I have nothing witty or funny to say to this. Only that because there are so many stupid people, I'm now carrying my fucking passport with me because I get mistaken for an extremely light skinned Mexican American woman everywhere I go except Hawaii. But wait, they're harassing Asians in the next town over so nevermind!!!
We have masked men without uniforms in unmarked cars pointing guns at random people here in my hometown because we had the temerity to say the city wasn't going to put up with stupid racist bullshit. SoCal has been in a terrible head space the past few weeks -- scratch that, the past few months thanks to the fires --and we are so goddamn tired of all the stupidity. TIRED.
I'm my head lately I've been reworking Churchill's 1940 Battle of Britain speech. It helps a little:
We shall go on to the end, we shall fight the stupid on the internet, we shall fight the stupid in the WalMart parking lots, we shall fight the stupid with growing confidence and growing strength, we shall defend our Island of Sanity, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight the stupid on the beaches, we shall fight the stupid on the landing grounds, we shall fight the stupid in the fields and in the streets,
I have never felt an affinity to an author of anything as much as you…I completely agree with your stupid theory, all 4 grandparents came from Ireland and idolized JFK, and Winston Churchill is the best crisis leader I’m aware of and I steal from his speeches as well for the same reason. Never subscribed to sub stack before, but just did. Keep it up.
That is so kind of you to say. I really appreciate the encouragement. I wasn't really sure this piece made sense when I posted it, honestly, so this means a lot to me. One Churchill doc I saw recently, and that really opened up a new side of him to me, was Churchill's First World War. It's a BBC joint, so the quality's pretty good and it's really the story of how he got to be the leader he was in WWII: https://www.bbcselect.com/watch/churchills-first-world-war/ - i'm a big doc nerd, but I definitely thought it was worth a watch.
I will watch the link Ty! All I really know about Churchill in WWI was his utter failure in the Gallipoli invasion he was responsible for. About 50k deaths among the allies as they were defeated. And yet he came back to lead the Brits in their finest hour in WWII. I use that history to buoy myself in my own failures, and offer the story to others as well who are having trouble “bouncing back” from failure. If we “never give up” as he exhorted, often our failures teach us what we needed to know for future success!
IIRC, this doc starts in the aftermath of that disaster and then goes onto show what he did for the rest of WWI, which i didn't know anything about - and was really key to bouncing back
Well I bet if you took an Ancestry.com DNA test you'd see you were 49% Stupid (at most) and 51% Swedish or something, so probably that accounts for it.
I think none of this maga/stupid movement happens without social media where it’s hard to tell in 140 characters whether someone has an intelligent point to make. In the old days you’d have to talk to people, write a letter to the editor, or something like that. You’d expose yourself pretty quickly as stupid and decide to shut up and let the people who know something lead the conversation. We all do this still…even if you are the leading physicist in the US you probably have domains, say lawn care, where you feel inadequate to aggressively push the dialogue. But on social media, we have no such natural filter. Middle school level debate tactics (such as name calling!) have become common…need I say more. And so they could find each other on social media and support each other to become a group…like an ethnicity as Mr. Wittig puts it. They lack the insight to realize how incompetent or depraved they are (Dunning Kruger effect), and so they aggressively gain confidence, unlike our physicist who is smart enough to shut up about lawn care. My optimistic view is that they have outed themselves, as the Germans did in the last big push by the Nazis in Dec 1944. It was a scary point in the war as they pushed the Allies back significantly…but in the end they did us a favor by putting the best they could muster all in one region so we could identify them and route them. And so this is perhaps the last hurrah for the Stupid. They are pushing us back to the ocean, but it will be a turkey shoot eventually and they will have to accept the fact, like the rebels in 1865, that they are just wrong, no matter how enthusiastic and unified they feel.
This is such a thoughtful reply. I really appreciate it. Thank you.
Yeah, I tried to keep the essay tight but there's definitely a whole chapter on the effect of social media / the internet in there. I think you're right. I mean it's got to be partially economics and educational divergence too, and other stuff, but I don't think it happens without the internet / social media.
I hold on to your historical analogies tightly. I am definitely hoping this is the Final Western Offensive of Stupid. Or like, we're in a confederate spasm of stupid - one that burns bright but ultimately crashes out. And I do think something like that will happen, at some point, just because Authoritarian Stupid-ism is hollow, I think. It's all about revenge and respect but there's nothing in it than anyone actually wants. The freaks have seized the asylum here in America and what have we got for it: Corporate tax cuts, gutting healthcare and ICE beating up landscapers. Other than a feeling of getting even / making it to the top - there's nothing there to improve the lives of even Stupid-Americans.
