The Gentle Art Of Crushing Your Political Enemies
Politics, partisanship and ignorance porn.
There’s a genre of content on social media that I like to call ignorance porn.
A guy approaches members of the public, asks them simple, general knowledge questions, and does the “Jim from The Office” face into the camera when they get the answers wrong.
“How many moons does the Earth have?” “30”
“Which country is the Great Wall of China in?” “Japan.”
“What is 15 x 4?” “48”
I swear, I’m not asking any of these up.
In an ideal world, nobody would struggle with these questions. Everyone would know how many letters are in the English alphabet and that the War of 1812 didn’t start in 1929. But in this world, these videos rack up hundreds of thousands of views for the same reason millions of people watch videos of monkeys sniffing their fingers:
Everybody wants to feel smart. Even if only in comparison to someone who thinks Obama’s last name is “Care.”
But nobody wants to feel dumb. Especially if they are.
Sadly, outside of social media, the questions get a little more complicated.
