Don't Want to Be An American Idiot

I've been meaning for a while to post something about how I'm considering giving up The Daily Show and Colbert Report as bedtime viewing. It's not because of any great ideological shifts (unlike when I stopped caring about David Letterman the minute he apologized to Sarah Palin - grow a pair and stand up to the moronocracy, Dave), but because of the stuff they're making fun of. It's gotten to the point where the political discourse in this country has devolved to the point where even watching people making fun of it is too hard. The Rush Limbaughs and Sean Hannities and Bill Kristols of the world are so infuriating that I can't even pay attention to the punchlines. It raises my blood pressure so much that it makes it hard to sleep. (I should point out that I'm not mad at these people because they are conservative Republicans, it's because they are conservative Republican idiots. I'm sure there are sane, intelligent conservative Republicans out there somewhere, they've just never let one on TV before).

And then there's the people who watch Fox News, only to parrot what they hear without researching it or thinking about it. The Daily Show, at least, called Fox out on this in a rather brilliant piece last week:


Anyway, as I said, I was going to post about how sad this all made me, and how angry I am that stupid people seem to be given the vast majority of American "news" airtime, but Bill Maher wrote an article for the Huffington Post that sums it up much nicer than I could.

New Rule: Smart President ≠ Smart Country

Enjoy.

Cheers,
Eli