IGNORANCE IS BLISS

THE KNOW NOTHINGS

A non-partisan research project recently surveyed TV viewers to see if the program people watched made a difference in their knowledge of current events. It turns out it does. Those who watch the Colbert Report on the comedy channel knew more facts than those watching other programs. But the most disturbing discovery was that those who watched Fox News knew the least. An article in the current issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology sheds light on the reasons for these differences: people who don't know don't want to.

“Don't confuse me with the facts,” used to be a laugh line but it turns out that for many that is how they deal with the world. That is not simply about issues like climate change and evolution, but also about what's going on in the world. People who don't like Arabs know the least about the Arab Spring and those who don't like Obama know less than nothing about the Affordable Care Act. That may explain the support Newt Gingrich appears to be getting from Evangelicals who are ignoring the facts of his troubling, and troubled, sexual exploits and his history as a lobbyist.

How “blissful ignorance” will impact the 2012 election is far from clear, but history teaches us that sometimes a line like “flip flop,” or “the screamer” can derail a campaign even though they only vaguely refer to facts. “We can't wait!” won't win the election, but “We are the 99%!” might. Harry Truman ran on the simple, and factual, charge that the nation's problem was a “Do nothing Congress!” He beat Tom Dewey whom the pundits, and The Chicago Tribune, picked as the winner. The winner, it seems, is the candidate who picks his (or her) most vulnerable enemy. Wall Street (and the congress it owns) is surely the optimum enemy in 2012. Even the (want to) Know Nothings will get that message.