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| Photo for the Sun-Times by Ashlee Rezin |
What is it about stupid people anyway?
You can believe the most god-awful nonsense — factually incorrect, self-flattering, steaming kettles of BS — and parade that stupidity around to the delight of your fellow idiots, cheering and high-fiving one another at big rallies, celebrations of toxic dumbness.
Yet let somebody point it out, let them cough into their fist and mutter, “You’re stupid,” and suddenly the stupid fall to the ground, clutching themselves, declaring their injury to heaven.
It’s so ... for want of a better word ... stupid. How can some people get upset if you call them stupid when they’re perfectly happy being stupid? It’s a mystery.
Say your house were on fire — a situation even more dire than being stupid. And I say, “Your house is on fire,” causing you to collapse in a heap and declare yourself insulted, insisting that your house — obviously ablaze before us, thick black smoke pulsing out of the windows — is fine and how dare I suggest otherwise? Rude!
Who does that? Stupid people, I suppose.
I haven’t written much about Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, honestly, because I still suspect he’s some kind of a sham — a performance art piece perhaps — designed to make Donald Trump look good, between his daft war on Disney and his imbecilic assault on history.
Maybe you haven’t heard. In its constant quest to make white people feel better, the state of Florida’s No. 1 priority, apparently, is downplaying race when teaching American history.
Florida’s new curriculum, unsatisfied with presenting racism as a dusty relic of the 19th century, is taking the next step and redefining America’s original sin, slavery, as something akin to high school shop class.
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Your column only scratches the surface of Desantis’ assault on Florida. The majority of people in Florida are stupid (and greedy and racist). It is why our congress has a supermajority of Republicans who are at the Governor’s beck and call.
ReplyDeleteSome of his actions are beginning to backfire. As immigrants leave the state in fear, the workforce (particularly agriculture and construction) has dwindled.
While Desantis is out on his campaign trail the state is suffering home insurance companies pulling out leaving the uninsured to pay exorbitant premiums.
One thing I can add about stupid people is they never admit they made a mistake.
So here we are.
How could I ponder a history that did not include Emmitt Till?
ReplyDeleteI lived it. I'm a 68 year old man, educated in both the Cat'lic and public school systems here in beautiful Chicaguhland, who knew nothing about Emmitt Till (despite passing my required "American History" test in HS) until I saw the PBS special "The Murder of Emmitt Till". As an adult.
So while Florida's sanitizing of their history curriculum is despicable, it's nothing really new. We have a lot of catching up to do, even here in Non-stupid land.
…or that Anne Frank was just learning hide and seek skills.
ReplyDeleteIt's been my experience that stupid people object more to being called "ignorant" than "stupid." If you tell them that they ought to lay off Fox News, they tell you they hardly ever listen to it -- they do their own research, they say. Which seems likely to involve pursuing a link to what I would consider mildly objectionable notions descending to far out tin-foil-hat expositions of weird, even literally crazy assertions about pedophilia and Hunter Biden's nefarious lap top. In general, they're harmless, though well armed, but still unlikely to shoot up the local post office, no matter how annoyed they get when you call them "ignorant." They know they're stupid in a classroom sense, which heightens their delight when they discover "information" that their intellectual superiors apparently are "ignorant" of.
ReplyDeletejohn
I look at it this way: ignorant means you have never had the chance to learn something; stupid means you learned it, but couldn't remember or lacked the necessary brains to understand it.
DeletePerhaps many people get comfortable with simply trusting their gut (like Trump) and have no desire to challenge anything they have come to believe. Certainly, they have evolved into characters who distrust, and now even hate folks with a decidedly different viewpoint. Distressing to educated people who learned the importance of careful investigation, peer review, and pressure to present solid evidence…before buying into conspiracy theories which involve no real investigation at all. We seem to be at a crossroads in a battle between evidence based truth, and mere opinion.
