Proof by Humorous Anecdote

To understand this country, you have to understand the mind of uneducated, Southern whites. These are the same people who owned slaves in the nineteenth century and then used lynching to enforce Jim Crow laws in the first half of the twentieth century. Since then, they've exercised their pernicious influence through Republican politics.

Here's a typical example of their reasoning:

Think about this for a minute or two!

Back in 1990, the Government seized the Mustang Ranch brothel in Nevada for tax evasion and, as required by law, tried to run it. They failed and it closed.

Now we are trusting the economy of our country to a pack of nit-wits who couldn't make money running a whore house and selling booze? Don't you love our country?

The most shocking thing about this quote is that it was published in late October—a month after the economic crisis of 2008 began. Even on the verge of utter collapse for the brand of laissez-faire capitalism they champion, blue-collar conservatives still can't see the problem. All they see is the prospect of losing power! That's what scares them, not economic collapse (as long as they're still on top, that is).

The quote only looks like humor. It's not. Having heard a lifetime of it, I can assure you this is the equivalent of a carefully reasoned argument in more educated circles. The technique has been around forever, but was perfected by Ronald Reagan—the Patron Saint of the Uninformed!

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Image:

Sifry, David. (2008, October 13). Prostitutes lined up waiting for johns, Singapore Red Light District. (flickr: cc-by David Sifry, October 14, 2008). Retrieved October 26, 2008 from http://www.flickr.com/photos/dsifry/2940410943/