Ignant

ig·no·rant/ˈignərənt/

Adjective:

Lacking knowledge or awareness in general; uneducated or unsophisticated.

I vaguely recall one evening, in a high school geometry class, something that still bothers me to this day. One of my peers, after arguing with the teacher over her failing grade, turned away from the teacher's desk and said, "Man, he ignant." Hilarious irony aside, I've noticed a trend of using the word 'ignorant' to describe somebody who holds politically incorrect opinions.

We all remember the James Watson brouhaha, where one of the guys responsible for discovering DNA was called ignorant by people who could hardly understand the word, let alone his work. Whether or not the liberal arts collective that descended upon Watson truly believe that he is some kind of idiot, this clever re-branding of ignorance is just another form of moral posturing. After all, what's better than being able to assert unquestionable moral and intellectual superiority over one of the 21st century's great minds?

But that's just the introduction for today's real topic--this is a blog (loosely) about Flint, dammit. A few days go, Rush Limbaugh had this to say about the city:

"If there is any dilapidation taking place, it's in the inner cities, and it's in cities run by Democrats for generations. Do I need to name names? Detroit, I hate to pick on 'em, Flint, Michigan, New Orleans. You go wherever Democrats have run the show for generations and you are gonna find big-time deterioration almost without exception."

To be perfectly honest, all I know about Limbaugh is that he's got a cool first name and my liberal friends/relatives hate his guts. I'm sure he has his faults, but he's got my support on this one for sure. Detroit, Flint, 'Nawlins and the like are all heavily liberal, black cities. Ignoring the latter, which happens to be the larger catalyst of dilapidation, Limbaugh has said nothing factually incorrect. Flint's mayor, Dayne Walling, fired back this morning.

"Communities across the state of Michigan all have the common challenge of rebuilding their infrastructure. That has nothing to do with party politics ... I see it as his responsibility to educate himself on the issues he speaks about ... "

Adding annoyance to aggravation, the article reports Dayne as having described Limbaugh's statements using the word of the hour: ignorant. I have to wonder what exactly he means by "educate himself on the issues he speaks about." Is flint suddenly not deteriorating? That would be strange, considering the blocks upon blocks of boarded up or torn down houses I see with my own two eyes, every single day...

"Stop saying true things."

Ignorant is stupid, is racist, is antisemitic, is sexist, is ageist, is evil. Dayne, like most liberals, uses the word as a placeholder for more inflammatory terms like those listed above. Because Limbaugh implicated democrats, Dayne couldn't just haul off and call him a homophobicracistnazibabykiller, so he went for the next best thing.