Boycott Media (that celebrates stupidity!)
England is the country of Shakespeare, but today our media and politics has become something that celebrates the stupid, boring and obsession with money (think of silly quiz shows). It’s lazy cheap TV for the masses.
In December 2025, the BBC was blasted (and received several complaints) for the dumbed-down Celebrity Mastermind. Even the contestant paused (no doubt dumbfounded if this was a real question, when asked ‘What pet goes ‘woof-woof?’)
Many of us remember as children celebrating with our parents, if we managed to get one or two of the general knowledge questions right!
Only 20 years or so after we would sit down to Inspector Morse or Miss Marple. Intelligent comedy (Dave Allen, Les Dawson) has been replaced by nasty talentless stand-ups, and in-depth interviews (Parkinson, Walden) replaced by what Trump has last said on social media.
A Short History of Stupidity is not a stupid book at all. In fact, sadly, it’s a book whose time has come. The author (like many of us) are wondering how we got into this state. We have politicians claiming to know more than climate scientists, top-rated TV shows that focus on bullying and deception, and people ‘famous for doing nothing’.
Why the author asks, is the world entranced by the ‘five horsemen of the stupid apocalypse’:
- Donald Trump
- Elon Musk
- Vladimir Putin
- Nigel Farage
- Boris Johnson
This book is funny at times, quoting a quiz contestant who when asked the first name of Gandhi, replied ‘Goosey’). But the author is careful not to confuse ignorance with stupidity. It does not sneer at people who don’t have good intellect, rather it’s a fight against stupid media and politics.
Stuart Jeffries is a writer and journalist, who for many years worked for the Guardian newspaper as its Friday Review editor and Paris correspondent. He now works freelance for this and other publications (including the Financial Times and London Review of Books).
When you are dead, you do not know you are dead. The same is true when you are stupid. Anon
