> Just curious. Hard to tell online, sometimes. Speaking personally (and
> unsarcastically), nothing in this country surprises me. N-o-t-h-i-n-g. What
> does surprise me is that anyone who's either a native or has lived here for
> a time is surprised by American delusion and stupidity. Jesus, they produce
> network "reality" shows celebrating it. So why the quizzical stare?
I'm tempted to argue with the term stupidity, and insert ignorance instead, but your are completely right: it is stupidity, because it is a produced condition, not (or not just) an absence of knowledge. But I get leery of using the word because people usually throw at those who don't share their canon of knowledge. I mean, since I've read Marx and Joyce and can identify all the countries of Africa on a map, anyone who can't must be stupid, right? But apparently there are things called Justin Bieber, Elizabeth Warren, mocospace. I have no idea what they are, but lots of other people know, so maybe I'm stupid.
But why the quizzical stare? Because unlike the general a-politicalness of US society, things like the mosque brouhaha, the antimigrant hysteria, and the Obama-as-Muslim idiocy indicate an active antipathy, a politics based on racism and bigotry. I *want* these things to be elite projects, so when I see indicators that they have huge levels of popular support, that they are actually popular projects, I get really fucking angry. And depressed.