Ignorant or stupid?

James Howard Kunstler has a weekly podcast entitled "Kunstlercast" which is well worth listening to. The episodes usually last about 30 minutes.

Episode #77 entitled "Idiocracy" is described on the web site as follows:

James Howard Kunstler believes that stupid Americans are exerting their political and cultural tyranny over the rest of us. No other society has produced a larger group of stupid people with as much money and means to express their thoughts, pleasures, ideas, biases, delights, and hatreds in things that can be broadcast, built or in some way imposed on other people. Those who object to this situation are called elitist, he says. JHK also explores the diminishing returns of information technology and the internet. It can be accessed by clicking here.

It is an interesting discussion about how stupid people are ruining America. I have had this idea for some time and it is very validating to hear that other people are starting to think this too.

Ignorant people are unaware,and don't know any better while stupid people know better and yet choose the wrong information to base their opinions on anyway because of personal interests which can be monetary, political, religious, ethnic, sex based, etc. Stupid people cannot be informed of the inaccuracy of their beliefs because they will defend their erroneous ideas even in the face of other evidence to defend their inaccuate cognitive position. These people have a need to be right which trumps any new information and are no longer rational but rather threatened and become more intransient and sometimes aggressive.

The creationists, the birthers, the deathers, the hungo my country right or wrong yahoos are bad for America because their consciousness is based on deceit, untruths, and propaganda. While people are entitled to their own opinions they are not entitled to their own facts and with the advent of the cable news shows and hate talk radio, stupid people have influence on our national consciousness which is very damaging and leads to humungus injustice such as the Iraq War, the financial crisis, the health care crisis, the climate crisis, etc.

While stupidiy usually isn't a crime, it leads to crimes, and all of society bears the consequences of stupid people's decisions and thoughts.

The question of how stupid people should be dealt with is not clear but the first step is outing stupid people and marginalizing their stupidity so that it has less influence on the social discourse. Unfortunately, stupid people, as Kuntsler points out, often have money and are easily manipulated by interests that have machivellian purposes to obtain more money and power at the social expense.

I highly recommend this episode to you and welcome your comments.

This is such an important topic that I am starting a new category on this blog today which I am tagging "stupidity".