The Bill of Rights contains no amendment granting people the right to be stupid. Unfortunately, millions of Americans are insisting there is.
They want to be stupid about science, medicine, religion, guns, and the restrictions of the Constitution itself. They’re Constistupiditists, attempting to convince those “other” people that the "Consties" have Constitutional protections you don’t and that you don’t have protections you do. It’s the underbelly of idiocy that drags along the soil of ineptitude.
A brief history of bias
America is rife with past examples. There’s America’s “peculiar institution” that insisted that the people we enslaved were inferior — mentally if not physically. We’ve made a market in bias against the Irish, Italians, Jews, Asians, and just about anybody born somewhere else.
In the 20th Century, after running through the usual ethnic victims, there was the vituperative hatred of Father Coughlin. The Catholic “radio priest” couldn’t seem to remember — in the midst of his venomous condemnation of Jews — that Jesus just so happened to be Jewish.
McCarthyism thrived on willful ignorance. The junior senator from Wisconsin made claims (like today’s) with no basis in fact against people who were guilty of nothing. People whose behavior was permitted. By the Constitution.
The John Birch Society joined in on the fun of a political kakistocracy. Back then they hated Russians. Today’s heirs apparently think that Russia has the right idea: no opposition, no dissent, no choice, and no room for intelligent thought.
Looking back...wards
After having defeated Nazis in Germany, George Lincoln Rockwell still rose his stiff armed salute with a swastika armband and persuaded too many Americans that Adolf was right about the whole master race thing. In a sense, he was the ideological godfather of modern white supremacists. It wasn’t the Klan. That crowd was at least smart enough to wear a mask.
Another George (Wallace) had the sense to understand that racism was, well… stupid. Strom Thurmond did not, at least not until he had to admit he had a daughter whose mother was Black.
Nixon, who should have had the wiles to work around the perceptions that he knew he should avoid, was almost clinically moronic. What made things worse was that the people he relied on were even less insightful than he was. It’s too bad he was allowed to resign. It was a “for the good of the country” maneuver that set a pattern for tolerance of unConstitutional behavior. It was, yes, stupid.
Trickle me, Gonzo
Reagan? Oh, God. He was the best snake oil salesman the White House has ever let in. Nothing that he said or did helped the people that he said he was helping. And they weren’t smart enough to see that his actions helped the wealthy, not them. The “Great Communicator” was, in fact, a great deceiver.
All the highly vocal men in Congress who went after Bill Clinton for his lies about sex with an intern turned out to have committed far greater sins of the flesh. At least they didn’t have the gall to claim “I wasn’t really that into her.” Just brainless enough to have opened their mouths after previously opening their flies.
If Cheney was Tweedle Dum, poor Dubya was Tweedle Dumber. Instead of accepting the world’s willing help to eliminate the threat from Al Qaeda and terrorism, he listened to neocon nincompoops and put us even further in harm’s way. Apparently, too many of his cronies ate the yellow cake.
The highest low point
By the time Mr. Trump stumbled into the Executive Mansion, H. L. Mencken was proved right after nearly a century.
…All the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre — the man who can most easily adeptly disperse the
notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum. The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office
represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain
folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.
[Baltimore Sun, July 26, 1920]
Those plain folks are now — thanks to decades of descent in the quality of education, the lack of compromise in politics, the belief that facts are optional, and the assurances that “there are good people on both sides” — the prevailing idiocracy. They all have the right to be stupid, but the rest of us should never be so stupid that we ever admit that they’re right.
They want to be stupid about science, medicine, religion, guns, and the restrictions of the Constitution itself. They’re Constistupiditists, attempting to convince those “other” people that the "Consties" have Constitutional protections you don’t and that you don’t have protections you do. It’s the underbelly of idiocy that drags along the soil of ineptitude.
A brief history of bias
America is rife with past examples. There’s America’s “peculiar institution” that insisted that the people we enslaved were inferior — mentally if not physically. We’ve made a market in bias against the Irish, Italians, Jews, Asians, and just about anybody born somewhere else.
In the 20th Century, after running through the usual ethnic victims, there was the vituperative hatred of Father Coughlin. The Catholic “radio priest” couldn’t seem to remember — in the midst of his venomous condemnation of Jews — that Jesus just so happened to be Jewish.
McCarthyism thrived on willful ignorance. The junior senator from Wisconsin made claims (like today’s) with no basis in fact against people who were guilty of nothing. People whose behavior was permitted. By the Constitution.
The John Birch Society joined in on the fun of a political kakistocracy. Back then they hated Russians. Today’s heirs apparently think that Russia has the right idea: no opposition, no dissent, no choice, and no room for intelligent thought.
Looking back...wards
After having defeated Nazis in Germany, George Lincoln Rockwell still rose his stiff armed salute with a swastika armband and persuaded too many Americans that Adolf was right about the whole master race thing. In a sense, he was the ideological godfather of modern white supremacists. It wasn’t the Klan. That crowd was at least smart enough to wear a mask.
Another George (Wallace) had the sense to understand that racism was, well… stupid. Strom Thurmond did not, at least not until he had to admit he had a daughter whose mother was Black.
Nixon, who should have had the wiles to work around the perceptions that he knew he should avoid, was almost clinically moronic. What made things worse was that the people he relied on were even less insightful than he was. It’s too bad he was allowed to resign. It was a “for the good of the country” maneuver that set a pattern for tolerance of unConstitutional behavior. It was, yes, stupid.
Trickle me, Gonzo
Reagan? Oh, God. He was the best snake oil salesman the White House has ever let in. Nothing that he said or did helped the people that he said he was helping. And they weren’t smart enough to see that his actions helped the wealthy, not them. The “Great Communicator” was, in fact, a great deceiver.
All the highly vocal men in Congress who went after Bill Clinton for his lies about sex with an intern turned out to have committed far greater sins of the flesh. At least they didn’t have the gall to claim “I wasn’t really that into her.” Just brainless enough to have opened their mouths after previously opening their flies.
If Cheney was Tweedle Dum, poor Dubya was Tweedle Dumber. Instead of accepting the world’s willing help to eliminate the threat from Al Qaeda and terrorism, he listened to neocon nincompoops and put us even further in harm’s way. Apparently, too many of his cronies ate the yellow cake.
The highest low point
By the time Mr. Trump stumbled into the Executive Mansion, H. L. Mencken was proved right after nearly a century.
…All the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre — the man who can most easily adeptly disperse the
notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum. The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office
represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain
folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.
[Baltimore Sun, July 26, 1920]
Those plain folks are now — thanks to decades of descent in the quality of education, the lack of compromise in politics, the belief that facts are optional, and the assurances that “there are good people on both sides” — the prevailing idiocracy. They all have the right to be stupid, but the rest of us should never be so stupid that we ever admit that they’re right.
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