After seeing these quotes in an article I read this afternoon, I HAVE to read this book! “The rise of Idiot America ... is essentially a war on expertise ... In the new media age, everybody is a historian, or a scientist, or a preacher, or a sage. And if everyone is an expert, then nobody is, and the worst thing you can be in a society where everybody is an expert is, well, an actual expert.” — Charles P. Pierce, from “Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free”

Charles P. Pierce calls the “Three Great Premises” of America’s decayed TV celebrity culture. First, “Any theory is valid if it moves units,” i..e. sells advertising. Second, “Anything can be true if someone says it loudly enough.” Third, “Fact is that which enough people believe. Truth is measured by how fervently they believe it.”