Stupid people don’t know they’re stupid, and ignorant people don’t know they’re ignorant.
Typically, they have righteous confidence in their beliefs, and don’t know how to say “I don’t know.”
A pearl of wisdom often attributed to Mark Twain (but it probably ain’t so) goes, “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”
Okay, that sets the stage for this post about ignorant Trump supporters. Making them look bad is a thriving cottage industry.
For example, Daily Show‘s Jordan Klepper (photo above) makes videos of Trump supporters that make them sound like fools. This is one of his classics. I don’t think it’s fair to say he’s setting these people up, because they can answer his questions however they like.
His videos don’t appear to be staged or edited, but he undoubtedly cherry-picks which ones to publicize, and I can’t rule out that some of his interviewees may be trolling him (but if so, making themselves look stupid in the process).
The gem below isn’t one of Klepper’s; it comes from MSNBC. In this video a Trump supporter claims World War 2 was caused by “brainwashing” and “witch hunts,” which is unthinking Trump-speak, the point MSNBC is trying to make.
Actually, I’d like to hear more of what she said for context, but MSNBC only gave us this very brief clip — and brought on a Yale historian — to make their point. It’s cherry-picking, but there’s plenty of evidence in other videos, news stories, and everywhere on the internet that MAGA is a cesspool of ignorance.
This isn’t surprising given that Trump’s fans are famously averse to facts. That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re unintelligent. We should remember that many people react to politics emotionally, not intellectually. Still, if you’re going to spew talking points, don’t try to embellish them, or you could end up sounding as silly as this woman does.
I don’t know why she’s even doing it. She’s in a friendly crowd and doesn’t need to persuade anyone. Maybe she just felt obliged to say something, as many people do when pulled over by a cop, in which case she would’ve been better off to exercise her Fifth Amendment right to remain silent. I hate to think what she might say to a cop, I’ll let it go at that.