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The Age Of Dumb Shit
Stupidity is now a political commodity
Last week, trump gave a press conference where he floated the following:
- Use military force to invade Greenland and Panama
- Use “economic control” to pressure Canada
- Rename the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America”
All of which suggests that we are now into a new age in American politics: The Age of Dumb Shit. Stupidity is no longer something to be avoided. You will no longer be viewed as unelectable if you don’t know how to pluralize a vegetable, or forget your talking points. All of that is a virtue now.
I can appreciate a perspective that suggests that we’ve already been here for a while. I might even agree. But the re-election of trump, and the gleeful, eager way in which trumpism has mutated into pure irrationality does feel like a line has been crossed. I’m not suggesting that the tendency toward irrational, bellicose, idiocy has not always been present at some level in the American body politic, but never has it been so exalted for the fact of being the dumb shit that it is. Say what you will about the logical flaws of historical reactionary conservatism, at least there was some means of understanding the flawed reasoning that might lead someone to embrace its political program. In the new age, rank stupidity…
