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Profiles in Ignorance
Profiles in Ignorance: How America's Politicians Got Dumb and Dumber | Andy Borowitz
79 posts | 5 read | 1 reading | 5 to read
Andy Borowitz, one of the funniest people in America (CBS Sunday Morning), brilliantly examines the intellectual deterioration of American politics, from Ronald Reagan to Dan Quayle, from George W. Bush to Sarah Palin, to its apotheosis in Donald J. Trump. The winner of the first-ever National Press Club award for humor, Andy Borowitz has been called a Swiftian satirist (The Wall Street Journal) and one of the countrys finest satirists (The New York Times). Millions of fans and New Yorker readers enjoy his satirical news column The Borowitz Report. Now, in Profiles in Ignorance, he offers a witty, spot-on diagnosis of our countrys political troubles by showing how ignorant leaders are degrading, embarrassing, and endangering our nation. Borowitz argues that over the past fifty years, American politicians have grown increasingly allergic to knowledge, and mass media have encouraged the election of ignoramuses by elevating candidates who are better at performing than thinking. Starting with Ronald Reagans first campaign for governor of California in 1966 and culminating with the election of Donald J. Trump to the White House, Borowitz shows how, during the age of twenty-four-hour news and social media, the US has elected politicians to positions of great power whose lack of the most basic information is terrifying. In addition to Reagan, Quayle, Bush, Palin, and Trump, Borowitz covers a host of congresspersons, senators, and governors who have helped lower the bar over the past five decades. Profiles in Ignorance aims to make us both laugh and cry: laugh at the idiotic antics of these public figures, and cry at the cataclysms these icons of ignorance have caused. But most importantly, the book delivers a call to action and a cause for optimism: History doesnt move in a straight line, and we can change course if we act now.
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blurb
keithmalek

Readers who enjoyed this book might also enjoy "Idiot America" by Charles Pierce.

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...activism.

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review
Mpcacher
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Pickpick

Borowitz's analysis of the descent of the intelligence of American politicians is told with wonderful humor, but is also a scary tale. The last section is mostly about Trump, but he does include info on many other well known Republicans. What amazed me was how well educated they all were (Ivy league schools etc.) and yet how ridiculous they generally sound, making me worry not only about the state of politics, but also education. A great read 4.5!

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"Thanks to Trump's strategic deployment of CAPS LOCK, military intervention proved unnecessary." ?

TheSpineView I agree!💙📖📚📚📚 2y
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🤣🤣🤣

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When the National Embarrassment told everyone to drink bleach in order to fight COVID-19. By the way, if you were dumb enough to listen to him, you deserve to die.

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How horrifically sad and pathetic.

Readergrrl Correct 2y
Suet624 🫤🫤🫤 2y
Leftcoastzen Geez oh man! 2y
5 likes3 comments
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Trump 🤣🤣

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I always like it when someone manages to make fun of two different people at the same time, like Borowitz does here. He does that several times throughout the book.

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Michelle Bachmann

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🤣

Susanita Gary Johnson: “What‘s Aleppo?” 2y
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Michelle Bachmann

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George W. Bush

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George W. Bush

bnp His wife Laura was also a librarian. 2y
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George W. Bush

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"He's sort of a guy who got an MBA, but it didn't take." ???

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🤣 Dan Quayle

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George H. W. Bush.

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George H.W. Bush.

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review
keithmalek
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Pickpick

It's a strange coincidence that the last two books I read in 2022 also happened to be two of the best.

This book is outstanding. There's something quotable on almost every page.

(By the way, the book I read before this one that I consider to be one of the year's best is The Next Civil War by Stephen Marche).

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(Continued)...activities that are productive and not just symbolic.

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In the summer of 2021, Florida became responsible for a whopping one-fifth of the nation's new COVID-19 cases. If, as many predict, DeSantis runs for president, he has already locked up the endorsements of several major variants.

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(Continued)...stick the landing. Since all she was trying to say is children are the future, it's baffling that she didn't quote the far less genocidal Whitney Houston. Her only mistake was saying in public what Trump only said in private. Knowing when and when not to praise Hitler can be tricky.

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"Reagan demonstrated that, in the hands of a talented TV performer, one joke could sink a thousand facts."

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The conservative commentator Meghan McCain was moved to call Michelle Bachmann "the thinking man's Sarah Palin." Asked to explain her reasoning, McCain responded, "She's more smarter."

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(Continued)...comparison of the financial crisis to 9/11 was unintentionally insightful: both disasters might have been averted had George W. Bush been paying attention.

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🤣

Suet624 We in Vermont call that verbal diarrhea. 2y
Maria514626 Sounds like someone explaining a weird dream. 2y
7 likes2 comments