Just How Stupid Are We?
Facing the Truth About the American People
By Rick Shenkman
Basic Books
June 2008
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Buy the Printed Book or Download Audio Book The Dunce Cap Scorecard
But what do we mean by stupid? To help determine whether a mistake is just a mistake or whether it's a sign of rank stupidity I have devised a five-part test. Call it the Dunce Cap Scorecard. On the blog we'll rank debates by how stupid they get. One or two Dunce Caps is normal for any debate. Five Dunce Caps and you know you're in a deep pile of stupid. These are the five tests: First, is sheer ignorance: Ignorance of critical facts about important events in the news, and ignorance of how our government functions and who’s in charge. Second, is negligence: The disinclination to seek reliable sources of information about important news events. Third, is wooden-headedness, as the historian Barbara Tuchman defined it: The inclination to believe what we want to believe regardless of the facts. Fourth, is shortsightedness: The support of public policies that are mutually exclusive, or contrary to the country’s long-term interests. Fifth, and finally, is a broad category I call bone-headedness, for want of a better name: The susceptibility to meaningless phrases, stereotypes, irrational biases, and simplistic diagnoses and solutions that play on our hopes and fears.
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It would be stupid to say that the American people are stupid--as stupid as saying the American people are smart. It's impossible and silly to generalize. But our politics are often stupid. And there are times when no other word, harsh as it is, seems to capture the essence of the turn politics have taken.