Cultivating a culture of stupid.

Commenter "Holly Stick" draws our attention to this gem:

The Fraser Institute's school of spin

In this excerpt from his latest book, Donald Gutstein exposes the Fraser Institute's school programs that work "toward changing the climate of opinion in Canada"


Not a Conspiracy Theory: How Business Propaganda Hijacks Democracy
by Donald Gutstein
(Key Porter, 2009; $22.95)

And that's when things get amusing:

The Fraser Institute launched a program in 1988 that would have far-reaching impact on advancing the corporate agenda. This program, aimed at students, is actually a half-dozen initiatives through which the institute "is cultivating a network of thousands of young people who are informed and passionate about free-market ideas and who are actively engaging in the country's policy debate," ...

It's that part about cultivating thousands of young people who are "informed" where I snorted Ovaltine out my nose, because if there's one thing that can be said about Canada's young, right-wing culture, they are easily the most ignorant, uninformed and misinformed demographic in the history of the universe, and that ignorance starts at the very top with people like Stephen Taylor who has, to this day, not figured out that a coalition government in Canada is perfectly constitutional. One need only visit the "Blogging Tories" or Craig Smith's new "Canadian Conservatives" to appreciate how hideously, hopelessly, appallingly ignorant these people are in every possible and depressing way.

(Another well-known, right-wing troll who fancies himself a pundit continues to claim -- to this day -- that Canadians actually vote for Prime Minister during federal elections. The ignorance is breathtaking, is it not?)

And I'm guessing that "actively engaging in the country's policy debate" means infesting the comments section of every public forum in the country with screeching racism, bigotry and dumbassitude. But that's just a guess.

AFTERSNARK: I like this bit:

Over 17,000 students have come in contact with at least one of the student programs, the institute claims. "Developing talented students sympathetic to competitive markets and limited government" through these programs "is one important way that the Fraser Institute is working towards changing the climate of opinion in Canada." Graduates have spread into politics, academia, other think-tanks and the media.

They're especially proud of Ezra Levant, ...

That would, I'm guessing, be the Ezra Levant who is a perpetual liar.

You can understand the pride now. Learned well at the feet of the masters, Ezra has.