So yesterday (Saturday), here in east Tennessee, I went to a small one-man business that deals mostly with music, instrument repairs, and used instruments. As a musician I play several different instruments, and this guy is an expert on one particular instrument, which will be nameless for the purposes of this post. His shop is in a different town, about a 20 minute drive from where I live.
As context, I am a rather hard-right, conservative person, and keep most of my more extreme views concealed (as was the .45 carry piece I had on me at the time), so I don't air my politics in public... I'm just tired of the futile debates with the Left, who are essentially morons with no critical thinking skills.
After discussing some technical aspects of this instrument, the chat wandered to cost of materials related to musical instruments... exotic woods, strings, labor, which instruments are better, German, French, or (more lately) Chinese.
Then the subject turned to the wild fluctuations of silver and gold (sometimes used in ornamentation on instruments).
Without missing a beat, the dude said, "Oh that's just so Trump can get more money."
.... WHUT?! I was rather taken aback by such a stupid statement that I asked him to repeat it. And he did. The man is brilliant when it comes to instrument repair and a knowledge base about instruments that I don't have.
But really? The rising price of silver and gold is... BECAUSE TRUMP WANTS MORE MONEY?! I just let it drop, no amount of reason or knowledge of the precious metals market, or common sense in general, would have gotten through to him.
Are all TDS sufferers this blind to reality?
Side note, leaving that other town I passed a demonstration on a sidewalk that I had to pass, about 100 people or so, with "NO KINGS" signs and other examples of TDS. They waved at me as I drove by, but I just lifted my middle finger salute to them and drove on.
So all in all, I had a full-on display of TDS yesterday.
The most disturbing element to me is the confidence with which these imbeciles express their opinion. As though their insane calculus must be simply obvious to everyone else.
Wish I had a solution guys, I really do. Been something I've spent many hours thinking about for many years. But the only solution I have is putting them all on an iceberg and giving it a shove to the north.
Indeed, their smug certitude about the most inane opinions is remarkable. It is one of the most maddening characteristics of the human species. It used to be, many years ago, that stupidity was a self-correcting problem. People did stupid things or held stupid opinions and nature had a way of eliminating them from the gene pool. They died in stupid ways, or failed to reproduce, or were banished from their villages.
For the past 50 years or so, however, our society has protected them, encouraged them, even favored them, gave them preferential treatment. Think DEI on a grand scale. And we have reaped the whirlwind for that.
Stupidity abounds, everywhere, in all our institutions and ways of life. From Somali fraudsters being allowed to steal billions of dollars to "The View" on TV, and a million other little ways, stupidity has become institutionalized.
Speaking of smug certitude, to see it in action just watch 10 minutes of "The View" or (while you still can) the Stephen Colbert Show. Ten minutes is about all I could take of either of those shows, but they are prime examples of "frequent wrong but never in doubt."
"For the past 50 years or so, however, our society has protected them, encouraged them, even favored them, gave them preferential treatment."
This is so spot on. And at least to my eyes, it has been a carefully constructed infrastructure that the Cabal has created to reinforce stupidity.
We see it across newspapers, cable news, pundits and pols: Emphasizing "your truth", alleged leftist "intellectuals" engaging in and approving of ad hominem attacks in lieu of proper critical arguments, labeling those who disagree with you (especially MAGA people) as "the other" in order for Leftists to not feel as though they don't have to defend their opinions against such utterly "deplorable" people.
It has been an insidious campaign to make feelings and ignorance somehow virtuous.
Ah, a kindred spirit.