Idiot America
How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free
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Narrated by:
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Bronson Pinchot
About this listen
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.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Not Really Sketches
- By DAVID on 11-04-11
By: Walter Isaacson
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The Future Is History
- How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia
- By: Masha Gessen
- Narrated by: Masha Gessen
- Length: 16 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Award-winning journalist Masha Gessen's understanding of the events and forces that have wracked Russia in recent times is unparalleled. In The Future Is History, Gessen follows the lives of four people born at what promised to be the dawn of democracy. Each of them came of age with unprecedented expectations, some as the children and grandchildren of the very architects of the new Russia, each with newfound aspirations of their own - as entrepreneurs, activists, thinkers, and writers, sexual and social beings.
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The author is an international treasure
- By ThreeGems on 10-16-17
By: Masha Gessen
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The Time of Our Lives
- Collected Writings
- By: Peggy Noonan
- Narrated by: Betsy Foldes Meiman, Rena-Marie Villano, Peggy Noonan
- Length: 17 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Peggy Noonan is one of the most brilliant and influential political thinkers and writers of our time. The author of five best-selling books ( What I Saw at the Revolution is now a classic), her column in The Wall Street Journal is a must-read for millions of Americans. Witty, incisive, and always original, Peggy Noonan is a conservative intellectual with wide-reaching appeal across the political spectrum. Now, for the first time, the best of Noonan's writing will be collected in one indispensable volume.
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Ronald Reagan is God. Who knew?
- By Rick on 11-20-15
By: Peggy Noonan
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Dave Barry Hits Below the Beltway
- By: Dave Barry
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 4 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Understanding the urgent need for a deeply thoughtful, balanced book to explain our national political process, Dave Barry has not even come close. Though he himself has covered many campaigns, run for president several times, and run for cover at the rainy inauguration of George W. Bush (the man will spare nothing for his art), Barry has instead outdone himself.
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I Love everything Dave Barry, BUT...
- By As my Wimsey takes me on 03-04-13
By: Dave Barry
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The Year That Broke America
- An Immigration Crisis, a Terrorist Conspiracy, the Summer of Survivor, a Ridiculous Fake Billionaire, a Fight for Florida, and the 537 Votes That Changed Everything
- By: Andrew Rice
- Narrated by: Keith Sellon-Wright
- Length: 15 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Before there was Coronavirus, before there was the contentious 2020 election or the entire Trump presidency, there was a turning-point year that proved momentous and transformative for American politics and the fate of the nation.
By: Andrew Rice
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Bannon
- Always the Rebel
- By: Keith Koffler
- Narrated by: William LeRoy
- Length: 5 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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To understand the Trump White House, you need to understand Steve Bannon: what's driving him, what his true role is, and what he's trying to accomplish on behalf of the American middle class. White House reporter Keith Koffler penetrates the fog surrounding the mysterious senior White House advisor, tracing Bannon's wild and distinctly American path to the White House in this first-ever honest biography of the controversial figure.
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The "real" Steve Bannon! Great read!
- By Amazon Customer on 12-20-17
By: Keith Koffler
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The Corrosion of Conservatism
- Why I Left the Right
- By: Max Boot
- Narrated by: Max Boot
- Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Warning that the Trump presidency presages America’s decline, Max Boot, the political commentator, recounts his extraordinary journey from lifelong Republican to vehement Trump opponent. As nativism, xenophobia, vile racism, and assaults on the rule of law threaten the very fabric of our nation, The Corrosion of Conservatism presents an urgent defense of American democracy.
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Not an intellectual tour de force!
- By Wayne on 07-14-19
By: Max Boot
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Republic of Lies
- American Conspiracy Theorists and Their Surprising Rise to Power
- By: Anna Merlan
- Narrated by: Suehyla El-Attar, Anna Merlan - introduction
- Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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American society has always been fertile ground for conspiracy theories, but with the election of Donald Trump, previously outlandish ideas suddenly attained legitimacy. Trump himself is a conspiracy enthusiast: from his claim that global warming is a Chinese hoax to the accusations of “fake news”, he has fanned the flames of suspicion. But it was not by the power of one man alone that these ideas gained new power. Republic of Lies looks beyond the caricatures of conspiracy theorists to explain their tenacity.
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even-handed and thought-provoking
- By Lenny Pozner on 04-17-19
By: Anna Merlan
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Beautiful Country Burn Again
- Democracy, Rebellion, and Revolution
- By: Ben Fountain
- Narrated by: Ron Butler
- Length: 14 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Beautiful Country Burn Again narrates a shocking year in American politics, moving from the early days of the Iowa Caucus to the crystalizing moments of the Democratic and Republican national conventions, and culminating in the aftershocks of the weeks following election night. Along the way, Fountain probes deeply into history, illuminating the forces and watershed moments of the past that mirror and precipitated the present, from the hollowed-out notion of the American Dream, to Richard Nixon’s Southern strategy, to the cult of celebrity that gave rise to Donald Trump.
