Book Review: Intellectual Morons: How Ideology Makes Smart People Fall For Stupid Ideas

Author: Daniel J. Flynn
ISBN Number: 1-4000-5355-2
Publisher: Crown Forum
Genre/Market: Politics
Publication Date:
Book Length: 292 Pages
Price: $25.95
Hardcover
5 out of 5 points



If you’re curious to know the origins of all the radical far left movements in this country, then you simply must read Intellectual Morons: How Ideology Makes Smart People Fall For Stupid Ideas by Daniel J. Flynn.

This is a fantastic book which breaks down all the propaganda that has been created to promote the left’s causes over the past several decades. What you’ll learn is simply stunning:

The intolerance and political correctness that the left display in our society today can be traced back to Herbert Marcuse. He preached that truth is falsehood, freedom is totalitarianism, tolerance is intolerance, education is indoctrination, and that sex is better than work. If this all sounds absurd, it is, but that’s never stopped the far left before. Marcuse advocated tolerance for ideas from the left but intolerance for ideas from the right. Clearly, he knew that his side couldn’t win in a legitimate debate.

The sexual revolution was started by Alfred Kinsey, a “scientist” who was actually a pedophile. He authored studies in the 1940s and 1950s claiming that a large percentage of Americans engaged in premarital sex, adultery, and homosexuality. This started the idea that the conservative mores of society that kept sexuality private and monogamous were old-fashioned, out-of-date, as well as hypocritical. It came out too late all of Kinsey’s studies were fraudulent. Take a look at the hyper-sexualization of today’s society, and the end results of Kinsey’s legacy are clear.

The Feminist movement was started by Betty Friedan and her 1963 book The Feminine Mystique. She claimed that too many women led unfulfilling lives trapped as housewives raising a family. She portrayed herself as a typical stay-at-home mom, but she was actually a radical political activist who believed in Marxism. A recent study says that women today are less happy than they were thirty years ago is proof that radical feminism has done far more harm for women than good.

The environmental movement originated with Stanford University professor Paul Ehrlich and his 1968 book The Population Bomb. In the book he claims that during the 1970s hundreds of millions of people would die from starvation due of overpopulation. He also said the United States would be literally dying from thirst. And that a new ice age might be upon us. And that meat prices would rise so rapidly that most of us would be forced to become vegetarians. And that a billion people would die from disease. And that nuclear war was likely. Of course, he was wrong. But all the environmental hysteria we see today can be directly traced back to Ehrlich.

The chapter on Ehrlich is probably the funniest in the entire book. It quickly becomes clear why Ehrlich took so many radical and ludicrous positions when you take a look at his proposed solutions. He wanted a bigger government to use heavy taxation to reduce Americans’ overall standard of living. Ehrlich, like so many others, advocated big government because he believed it could be used to force his own ideology on other people. And if he had to do it by dishonest means, that was irrelevant.

Intellectual Morons covers many other racial leftists including Naom Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Peter Singer, and Ann Rynd. I strongly recommend it. It is both fascinating and funny, stunning and at times horrifying. But you will learn a great deal about how the left in this country operates and why.