Okay, the title doesn’t tell you anything you didn’t already know, but I just viewed this segment on Anderson Cooper with interviews from the Trump rally in Alabama. I know there are lots of stupid people around. I’ve known it all my life, but somehow it’s different now. Rather than being scattered throughout the population, morons have condensed around Trump.
Amanda Marcotte at Salon writes a column about how Tucker Carlson weaponizes stupidity to gaslight the sane. I recommend it.
I dreamed that someone asked me what i thought of Mormonism as a religion, and I thought they asked me what I thought of moronism. It seemed to be a question worthy of some serious thinking, and I set to work.
“Well, you know, some people consider it a cult. It was, after all, originated by someone many believe to be a consummate conman. Many people who otherwise seem quite normal often espouse a doctrine that to outsiders is quite fanciful with beliefs based on utter nonsense. They are a powerful force, but lately they’ve been disrupting school board meetings, assaulting teachers, and stuff to protest mask mandates for the bizarrest of reasons.”
“Wait a minute,” the person said, “when did they ever do that?”
“It’s been all over the news.”
“Mormons?”
“No. Morons. Are we talking about the same thing?”
So the conversation changed directions, and I began looking at Moronism as America’s great 21st century religion: a conman creates a myth which resonates with some and outrages others. Followers search in vain for the stone tablets in the form of “packet captures” but that’s about as far as any comparison with Mormonism goes.
I truly have nothing against Mormons. They are not a problem.
Moronism, however, is taking on many of the more problematic characteristics of a religion. Here are a few examples:
- They believe their deity was unjustly crucified and will rise again. (The election was stolen. Trump in 2024.)
- They reject logic and reason as a basis for knowing. (Vaccines are too risky.)
- Knowledge comes from the mind of the Master, who is divinely inspired. (COVID is a hoax.)
- Knowledge that comes from secular experts is tainted. (Fauci is the devil.)
Considering that the Republican Party has embraced Moronism as its chief source of constituents with no platform or issues to promote, how should Democrats respond? Can we expect Moronism to crash of its own weight? If not, how do we counter its influence?
How do we deal with morons as religious zealots? I plan to avoid them entirely, but there must be better, more constructive ways to interact.
I would love to read some suggestions.
This is a Creative Commons article. The original version of this article appeared here.