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Must read
- By Gerald Moore on 11-01-18
By: Ben Fountain
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In Trump We Trust
- E Pluribus Awesome! (That Was the Easy Part) and Is Fighting for US
- By: Ann Coulter
- Narrated by: Ann Coulter
- Length: 6 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Donald Trump isn't a politician - he's a one-man wrecking ball against our dysfunctional and corrupt establishment. We're about to see the deluxe version of the left's favorite theme: Vote for us, or we'll call you stupid. It's the working class against the smirking class. Now Ann Coulter, with her unique insight, candor, and sense of humor, makes the definitive case for why we should all join his revolution.
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Doesn't deliver on it's promises.
- By Greg Hill on 08-24-16
By: Ann Coulter
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Better Off Without 'Em
- A Northern Manifesto for Southern Secession
- By: Chuck Thompson
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 11 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Let’s talk about secession. Not exactly the most suitable cocktail party conversation starter anywhere in the country, but take that notion deep into the heart of Dixie and you might find yourself running from the possum-hunting conservatives, trailer-park lifers, and prayer warriors Chuck Thompson encountered during the two years he spent traveling the American South asking the question: Would we be better off without ’em?
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What can I say? I loved it.
- By Blake on 03-02-14
By: Chuck Thompson
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The Enemy Within
- Saving America from the Liberal Assault on Our Churches, Schools & Military
- By: Michael Savage
- Narrated by: Cameron Beierle
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Michael Savage's powerful, unmatched mix of razor-sharp wit and explosive socio-political commentary has made him into a cultural phenomenon, becoming not only one of America's most popular radio talk-show hosts, but also a best-selling author. This is his latest assault on the corrosive effects of liberalism on American culture.
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Still applies
- By gary lee johnson on 02-05-19
By: Michael Savage
What listeners say about Idiot America
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- just asking for some common sense
- 06-02-17
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.
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- Angie M.
- 07-09-14
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.
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- Matt
- 04-05-13
Must Listen
This should be a must listen for every high school senior. Want to know why the media is a mess? Your answers are here. This book made me mad, bummed me out, and broadened my view.
The stupidity it points out might bring you down, but this book is important and very good.
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17 people found this helpful
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- video meliora proboque
- 06-21-16
beyond knowledge and mental competence
Americans *are* exceptional. We're exceptionally jingoistic, bellicose, misogynistic, self-infatuated, ignorant, illiterate, sexually enamoured of instruments of death, and so phenomenally hubristic that we presume to consider ourselves "exceptional," whereas we enjoy a Gini Index of Wealth Inequality squarely athwart that of Rwanda! (factoid taken from that left-wing, conspiratorial document, The CIA Handbook) To be fair, it's not really our fault. The malevolent plutocracy has been engaged in a forty-year campaign so to undercut American education, that we've churned out a hopelessly stultified populace eager to wave flags, root for unnecessary wars, and cheer on their own economic evisceration as we obliterate the middle class and they all move to jobs flipping burgers. Exceptional!
Pierce assembles a painfully graphic pastiche of the resultant cretinism rampant in the land, and of course, none of the dinosaur-saddling troglodytes will comprehend a word, nor will the vicious kakistocrats who've overseen the national lobotomy care a single whit. But it's worth reading (for the residue of us who still retain that faculty)... partly for its mordant humor, and partly for its historical significance as a requiem for American sentience.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Wisdom Of the Sphynx
- 08-24-15
A must listen.
A passionate defense of the enlightenment values of our founding fathers. Pierce hammers the damage the elevation of cranks has done to our ability to make informed decisions. However unlike other books on the subject Pierce's work engages this topic with a mixture of humor and seriousness that is very enthralling. The narration is very well done. I highly recommend this book.
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2 people found this helpful
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- William
- 04-08-16
Audiobook is the best
The story was great. Fantastic history lesson, however you need to listen to the audiobook. The narration is a fantastic theatrical experience and the emphasis on specific words or phrases really helps you delve into the mind of Idiot America.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Trenton
- 06-25-14
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.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Steelblue
- 03-02-17
The funniest scariest book you will ever read
If ever there was a more prescient book, I've not read it. Think about today.
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- DanV0
- 10-27-17
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.
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- PugCleaning
- 09-04-20
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!
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