Fooled by Tyrants

The Instapundit asks:

WHY ARE SMART PEOPLE SO CONSISTENTLY FOOLED BY EVIL REGIMES?

And then sends us to a posting at Reason Magazine's website.

The lead paragraph says:

A terrific documentary from the BBC World Service (episode one available for download here; episode two airs next week) asking the age old question, “why are smart people so consistently fooled by evil regimes?”  The first program, predictably titled “Useful Idiots,” recounts the Sovietophilia of some very clever people, including Malcolm Muggeridge, Doris Lessing, Sidney and Beatrice Webb, Claude Cockburn, HG Wells, and Walter Duranty.

I feel bad about Malcolm Muggeridge and Doris Lessing, both writers I like.  As for Reporter Walter Duranty, and those who were his leadership at The New York Times, I am pretty unimpressed by their performance in the 1930s.

Here are the views of Tom Smith over at the University of San Diego Law School.

Regards  —  Cliff