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I'm old enough, just barely, to remember the killing of Emmett Till.I had just turned eight that summer. I remember the headlines in the Daily News, and seeing his name and smiling face. The headlines said he had been killed, at fourteen, because of a "wolf whistle." I was old enough to know what that was, but not yet old enough to understand why a black teen-ager would be killed for doing it. When I asked my parents, they changed the subject.. I finally learned all the horrible details, but not until years later.
ReplyDeleteThe tropical paradise I lived in during the mid-Seventies...Florida...is long gone. It has been paved-over, has more than tripled in population, and is governed by bigots and ignorant clowns. I don't plan to ever visit there again. Too much has already been said about Mo-Ron Insantis, so I won't go there again, either
I've been a kitty guy for decades, and that image of one of Chicago's "crime scene kitties" intrigues me and puzzles me.. I agree with Mr. S. It's not appropriate for a story about crime, but it would be elsewhere...for a story about cats. I imagine that Chicago is like most other places when it comes to kitties...with a rapidly multiplying number of lost, stray, and feral felines.
Most domesticated cats would probably avoid a crime scene, out of timidity and fear and because of the lights and the noises and the number of people on the scene. A few bold ones might approach out of curiosity, or even out of hunger. But I suspect that most "crime scene kitties" are strays or feral cats. I don't think they come up to anybody and nuzzle or nudge them, They probably keep their distance, and observe from afar. And go mostly unnoticed...except by a someone with a camera...or a cat person. Sometimes, they might be one and the same.
That was a great image, though. The ugliness and horror of crime scene tape, and one of the most beautiful creatures on our planet...a cat. Ordinary beauty, juxtaposed with the anything-but-ordinary awfulness of a crime scene. Kudos to Ashlee Rezin. And to you, Mr. S, for using it. I like it. And there most likely IS another story there. For another time.
I read about Emmett Till as a kid and read more books. I read about The Holocaust as a kid, read more. Learned stuff that horrified me but made me a better person. DeSantis knows better but is determined to lead stupid people in perfecting their ignorance. He and his ilk are not only evil, they are an obscenity on the earth.
ReplyDeleteRon DeSantis was married in 2009, at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort. He is a Catholic. If he confessed to his priest that he abused refugees by shipping them off to parts unknown for his political gain, what was his penance? A couple Hail Marys? An Our Father or two? For absolution he would need to make an act of contrition and some priests would have required a public apology, his sin being a public act. Obviously he doesn't believe in the example of his god and probably is not practicing any christian religion. I wonder if DeSantis would think it a benefit for his wife and 3 children if they were kidnapped into slavery by an Arab sheik or African dictator. Or would he think it was a sinful act with no upside. What Herr Drumpf would call a disgrace?
ReplyDeleteI'm usually with you 100% but not this time. You have had other columns that captured this dynamic quite clearly, so I'm confused why you are missing it now. For an act to be stupid it not only has to hurt others, but also the person committing the act. And while the personal gain may be psychological and only fleeting, the cheering and high-fives are very real. And DeSantis' political calculus worked out pretty well in the last election.
ReplyDeleteNeil, I came across the following quote from Hannah Arendt last night.“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (i.e., the reality of experience) and the distinction between true and false (i.e., the standards of thought) no longer exist.” It occurred to me that she was saying the same thing you were. Her language was somewhat more sophisticated than your references to "stupid people" but then her audience was not the readership of "The worlds hardest working newspaper." In any case I think this puts you in good company and I am guessing your audience is larger. Keep up the fine work. Andy Davis
ReplyDeleteRegardless of the controversy, common stupidity or pure ignorance among the public is, for the most part, forgivable as one of many common human failings. But the willful, intellectual dishonesty in your lazy, 7/24 piece about Florida’s U.S. history curriculum is pure journalistic malpractice, but only if you consider yourself an objective journalist who also writes an opinion column on a topic when the truth of the matter is incompatible with your elitist sanctimony.
ReplyDeleteYour print brand of cynical dishonesty in alliance with the broadcast word salad lies that define the Kamala Harris brand of stupidity (or vacuity, take your pick) certainly does make you both strange bedfellows.
so you think it is a good idea to white wash history. were you awake during history class
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