Why you can’t fix stupid

I was reading comments on an article at Blue Nation Review–doesn’t matter the one—and they were uniformly ignorant and self righteous, like always.  I started to do my thing, to put together a coherent counter-argument, to state the facts they were assiduously ignoring, to say the things their groupthink was evolving out of their consciousness as possibilities, and then it hit me: stupid people are stupid because they can’t imagine any other way to be.  They cannot imagine anything else they could believe.

And they are very happy, having reached simple and clear certainties they never have to question.  Why would they look outside their circle for anything?

And by telling them they are stupid, I can only be attacking them as people, even if I justify my claims with enormous efforts at facts and reason.  None of that matters.  Logically, if there is only one possibility, and someone disagrees with it, then they are haters.  And there is no reason to listen to haters.

I often fear for the future obviously.  It is frustrating to me to see such–to my way of thinking, which I can justify at length, and which I have often exposed to criticism–idiotic and dangerous ideas proposed so often and so enthusiastically.

There is no reason 90% of the stores on Main Street might not be shuttered in 10 years if nothing changes.

There is no reason this nation, from coast to coast, might not be filled with the sighs of the hopeless and the dispirited, helpless in the face of an omnipotent government which alone provides salvation.

Everything is in place for a crash.  Fed policy cannot be made more easy, and they have been pumping $50 billion a month into the economy for most of Obama’s tenure.

But as tempting as it is to feel I am doing SOMETHING in engaging with these people, the fact is I am not. I am in important ways completely helpless in the face of stubborn and proud imbecility.

It is time for me to acknowledge this fully and finally.  There is no reason I can’t write a book, and no reason I can’t start doing presentations to people who will listen to me.  There is no reason I can’t continue sending emails to economists, and working on my other projects.

But I need to be realistic.  I have never been. I have more to say, but will say it in the next post.