What Stupid People Do

How does one know when one is in the presence of a profoundly stupid person? By asking them simple questions to which the answers are obvious to all…except, perhaps, to them.  Do you know the signs of someone who is clueless? Here is a handy guide to help you make this determination.

Really stupid people physically or verbally attack others rather than engage in proactive and useful dialogue which offer solutions to a particular crisis. They have leaders who are equally stupid, if not more stupid than they are. Stupid people have leaders who make pronouncements to one particular group of people, usually their own kind, then speak to others as if their prior comments will never reach their ears or eyes. Profoundly ignorant people lie to preserve their fanciful notions of reality and “truth” as they believe it to be. Their followers have a sheep’s mentality, following the herd led by someone whose low mentality is only matched by their own lack of wit, intellect or anything that passes for humanity. Perhaps it is time we stop coddling stupid people with our rapt attention.

I would like to reference a photograph taken today of a massive anti-terrorism rally in France and ask the following: Would someone who actively encourages and engages in terrorism and who is not a world leader be in the front of a line of world leaders pretending to be a world leader who denounces terror? Do people frequently show up at your house unannounced expecting a five-course meal? Would you continue to entertain such individuals without saying anything to them about their lack of manners? Really ignorant people have none of the social graces that intelligent people do whenever they insinuate themselves with very smart people thinking that their intellect will somehow rub off on them. This is the height of stupidity. These people should be shunned, not encouraged.

If you consider whether you need satire in your lives, look no further than the spectacle of self-appointed Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas standing shoulder-to-shoulder with popularly-elected German Chancellor Angela Merkel and our duly-elected leader Benjamin Netanyahu. This is precisely why cartoonists and caricaturists worldwide have jobs˗˗to rub our collective noses in some leader’s own special brand of stupidity, hubris and chutzpah.

If you really want to fix the world as we are supposed to be doing, then we need to address the low mentality of individuals who would do us harm. One classic determinant of stupidity is racism and its first cousin, anti-Semitism. As Jews, we know the sure-fire methods to use to counter anti-Semitism worldwide. One easy solution is to quit giving an ear to anti-Semites in the first instance in the name of “parity” or being “fair-minded.” It means that we should learn to recognize the “but” or “what if” in any argument on the subject and automatically suspect it of bias and then reject it outright. You know this when you hear it: “The Palestinians shot over 10,000 rockets and projectiles into Israel proper, (but) they are ‘enslaved’ and ‘oppressed’ and ‘Aza is a prison’ and that is why they did it.” How we modern humans address violence must not devolve into a politically-correct castigation that is no condemnation at all. Likewise, no one need apologize for addressing the violent acts of others. And it does not matter which end of the political spectrum you are on. The spectacle of Hamas-affiliated members marching in sympathy with French people on French soil is a clear absurdity that ought to be addressed by the media. For me, it is almost as offensive as the violent act itself, because terrorists want the rest of us who have the gifts of intellect, humanity and decency to give them a willing ear and an open pocketbook and a pass to future acts of violence.

Finally, do we really need lectures about tolerance from the Islamic Republic of Iran? Almost any nation on earth is free to Twitter their comments to their adoring throngs. You are free to send nastygrams to whichever leader of a nation anytime you like. I do it all the time and will continue doing it until President Hasson Rouhani complains to Twitter that I violated their terms of service.

We cannot begin to properly heal the world if we do not take out the garbage first. Really, this is not as hard as it sounds. One the one hand, we can engage in dialogue with our enemies, the enemies of truth, freedom of speech and the like. Needless to say, there has to be someone intelligent to speak with on the other side of the conversation.