{"id":54,"date":"2006-02-17T10:18:14","date_gmt":"2006-02-17T15:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2006\/02\/17\/newsday-op-ed-mass-ignorance-vs-democracy-liberty\/"},"modified":"2006-02-17T11:01:20","modified_gmt":"2006-02-17T16:01:20","slug":"newsday-op-ed-mass-ignorance-vs-democracy-liberty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2006\/02\/17\/newsday-op-ed-mass-ignorance-vs-democracy-liberty\/","title":{"rendered":"Newsday Op-ed: Mass Ignorance vs. Democracy &#038; Liberty"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.newsday.com\/news\/opinion\/ny-opbov174629616feb17,0,4455459,print.story?coll=ny-viewpoints-headlines\">Newsday <\/a><\/strong>published an op-ed of mine today on how ignorance is subverting democracy and liberty.\u00a0\u00a0 Some people may dispute the porn ratio in the piece; my hunch is that the number errs significantly on the low side.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The article is being distributed nationwide by the Los Angeles Times\/Washington Post syndicate, so\u00a0it may pop up in other locales.\u00a0 Here are few bits:<\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\">Ignorance is dragging down democracy. Most Americans are increasingly on automatic pilot, paying less attention to each new war, each new power grab, each new presidential assertion. But citizens need not slavishly follow every public debate in order to tilt the playing field against demagoguery.<\/font><font size=\"2\">The typical voter fails to comprehend even the basics of government. Most Americans do not know the name of their representative in the House, the length of terms of House or Senate members, or what the Bill of Rights purportedly guarantees, according to surveys by the University of Michigan&#8230;..<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\"><font size=\"2\">With the rise of the Internet, it has become much easier to find politicians&#8217; speeches, proposed new laws, and media reports and analyses of government policies. Still, people probably spend a hundred times longer online checking out porn sites than they do tracking down government abuses&#8230;.<\/font><font size=\"2\">\u00a0<\/font><\/font><font size=\"2\"> <\/font><font size=\"2\"><font size=\"2\">\u00a0<font size=\"2\">In 1693, William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, declared, &#8220;Let the people think they govern, and they will be governed.&#8221; Penn&#8217;s words should make Americans recognize the choice between knowledge and subjugation. People must either better understand government and politicians, or kiss their remaining rights and liberties goodbye.<\/font><font size=\"2\" \/><font size=\"2\"><font size=\"2\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Newsday published an op-ed of mine today on how ignorance is subverting democracy and liberty.\u00a0\u00a0 Some people may dispute the porn ratio in the piece; my hunch is that the number errs significantly on the low side.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The article is being distributed nationwide by the Los Angeles Times\/Washington Post syndicate, so\u00a0it may pop up in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[22,659],"class_list":["post-54","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-attention-deficit-democracy"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Newsday Op-ed: Mass Ignorance vs. Democracy &amp; Liberty - James Bovard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2006\/02\/17\/newsday-op-ed-mass-ignorance-vs-democracy-liberty\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Newsday Op-ed: Mass Ignorance vs. Democracy &amp; Liberty - James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Newsday published an op-ed of mine today on how ignorance is subverting democracy and liberty.\u00a0\u00a0 Some people may dispute the porn ratio in the piece; my hunch is that the number errs significantly on the low side.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The article is being distributed nationwide by the Los Angeles Times\/Washington Post syndicate, so\u00a0it may pop up in [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2006\/02\/17\/newsday-op-ed-mass-ignorance-vs-democracy-liberty\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2006-02-17T15:18:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2006-02-17T16:01:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jim\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@jimbovard\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jim\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2006\\\/02\\\/17\\\/newsday-op-ed-mass-ignorance-vs-democracy-liberty\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2006\\\/02\\\/17\\\/newsday-op-ed-mass-ignorance-vs-democracy-liberty\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jim\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\"},\"headline\":\"Newsday Op-ed: Mass Ignorance vs. Democracy &#038; Liberty\",\"datePublished\":\"2006-02-17T15:18:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2006-02-17T16:01:20+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2006\\\/02\\\/17\\\/newsday-op-ed-mass-ignorance-vs-democracy-liberty\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":258,\"commentCount\":4,\"keywords\":[\"Attention Deficit Democracy\",\"Attention Deficit Democracy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2006\\\/02\\\/17\\\/newsday-op-ed-mass-ignorance-vs-democracy-liberty\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2006\\\/02\\\/17\\\/newsday-op-ed-mass-ignorance-vs-democracy-liberty\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2006\\\/02\\\/17\\\/newsday-op-ed-mass-ignorance-vs-democracy-liberty\\\/\",\"name\":\"Newsday Op-ed: Mass Ignorance vs. Democracy & Liberty - James