Are Americans too intellectually lazy for democracy? Warnings from Studebaker, Schumacher, and Sotomayor.

Above: WPA poster. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Democracy requires critical thinking and intellectual curiosity

Elon Musk's X account is full of misinformation, context-free assertions, impossible-to-verify claims, followed by reactions of hysteria, outrage, and gasps. Musk will write or repost something negative or hyperbolic about a government agency--without any evidence to examine or comprehensive report to evaluate--and an endless number of followers & commenters take it as gospel and demand the government agency or program be eliminated entirely. And, when someone asks for evidence or reports, another endless number of followers & commenters will reply along the lines of, "Bro, he's showing it to you right here on X!!! WTF's wrong with you??" It is clear that for many of Musk's followers (he has 217 million), his social media claims, reposts, and screenshots of numbers and graphs (again, with zero context) are the comprehensive reports.

For anyone who values critical thinking, Musk's X account is a horror show, a disaster area of intellectual incuriousness. And this disaster area is influencing public policy. People are suffering (hunger, demonization, terminated medical care, job loss, economic pain, etc.) because of this evidence-free and misinformed fury. Years from now--if we survive this--this disgraceful phenomenon will takes its place next to other episodes of unjust terrorism, such as the Salem Witch Trials, McCarthyism, the Duke Lacrosse rape hoax, and the Central Park Five.

Many times in history, great minds have warned Americans, or other peoples around the world, about the dangers of a public that lacks critical thinking skills, intellectual curiosity, civic literacy, and the like. In his book Plain Talk (National Home Library Foundation, 1936), FDR's chief of education, John W. Studebaker, wrote: "The ballot in the hands of an apathetic, ignorant, or fear-ridden people, unwilling to devote themselves to a continuing cooperative search for reality, is but an instrument of self-destruction" (p. 24).

In 1952, Kurt Schumacher, the Social Democrat member of the Reichstag who had described Nazism as the mobilization of human stupidity, wrote: "Only a Germany that is supported by a civic consciousness and social justice can be successful in warding off totalitarian tendencies" ("Kurt Schumacher, 1895-1952," German Historical Museum, accessed February 14, 2025).

And on Tuesday, February 11, 2025, in a speech that warned about the potential loss of American democracy, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor told an audience: "You cannot depend on what people are telling you. Before you make choices about the direction that anything should be going in in this country, actually study it. And don't trust that any one news source is giving you the whole picture" ("Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor speaks with Knight Foundation CEO," Associated Press, YouTube, February 11, 2025, at 1:14:46).

Too many people in America, and around the world, lack critical thinking skills. Too many are intellectually lazy. Too many people let crackpots, blowhards, and carnival barkers form their opinions for them. After all, why think when it's so much easier to let someone think for you? And so... the warnings from Studebaker, Schumacher, and Sotomayor may be too late. The hysteria-driven social media mob, ready to hate whoever the Social Media Leader says to hate, may be about to take control.

"Critical thinking involves asking questions, defining a problem, examining evidence, analyzing assumptions and biases, avoiding emotional reasoning, avoiding oversimplification, considering other interpretations, and tolerating ambiguity."

--"Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving," University of Tennessee Chattanooga (citing Wade, C. 1995)

77 million Americans voted to send 480,000 veterans to the unemployment line

Above: When I tried to share--with Musk's Twitter / X followers--the fact that many veterans would become unemployed due to the purge being conducted by Trump, Musk, DOGE, and the GOP, my Twitter / X account was suspended. This appears to be a well-used to tactic to silence critics. See for example, here, here, and here. (My screenshot above)

Above: Meanwhile, Musk is allowed to raise the possibility of bringing back a member of DOGE who engaged in terribly racist comments. He also peddles an enormous amount of misinformation to rile up his Twitter / X followers. Why was his account not suspended? Oh yeah, because he owns Twitter / X. It's good to be the king! (My screenshot above, taken 2-7-2025, late morning)

America votes for, and social media cheers on, the layoff of 480,000 veterans

Currently, Donald Trump, Elon Musk, DOGE, and the larger Republican Party are trying to purge the federal workforce and dismantle most of our federal government. Most people probably don't know that about one-third of the federal workforce consists of veterans. And, as the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE) recently pointed out:

"The federal government is the single largest employer of veterans in this country. There are currently 2.278 million civilian federal employees and nearly 30 percent of them are veterans. If DOGE follows through on proposed threats, and lays off 75 percent of the federal workforce, an estimated 481,950 veterans will be laid off... The pain that DOGE would inflict on America’s veterans would not end there. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) employs nearly 371,000 health care professionals and support staff at VA medical facilities across the country. It is also responsible for administering benefits programs for Veterans, their families, and survivors. A 75 percent reduction in staff, about 278,000 total employees, would cripple the services currently provided to veterans in the U.S."

When I shared this information with Musk's Twitter / X followers & commenters, before my account was suspended, they didn't seem to care. But when Musk posts something about shutting a government agency down, the responses are nearly always along the lines of "Yes!" "Crush it!" "Get rid of it all!" "Way to go DOGE!" "Musk is a hero!" "Finally we're getting transparency!" And the latter-type of comment is ironic, because no one knows exactly what DOGE is doing - they simply post screenshots of things on Twitter / X, make hysterical and unverifiable claims about government contracts, and write something like, "deleted." 

As of February 7, 2025, there is nothing on DOGE's website - no mission statement, no outline of methods, no list or bios of staff, and no reports to evaluate - absolutely, 100% nothing. And still the Twitter / X folks cheer and scream in self-righteous exaltation. (Trust me, it's a WILD thing to witness if you haven't already.)

