So, apparently we've reached the point in our present national decline when our modern day Father Coughlin has decided it's time for full-blown anti-intellectualism:

I'd like to think that it was best to just ignore this guy, but he's got the ear of way too many of the frightened and confused.  And for all of his stupid references to despots, he's the one pulling the fascism act here.  Demonizing intellectuals is right out of the playbook of the Khmer Rouge or the move to ramp up the Wehrmacht and demonize the Jews.

Not that Glenn Beck, a single-semester college drop-out, would have much idea about what actually goes on in a university, but that's really beside the point.  Nor does it really matter that universities educate, not re-educate.  Nor does it matter that universities educate young adults, not children.

Our politics are horribly broken.  Economic conditions have been degrading for the majority of Americans for decades now.  And any expertise we might have is effectively ignored.  We no more heed the warnings and advice of climate scientists than we heeded economists, either in regards to the imminent bursting of the housing bubble or the necessary response.

In light of the apparent impotence of expert consultation in the face of our twisted politics, how should Americans be expected to feel about intellectuals and their expertise?  How many times have we read that no one could have or did predict the housing crash (they did)?  How many times has it been presented that there is broad disagreement among climate scientists about current climate trends (there isn't)?

The media, and particularly television, play a huge role in this.  This is, unfortunately, why Beck matters.  He has the ear of millions and is furiously sowing the wind with every passing day, but it will not be Beck who reaps the whirlwind.  It will be the rest of us.