Bemused Remark For the Day

As I write this, the lead headline over at HuffPo is, “Shock Poll: 52% of Mississippi GOP Voters Say Obama is a Muslim,” leading to this story. The shock, I would think, is that the number is so low.

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Mountain Man: I bet you can squeal like a pig. Weeeeeeee!

Moutain Man: What do you want to do now?
Toothless Man: [grinning] He got a real pretty mouth ain't he?
Mountain Man: That's the truth
Toothless Man: [to Ed] You gonna do some prayin' for me, boy. And you better pray good.

But I think something like 30% say "don't know."

I'm always amazed and amused when people engage in propaganda, misinformation, and/or political slander and then express dismay over the fact that so many people are confused, misinformed, and generally unable to think clearly.

It always seems to parallel the cognitive dissonance around advertising. On the one hand advertisers claim that they don't manipulate people's behavior or thinking. No, they are just introducing people to products they might like in a positive manner. Usually this claim is followed up with a an assertion that the people who buy the advertised product would do it either way. They are really not changing anything.

In rough figures a trillion dollar is spent on image and advertising every year. For no particular reason. Apparently, it is a busy-work welfare program for well dressed people.

Like advertising the field of political imaging, slander, misinformation they emphasize their impact and effectiveness when selling their services, which are never cheap, but claim to be entirely ineffectual when it comes to taking responsibility for the numbers of clueless and misinformed people. People who, as chance would have it, are frequent consumers of their product.

After four years of on-the-hour assertions, jokes, and dog whistle references to Obama being a Muslim they are shocked ... simply shocked I tell you ... that anyone would think Obama was a Muslim.

I worry about our democracy when so many people get their news from one source.
Lack of skepticism and a modicum of critical thinking does not bode well.

They left out that 64% think he's an atheist.

By AbnormalWrench (not verified) on 12 Mar 2012 #permalink

AbnormalWrench: But that would mean at least 16% of them think⦠ah, I see what you did there.

I heard that he was an atheist Muslim, and a socialist fascist.

My Oxymoron-1000 detector is broken now.

As we say in Georgia, Thank God for Mississippi and Alabama!

They could probably do a poll and get about 50% of republican's in Mississippi that thinks the Conferates won the Civil War also. It is not exactly shocking to see Mississippi on the leading edge of racism.