Charlotte Iserbyt and the Dumbing of America

I ran into her recently via YouTube, and was intrigued by the title of her book, "The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America" (available for free at her website).

I tried listening to a couple of her videos but just found them too annoying. She started out okay but then her claims just got more and more overblown and/or unbelievable. She seems to be a relic of the old right-wing John Birch society mentality, with extreme paranoia about socialism and communism, and a distrust of technology. Most of all, her claims just didn't seem to stack up. I looked at her book, and just could not see the problems she saw in the education system.

Not to say that the education system ISN'T controlled in some way to dumb down America. It probably is! But I didn't see it in the evidence she had (at least in the limited review of the stuff I took). I *would* like to see a better presentation of the evidence for how the education system is controlled...

But most oddly, Iserbyt says both her father and grandfather were member of Skull and Bones, and talks about what great guys they were. She talks a bunch about secret societies and the Nazis still being in the US... which is fine in general, but I sense she is giving out disinfo. It's like she is onto some important info, but at minimum is not an effective messenger, and at worst, is giving out disinfo.

Which overall reminds me of the right-wing view of conspiracies-- they may have some okay points, but are terribly blinded by ideology and are missing the bigger picture.