It is hard to debate stupid people.
What is even harder is when you have to debate stupid people that are absolutely oblivious to facts. In addition to that, it is even harder to debate them when you have to deal with people lacking the facts and absolutely believe what they are saying. I call this the “the sky is purple effect”. What do I mean? If I walk up to someone and they tell me the sky is purple, how do I debate that? I say “no it isn’t, it is blue”. But they will insist that the sky is absolutely purple.
At this point the debate ends. It cannot go any further because the lack of basic knowledge on the other side makes this an impossible argument. The same thing can be said with many of the Republicans today.
I think there are two groups of people that can really fit in this category…those that are absolutely ignorant to the facts because of their lack of participation and those that aren’t totally ignorant, but want to believe their own version of what is going on and refuse to have an open mind regarding anything.
Let me start with the first group. I have a former business associate that perfectly fits this example, and I have mentioned him in the past. He stated once because the minimum wage was raised during the Jeb Bush administration that Republicans supported an increase in the minimum wage. Of course, we know this isn’t the truth and Jeb openly opposed the minimum wage amendment. Still, his lack of basic understanding of how Florida government works helped him come up with the wrong conclusion.
Then we have the second group of people, which I like to label as the Kool-Aid drinkers. These people might even know that what they are saying is wrong. But in order to make their facts stick, they lie about the facts.
We can further split these people up into two groups. First we have the “I need to lie to make my argument work” people. The best example of this is Senator Jon Kyl’s planned parenthood statement. In order for “his facts” to make his point correct, he had to like about the facts. Of course, afterward, Kyl’s office said the now famous “not intended to be an factual statement” statement. So basically, the best way to win an argument for Republicans is to just lie.
The second group of people are the “I don’t care what facts you show me, I will never change my mind” people. The prefect example of this are those in the Republican circles that continue to think President Obama was born in Kenya. Of course, Obama showed his birth certificate, but that wasn’t enough for them. Obama’s birth announcement was in the Honolulu newspapers, but that isn’t enough for them either. In fact, they could have a video recording of Obama’s mother giving birth to little Barack, with palm trees swaying in the background, with Don Ho next to her singing a song titled “Welcome to Hawaii”, then when Barack is born she says “I am naming my son Barack”, followed by laying a lei on the newborn’s neck. That still wouldn’t be enough for them to believe he was born in the United States.
Why do these people think this way? Because they don’t want to admit that they are wrong, and don’t want to admit that Obama is actually an American. They feel that he doesn’t “share their values” because his middle name happens to be the same as the Iraqi dictator that we just defeated. They cannot come to terms with reality that he is actually an American. Therefore, they mentally block the fact that Obama was born in the United States and nothing will change their mind. Again, how do you debate an illogical person that is totally convinced that they are right, when absolute facts prove that they are wrong? You can’t, and you need to move on.
But there is one possible way that we can combat this ignorance. Yep, as insulting as it might sound, it is about time we call these people “stupid”. Now I am not saying that we should call every Republican stupid. But when a Republican comes up with these stupid ideas (which is more often than not), we need to call them out. We need to say “you really believe that, you are really that stupid and out of touch with reality?” Again, it is harsh, but did the Republicans ever win by being nice? Nope.
And for those Republicans that are “moderates”, we need to make them think about their affiliation with the crazies in their party. Instead of calling them stupid, we need to say “wow, you seem smart, why do you associate yourself with the stupid crazies in your party”. Again, nothing of what I am saying is twisted or taken out of context. If you are a person that thinks Obama was born in Kenya even when the proof is out there, you are purely stupid, end of story.
In a book written by Paul Begala and James Carville (who I highly respect) called Take It Back, they talk about how we need to quit looking down at Republicans, especially in regards to intellect. Of course, they still believe in the myth of the moderate swing voter, but they feel that degrading Republicans hurts Democrats. I beg to differ. For years, they have done that to us. And for years we have taken it. But the fact is that they are coming up with the stupid stuff. They are the ones that, once presented with facts, continue with their lunacy. And no matter how much you tell them the sky is blue, they will insist that the sky is purple.
Yes…if you are a Republican, why are you so stupid?
I think the second word you used (crazy) is actually more accurate. Most of these people are not stupid – they aren’t mentally retarded. What they believe has no basis in reality, so that makes them crazy.
I think both can be used. “Being out of touch with reality” is the best way to sum it up. But the idea is to make Republicans that aren’t crazy feel embarrassed to be members of the GOP.
There are two categories of birthers, the ones who believe and the the ones who know that the born-in-Kenya story is a lie but who keep on publishing it in hopes of a truly evil consequence. The birthers who believe have been mislead by the liars. The fact that they are stupid enough to believe the lies is important, but it is not as important as the existence of the group of liars with Web sites that continue to spew the lies despite the liars knowing that they are not true.
An example of this would be WND, which did some excellent investigative work showing that the INS had accepted the fact that Barack Obama Senior had a son “born in Hawaii.” This would normally be considered poof that Obama was born in Hawaii. But WND then commented: “It is not known how the INS determined that Obama was born in Hawaii.” That sounds innocent enough, but it is a lie. It is well known that the way that the INS determines where someone is born is TO LOOK AT THE BIRTH CERTIFICATE. So a birth certificate for Obama did, of course, exist when the INS did its checking.
This was merely additional proof of Obama being born in Hawaii, but it was proof that WND itself found, and yet WND did the best that it could to diminish his proof and to keep its readers believing that Obama was born outside the USA. What, one may ask, was WND’s motive in doing this?
Sorry, proof–not “poof.”
In reality at the end of the day, these are people who are afraid of any type of change to the status quo. No matter how much it would improve their lives. Remember the health care bill ???
Wow love these articles. They really break down the different kinds of Republicans. I guess I sort of always knew it on my own but these articles clear up the fog of bewilderment associated with Republican thinking.