Lenin famously referred to Western sympathizers of the Soviet Union as “useful idiots.” Anyone familiar with Yglesias or Klein’s oeuvre recognizes that they are hardly “idiots,” however. That’s what makes their credulousness so strange and disturbing. Lenin also wrote a pamphlet entitled “What Is To Be Done?” Yglesias and Klein’s behavior raises another question, though: What Is To Be Dumb?
Indeed. Idiocy isn't about lack of brain power. It's about how you fail to use it.
UPDATE: But who knows? If those two writers play their cards right, maybe they'll get a Pulitzer, too!
Oh, and of course, the factor of usefulness cannot be divorced from the concept of idiocy.
