Increasing incompetence of the Left -- Why?
Christopher Hitchens has an Op-ed in the dead tree WSJ describing how really bad this year's Nobel Prize for literature is. Bottom line -- as with the Peace prize, opposition to the US is the only criteria for selection. Actual merit means nothing.
This follows a trend which seems to permeate every institution on the left whether the academy, the MSM, or the Democratic Party. While it should be possible to engage in deliberate propaganda without degenerating into fraud and incompetence, we see fraud and incompetence increasing from the left at a rate that seems exponential. Why? One would think that the propaganda would likely be far more effective, if the institution was respected instead of derided. The more subtle bias of Walter Cronkite was certainly more effective than the blatant cheerleading of Dan Rather when it comes to swaying the votes of viewers who expect fair reporting.
Yet, the march to irrelevance (even self-parody) continues unabated on every front. Perhaps this is a political application of the old adage that bad money drives out good.
So here is the question -- we would expect that the institutions of the left would trend toward strategies that work (in essence, a survival of the fittest type evolution). Obviously, that is not what we are seeing. What we are seeing seems more like the bad money driving out good scenario.
Why?
Note -- some might point to the fund-raising needs of the Democrats and their special interest supporters. Extremism seems to raise far more money, even as it strays farther from rationality. But this doesn't explain the ridiculous Nobel choices, collegiate tenure decisions, or the precipitous decline of the MSM into a bad joke. Why do these institutions push bias past the breaking point and render themselves impotent?
This follows a trend which seems to permeate every institution on the left whether the academy, the MSM, or the Democratic Party. While it should be possible to engage in deliberate propaganda without degenerating into fraud and incompetence, we see fraud and incompetence increasing from the left at a rate that seems exponential. Why? One would think that the propaganda would likely be far more effective, if the institution was respected instead of derided. The more subtle bias of Walter Cronkite was certainly more effective than the blatant cheerleading of Dan Rather when it comes to swaying the votes of viewers who expect fair reporting.
Yet, the march to irrelevance (even self-parody) continues unabated on every front. Perhaps this is a political application of the old adage that bad money drives out good.
So here is the question -- we would expect that the institutions of the left would trend toward strategies that work (in essence, a survival of the fittest type evolution). Obviously, that is not what we are seeing. What we are seeing seems more like the bad money driving out good scenario.
Why?
Note -- some might point to the fund-raising needs of the Democrats and their special interest supporters. Extremism seems to raise far more money, even as it strays farther from rationality. But this doesn't explain the ridiculous Nobel choices, collegiate tenure decisions, or the precipitous decline of the MSM into a bad joke. Why do these institutions push bias past the breaking point and render themselves impotent?
posted by Stan at 8:17 AM
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