Stupidity- The "Gift" That Keeps On Giving
And it's no impediment to success; indeed, it may be a boon to making it in America
I’ve always taken pride in the fact that I’m a pretty smart guy. Not that I hold that over people; I try hard not to do that. That said, I know a lot about many things and am conversant on many different topics. I hate not knowing something about a subject. So I work hard to stay informed and I’m usually pretty plugged into the 24-hour news cycle.
That may or may not be a good thing, but it feels good to have more than your average layman’s understanding of current events. So I read newspapers and magazines online, and when I read books, it’s to learn something. I rarely read fiction because it’s always seemed like a waste of time. I’ll occasionally break that rule, but I usually read books to increase my knowledge about a subject.
So it’s with some sadness I look around and realize how successful so many…well, stupid people have been. Herschel Walker is a prime example. He had no business being in a Senate campaign. If anything, he should be on a Thorazine drip 24/7/365. The man can barely string together complete and coherent sentences, and when he does Lord only knows what’s going to spew forth.
The Trump era has made it so much easier for stupid people to make their mark in America today. You no longer have to have something concrete to offer, something that will make our lives better, safer, more comfortable, or more efficient. No, you only have to be able to shamelessly sell yourself and convince people that you’re the solution to whatever their problem(s) may be.
Yes, P.T. Barnum may have said there was a sucker born every minute, and Donald Trump has shown how easy it can be to reel them in and get them to hang on your every word as if you’re the Messiah. In the case of Mango Mussolini, you have to convince the White Conservative Christian heterosexual masses that you hate the same people they do. They don’t care so much what you’re going to do for them; they just want to be sure that The Other doesn’t get what you feel you deserve.
Yes, the White Conservative Christian heterosexual masses quickly became part of Trump’s cult…though they’ll deny to their dying breath that they’re card-carrying members of a cult. Don’t pay attention to the golden effigies, the red hats, the American flag-themed suits, or the “f**k your feelings” t-shirts. Nope. Uh-uh. Not a cult. Nosirree.
Definitely not a cult.
Thousands of people died during the COVID-19 epidemic because they refused to believe scientists and doctors who advised them that a safe and effective vaccine was available. Oh, no, the cult members said; we’re not about to believe some government program that will implant microchips in our brains so we can be tracked 24/7/365. No, we’re not stupid like that.
(No, you’re stupid in a COMPLETELY different way….)
And so they went on to drink bleach and eat horse dewormer and other unproven and dangerous “remedies” that were wholly ineffective at protecting them against COVID-19. But they were “owning the libs,” even as they were on ventilators, never to come off and soon to become statistics.
Because, ultimately, it was ALL about “owning the libs.”
They continued following a President who didn’t give a damn about them. Still, he continued to discourage them from getting vaccinated, even as he got COVID-19, got the best care available, and was eventually himself vaccinated. By the time Orange Jesus realized that he should be pro-vaccine, his base was thoroughly propagandized. When he finally recommended vaccination to his supporters, he was roundly booed for caving into those trying to “control” them.
It’s difficult to know precisely how many people died because of Trump’s intransigence on vaccines. Still, it’s probably safe to say that hundreds of thousands of Americans died because they listened to him.
Sadly, profound ignorance isn’t a criminal offense. Nor is self-serving propaganda.
Stupid is as stupid does, but living with that knowledge is still painful for those left behind.
Now that Donald Trump is out of office, Republicans are trading on the ignorance of Trump’s base to blame President Joe Biden for things he has no control over. Take gas prices, for example. When prices at the pump skyrocketed after Russia invaded Ukraine, Conservatives all over the country slapped stickers featuring Joe Biden saying “I did that!” on gas pumps.
The truth is that an American President has very little to do with prices at the pump. Oil prices are volatile under the best of circumstances; the war in Ukraine supercharged that reality, and President Biden had no control over that. Nonetheless, Republicans in Congress continued to blame the President for gas prices because they could.
Of course, when prices began to go down, did Republicans credit the President? Please….
And while we’re still on the subject of profound ignorance, there are few bigger idiots in American public life than this 24-karat doofus:
I’m sure D’Souza would not be pleased if he were to be shown the actual statistics on pedophiles and their ideological/religious affiliations.
Then there’s the phenomenon of those who deny the validity of the 2020 Presidential election and claim that Joe Biden stole the election. Despite presenting no evidence and Donald Trump losing 61 of 62 court cases, millions of Americans continue to insist the election was fraudulent.
Right. And in my spare time, I’m Leonel Messi.
It seems as if stupidity has bled into so many aspects of public life. Not that intellectual rigor has ever been a hallmark of Americana, and P.T. Barnum WAS correct in his assessment of the American people. Still, while I understand the theory that humans generally use roughly 10% of their brains, I can’t help wondering why so many seem unwilling to engage even that much.
Yes, Virginia, stupidity truly is the “gift” that keeps on giving.
Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice. One may protest against evil; it can be exposed and, if need be, prevented by use of force. Evil always carries within itself the germ of its own subversion in that it leaves behind in human beings at least a sense of unease. Against stupidity we are defenseless. Neither protests nor the use of force accomplish anything here; reasons fall on deaf ears; facts that contradict one’s prejudgment simply need not be believed- in such moments the stupid person even becomes critical – and when facts are irrefutable they are just pushed aside as inconsequential, as incidental. In all this the stupid person, in contrast to the malicious one, is utterly self-satisfied and, being easily irritated, becomes dangerous by going on the attack. For that reason, greater caution is called for than with a malicious one. Never again will we try to persuade the stupid person with reasons, for it is senseless and dangerous.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, from ‘After Ten Years’ in Letters and Papers from Prison (Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works/English, vol. 8) Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2010
Is it that our schools have given up on teaching critical thinking? Are parents so convinced that their progeny are being “indoctrinated” and not “educated” that they refuse to allow their kids to learn how to think and problem-solve? Do they not understand that education IS indoctrination? It doesn’t have to have a bad connotation; education doesn’t teach kids to believe one political point of view over another. It’s about reading, ‘riting, ‘rithmetic, and (hopefully) problem-solving.
Many parents are resistant to education, thinking that their kids will be indoctrinated into knee-jerk Liberal ideology. No, education is how kids learn the basic skills and knowledge that will help them compete and succeed in an increasingly globalized marketplace.
Keep in mind that education is indoctrination. That’s what any type of learning is, so if you’re morally opposed to indoctrination, your kids are probably doomed to be fry cooks at Hooters for the rest of their productive lives.
Younger generations are far more attuned to the idea that they need to learn to get ahead in the world they’ll inherit. They know they’ll be competing against peers from other countries whose parents aren’t freaking out at school board meetings over Critical Race Theory.
Sometimes I feel as if my homeland is rushing headlong to become the set of Idiocracy. That’s not a good thing, and at times I fear that stupidity may become a way of life and that the time of Type of Hero Unintelligent Leader President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Camacho may soon be upon us.
Stupid doesn’t have to be our future, but when so many people seem to be heading in that direction, how do you turn the ship around? Or can it even be turned in the right direction?
Are we already too late?
Yeah, Sparky, that pain you’re feeling in your forehead? That was a thought. You might want to get used to having a few more of those, knowhutimean?? Otherwise, you and yours will be destined for brilliant careers flipping burgers and filling gas tanks.
Wir sind SEHR gefickt.
