From vulgarity to violence, Dumbing Us Down has turned to Decivilizing Us

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Charlotte Iserbyte wrote The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America and John Taylor Gatto wrote Dumbing Us Down–both excellent books addressing the purposeful program of excising the ability to recognize manipulation or to find fallacies in arguments. Since John Dewey replaced classical education with modern education (a process succinctly described in the Dewey chapter of this excellent book: Makers of the Modern Mind, by Thomas P. Neill), the ability of the American public to recognize being manipulated through mass media, education and political lies has plummeted, as has their ability to lead and influence as citizens in the civic arena. This process has been going on in earnest for a hundred years, but I noticed in February 2016–earlier if you start with the speech that launched Trump’s campaign–a new process underway through which we are being what I’m calling “animalized” or “decivilized.”

Trump’s coarse language and tactless approach was for many a breath of fresh air in a world of discourse stifled by political correctness. While I found vulgarity and rudeness misinterpreted as boldness and courage during the Trump campaign, I did understand why people were so hungry for a straight shooter. I, myself, found it alienating and ineffective–insulting rather than liberating. I find name-calling a counter-productive substitute for clear argument and I was sorry to find citizens on the right not urging the high ground. I didn’t make a big deal of it–I view the whole world of DC politics as theater anyway, but the approach the directors of the play take can be informative. That’s why I sat up and took notice when Mexico’s former President Vicente Fox used outright vulgarity on television to attack Trump. I had already seen signs of a vulgarizing of the mainstream when establishment outlets started referring to Megyn Kelly’s anatomical processes (without mentioning that the Trump comment that started that firestorm was the same one he made about Chris Wallace)–that was unprecedented, as was Vicente Fox’s style of attack. I flagged these observations at the time, and noted that Trump would be blamed for the decline in standards, but I wasn’t reminded of these episodes until several months later when I heard open vulgarity on CNN and The Wall Street Journal in rapid fire. I tweeted:

It was only months after that that I heard voices in the mainstream media comment on Tom Perez’s use of vulgarity, complete with accusations from right and left that this was a result of the tone Trump had set.

Sh*t talking is Democrats’ new strategy (CNNPolitics, April 24, 2017)

Maybe it’s a calculated move to conjure up excitement. Maybe it’s a direct response to the President Donald Trump, who repeatedly riled up campaign crowds with expletives incorporated into policy pronouncements. Whatever the motivation, it appears to be a trend — and it’s not just Perez.

As I saw this trend gaining steam, it occurred to me that perhaps we were heading down the path of certain other countries where fisticuffs in the legislature is not unheard of:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zgTl6-KWqg

It wasn’t long after that thought had occurred to me that we saw a political candidate reportedly shove a journalist:

Republican candidate charged with assault after ‘body-slamming’ Guardian reporter

And, out of Texas, the coup de grâce so-to-speak:

Protest, confrontation, death threat herald end of legislative session

The scripted and calculated nature of all this is made clear in the most recent example of a politician’s public profanity when Senator Kirsten Gellibrand says the F-word repeatedly and comments, “I understand this is a younger audience, it’s okay.” (Might I point out that as a person in a position of authority and respect, the fact that it’s a young audience should make her conclude it’s not okay, and she shouldn’t need someone else to tell her that.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3OLD94iyKI

Here are some other tweets I sent out along the way to flag the pattern:

While I observed this trend and flagged it as a psyop to turn us into animals without any hope for intelligent discourse, productive exchange of ideas or logical resolutions to problems with government, I did not expect today’s events when I began writing this post yesterday. I don’t know if this event is related to the #animalization / #decivilization psyop I’ve been observing, but I find it very difficult to believe some of the most powerful people in the world can congregate en masse and be left this vulnerable.

Certainly the framing of it is playing into this theme from the get go.

Steve Scalise shooting: ‘Political rhetorical terrorism’ contributed to attack, rep says

(compare how Rep Davis discusses the event in that article to how Rand Paul describes it here. Paul does give the Capitol Police their props but Davis is clearly making sure this crisis doesn’t go to waste. Fox, for the headline, of course pulls out of Senator Paul’s eight minute interview the one line that serves the authorities best:

Capitol Police credited with preventing ‘massacre’ by stopping shooter)

Perhaps the vulgarity and violence will fold into the lock-down of government I expect as a result of Trump’s focus on leaks and restricting press access. I don’t know how it will all unfold, but I feel certain that the vulgarity and violence that is emerging is planned and is meant to further diminish our ability to have any meaningful or productive impact on our “representative” government.

Update: Well, that didn’t take long.

Access v. security? Baseball shooting prompts Georgia discussion

Perdue said the news “just accentuates: we’ve got to find a balance between being available and accessible to our constituents and the public and yet providing security for our leaders,” he said.

I really hope this psyop doesn’t fold into this Chekhov’s gun:

Update:

I also realized that Kathy Griffin’s little charade was part of this whether she knew it or not; and it was also pointed out to me that the Berkeley riots and other student protests-turned-ugly are part of this.

The Harvard Ten story also fits this pattern – BTW I don’t believe for one minute ten kids who worked their whole lives to get into Harvard – the best & the brightest, so to speak – were so unsavvy about the dangers of stupid stuff on social media that they would congregate with each other – complete strangers with a hotline to their hopes and dreams – and risk it all. At the very least, I have to believe they were set-up, enticed into doing this somehow.

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