Yes, 77 million Americans voted to send 480,000 veterans to the unemployment line, and many on social media are cheering it on, howling with delight. 

The pure wickedness of these days, the sadistic desire to see others in fear and pain, is something I'll never forget.

... and then they came for me

Above: A scene from a WPA theatre performance of It Can't Happen Here. Photo from the National Archives.

Regret

First they came for the civil servants, and I did not speak out because I was not a civil servant.

Then they came for the left-leaning journalists, and I did not speak out because I was not a left-leaning journalist.

Then they came for the private citizens who believed in the General Welfare Clause of the U.S. Constitution, the common good, and I did not speak out because I did not believe in those things.

Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.

(See Martin Niemoller's original statement--which I adapted above to fit today's darkening atmosphere--at the United States Holocaust Museum, here. Niemoller "explained that in the first years of the Nazi regime he had remained silent as the Nazis persecuted other Germans, especially members of leftist political movements with whom he disagreed.")

*****

"Displays honoring women and people of color who served the National Security Agency were covered up by staff at a national museum over the weekend amid workers’ rush to comply with President Donald Trump’s dismantling of diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, an NSA representative told NPR."

--"National Museum Covered Exhibit Honoring Women, People Of Color Amid Anti-DEI Efforts," Huffington Post, February 6, 2025

FDR explained how the Democratic Party would destroy itself, but the Democratic Party--and its voters--refused to listen. And now our freedoms of speech and liberty are at extreme risk.

Above: Part of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in Washington, DC. The inscription warns against oligarchy. Photo by Carol M. Highsmith, courtesy of the Library of Congress.

"A Democratic Tweedle Dummer"

In 1939, President Franklin Roosevelt said: "The Democratic Party will not survive as an effective force in the nation if the voters have to choose between a Republican Tweedle Dum and a Democratic Tweedle Dummer. If we nominate conservative candidates, or lip-service candidates, on a straddle bug platform, I personally, for my own self respect and because of my long service to and belief in, liberal democracy, will find it impossible to have any active part in such an unfortunate suicide of the old Democratic Party." ("Advice to the Convention of Young Democratic Clubs of America. August 08, 1939." American Presidency Project, University of California Santa Barbara.)

FDR did not believe the above scenario would happen for the 1940 election; and he was right, winning a third term. But his overall prediction has now come true. The Democratic Party--under the leadership of the Clintons, the Obamas, Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, etc.--rejected the economic populism of the New Deal (indeed, the words "New Deal" have become dirty words in the Democratic Party) and embraced neoliberalism instead, and all the corporate money that came with that embrace; and now the Democratic Party is almost completely powerless. 

The Democrats' plans to tax the rich were timid; they failed to aggressively pursue an expansion of Social Security (or better still, a return to full retirement benefits at 65); they were silent on how terrible 401k's are compared to fixed-pension plans; they participated in the offshoring of manufacturing jobs and joined in the failure to address the resulting devastation; they refused the concept of Medicare-for-All, and President Obama even turned his back on the public option; and, Dear Lord, the list goes on and on and on.

In place of economic populism, the Democratic Party went full-steam ahead on identity politics - the dreadful socio-economic approach that leaves most people in the dust, while the supposed best & brightest of each race and gender take their rightful place as executives making gargantuan sums of money. Identity politics also has the bad habit or grouping people and ranking their misery; with white poverty--especially white male poverty--frequently put on the low end of the spectrum, if not dismissed altogether.

Democrat voters share the blame too. They've had 20+ years to demand a return to the New Deal, but instead continued to vote for "conservative candidates, or lip-service candidates, on a straddle bug platform." Some even dismissed the New Deal as hopelessly racist, despite the significant--but admittedly imperfect--strides the New Deal made towards racial equality. Apparently, if the New Deal did not end hundreds of years of racism in ten years or so, well then, it just wasn't worthy of replication (how utterly ridiculous is that?).    

(Straddle-bug: "A politician who is non-committal or who equivocates" (Oxford University Press). Equivocate: "to speak in a way that is intentionally not clear and confusing to other people, especially to hide the truth" (Cambridge University Press).

And so now we're all going to pay a terrible price for the Democratic Party's rejection of the New Deal, and the voters' refusal to demand a modern New Deal. The Republican Party controls Congress and has handed legislative and funding authority over to Donald Trump and Elon Musk. The Supreme Court has granted Trump broad criminal immunity, and Congressional Republicans will never impeach him no matter how many laws he breaks, even if engages in mass violence. Trump is putting revenge-minded people in charge of the Defense Department, the Department of Justice, and the FBI. Trump has pardoned people who attacked police officers and is now firing the people who held them accountable for attacking police officers. 

A wickedness has taken control of the nation and, mark my words, it will not be long before private citizens expressing disagreement with the Trump Administration will face extra-judicial arrest and incarceration. Court orders to release them will be ignored. Even Chief Justice John Roberts probably knows this is likely (which is ironic since he and his fellow justices gave Trump the authority to defy court orders via criminal immunity). See, for example, "Roberts warns against ignoring Supreme Court rulings as tension with Trump looms," CNN, December 31, 2024).

The Democratic Party and many Democratic voters rejected the New Deal, and now we are at extreme risk of being investigated and imprisoned if we express viewpoints that are not in alignment with right-wing viewpoints. The OMB memo, forbidding funding based upon viewpoint, and the illegal mass firings of government employees, and the forcing of NPR and PBS to appear before Marjorie Taylor Greene, are just the opening salvos - more will come, and they will be increasingly sadistic and vicious.

It HAS happened here.

Above: A WPA poster, promoting a WPA theatre production of It Can't Happen Here. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.