I agree, essentially, with everything you’ve said. Yet I still have SOME sympathy for those afflicted with stupidity, because I think they were likely born with it, and didn’t choose to be so.
The more sad and dangerous thing about the MAGA is that they are not only stupid, but also selfish and racist. These are NOT traits one is born with, but learn over time to choose, probably by growing up in an equally stupid—and selfish and racist—family. But those two qualities are probably enhanced by an overriding FEAR, of what, or who, they don’t understand. Of course, they don’t understand (or even try to) because they’re stupid.
I don’t see any easy way out of this. Except maybe, as my late father would sometimes say (in jest? maybe), “Someone should invent an invisible sterilization technique that could be used just by walking around waving a wand unobtrusively. Then if people wish to have children, there should be some kind of screening test before fertility is restored to them.”
Oh yeah, I agree 100%. People are going to fall where they do on the intelligence / ignorance curve - not much to be done about that. And it seems like over the last 40 or 50 years, we have a society have basically just become okay with letting powerful institutions - like corporations, social media, etc. etc. - really just pray on people who don't have the ability to really defend themselves. We've bought into the whole "everyone for themselves" mentality in so many ways that it's left us feeling like we have no responsiblity to each other. It's a situation where the smart and advantaged really thrive, but if you're average or just a little less in any department, you're going to struggle and no one's going to care. Eventually that'll turn to hate.
People are always shocked when I tell them 50% of people have an IQ of 100 or lower. Then I point out that 1 out of 6 people have an IQ below about 85… just sayin’…
I really hope you're the guy who originally posted this write-up on reddit, because if not then this is just blatant plagiarism and you should be ashamed of yourself.
I have nothing witty or funny to say to this. Only that because there are so many stupid people, I'm now carrying my fucking passport with me because I get mistaken for an extremely light skinned Mexican American woman everywhere I go except Hawaii. But wait, they're harassing Asians in the next town over so nevermind!!!
We have masked men without uniforms in unmarked cars pointing guns at random people here in my hometown because we had the temerity to say the city wasn't going to put up with stupid racist bullshit. SoCal has been in a terrible head space the past few weeks -- scratch that, the past few months thanks to the fires --and we are so goddamn tired of all the stupidity. TIRED.
I'm my head lately I've been reworking Churchill's 1940 Battle of Britain speech. It helps a little:
We shall go on to the end, we shall fight the stupid on the internet, we shall fight the stupid in the WalMart parking lots, we shall fight the stupid with growing confidence and growing strength, we shall defend our Island of Sanity, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight the stupid on the beaches, we shall fight the stupid on the landing grounds, we shall fight the stupid in the fields and in the streets,
I have never felt an affinity to an author of anything as much as you…I completely agree with your stupid theory, all 4 grandparents came from Ireland and idolized JFK, and Winston Churchill is the best crisis leader I’m aware of and I steal from his speeches as well for the same reason. Never subscribed to sub stack before, but just did. Keep it up.
That is so kind of you to say. I really appreciate the encouragement. I wasn't really sure this piece made sense when I posted it, honestly, so this means a lot to me. One Churchill doc I saw recently, and that really opened up a new side of him to me, was Churchill's First World War. It's a BBC joint, so the quality's pretty good and it's really the story of how he got to be the leader he was in WWII: https://www.bbcselect.com/watch/churchills-first-world-war/ - i'm a big doc nerd, but I definitely thought it was worth a watch.
I will watch the link Ty! All I really know about Churchill in WWI was his utter failure in the Gallipoli invasion he was responsible for. About 50k deaths among the allies as they were defeated. And yet he came back to lead the Brits in their finest hour in WWII. I use that history to buoy myself in my own failures, and offer the story to others as well who are having trouble “bouncing back” from failure. If we “never give up” as he exhorted, often our failures teach us what we needed to know for future success!
IIRC, this doc starts in the aftermath of that disaster and then goes onto show what he did for the rest of WWI, which i didn't know anything about - and was really key to bouncing back
Me stupid and I not like Trump. Explain that, brain man.
