Democracy, idiocracy, mediocracy

Over at NaturalNews, Mike Adams has observed the absurd reasoning among a large number of voters. And he blames the chemical warfare between industry and population, turning US citizens into mindless zombies.

While he's right about unhealthy chemicals possibly affecting overall intelligence, I believe he unknowingly touched the real reason for mindless voting at the very beginning of the article:

I don't normally watch television (the "zombie tube"), but I couldn't resist on election night.

Bingo! The problem is that most people do watch television. The typical daily cycle among hard working citizens goes like this: You get up, go to work, come home, eat junk, watch TV, fall asleep. Does TV generally give people any idea about the political issues? No. Do people generally have any energy left to go do some proper, unbiased research on the issues? No. Do TV-commercials tell them to go vote? Yes.

Sure, a good bunch of people do have the time and energy to research before the election. They are the ones who don't waste their time getting dumbed down by television every night. The one way communication of television is turning democracy into medi(a)ocracy.

Mike confirms that "push media" is overrunning informed thought:

So instead of rationally examining the ballot measure, they were easily suckered by the anti-labeling messages of the "No on 37" campaign, which used every dirty trick in the book to confuse the zombie masses.

Of course! Research means "pull media", which means you need to spend energy. Anything pushed to you, on the other hand, requires no effort at all.