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On Ideology

Amanda has a good concise explanation of why there can't be a "Palin of the left."

Need further proof of the scope of ideology in contemporary America? How about this: a majority of Republicans think that Obama wants to impose Sharia law on the US. It almost seems impossible that this could be a real poll. Who could believe this? Who are these Republicans? Well, the fundamentalists and evangelicals are likely believers. So, too, the partisan hacks. What do these folks have in common?

Ideology.

Ideology creates an aggressive ignorance in people. It makes people close their mind to facts in order to preserve the belief system. And it gives them an automatic path to reconcile their beliefs with a stubborn reality. It goes like this: Obama is bad, so everything bad must be related to/associated with him; Sharia is bad*, so it must be a part of Obama's plan. You could do the same with "socialism."

Those of us in the reality-based world shake our heads. But we need to call out the distorting power of ideology. The uneducated will never be persuaded, of course, but it is important for us to document how social forces come together to create a social space for this ideology to work.

* Hard not to notice the irony that the rank and file of the American Taliban are concerned about Sharia law — they want the same thing, but under a different brand name.