the author gets the general picture correct.  But he writes from a position of scientific ignorance.  I would guess that he had, at most, one or two college science courses.  The clue is here:

Psychological stupidity has become a kind of cultural epidemic that no one is addressing, so it just gets worse.  It invites manipulation and the continuing corrosion and corruption of government.  The rich and powerful know how to take advantage of this stupidity, obtaining government policies and programs they want, selling products and services that consumers do not really benefit from, and grabbing more of the nation’s wealth. 

The phrase has no real meaning. I have written a rather detailed analysis of this situation based on actual specific facts with appropriate links to actual experiments using well defined unambigious words.  go here:

http://factotum666.livejournal.com/829.html#cutid2

of if you forget, then google orwells boot.  I am about number 5 as factotum666.

What the author is seeing is not some kind of cultural epidemic.  It is because evolution works such that tribes made up of stupid authoritarians have the best chance of surviving.  I point this out in detail