STUPID PEOPLE NO LONGER UNDERSTAND THEY ARE STUPID

Garden variety stupidity has always been with us, and will be. 12% of the population is completely illiterate. They can read Stop signs. They can read their name. That's about it.

21%, on top of this, read & comprehend at, or below, the 5th grade level. 19% of the HS graduates walking around have never read a real book… could not locate the USA on a globe, and know virtually nothing about civics or international relations.

That's a Bunch of dumbos.

Then, we have people who actually CAN read / write.. And who have jobs, and houses and drive cars and TV's---and they are about 30% BELIGERANTLY Ignorant.

This group KNOWS when something is idiotic, or makes no sense, but they parrot and rant and rave and squall - - supporting stooges, clerics, Pat Robertson, Christian stupidity, eating 3 X the calories they need, never read anything remotely analytical, insist that the world is flat, or that Jesus looks like Andy Gibb, or that God is a male mammal primate, floating in the clouds, blessing countries and football teams and fielding “prayers” from “saved” people.

That last group is pretty dangerous. We'll, they all are.

So-- I am no statistician, but it looks like around 35% of the population are real bozos.

Why is this such an issue now?

The internet… The media… Instant worldwide communication. Blogging. FOX.

In 1948, if you were stupid, you kind of knew it. You listened to smart people talk and knew you had no idea what they were talking about. You knew, sheepishly, that the closest you ever got to reading a book was copying a stolen book report on THE GRAPES OF WRATH and getting a B, in 8th grade English. You smile and nod when people discuss Congress but don't really know how Congress gets there, or how it worked. You know there are judges, but you don't know what they mean when they talk about “federal judges” or “appellate judges”. They actually know that they don't even know how city commissions are elected. Everything was a blur. They got paid, ate dinner, got drunk, beat their kids/wife, mowed the lawn, washed the car, waved the flag… Life was good. But they were not a huge problem. They knew they were stupid, and they didn't do much to pretend otherwise.

Now, it is 2019. These stupid people now no longer realize they are stupid. They found a home, online… In extreme groups, wearing baseball caps, screaming at rallies, cheering television sets.. And they have a base of compatriots. The internet gives them an audience where they are not obviously stupid, - - - soon, they actually glom on to some tenets and ideas, and, without knowing much about anything, they now have “positions”. They “support” things. They have “opinions”. They're dumb as fence posts, but now we have to listen to them.