Welcome to the Era of Big Stupid

America is no longer anti-intellectual. We're actively anti-intellect. It might be the death of us.

- BY DAVE HOLMES

HERE IN AMERICA, WE DO THINGS BIG AND lethal. Big Tobacco could have arisen only from North Carolina soil, the U. S. government's generous price-support programs, and Americans' mile-wide self-destructive streak. The development of the interstate highway system in the 1950s surely helped the Big Three automotive companies—GM, Ford, and Chrysler, which is now Stellantis—and our aversion to high-speed rail continues to work to their advantage. Massive government grants have allowed Big Pharma to become a trillion-dollar industry, though not a nimble enough one to have called dibs on “Stellantis” for the name of an erectile-dysfunction medication.

But these are times of austerity in the wealthiest country the world has ever known, and we're cutting back. Not on defense contracts or presidential golf outings, of course; those are vital to national security. Instead, we're canceling scientific studies, research grants, university financial-aid programs, health care for the neediest, foreign aid, and more. At the same time, we're handing our institutions to people who have no idea what to do with them besides starve them to death. And we're taking a defensive posture against the world's smartest and most ambitious international students. The immediate result is that America's greatness is missing in action.

But we are still smart enough to know that nature abhors a vacuum, and something has already moved into the void left behind by our loftiest goals, highest standards, and longstanding dominance in education and entrepreneurship.

It's Big Stupid. And it's going to be the death of us.