I wrote a story in this week’s print edition about the local group(s) engaged in the teabagging of health care reform; that is, the attempt by a radical minority of right-wing Republicans and Libertarians to derail any debate on reform of the health insurance industry by disrupting public meetings with elected officials, shouting obscene comparisons of Obama’s health care agenda to Nazi Germany, and deploying code words like “socialism” to scare people with little understanding into default modes of provincialism.

Lost in the faux debate over “death panels” (now being called “de facto death panels” by righty media, after that lie has been debunked time and again) and government-sponsored euthanasia (another outright lie foisted upon the public by well-paid media consultants working for affected corporate parties) are the actual details of the various Democratic proposals, in particular the House Democrats’ public option bill. It seems a lot of people are reluctant to let the facts get in the way of a good story: According to the AP (via HuffPo), most Americans are losing sight of what health care reform might actually become because, in the absence of a straightforward plan from the White House, they’re starting to believe the absurd rhetoric coming from the radical right. (Newspeak, anyone?)

Nearly half the country thinks a federal bureaucrat will decided whether your grandmother is worthy of medical care based on her contributions to society. We’re down a hole here.

THE POLL: 54 percent said the overhaul will lead to a government takeover of health care; 39 percent disagree.

THE FACTS: Obama is not proposing a single-payer system in which the government covers everyone, like in Canada or some European countries. He says that direction is not right for the U.S. The proposals being negotiated do not go there.

At issue is a proposed “exchange” or “marketplace” in which a new government plan would be one option for people who aren’t covered at work or whose job coverage is too expensive. The exchange would offer some private plans as well as the public one, all of them required to offer certain basic benefits.

That’s a long way from a government takeover. But when Obama tells people they can just continue with the plans they have now if they are happy with them, that can’t be taken at face value, either. Tax provisions could end up making it cheaper for some employers to pay a fee to end their health coverage, nudging some patients into a public plan with different doctors and benefits. Over time, critics fear, the public plan could squeeze private insurers out of business because they would not be able to compete with the federal government.

It’s unclear now whether Obama is committed to the public option. He described it recently as “just one sliver” of health reform, suggesting it was expendable if lawmakers could agree on another way to expand affordable coverage. Now the White House is emphasizing his strong support for it.

If you’re tired of being lied to and deceived about health care reform issues, check out the independent www.politifact.com for an education. If you’re interested in doing something to counter the thought-policing coming from conservative talk radio, insurance companies and well-paid, well-trained messengers manipulating throngs of Americans who should know better by now (even Walmart is pulling ads from Glenn Beck’s FOX show), check out what MoveOn has to offer.

The real paradox is that there is so much power in idiocy. If we let that continue, we’re conceding that education, critical thought and logic are mere subsidiaries to action, not stimulators of it.