Idiot of the Week: Selmer Bringsjord

Our winner is a cognitive scientist who teaches at Rensselaer Polytechinic Institute. Most recently publicized for a project to create a form of "virtual evil" on the internet, Bringsjord has submitted a op-ed column to the Troy Record called, "Letter from a happy Socialist." He pretends to be "Yuri," writing to an unnamed "Comrade" to celebrate the imminent triumph of Socialism in the United States.

No, Bringsjord isn't a Republican hack. He boasts of being "a proud non-member of both the Democratic and Republican parties," and in the article "Yuri" brags that "We have influenced the Republication [sic?] party as well: McCain too is in our camp, albeit unwittingly."

"Yuri" claims that "our soulmates in the Democratic party" got the ball rolling "about a decade back" by "socially engineering the housing market in the U.S. to make it possible for those without sufficient capital to nonetheless own their houses." Because Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac dictated that "mortgages were granted to millions of Americans who couldn't qualify by the traditional 80/20 loan/down payment split," Yuri asserts, "we now stand on the brink of capitalism's death, and no one even seems to suspect our involvement."

Well, of course no one suspects your involvement, Yuri. You're a fictional character. And if your creator, Prof. Bringsjord, is trying to say that Commies are behind the mortgage crisis, then ... that's why he's the Idiot of the Week.

Further proof: Yuri states that "Obama is firmly in our fold. He has been able to come out of the closet and state, publicly and categorically, that he simply wants to take money from the wealthy, and give it to those smart enough to aspire to make a living without working. Is this not ... close to some kind of miracle?"

Perhaps I mistake Bringsjord's intent, and Yuri is meant to be an anarchist, since I never heard of any socialist or communist who thought highly of people who "aspire to make a living without working." But I haven't mistaken his intent at all, since Yuri next spills the beans on "socialism's silent marriage with the Democratic party."

But what about the "Republication party?" Yuri embraces McCain because the Arizonan has "explicitly called for a program devoted to 'recalibrating' the mortgages of all those unable to sustain their monthly payments. In short, he wants to pay off the debt held by such folks, and the beauty of this plan is that the dutiful capitalist who all along made his house payments and paid his taxes, well, McCain will take his money and give it to those who are currently unable to pay. This is textbook socialism, of course."

It may be "textbook socialism" if Gov. Palin is writing it, but socialism, the last time I looked, had something to do with workers controlling the means of production. What that has to do with taxes and mortgages, Yuri does not explain because his creator cannot.

Finally, another round of Ayersophobia. Yuri is "rather happy" that "some of the more violent in our fold will gain considerable credibility if Obama is elected." Yuri seems to believe that "no one here seems to know of Obama's glowing praise, in 1997, for Ayers' book on parenting," despite the fact that I, for one, have mentioned the fact. Bringsjord also seems to believe that endorsing a book on parenting is to endorse the Weather Underground and its terrorist tactics. That alone should earn the writer the Idiot honor, but I hope that I've already made a rather overwhelming case. Bringsjord should stick to his experiments in evil and keep out of political arguments until he has something to report.