Well I bet if you took an Ancestry.com DNA test you'd see you were 49% Stupid (at most) and 51% Swedish or something, so probably that accounts for it.
I think none of this maga/stupid movement happens without social media where it’s hard to tell in 140 characters whether someone has an intelligent point to make. In the old days you’d have to talk to people, write a letter to the editor, or something like that. You’d expose yourself pretty quickly as stupid and decide to shut up and let the people who know something lead the conversation. We all do this still…even if you are the leading physicist in the US you probably have domains, say lawn care, where you feel inadequate to aggressively push the dialogue. But on social media, we have no such natural filter. Middle school level debate tactics (such as name calling!) have become common…need I say more. And so they could find each other on social media and support each other to become a group…like an ethnicity as Mr. Wittig puts it. They lack the insight to realize how incompetent or depraved they are (Dunning Kruger effect), and so they aggressively gain confidence, unlike our physicist who is smart enough to shut up about lawn care. My optimistic view is that they have outed themselves, as the Germans did in the last big push by the Nazis in Dec 1944. It was a scary point in the war as they pushed the Allies back significantly…but in the end they did us a favor by putting the best they could muster all in one region so we could identify them and route them. And so this is perhaps the last hurrah for the Stupid. They are pushing us back to the ocean, but it will be a turkey shoot eventually and they will have to accept the fact, like the rebels in 1865, that they are just wrong, no matter how enthusiastic and unified they feel.
This is such a thoughtful reply. I really appreciate it. Thank you.
Yeah, I tried to keep the essay tight but there's definitely a whole chapter on the effect of social media / the internet in there. I think you're right. I mean it's got to be partially economics and educational divergence too, and other stuff, but I don't think it happens without the internet / social media.
I hold on to your historical analogies tightly. I am definitely hoping this is the Final Western Offensive of Stupid. Or like, we're in a confederate spasm of stupid - one that burns bright but ultimately crashes out. And I do think something like that will happen, at some point, just because Authoritarian Stupid-ism is hollow, I think. It's all about revenge and respect but there's nothing in it than anyone actually wants. The freaks have seized the asylum here in America and what have we got for it: Corporate tax cuts, gutting healthcare and ICE beating up landscapers. Other than a feeling of getting even / making it to the top - there's nothing there to improve the lives of even Stupid-Americans.
I agree, essentially, with everything you’ve said. Yet I still have SOME sympathy for those afflicted with stupidity, because I think they were likely born with it, and didn’t choose to be so.
The more sad and dangerous thing about the MAGA is that they are not only stupid, but also selfish and racist. These are NOT traits one is born with, but learn over time to choose, probably by growing up in an equally stupid—and selfish and racist—family. But those two qualities are probably enhanced by an overriding FEAR, of what, or who, they don’t understand. Of course, they don’t understand (or even try to) because they’re stupid.
I don’t see any easy way out of this. Except maybe, as my late father would sometimes say (in jest? maybe), “Someone should invent an invisible sterilization technique that could be used just by walking around waving a wand unobtrusively. Then if people wish to have children, there should be some kind of screening test before fertility is restored to them.”
Oh yeah, I agree 100%. People are going to fall where they do on the intelligence / ignorance curve - not much to be done about that. And it seems like over the last 40 or 50 years, we have a society have basically just become okay with letting powerful institutions - like corporations, social media, etc. etc. - really just pray on people who don't have the ability to really defend themselves. We've bought into the whole "everyone for themselves" mentality in so many ways that it's left us feeling like we have no responsiblity to each other. It's a situation where the smart and advantaged really thrive, but if you're average or just a little less in any department, you're going to struggle and no one's going to care. Eventually that'll turn to hate.
People are always shocked when I tell them 50% of people have an IQ of 100 or lower. Then I point out that 1 out of 6 people have an IQ below about 85… just sayin’…
I really hope you're the guy who originally posted this write-up on reddit, because if not then this is just blatant plagiarism and you should be ashamed of yourself.
https://www.reddit.com/r/thebulwark/comments/1ljbvtw/hottest_take_stupidamericans_are_the_new/
thanks for looking out. I am the original author. Posted it on Reddit first and then on my substack. Hope you enjoyed it.
Nailed it.
Thanks Nancy! I do think the time has come for a Stupid Pride parade. I mean that just sounds fun.
Just incredible writing
https://johnpavlovitz.com/2018/08/01/the-miserable-people/