(A tip of the WWJD crown of thorns to David Flanders for this one….)
Fewer Republicans today than in 2009 believe in evolution, according to new analysis from the Pew Research Center. A poll out Monday shows that less than half - 43 percent - of those who identify with the Republican Party say they believe humans have evolved over time, plunging from 54 percent four years ago. Forty-eight percent say they believe “humans and other living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time,” up from 39 percent in 2009.
In my new job, I’m reminded on a daily basis that some people just aren’t…well, let’s just say if brains were dynamite they’d have a good deal of difficulty blowing their nose. Perhaps I’m on the naive side, but I’m always surprised when I encounter those whom I’ll charitably refer to as “intellectually deficient.” With that in mind, how truly, unbelievably stupid does one have to be to believe that- despite the mountains of scientific evidence to the contrary- evolution is a hoax? I’m not certain you really want to know the answer to that question, because it says some pretty disturbing things about the future of humanity.
In what can only be described as an epic face-palm moment, a poll from the Pew Research Center shows that only 43% of Republicans believe that humans evolved over time (That certainly explains Todd Starnes and Jim Hoft). I’d hazard a guess that a poll would show a higher percentage of Americans believe in the Tooth Fairy or Santa Claus.
The astonishing gap between Democrats and Republicans remains even after the pollsters controlled for “differences in the racial and ethnic composition of Democrats and Republicans or differences in their levels of religious commitment.” I suspect if the poll had measured IQ, grip on reality, homophobia, and attitudes toward domestic violence, the gap would have remained equally large and disturbing. Truly, Republican reality isn’t anything like actual reality.
Fifty-seven percent of Republicans believe that Jesus came to America riding a dinosaur and declaring the Fatherland to be the Shining City on the Hill- a beacon of freedom, democracy, and an “I-got-mine-you-can-damned-well-get-your-own” commitment to the social contract. Perhaps it’s always been thus and I’ve been too naive or otherwise occupied to notice, but it seems America is becoming a dumber, harder, less compassionate place. That’s not exactly an argument for evolution, so who knows? Perhaps Republicans are on to something. All an observer needs to do is look at Texas to see an example of what a fully-engorged Republican AmeriKKA would look like. To most rational, lucid folks that sort of reality is cause to fear for our future…but I’d argue that future is increasingly upon us with each passing day. As Americans continue voting for Republicans (Ed. note: Democrats may not be perfect, but the other team’s f’n nuts), they continue to cement the advent of what can only be described as our new Idiocracy. It’s a place where people believe things because they fit their pre-conceived notions, where ignorance rules, and where intelligence is denigrated as anti-American.
Never let facts and empirical reality get in the way of a good belief system.
How else could one hope to explain Fox News Channel? Go ahead; I’ll wait….
As our collective IQ continues to degrade with the passage of time, we increasingly elect demagogues, moral misfits, and intellectual midgets…because they appeal to and validate our fears and prejudices. You might think this to be parody- it is- but it’s perilously close to the truth. Collectively, we Americans are Just. That. Stupid. We can be manipulated into hating the bogeyman of the moment, just as we can be convinced our President is an illegitimate, foreign-born, anti-Christian, America-hating, Muslim-loving terrorist symapthizer- even in the complete absence of logic or evidence. It’s frightening, but it’s our new reality. Welcome to our New Idiocracy, eh?
Stupid- truly incomprehensible, inexplicably vacant stupidity- is the new black.
