“Fake news” and the license to be ignorant

This for me is the difference between Democrats and Republicans.

EPA Administrator Michael Regan testifies before Congress.

Democrats Dan Goldman and Jasmine Crockett sit on one side of the room. 

Congressman Goldman is the Yale- and Stanford-educated lawyer who served as lead majority counsel in the first impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump.  He also served as lead counsel to the house managers in the subsequent impeachment trial. 

Goldman is about as smart as a person can be. 

Congresswoman Crockett adds a bit of pizzazz to Goldman’s sober demeanor.  Also a lawyer and also extraordinarily smart and accomplished, the Congresswoman never comes without receipts. 

On the other side of the room sit Republicans Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert.

Congresswoman Greene came to fame trolling Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez and Sandy Hook survivor David Hogg on the streets and halls of Capitol Hill.

As far as I am concerned, she is also famous for not knowing the difference between martial and “marshall” law; between petri versus “peach tree” dishes; between the Gestapo and “gazpaucho”; and between tidal and “title” waves. 

As for the woman sitting next to Greene, that would be Congresswoman Boebert.

Congresswoman Boebert is the hypocrite who claims credit for the funding of infrastructure projects in her district that she voted against.

She is the fierce advocate for family values who grabs her boyfriend’s crotch and allows herself to be fondled in a public theater during a family-friendly performance of Beetlejuice; whose husband was convicted of “public indecency and lewd exposure” after he exposed himself to teenage girls, including Boebert, at a bowling alley.

Congresswoman Boebert is the vocal proponent for the Ten Commandments whose son currently faces multiple felony theft and fraud charges.

She is the champion of law-and-order who prides herself on the fact that she has been convicted of multiple criminal offenses. 

And, for purposes of this blog entry, Congresswoman Boebert is the source of this gem of a question to EPA Administrator Michael Regan:

“Is it true that the EPA has never obtained formal legislation, um, authoritization (sic) legislation, from Congress?”

This is a duly elected member of the U.S. Congress.

In fairness, any person in the public eye who is frequently captured on camera is going to misspeak.  That is true of Joe Biden.  It is true of Donald Trump.

But Boebert’s question goes far beyond that:  It betrays a fundamental lack of knowledge about things that you would expect a middle schooler to understand. 

Who is advising this woman?

Who is voting for this woman?

Ignorance used to be something to be ashamed of.  Now we seem to celebrate it.  It is anti-elitist.  It proves our connection to the common man.

This is why the term “fake news” found such a receptive audience among MAGA adherents.

You do not need to explain.  You do not need to marshall counter-arguments.  In fact, you do not need to know a thing about anything – or even think, for that matter — to utter those words.   

You can almost hear the collective sigh of relief as those words are spoken:  An inconvenient fact can be dismissed with nary a thought.  All is good with the world when our “truth” can remain undisturbed. 

This is where we are.  This is what we have become.