Sentence:  Furthermore, sociologists Paul DiMaggio, Richard A. Peterson, and Jack Esco Jr. contended that, while such an interpretation of country music required a dismissal of more socially progressive songs by some of the same artists, songs such as “Okie from Muskogee” wreaked untold havoc on country music by leading “popular commentators to see all country music as rightwing <WSD>know-nothingness</WSD>." 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  A perverse admiration or embrace of ignorance.