This is a rush transcript from "The Five," March 5, 2012. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
GREG GUTFELD, CO-HOST: So, according to a shrink at Cornell University, where shrinks are needed, citizens are incapable of understanding democracy. According to Professor David Dunning, he says, "Very smart ideas are going to be hard for people to adopt because most people don't have the sophistication to recognize how good an idea is."
Translation? Unwashed primitives, leave everything to us. We're gathering in the teachers lounge to make every decision for you. Relax, we've got this. Someone find my bong.
So, I figure researchers like Dunning must not be smart enough for democracy. Luckily, however, the way things are going, he won't have to be. The federal government will make every decision for us as advised by the Ivy League professors from Cornell, no doubt.
Of course, academics love dismissing freedom of choice without assessing the alternatives because they're not that rosy. So, I'll do it for them.
What happens with an elitist academic with utopian ideas takes over? Well, judging from history, you get social engineering which forces reform that ended death from normally nonfatal ills. After that, waves of torture and execution arrive when citizens react to this toxic, utopian nightmare.
Ultimately, it ends in either famine or genocide, take your pick. A hundred million victims did.
BOB BECKEL, CO-HOST: What are you talking about?
GUTFELD: What am I talking about? What am I talking about?
BECKEL: It sounds like you were describing Obama and then you go to genocide and --
GUTFELD: No, no, no. I was talking about how they were saying we cannot elect good leaders. I'm trying to say, what are your alternatives if you don't like democracy?
ERIC BOLLING, CO-HOST: Did it say people can't or Democrats can't?
GUTFELD: Well, that's the thing. I think what this was, was a veiled attack on conservatives.
KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE, CO-HOST: Yet, not so veiled.
BECKEL: That was a good joke. The --
BOLLING: Bob, you were the one --
(CROSSTALK)
BECKEL: I'm not going to defend what this guy said, except to say this, most of the candidates that they got out there with their ideas don't know what they're talking about. And for the average American, it's not fair to dump on them because they don't know the intricacies of the Mideast, Israel, and the Palestine and what's going on over there. Nope, very few people know that very well. And even those who do know it very well are generally wrong.
I mean, what is it about the set of ideas that the voters are supposed to stop what they're doing, try to make a living and stop and figure out what is going on in the Mideast? I mean, that's a pretty, it seems to be a cheap shot at people.
DANA PERINO, CO-HOST: Can you imagine the seminars at Cornell based on this study? They all sit around and go, yes, that's so true. People really can't.
It's like watching an episode of "Downton Abbey." I mean, I really don't know --
GUILFOYLE: I like the accent and the --
PERINO: I've been watching it and I can't help myself with the English accent.
(CROSSTALK)
PERINO: When I read this last night, I was like in the olden days when the great unwashed cannot govern themselves.
GUTFELD: Yes, they're poor things.
PERINO: Yes.
GUTFELD: You just don't understand it.
Kimberly, here's the thing. They are saying since we aren't experts we cannot evaluate. It's like saying you could not go shopping until you go to shopping school.
GUILFOYLE: Right.
(CROSSTALK)
PERINO: Thankfully we went yesterday.
GUILFOYLE: Got the top grade in the class in shopping school.
Yes, I mean, this is just elitist, and it's arrogant. It's ridiculous. It's putting down the American people. And I think it's direct -- I don't even think it's a veiled attack on conservatives.
And this is the same thing we have seen from professors all the time. They have too much time on their hand and they sit around and drink coffee to come up with ridiculous new ways to insult the American people.
BOLLING: Elitist, also timely. I went on Breitbart's site last night. They relaunched. And there's a great video from people sitting around the SEIU, Occupy Wall Street, a couple other like liberal progressive thinkers, free thinkers.
And they are talking about the same thing. How they know better than capitalist. They know better than the current way we do government. And they are smarter than us and it's just a matter of time before they fix everything.
PERINO: People are like --
GUILFOYLE: And just like healthcare. They want to take everything over.
BECKEL: You know, it's not all progressives are elitists. I think there's about 30 percent of the country that are elitist, 70 percent are not.
My definition of elitist is people who think they know what's best for the other 70 percent. That's the problem, right? They always think -- that is not just the Democratic thing. It's not just a professor thing.
The fact is that most people are not as informed on campaign issues. They shouldn't have to be. And, three, but more importantly, I don't think the candidates are very informed; particularly, what you support.
PERINO: Can I mention one thing, though that -- if you look at revolutions and history. Think about what's happened in Tibet over the last few days, well, last few weeks. There are people literally dying for freedom. In Tibet, Radio Free Asia, which I'm on the board of, has reported -- so many people, including women, who are self-emulating, which means, you know, setting themselves afire and committing suicide because they are trying to make a statement that they want to self-govern, that they believe they can do it.
So, that's why something like that, that they spend money on studies that tell people they don't know how to govern themselves. Given a choice, people always choose freedom. They do a good job of it.
BECKEL: You know, they are among the nicest, warmest people, Tibetan people in the world.
PERINO: Yes.
BECKEL: And peaceful people.
PERINO: There is serious problems going on right now, and Radio Free Asia is all over reporting.
BECKEL: Good. Good. Pox on the Chinese for that.
PERINO: Yes.
BOLLING: We can figure out a way to get the Occupy Wall Street and liberals on that site to --
BECKEL: There is an idea.
PERINO: Hey, don't say that.
GUILFOYLE: Eric!
PERINO: You end up apologizing.
BECKEL: Johnny one note.
Whose story is this? Greg.
GUILFOYLE: Oh my gosh. See that?
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