According to Webster’s:
stu•pid [stoo-pid, styoo‐] adjective, -er, -est, noun
adjective
1.
lacking ordinary quickness and keenness of mind; dull.
2.
characterized by or proceeding from mental dullness; foolish; senseless: a stupid question.
3.
tediously dull, especially due to lack of meaning or sense; inane; pointless: a stupid party.
4.
annoying or irritating; troublesome
It is true that Conservatives in general hate human beings.
If they had the power to do so, I imagine they would eliminate a large portion of the human race. In fact, I would hazard to guess, that if you bundled together a group of 100 Conservatives representing each faction or opinion of Right Wing thought and gave them the power to eliminate any group of people that they wanted to see gone; mankind would vanish in an instant. Even the 100 Conservatives would be gone, since each one of them would be eliminated by the other 99.
Conservatives hate people and would very much like it if humanity didn’t exist anymore. To them, people are all lazy, corrupt, greedy, sinful, lecherous, unpatriotic, communist, socialist, gay, non-white, poor, scum who don’t deserve the right to breathe. All problems are the fault of humanity and as Joe Stalin said “death solves all problems”. And in case you are thinking being rich would be salvation, think again, because Jews, atheists, liberals, non-whites, and a host of other “unacceptable to live” reasons would eliminate the wealthy just as quickly has the poor.
So, Conservatives in general and Republicans in particular are evil. Sorry, I mean EVIL. Short of worshipping Satan and sacrificing babies to him….Wait, Republicans worship wealth above all other things (the love of money is the root of all evil) and they like doing things like cutting medical aid for children resulting in many unnecessary deaths AND they do so in the name of saving money…Yep, they are pure Satan worshipping, baby sacrificing EVIL monsters.
But. For the first time, I see that they are also really, really, really…did I say really?....stupid. Bag of rocks, thick as bricks, here's your sign, stupid.
Yeah, I know, “well duh, you just notice that now?”
Except, I don’t mean stupid as a general insult as in “You’re stupid”. I’m not saying stupid meaning “I disagree with your position” as in “What a stupid thing to say” or “what you believe is factually incorrect” as in “how can you believe something so stupid”.
No, I’m saying that there is something physically wrong with conservative brains that renders them thicker than planks of wood tied to bags of rocks.
They. Are. Stupid.
How do I arrive at this conclusion? Like I say, it is not just to insult. It is not because they disagree with me. It isn’t even because they consistently resist facts and factual arguments. It is because they have demonstrated a perverse inability to learn from past mistakes and to alter a destructive course of action.
For purposes of this argument, I will restrict my observations to Republicans since most of my audience should be able to immediately recognize the points being made. But it is by no means unique to Republicans alone. All conservatives demonstrate the same lack of basic learning ability.
How else do you explain “Bush’s tax cuts are the wise road to prosperity”, “Obama has run up deficits 10 times the size of anything Bush had”, or “Democrats pit one American against another instead of uniting them as Bush did”. All of these statements, and many, many – oh dear God so, so many more - were made and defended by Republican commenter’s who vigorously resist every effort at correction.
At first I thought this was just politics. You know, never admit failure, defend your record even when it stinks. But gradually, I realized that these people are saying such asinine comments not as part of a political strategy but because they really BELIEVED what they were saying.
I thought back over the past 20 years of talking with, reading and discussing politics with Republicans and conservatives and realized the response has been consistent. This isn’t just a recent phenomena. Rather, it is the hallmark of all right wingers.
In the 1990’s, Republicans declared that there was a culture war going on that was started by “the gay”. An attempt to permit gays to serve openly in uniform was met with hysteria; “trying to spread AIDS to our troops”. Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was the cowardly compromise that Democrats pushed through, yet even that was considered an abomination to the honour of the military. Now Obama has repealed DADT: “OUTRAGE” Republicans scream “bring back DADT”, “Repeal the Repeal”.
In the early 1990’s Clinton proposed a health care reform bill and Republicans screamed in fury at the idea of someone possibly getting healthcare without creating a profit for the HealthCare Industrial complex. Much better to have individual mandates and eliminate the pre-existing conditions provision they argued. In 2008 Obama gives Republicans the very bill they championed in the 1990’s and they scream louder than Dracula being doused with Holy Water. Now all we hear is the urgent need to repeal this socialist intrusion into the American household.
