Why Do Smart People Say Stupid Things?
In a previous article, I discussed the new fascist insurgency in the USA, and how conservatives refuse to acknowledge that it even exists. Why are smart people being stupid?
My last post analyzed the so-called Insurgency Darwinian Ratchet and why it’s a stupid thing to believe. There’s a bit of a pattern here.
How could otherwise educated people say something so stupid? Because prejudice is a disease too. After prejudice infects someone’s brain, he loses the ability to make obvious connections between facts. In the early stages of prejudice, when the victim sees facts that contradict his prejudice, he ignores them.
As the infection rots out what’s left of his brain, it gets worse. He will start to warp those contradictory facts into alternative facts he likes. It’s incredible to watch someone do this effortlessly without realizing it. Even if pointed out to him, he still won’t realize he’s doing it. “A broken clock is right twice a day” assumes that the clock’s hands are stationary. If the hands keep moving, they will never be right. Same for the prejudiced person. He will never reach a correct conclusion about anything, not even by accident.
Just like a disease, after prejudice has run rampant for long enough and infects enough people, it mutates. Then those people aren’t citizens anymore. They’re slaves. The ruling class can do whatever they want with complete impunity.
That’s exactly what’s happening now. A handful of billionaire technocrats rule the entire Western World with an iron fist and conservatives are still sitting behind their computers ranting about communism. Conservatives cry wolf so often I almost believe them sometimes.
Communists are taking over the country!
“Oh, thank God, it’s about time. Where?”
Every rational person knows that a corporation is by definition not communist, but that’s the problem with prejudiced slaves. They’ve been using words sloppily for decades. Eventually, words lose their meaning altogether. When a word becomes meaningless, there’s no longer a point in saying it.
I’ve repeatedly tried to reason with these unfortunate lost souls, and I consistently fail. They always say the same thing, which is further proof that they’re slaves since they can’t come up with their own individual answers. “Well, leftists can run corporations too.” To be fair, I don’t object to this explanation, but at least come up with a word that actually means what you’re talking about.
As a matter of fact, there already is a word for this. “Liberal” is a bit too vague and broad to be useful, but neoliberalism is explicitly an ideology that embraces capitalism and defends it with commodified social justice talking points. Under a neoliberal regime, corporations go to court to defend their right to use child slaves, and then tweet “[Insert Brand Here] stands with Black Lives Matter.” One of the most successful revolutions in world history happened under our noses. The 21st Century is an era of repulsive and viciously cruel capitalism, and it’s invisible to most Americans.
What’s even worse is that corporate tyrants are methodically deconstructing all the public institutions they can sink their claws into and replacing them with more corporations, or not replacing them at all, because who cares if the working class can do things like “read” or “not get killed by drive-by shootings.”
I have never in my life been so infuriated. I’m starting to think corporate elites are just making fun of us now. Recently, a corporation decided to discontinue some Dr. Seuss books for the hell of it. Were any of those six books still in print? Dr. Seuss stories are pretty memorable, and I don’t have the foggiest recollection of a single one on the list. I’m not sure that publishing company had a real reason except they thought it would be funny.
“Corporation discontinues children’s books that were probably already discontinued.” Of course, conservatives screamed about communism because they always scream about communism. “Evil communists ban beloved Dr. Seuss books that I have no memory of because they haven’t been printed since 1957!” This is embarrassing. I’m embarrassed.
Ian Kummer
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Communists are taking over the country!
“Oh, thank God, it’s about time. Where?”
The cry isn’t about Communists. It’s about Socialists? And you can start there with Amazon. And from there the path is long and crowded. It winds down from Seatlle, through Oregon, through California, and meanders back northward through the upper 50 as it makes it’s way to Boston, down through NY, Maryland, and onward to DC. And has been spotted recently in Virginia and Philly as well.
Communists are taking over the country! “Oh, thank God, it’s about time. Where?” The cry isn't about Communists. It's about Socialists? And you can start there with Amazon. And from there the path is long and crowded. It winds down from Seatlle, through Oregon, through California, and meanders back northward through the upper 50 as it makes it's way to Boston, down through NY, Maryland, and onward to DC. And has been spotted recently in Virginia and Philly as well.