Idiot America

How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free

De: Charles P. Pierce

Narrado por: Bronson Pinchot

The culture wars are over and the idiots have won. This is a veteran journalist’s caustically funny, righteously angry lament about the glorification of ignorance in the United States.

The three Great Premises of Idiot America: · Any theory is valid if it sells books, soaks up ratings, or otherwise moves units; anything can be true if someone says it loudly enough; "fact" is that which enough people believe. And "truth" is determined by how fervently they believe it.

Charles Pierce has led a career-long quest to separate the smart from the pap, and now it’s time to try and salvage the Land of the Enlightened, buried somewhere in this new Home of the Uninformed. With his razor-sharp wit and erudite reasoning, Pierce delivers a gut-wrenching, side-splitting lament about the glorification of ignorance in the United States and how a country founded on intellectual curiosity has deteriorated into a nation of simpletons more apt to vote for an American Idol contestant than a presidential candidate.

With Idiot America, Pierce’s thunderous denunciation is also a secret call to action, as he hopes that, somehow, being intelligent will stop being a stigma and that pinheads will once again be pitied, not celebrated.

©2009 Charles P. Pierce (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Reseñas de la Crítica

“A raucous rant against the armies of the right…. Pierce is at his scathing, insightful best.” ( Boston Globe)

Great book, but too true

This is an amazing account of the demise of intelligence in America. This tells about how Americans are easily bamboozled by charlatans. Pierce talks about how the far right Christians have eschewed science for creationism that they often re-label intelligent design. There is nothing intelligent about it.

I'm sad thinking about how much worse we've gotten since this book was written.

The cranks now are in charge of Idiot America

Where does Idiot America rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Most of the book's I read are mysteries, so this book was a great change of pace. I really did enjoy listening.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Not a character book, but I really did enjoy learning about the "cranks" of America's past.

Which character – as performed by Bronson Pinchot – was your favorite?

Not really answerable.

Didn't care for it

3 stars is generous and I'm only giving it three stars because I listened about 25% and decided that I had listened to enough.

I prefer objective factual information, this book did not have enough of it to support it's points. I just felt like he took a bunch of cheap shots at conservatives the whole way through, inflating outlier events/people that he mentions as if they were an accurate representation of the entire conservative community.

I just felt like there was too much subjectivity in his criticisms, too much appeal to the emotion rather than to logic. So, I wouldn't recommend this book, had I listened to >25%, I am relatively sure that I would feel justified in going down to one star.

The funniest scariest book you will ever read

If ever there was a more prescient book, I've not read it. Think about today.

Comfort in madness

In reading Pierce’s expose of the disintegration of American reason and the repaving with gut-induced bile from right-wing idiots, I found great comfort. I thought that i was going insane.

Waiting for the inevitable sequel...

“Idiot-er America: You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet”

So good and so depressingly appropriate for our current times (2020). Great writing AND reading. Thank you for this!

Good but repetitive

This book could have been much shorter. The author makes the same case over and over. It still worth reading.

Explains How We Got to the 2016 Election

Mr. Pierce touches on subjects that divide our nation. So if you're too sensitive, avoid this book. Hot topics, like climate change and conservative talk shows, are brought up. He's highly critical, but rightfully so in many cases. Even if you disagree with him, is worth the opportunity for another POV.

rudder stuck hard to port

First Bronson Pinchot is the best reader. it's worth listening to anything he reads. as someone who considers himself conservative this book allowed me to visit the smug lefts self indulging superiority complex that recently allowed its headlong run off the cliff.

Started out slow

The book started out slow and rambled, but the further in it got, the better it got and the more factual information began to become clear. For a while, I wondered if this was simply a Democrat beating up on Republicans, but it eventually came back full circle when it got to the time of the Obama administration.