In the mid 1990’s, Osama bin Laden started his attacks on U.S. interests, attacking the US embassies in Africa and the USS Cole in Yemen. The reply from Republicans was “Wag the Dog” and claims that the President was only “creating a crises” to divert attention from his domestic troubles. After 9/11, it became Clinton’s fault for not getting “tough on terror” and “not taking out bin Laden when he had the chance”.
During the 1990’s all that was heard was how vital it was that deficits be eliminated. If they weren’t the sky would fall, the earth would crack open and the moon would turn to blood. Then Clinton balanced the budget and put it into surplus. Ah, not Clinton’s doing…no, no,no…that was because of the Republican controlled House and Senate. But then GWB became President, with a GOP controlled, House, Senate and Supreme Court and the surplus turned into a deficit. Then what is heard is “deficits don’t matter”. 8 years go by and GWB doubles the debt and runs up a deficit of 1.4 trillion dollars. Not a peep from your fiscally conservative GOPpers. Until 2009. When Obama walks into the White House, then suddenly deficits is all you hear, and of course, it is entirely his fault.
Under Clinton the economy booms with a tax rate that generates a surplus. Bush walks into the White House and passes huge sweeping, and completely unfunded, tax cuts. The economy wobbles and deficits rise. Tax cuts remain and are extended. The economy crashes and deficits shoot through the roof. The booming economy of the 1990’s turns into the Great Recession of 2008 to who knows when. Obama takes over and suggests raising taxes on those earning over $250,000 a year. “NO, NO, NO” scream Republicans, “It will hurt the economy and cause unemployment. Job creators will go Galt” They suggest the path to prosperity and balanced budgets lie in tax cuts, tax cuts, and more tax cuts. They get their tax cuts and the economy flatlines, job growth stalls and talk is heard of a double dip recession. The solution proposed by Republicans? Spending cuts. Firing even more people and pulling even more money out of the system is the path to prosperity.
As a direct result of Republican policies from 2000 onward, the financial sector collapses. Proof? In Canada, where “too big to fail” was blocked and banks remained regulated, the financial system remained healthy.
The Bush White House tries to give a trillion dollars to the banks responsible for the greatest rip off in American history and the Democratic controlled House baulks. So a few strings and caveats are added and a one page bailout bill becomes three pages. Hugely unpopular with a people suddenly finding themselves being tossed out of their homes and jobs, nonetheless it passes. Then Obama becomes President and the bail out becomes his fault; outraged GOPpers swear never to allow such a travesty again; but gut every attempt to legislate this pledge into law.
Now 2 years go by with Republicans in the Senate blocking every single attempt to fix the economy with every trick they know. By 2010, they succeed in retaking the House and for the next year do absolutely nothing but to ensure that the super wealthy remain super wealthy, that criminals can continue to run the banking systems and that no relief is given to the Middle Class. Tax increases are an evil spawned in the very dark heart of Satan himself.
Then, Obama suggests a simple tax cut extension for the Middle Class. In September. Paid for. Plenty of time to discuss, negotiate and pass an extension supported by both Republicans and Democrats. Simple enough. But even here, even in a simple, “got most of what you wanted” deal, the Republicans; the tax cuts heroes, the champions of the Middle Class, the “make Congress work” conservatives, say “NO”.
And what do we hear from the rank and file Republican? “Democrats are playing politics with the economy”, “Reid and Pelosi need to start getting to work and stop playing games”, “Obama doesn’t know what he is doing, he is in over his head”.
Again, Republicans believe this nonsense. Even when presented with undeniable evidence and factual reports of the true story, they still really, REALLY believe the false story. It is almost like an article of faith for them; to question it is akin to blasphemy.
It isn’t just the hypocrisy of these actions and statements that are mind blowing. It is the fact that right wingers, in the United States and elsewhere, sincerely believe what is being said. They have demonstrated that the possess a very real inability to learn from the past or to remember accurately how one event ties into another.
Let’s look at the sort of thing Republicans and right wingers believe: Obama was born in Kenya. Taxes equal theft. People without health insurance deserve to die. Government services equal socialism.
Look at their ability to hold two contradictory ideas at the same time and argue that both are equally true: Abortion is murder but caring for poor children is theft; Government is incompetent in everything but the military is the best and greatest; The solution to deficits is reducing revenue and taxing the poor more.
Again, this isn’t just a phenomena that is found among Republicans alone. All right wingers will espouse similar nonsensical beliefs.
The only explanation is that right wingers, besides being evil and destructive, are dull, lacking in common sense, foolish; call it what you will; there is something wrong in the noggin with them.
They are, in a word, stupid.