Smart people who fiercely defend stupidity
June 22, 2020
Every time the serially bankrupt reality TV clown says something particularly stupid, I find it fascinating to watch the mental contortions his followers resort to in an attempt to prove that their stupid leader is not, in fact, stupid. The funny thing is, the majority of them would never utter anything so stupid themselves. Yes, there’s a big hillbilly contingent of his followers, the inbred racists who can be counted on to proudly wave their confederate flags and demonstrate their stupidity on camera, but it would be wrong to assume that those people are completely representative of his supporters.
For instance, most of the members of Cult 45 would never themselves turn to a panel of highly regarded medical experts and suggest that they study the merits of injecting household disinfectants into the body to cure a virus. (Well, not unless they had been been hitting the bong pretty hard for a few hours, anyway…) And, even on the off-chance that a similar thought popped into their brains, they would shut that thought down before it escaped their lips, knowing how phenomenally stupid it would sound to say it out loud.
And yet, they defend the person who actually said something that stupid. The cognitive dissonance of watching their “stable genius” continually say incredibly stupid things calls for an impressive demonstration of mental dexterity and leaps of logic. I read through a comment thread in which one of his defenders posted his actual words, in an attempt to “prove” that his words didn’t say what they actually said. Even though the “stable genius” was talking about the efficacy of household disinfectants on surfaces immediately before musing about injecting or ingesting these types of things into the body, in MAGA logic because he didn’t say the words “bleach” or “Lysol” in the quote, he must surely have been talking about something smart and esoteric that liberals are too stupid to recognize.
Some of his supporters go even further, posting links to studies about UV light that their leader most certainly never read, or they mention some obscure components of vaccines that can be classified as disinfectants in some way, as if THAT’s what he really meant. They then insist that liberals are just stupid for not interpreting the words like they do, by drawing a fabulously contorted line of reasoning that points to a profound and intelligent interpretation. (This is one of many examples of what I like to call “MAGAt’s beard”….the exact opposite of “Occam’s Razor.”)
The most they’re able to acknowledge the stupidity of his comments is when they claim that the media blows it out of proportion, which implies that on some level, they realize that his comments sound really dumb. The thing is, by refusing to just admit that he said something stupid, the contortions of logic and refusal to acknowledge basic reality keeps the story trending.
A pre-Bleachgate example of this was his response to Hurricane Dorian. Instead of just admitting that he had been looking at an older, outdated hurricane forecast (which wouldn’t have been much of a big deal) when he stated that the storm would hit Alabama, he sharpie-d up a weather map in a pathetically juvenile attempt to make it look like the hurricane was predicted to go where he had mistakenly said it would go. I couldn’t help but to think of when I was about 11 years old, and my cousin showed me an old test she had taken in first grade. Since she had failed the test and needed a parent’s signature, she had thought she could get away with printing “MOMMY” in big childish scrawl at the top. At 11 years old, I thought it was so ridiculous that I laughed hysterically, tears streaming down my face, at the ridiculousness of a six-year-old thinking she could get away with something so childishly precocious. But it’s not so cute when a brain-addled septuagenarian in a position of power is almost literally trying to get away with the same thing.
Whenever the MAGA tribe insists that the media is unduly harsh to the mollycoddled, draft-dodging, POW-insulting scam artist, I’d like them to ask themselves, honestly, how would Fox State TV and other regressive outlets react if AOC had said or done the same thing? Because she’s young, Latina, feminine, and progressive, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been smeared with the label of stupidity by a bottomless barrage of “dumb blonde” jokes re-purposed to show her face juxtaposed with stupid quotes that she most certainly never said. In their visceral aversion to the freshman Congresswoman, and their attempt to “prove” she’s dumb by using fabricated quotes, they really just prove how intimidated and offended they are that a young woman of color has achieved an important position in government.
That’s not to say that she doesn’t err occasionally. I think that AOC is intelligent and compassionate and I’m in favor of her progressive policies. But she can occasionally make a mistake, as everyone does. And she is typically called on it, as she should be. But whenever the bloated orange failed casino owner says something particularly stupid, I always wonder to myself how regressive media would react if AOC had said the same thing.
Back in February, members of MAGA nation were mentally twisting themselves into pretzels trying to demonstrate how congratulating the “Great State of Kansas” for the Kansas City (Missouri) Chiefs’ Super Bowl win was somehow intelligent. They loudly complained about how unfair and blown-out-of-proportion it was for mainstream media and the Twittersphere to point out and mock that latest example of their leader’s bellowing stupidity.
So, I like to imagine what would’ve happened if AOC had sent out that congratulatory Tweet instead. (I mean, she wouldn’t have…even if she didn’t know immediately which Kansas City was the Chiefs’ hometown, she probably would’ve taken the two seconds to google it first because she’s not the poster child for the Dunning Kruger effect. But let’s just pretend for a moment...) How merciful would regressive media have been to her? Imagine the sputtering outrage and insults that would’ve spewed from Fox talking heads, who would’ve immediately and loudly and repeatedly called for her resignation. Their outrage would’ve been apoplectic. “No one that dumb should be a member of U.S. congress!” Pirro, Hannity, Carlson and Ingraham would’ve shouted. “It’s a complete embarrassment! It’s an insult to the fine people of the Midwest!” And on and on and on and on and on. How long would they milk that mistake? They wouldn’t have cut her the slightest amount of slack, despite the fact that she never owned a professional football team nor shopped around to buy a team in the NFL, which theoretically would give a person more of an understanding of football-related geography.
Would mainstream media have been kinder to her? Probably. But that would be because she most likely would’ve quickly apologized and then gotten in on the joke. The late-night talk show hosts would’ve ribbed her a bit. And then she probably would’ve done a self-deprecating appearance on Kimmel or Fallon…maybe even a tourism-themed segment showcasing the cultural offerings of Kansas City, MO.
But the severe personality disorder of the malignant narcissist who is currently the President of the United States doesn’t allow him to admit or acknowledge a mistake. A person who thinks that all truth and genius flows from him and him alone cannot mentally come to terms with having made an error. And throughout his privileged life, sycophants and hangers-on have been paid big money to let him keep this delusion. But that means that he’s never going to be in on the joke, and people are always going to be laughing at him rather than with him.
And MAGA nation, in their continuous attempt to try to “prove” that the stupid things their leader says are smart, make laughingstocks out of themselves too. They make ridiculous leaps of logic and reason, trying to explain that windmill cancer really IS a thing, or that it’s perfectly understandable to have thought that there were airports during the American Revolution. It would be much better for everyone if they would just save their energy and admit that he said something stupid, but they probably can’t—if they’re forced to acknowledge that the man they idolize is profoundly stupid, then they have to come clean about why they do in fact idolize him, and the answer isn’t likely something they even want to admit to themselves. Most MAGAts might not be as dumb as their leader by a longshot, but most still aren’t mentally up to the challenge of that much introspection.
