I am today, among the things for which I prided myself was my largish vocabulary. And I still find myself looking up words regularly, either ones with which I am unfamiliar, or ones I wish to make certain I'm using "correctly."

The beauty of a large lexicon, such as the English language provides, is that the "right" word (or the "better" one, at least) can usually be found, provided one goes looking for it. True synonyms are rare, as most every lexical item has its own shades of meaning. So a large vocabulary leaves a person better able to more precisely say (or write) what he or she means to convey.

Often, though, the better word is the plainer one. Not always, of course, but often. Nothing against five-dollar words, but if the five-cent word does the job every bit as well and perhaps better, then spend the nickel and save the paper.

 

[Fletch]

It'd be nice if there was a modern equivalent of "The Newspaper PM." Salon tries, but falls a good way short.

It'd have to be beyond Salon into parlor pink territory. Parlor pink yet futurist. Witness PM's coverage of television as if it mattered, long before it actually did.

I'm still trying to figure out who Ralph Ingersoll thought PM's audience was, besides Ralph Ingersoll.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Cromulent is one which gets used a lot by my family, and I. It embiggens us all.

Yes, it's a most cromulent word

 

[LizzieMaine]

I'm still trying to figure out who Ralph Ingersoll thought PM's audience was, besides Ralph Ingersoll.

They were targeting the same audience that made "Modern Library" books and "Information Please" rousing successes. Where is that audience today?

 

[Fletch]

If I knew, I'd be marketing to them. You would too, I imagine.

 

[LizzieMaine]

They're too smart to be marketed to. Maybe that's why they get ignored.

 

[vitanola]

They're too smart to be marketed to. Maybe that's why they get ignored.

After watching much current television, "It Pays to be Ignorant" seems to be the soul of intellectual wit and grace.

The days when The Saturday Review of Literature was known to every educated American have sadly long since passed. Imagine a modern Henry Scheerman hiring a Henry Seidel Canby to assemble an editorial board including Dorothy Fisher, William Allen White, Christopher Morley and Heywood Broun!

It seems inconceivable.


No, today we live in a land bereft of aspiration, a nation of "Jersey Shore", the "Echo Chamber" and folks who seem to have confused either "Nummer Three" or Miss Rosenbaum with The Prince of Peace.

 

[LoveMyHats2]

"Ominous" ....that is what I find best labels as what is happening to make the "dumbing down" of America.

Please recall the late Paul Harvey, "...and now for the rest of the story".......