You Can’t Take the Stupid Out of People
Hello human people.
Something has occurred to me on this bright and sunny morn on the generally grey island of the UK.
That thought is: You can’t take the stupid out of people.
According to the Oxford English Language dictionary, Stupid is:
Having or showing a significant lack of intelligence or common sense.
Now I am not one to cast aspersions on people — unless deserved, of course, but the revelation I had today led to me wanting to write some words on this topic.
For weeks, nee months, and years I have been watching, listening to, commenting upon, and writing about various aspects of the US and UK political landscape.
Along this often cumbersome, frustrating, and frankly stinky journey into the nether regions of politics, I was often perplexed.
Why? I hear you ask. Well, I’ll tell you, thanks for asking.
Because I could only partially understand how the likes of Donald Trump and Boris Johnson rose to the top of the political pile despite multiple instances of demonstrating they were unfit for the job.
I, like many others, pontificated, analyzed, and opined on their apparent flaws, lack of integrity, and blatantly corrupt personas.
At the root of that opining was the assumption that if we could just put the right words to show their supporters the error of their ways, the world might begin to make sense again.
But one thing I didn’t allow for was this:
You Can’t Take the Stupid Out of People
Yes, we could talk about (and endlessly have) the manipulation tools used by these men.
The gaslighting, the lying, the conspiracy theories, the lying, the denials, and deflections, the lying.
But all of that pales in comparison with the fact that some people are so unwilling to question their hard and fast beliefs, even when it’s to their detriment, that they refuse to listen.
Slogans
It’s, in fact, quite surreal that three and four-word slogans are enough to override a multi-tonne weight of evidence.
But that’s all it takes for those who think in stupid.
Get Brexit Done
Make America Great Again
As long as those slogans appeal to the part of the brain that likes stupid and you have voters who refuse to analyze, challenge or disbelieve apparent lies and contradictions, a good slogan is all you need.
I might find one right now.
Stupid is the new Woke
You see one too many words there.
It needs to be more catchy and may require some analysis to understand what the phrase truly means.
Johnson and Trump know the manipulator’s playbook very well.
They look at who the loyalist and swing voters are and what those voters most fear and then play to the crowd, Barnum style.
Hence, Trump could position himself as a right-wing Christian Conservative and be believed.
This, despite being on record for behaving in the most ungodly and decadent ways on numerous occasions, then becoming one of the most corrupt and inept Presidents the US has ever seen.
Johnson, who previously supported staying in the European Union and is also documented as a grifting, manipulative, and corrupt charlatan, flipped his political position and got results.
Becoming one of the most corrupt and inept Prime Ministers the UK has ever seen.
That ‘slogan and lie’ combo works.
Well, for those who refuse to use their God/Allah/Ahmet/Jehovah-given faculties, that is.
For me, there comes a time when one has to call a thing a thing.
This is one of those times.
You can’t take the stupid out of people.
Even when the very policies their grifting leaders implement mean they are worse off and can’t afford the most basic requirements of daily life, their supporters will support them.
As long as their divine (demented) leaders continue to rave about:
Taking back control
Invasion at our borders
The dirty wokerati
Putting God back into politics
Immigrants
No one’s taking your guns
I alone can save you
‘They’re’ taking away our traditions
Laws don’t apply when you want to win the war against the snowflake Left
Etc. etc. etc.
You know the playbook.
It seems to be time to stop defending the un-woke.
It’s time to hold them to account and, in the most compassionate way possible, let them know that they have lost their right to decide who gets into power.
We love you, but nope!
Do a little soul-searching and think about what you’ve done and the monsters you have emboldened, and then we can talk.
Until then, Namaste (said in true Wokerati style.)
