Welcome friends!
I suppose you saw the recent news story about one Mark Chambers, the mayor of some small town named Carbon Hill in the quintessentially conservative and Republican deep, deep south US state of Alabama, who was in the news recently suggesting the only way to deal with arguments presented by gay people, transgender people, “Socialists,” and abortion rights advocates was to “kill them out.” The people; not the arguments. Yes, seems it all started when Mr. Chambers shared a Facebook post, all capital letters a la our current president and every other right-wing nut job on the internet, that lamented, “We live in a society where homosexuals lecture us on morals, transvestites lecture us on human biology, baby killers lecture us on human rights, and socialists lecture us on economics.” The shared comment went on to opine the only way to deal with that dire state of affairs is violent revolution, which prompted Mayor Chamber to contribute this bit of wisdom: “… the only way to change it would be to kill the problem out. I know it’s bad to say but with out (sic) killing them out there’s no way to fix it.” When confronted with his thesis Mr. Chambers first said in true spineless conservative form: “I think that’s somebody else’s post.” A short while later he admitted writing it but said it had been taken out of context and anyway wasn’t really meant for public consumption. Later still he explained he never actually said he supported killing gay people or anyone else; he was simply saying in the hypothetical case of violent revolution “the only way to get your way is to kill the other side out.” (Yes, apparently rural Alabamans say the word “out” a lot or at least some do. Never really noticed that before. Odd.) Later he added more modestly “it was just something dumb and stupid that I said … I don’t believe anyone should be killed for anything that they believe in.” Well, that at least sounds OK in my book. I guess he came clean in the end. Walked it back. Disavowed it. Acknowledged it was both dumb and stupid. Admitted he should never have said it. So I guess all’s well that ends well. Seems churlish to carry on about it. But really I’m not so much interested in what this particular fellow had to say than in a more general point about the conservative and Republican mindset here in the USA and in particular the peculiar anti-intellectualism that appears to have become an integral part of that mindset.
The interesting bit of the whole event to me involves the segue from the complaint involving people lecturing people to the call for violent revolution and thence to killing people out. Sorry, I’m starting to talk a little funny myself. One can interact with the locals a bit too much sometimes. I meant to say killing people. Being a liberal and leftist and basically just an educated, mature person I would have thought a more sensible response to people lecturing people would be to simply resolve to investigate and refute whatever nonsense these ostensibly shady characters are trying to foist on everyone. Or if one can’t refute what they’re saying maybe acknowledge they make some good points never mind their personal qualifications and characteristics or lack thereof and investigate the consequences of one’s discovery. Isn’t that some sort of principle of logic? Don’t judge an argument according to your views about the person making the argument but on the merits of the argument itself? But apparently that just isn’t in the mindset of your average conservative or Republican American. Apparently, for those people the only appropriate response to hearing arguments they can’t refute from people they don’t like is killing the people involved. Wouldn’t make the arguments go away of course. Unfortunately for conservatives one can’t actually kill ideas. Even if one manages to kill the messengers the ideas just sit there, as valid or invalid as ever, waiting for someone else to give them expression. But anyway it would mean they wouldn’t have to hear them just then and from those particular people, which I suppose must count for something.
It’s not unexpected at all to hear this sort of thing from conservative Republicans. It’s been quite obvious for some time now the wily and wealthy conservative elite of the nation who use the Republican Party to look after their interests have been relying increasingly on stupid people for their political power. I’ve previously mentioned a few notable instances of Republicans endorsing stupidity including that time the Republican Party of Texas wrote into its political platform it opposed “critical thinking skills and similar programs,” which it claimed “have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority,” and the time the then governor of Louisiana, a bona fide conservative and Republican of course, famously pleaded with the Republican National Committee to “stop being the stupid party.” The culmination of this great surge in support for stupidity has been of course our current president, and I use the word lightly, Dishonest Don, a man renowned around the world for lying, never seeming to have any idea what he’s talking about, and extolling the virtues of the uneducated; a man who represents the apotheosis of stupidity if you will. And this conservative cult of stupidity has certainly paid off for them in very practical terms, by which I mean financially. Yes, the Trump Train has finally delivered to the wealthy elite of the nation their long desired tax cuts and greatly furthered other conservative priorities such as weakening and likely eliminating Obamacare and just in general sinking the national finances thus drastically reducing the government’s ability to address distributional and other concerns in the future. One can well understand why American conservatives are now convinced Stupidity is King.
But one can’t help but wonder if the conservative elite truly understand the potential cost of their enthusiastic endorsement and support of stupidity. Typical when one considers the question, “What would a stupid person do?” the answer is not very pleasant and sometimes downright alarming. For example, let’s say a conservative Republican in some southern swamp or other hears an argument he doesn’t like? What does he do? Well, just consider: what would a stupid person do? Take out his or her gun and shoot the person making the argument of course. Duh. But what happens when everyone starts doing it and people are shooting people all over the place? Will they make distinctions and continue to faithfully support the wealthy conservative elite as they do now? Well, let’s think about it. What would a stupid person do? I don’t know. I suspect he or she might just take out a gun and shoot pretty much anyone in an orgy of random and senseless violence. Because that’s the nature of stupidity isn’t it? It doesn’t really make sense. It can’t be reasoned with. It doesn’t cohere. It’s incompatible with logic, reason, civilized discussion, and political democracy. It belongs more to the realm of violence, dysfunction, anarchy, and eventually social failure. Consider the last major regime that relied nearly exclusively on stupidity: Nazi Germany. I suppose it did OK for a little while but then the inevitable happened and it ended its stunted life in the horrible train wreck of WWII. It wasn’t an accident or a coincidence. It had to happen that way. How do I know? Well, think about it. What would a loyal Nazi driving a train do? Well, what would a stupid person do? That’s right. He would drive the train directly into the mountainside or at least dutifully follow orders to drive the train directly into the mountainside. It’s the nature of the beast. It’s how he came to be driving the train in the first place. It seems the wealthy conservative elite of the USA are now intent on playing pretty much the same game. They’re convinced they’ll come out ahead if they encourage and nurture stupidity here in the USA. But will they in the long run? Are they really smarter than their mid-century brethren or merely equally deluded? Should we sit around and see what happens? Well, what would a stupid person do? Not give a damn? Look the other way? Sit down and have a beer? In that case let’s do the opposite, shall we? Let’s decide to not be stupid. Let’s fight conservatism and Republicanism intellectually and at the ballot box every chance we get.
References
‘Kill the problem’: Alabama mayor sorry for Facebook post accused of ‘inciting violence’ against gays. Allyson Chiu. June 5, 2019. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/06/05/kill-problem-out-alabama-mayor-sorry-facebook-post-accused-inciting-violence-against-gays/?utm_term=.7ddcb4417f65.
Texas GOP rejects ‘critical thinking’ skills. Really. Valerie Strauss. July 9, 2012. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/texas-gop-rejects-critical-thinking-skills-really/2012/07/08/gJQAHNpFXW_blog.html?utm_term=.49a53a564fe4.
Bobby Jindal: GOP Should ‘Stop Being The Stupid Party.’ Paige Lavender. November 13, 2012. Huffpost. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/bobby-jindal-gop_n_2121511
