Chicago Tribune: Americans Are "More Tribal" and "More Childish"

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Writing in today's Chicago Tribune, author and former Tribune political writer Jon Margolis begins his "Tribal America defends right to ignore facts" by flatly asserting: "The flap over intelligent design poses a special quandary for us Americans. Our puzzlement has nothing to do with the merits of the intelligent design argument. There are none."

Having established where he's coming from, Margolis then moves on to criticize rock celebrity Ted Nugent for criticizing actress Pam Anderson: "Aha! An object for the anger, the artificially enhanced TV star who has supported People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, an animal-rights group that opposes hunting." Three sentences later, Margolis states that "there is no visible anti-hunting movement."

Which make me wonder what he must think PETA, an organization that has used various celebrities, including Ms. Anderson, Kim Basinger, Dominique Swain and Dennis Rodman in its "I'd Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur" campaign, is. PETA has also enlisted the aid of Paul McCartney, Cindy Crawford, Gillian Anderson, Alec Baldwin, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ellen DeGeneres, Alicia Silverstone and many other Hollywood types. Yet "there is no visible anti-hunting movement"?

Margolis completes his rant by charging that Ted Nugent and other intelligent design proponents "have made a deliberate decision to embrace ignorance rather than agree with people they find obnoxious." Still, even as bad and ignorant as these people are, there's room for optimism: "So it isn't just that Americans are more tribal; we're also more childish. Well, maybe we'll evolve. Everything does, you know."

The condescending tone, the denial of something that obviously exists (a visible anti-hunting movement) and the sneering at people who disagree with his view as ignorant are typical of much of the mainstream media. Little wonder it is held in contempt by so many Americans.