Bovard\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2006-02-17T15:18:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2006-02-17T16:01:20+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2006\\\/02\\\/17\\\/newsday-op-ed-mass-ignorance-vs-democracy-liberty\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2006\\\/02\\\/17\\\/newsday-op-ed-mass-ignorance-vs-democracy-liberty\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2006\\\/02\\\/17\\\/newsday-op-ed-mass-ignorance-vs-democracy-liberty\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Newsday Op-ed: Mass Ignorance vs. Democracy &#038; Liberty\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"James Bovard\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\",\"name\":\"Jim\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"caption\":\"Jim\"},\"description\":\"Bovard's homepage is at http:\\\/\\\/www.jimbovard.com He can be contacted at jim@jimbovard.com James Bovard is the author of ten books. The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \\\"the roving inspector general of the modern state\\\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \\\"one-man truth squad.\\\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism &amp; Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \\\"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\\\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. Bovard\u2019s writings have been publicly denounced by FBI director Louis Freeh, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Postmaster General, and the chiefs of the U.S. International Trade Commission, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as by many congressmen and other malcontents.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.jimbovard.com\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/jim.bovard\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/jimbovard\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/admin\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Newsday Op-ed: Mass Ignorance vs. Democracy & Liberty - James Bovard","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2006\/02\/17\/newsday-op-ed-mass-ignorance-vs-democracy-liberty\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Newsday Op-ed: Mass Ignorance vs. Democracy & Liberty - James Bovard","og_description":"Newsday published an op-ed of mine today on how ignorance is subverting democracy and liberty.\u00a0\u00a0 Some people may dispute the porn ratio in the piece; my hunch is that the number errs significantly on the low side.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The article is being distributed nationwide by the Los Angeles Times\/Washington Post syndicate, so\u00a0it may pop up in [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2006\/02\/17\/newsday-op-ed-mass-ignorance-vs-democracy-liberty\/","og_site_name":"James Bovard","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard","article_published_time":"2006-02-17T15:18:14+00:00","article_modified_time":"2006-02-17T16:01:20+00:00","author":"Jim","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@jimbovard","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jim","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2006\/02\/17\/newsday-op-ed-mass-ignorance-vs-democracy-liberty\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2006\/02\/17\/newsday-op-ed-mass-ignorance-vs-democracy-liberty\/"},"author":{"name":"Jim","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f"},"headline":"Newsday Op-ed: Mass Ignorance vs. Democracy &#038; Liberty","datePublished":"2006-02-17T15:18:14+00:00","dateModified":"2006-02-17T16:01:20+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2006\/02\/17\/newsday-op-ed-mass-ignorance-vs-democracy-liberty\/"},"wordCount":258,"commentCount":4,"keywords":["Attention Deficit Democracy","Attention Deficit Democracy"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2006\/02\/17\/newsday-op-ed-mass-ignorance-vs-democracy-liberty\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2006\/02\/17\/newsday-op-ed-mass-ignorance-vs-democracy-liberty\/","url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2006\/02\/17\/newsday-op-ed-mass-ignorance-vs-democracy-liberty\/","name":"Newsday Op-ed: Mass Ignorance vs. Democracy & Liberty - James Bovard","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2006-02-17T15:18:14+00:00","dateModified":"2006-02-17T16:01:20+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2006\/02\/17\/newsday-op-ed-mass-ignorance-vs-democracy-liberty\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2006\/02\/17\/newsday-op-ed-mass-ignorance-vs-democracy-liberty\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2006\/02\/17\/newsday-op-ed-mass-ignorance-vs-democracy-liberty\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Newsday Op-ed: Mass Ignorance vs. Democracy &#038; Liberty"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/","name":"James Bovard","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f","name":"Jim","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","caption":"Jim"},"description":"Bovard's homepage is at http:\/\/www.jimbovard.com He can be contacted at jim@jimbovard.com James Bovard is the author of ten books. The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \"the roving inspector general of the modern state\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \"one-man truth squad.\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism &amp; Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. Bovard\u2019s writings have been publicly denounced by FBI director Louis Freeh, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Postmaster General, and the chiefs of the U.S. International Trade Commission, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as by many congressmen and other malcontents.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.jimbovard.com","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard","https:\/\/x.com\/jimbovard"],"url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}