Most of us were shocked when Donald Trump was elected *President. How could there be so many Americans that would vote for that clown? A week later, after I calmed down, I rationalized it to myself, thinking there were a number of possible answers:
- Some people (irrationally) hated Hillary so much that they couldn’t bring themselves to vote for her.
- Some people view politics as entertainment and after 8 years of no-drama Obama, they wanted somebody to spice it up a little. Trump was seen as a novelty.
- Some people were so put out with having to endure a black president for eight years that they wanted somebody who shared their racist viewpoint.
- Some people just wanted to “own the libs.”
None of us on this site would think any of these reasons are sufficient to pull the lever for Trump. But you can see that most Trump voters got what they wanted;: Hillary is not President, Trump has certainly spiced things up, new ways were found to oppress minorities. And the libs, indeed, were owned for awhile.
But you would think that after awhile, after the novelty wears off, people would want more, like a government that made sense, one that didn’t actively harm its citizens and it’s founding principles and one that wasn’t a constant embarrassment around the world.
Nevertheless, Trump’s share of the voting public has remained approximately constant. Even now, as impeachment looms, there are north of 40% of Americans who think that Trump is doing a good job. Why don’t these people wise up? It’s a vexing question.
There have been endless comment threads about whether it is worth trying to appeal to Trump voters, to get them to switch sides. They don’t seem to be open to any appeal to reason. Why is this? It is worth the time and resources it takes to try and turn them? Before we answer that question, we should consider THE BASIC LAWS of HUMAN STUPIDITY. The laws were discovered by an Italian economist named Carlo M. Cipolla who became a professor at Berkeley. The first law seems to speak directly to the appalling discovery that so many Americans seem to experiencing a different reality than we do.
1, Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.
No one thought there could so many irrational people in this country. Who are these people? Surprise! They are our friends, neighbors and colleagues, Which brings up a corollary to the first law of stupidity-- people whom one had once judged rational and intelligent turn out to be unashamedly stupid. All of us probably know friends or colleagues who seemed more or less normal until Trump came around. All those people who are no longer our Facebook friends. If you live in the rural South, as I do, you found out that you were suddenly in hostile territory.
2. The probability that a certain person be stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person.
As a resident in ruby red rural Tennessee, I know that Trump voters are not monsters. Away from politics, some of these people are as nice and generous as anybody you will meet. They will help you anyway they can. Yet they’re O.K. with an Administration that pulls families apart, then slams them into concentration camps, caring for them so little that many are dying of preventable diseases. They won’t try to justify it; they’ll just mouth some platitude, like “Well, it is rough, but it has to be done.”
3. A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person or to a group of persons while himself deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses.
To Dr. Cipolla, the third laws is the most important law. Stupid people are a danger to everybody, not just to themselves. Because of stupid people, Trump is *President. When Trump himself does something stupid, like cutting back food stamps, he is hurting some city folks, yes, but he is largely hurting the low income rural voters who voted overwhelmingly for him. In a rational world, these people would see what Trump is doing and vote against him in 2020. But it won’t happen. They will vote overwhelmingly for him again.
As Dr. Cipolla puts it, “Essentially stupid people are dangerous and damaging because reasonable people find it difficult to imagine and understand unreasonable behavior.” And so here we are. There is no common ground between a rational person and an irrational one. Which brings us logically to law number 4.
4. Non-stupid people always underestimate the damaging power of stupid individuals. In particular non-stupid people constantly forget that at all times and places and under any circumstances to deal and/or associate with stupid people always turns out to be a costly mistake.
Says Dr. Cipolla, “On occasion one is tempted to associate oneself with a stupid individual in order to use him for one's own schemes. Such a maneuver cannot but have disastrous effects because a) it is based on a complete misunderstanding of the essential nature of stupidity and b) it gives the stupid person added scope for the exercise of his gifts.”
Putin has associated with Donald Trump and the result has indeed been disastrous, probably far beyond the intended effects. So far, it hasn’t rebounded on Putin, but we can only hope.
The Democratic Party strives to be inclusive. Does that mean we should try include as many stupid people as we can? The danger of that approach is clear. But there are so many of them. Can any political party survive without them?
We should remember that I.Q. tests are designed to give 100 as an average. In fact the average IQ in the United States is thought to be 98. So more than half of the U.S. population has a double digit IQ. Something to remember.
Dr. Cipolla asserts in his fifth law that...
5. A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person.
Even more dangerous than a bandit, somebody who is actively trying to harm you. A bandit acts rationally; he is trying to take something from you. So you can understand what he is trying to do and try to anticipate his actions. A stupid person, like a very young child, is apt to do anything at anytime but you can’t continuously monitor his activities.
A child is necessarily ignorant. But a child can be taught, not only to act civilly, but to think and act rationally. He or she can develop critical thinking skills to analyze previously unseen situations.
But according to the famous Southern aphorism: You can’t fix stupid.
This article, like Dr. Cipolla’s essay, is written somewhat tongue-in-cheek, well actually just the tip of my tongue slipping through a gap in my molars. But it brings up a serious question as we approach the 2020 elections: Should we spend time and effort trying to enlist Trumpistas to our cause (obviously, if we do, we shouldn’t start by calling them stupid)?
I’ll finish with a poll.