As long ago as 1980 Isaac Asimov wrote,
“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”
I don't think even he could have foreseen just how severe this was going to get. Or just how high in the political structure it would pervade. Six years ago I wrote about this case, where an Ohio state lawmaker proposed a law mandating that ectopic pregnancies be transplanted into the uterus, displaying a level of ignorance and stupidity that should, but sadly doesn't, preclude him from office.
But then the supporters of this type of politics, the MAGAs, as they have come to be known, are no better. They, and those they have brought into government represent arguably the least qualified, least experienced, most ignorant, most incompetent and stupidest people imaginable.
Their leader has recently aired the view that Joe Biden was executed in 2020, and replaced by a clone, or a robot, depending on which version of this conspiracy theory you embrace. And his followers assert that climate change is not happening because only god can control climate, and in the same breath will tell you that hurricanes in the USA are man made, with the objective of acquiring the land formerly occupied by houses so that they can mine the Lithium beneath. It's only cervical spondylosis that stops my head from spinning.
And yet, in the USA these people represent 40% of the electorate! You could spend all day on Youtube descending into this hellish world where up is down and black is white. all presided over a man who claims to be the healthiest the man alive. Not only does he wear a diaper to cope with his faecal incontinence, but more recently he has been found to wear a catheter to prevent him pissing himself, and calipers to stop him falling over. They're not working!
And it goes on and on. Most recently is a proposed law to ban chemtrails. What next? Unicorns?
But we shouldn't get too complacent in the UK, sitting here chortling with our popcorn at the bizarre and absurd antics of our transatlantic cousins. We have our own village idiots here. Anti vaxers, flat earthers, conspiracy theorists of every kind. People who, in preinternet days would have lived out their village idiot existences isolated and humored by the community. Now they all get together on line, sharing their idiocy and conspiracy theories amongst each other like a huge international village idiots convention.
And they have their political wing here in the UK too. A disparate bunch of ultra right wing, fundamentalist religious xenophobes, misogynists, racists, homophobes and the like, just as in the USA. And we have our own little wannabee Donny working his way through the political system. A man with a worrying amount of support among the electorate. We like to think the shit show in the USA could not be replicated here. That would be our first mistake.
