“Intransigent Ignorance: A lack of knowledge, education, or awareness characterized by refusal to compromise or to abandon an often extreme position or attitude.”
That’s pretty bad in anybody — say folks like those who don’t want to wear masks or practice social distancing anymore. But when the President of the United States is intransigently ignorant it’s really really bad. Of course, there is a cure for ordinary ignorance. Anyone can cure that by reading up on the subject, or consulting experts in that particular field, or otherwise becoming educated about it.
But intransigent ignorance is different. At its very core is a complete absence of interest in learning anything about anything, so there is no cure for it.
Apparently, all Mr. Trump has to do is consult his inner oracle to obtain the best and definitive answers. In fact, his inner oracle has let him down repeatedly when it comes to the Covid-19 pandemic. But he doesn’t notice that, because his inner oracle is always right and everything that contradicts it is “fake news.”
People on both sides of the political aisle, political pundits, and the mainstream media in general are — all of them — trying to figure out how to get some national leadership out of the White House. All of the rational thinkers among us want desperately to find a logical, science-based, nationwide way to bring our pandemic under control. And as long as we wrangle with that, the cause of ending the pandemic quickly is clearly hopeless. It’s hopeless because of the President’s intransigent ignorance.
The answer could lie in a coalition of governors, or in Article 25, or even in impeachment again if the Senate would agree to convict. Otherwise, we’ll have to wait until January 20, 2021 — by which time the death toll is likely to be enormous and the economy in tatters.
Another four years of Trump’s intransigent ignorance is unthinkable.