We have an epidemic of stupidity

There's a scourge sweeping America: "The Land of the Free, and the Home of the Inane."

Nov 21, 2023

Inspired by Nellie Bowles’ TGIF weekly column in The Free Press

In case you hadn’t noticed, an epidemic has swept through America over the past few years.

This scourge has swamped our already spasmodic nation, afflicting institutions — especially Academia and the media — public and private sectors, and the citizenry at large. It is not a protraction of SARS-CoV-2, the recidivist virus that snuck out of a lab in China, invaded our shores four years ago and made everyone (pardon the pun) batshit crazy.

No, America has experienced a catastrophic outbreak of stupidity. In fact, we are awash in it — stupid ideas … clownish behavior … asinine acts … and the scatterbrained delusions of doltish dimwits. Every day, somebody new doubles down on dumbass.

The weird part is that the lunacy is on open display, in the streets, on social media — and always celebrated in the news. The more outrageous the better. Somehow we’ve made Idiocracy tres chic.

Just a sampling …

San Francisco deftly “canceled” its homeless and indigents last week so the world’s No. 1 Communist wouldn’t have to dance around dirty needles and human shit.
Victoria’s Secret tried to market sexy underwear to Lizzos and other Fatzillas. It failed … miserably. Sales sank like a dead whale. It seems Victoria’s Secret didn’t learn anything from Bud Light.
Progressive elite universities called for the Liberation of Palestine, a de jure state that recognizes no laws against sexual harassment, spousal rape, domestic violence, homophobia, honor killings and child marriage. Apparently, this didn’t come up in their Intersectional Politics of Gender Queer Identities class.
The Miss Universe contest featured two trans women in its 2023 competition, then promptly filed for bankruptcy.
Finally, America’s Far Right and Progressive Left agreed on something: they both hate Jews.

You know how dumb gets dumber when Hitler and Osama bin Laden are trending on social media, as they did last week. Especially der Führer, who apparently still has a bunch of besties all along the political spectrum.

So here follows an abridged list of the dumbfuckeries our country has experienced over the last month.

(Note: The list does not include the trials and tribulations of one Donald J. Trump, who has been indicted in four separate criminal cases and faces a civil case in New York, yet still leads all comers in the polls for next year’s election. Does anybody know how many felony charges are pending? I’ve lost count.)

Congress: The Three Stooges

It seems fitting to begin with the United States Congress, where stupidity reigns with impunity. At the moment, Republican incompetence and ineptitude are clearly outshining the batty Democrats.

Rep. George Santos (R-NY) is still a sitting member in the lower house. This despite a House Ethics Committee investigation that found he used campaign funds for personal vacations, hotels, Ubers, lavish meals, pornography and extensive Botox treatments. And, if that’s not enough, Boy George has 23 pending federal charges of fraud related to COVID-19 unemployment benefits and lying about his personal finances on House disclosure reports.

Meanwhile, there was a “nudge nudge know-what-I-mean” incident involving former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who allegedly elbow-checked Rep. Tim Burchett (R-KY) in a Capitol hallway after a conference. Burchett is one of eight Republican lawmakers who voted to oust McCarthy as speaker. Perhaps Burchett tossed in a “yo momma” joke along the way.

Then there’s Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-KY), who during a senate hearing last week tried to pick a fight with Teamster president Sean O’Brien. O’Brien, a pudgy, bald, middle-aged Irishman, at first agreed to throw down, apparently not realizing that Mullin is a former MMA fighter.

Israel-Gaza

Certainly, you’ve noted a nationwide outbreak of anti-Semitism from pro-Palastinian demonstrations (mostly peaceful, of course) in the streets and American campuses.

As per habit, the Biden Administration took measure of the public pulse and promptly did the opposite — assigning Vice-President Kamala Harris to head up an anti-Islamaphobia task force. (The Biden Axiom: “When in doubt, go left.”)

Yes, once again Madam V-P is in charge of a horseless carriage.

Hopefully, she’ll do a bang-up job just as she did on the border crisis.

Seems there’s also an epidemic of Israeli hostage poster rippers, including well-heeled business execs, non-profit employees, civil servants, and, naturally, college students and professors.
One ripper, Brandon Gonzales — a “Community Organizer” in Brooklyn — was asked why he was canceling kidnapped Israeli children. His response: “Ohh, they’re innocent? That’s so bad. Sorry. I hope you have a lovely day. And I hope whatever happens to them happens to you, too.”

**Harvard University Hall demonstrators … burritos for all!**

After just over 24 hours occupying Harvard University Hall, a group of pro-Palestine Jewish students and allies ended their sit-in last Friday morning. A similar demonstration at Brown University ended within hours with the students arrested and charged with illegal trespassing.

At Harvard, the demonstrators were provided burritos by DEI administrators. Olé!

High Fashion

Book banning: “It’s a sin to kill a mockingbird”

It seems pop star Pink is waging a campaign against “book banning” by distributing 1,000 free books to concert-goers in Florida. She claims The Sunshine State has banned To Kill a Mockingbird. . . but. . . actually, To Kill a Mockingbird is required reading in Florida schools.

Unfortunately, Atticus, Scout and Boo Radley cannot be found on school bookshelves in the progressive state of Washington. You see, the late Harper Lee was white.

TikTok: Smart as a rock

A recent survey found that more than half of young people aged 19-30 are getting their news from TikTok. Think about that. Then feel free to slap yourself in the face. Multiple times.

Speaking of TikTok there was an overnight flurry last weekend of Gen Z’ers commenting on Osama bin Laden’s “Letter to America” (penned in 2002) explaining Al-Qaeda’s motives for the 9/11 attacks. The response among TikTok’ers was pretty much a consensus: (paraphrasing) “Hmmm, maybe Osama had a point.”

The “America is Shit” mantra is pretty much standard fare across Ivy League campuses right now. But it is not limited to the Ivory Towers.

Horror novelist Gretchen Felker-Martin also put in her two cents on TikTok: “(I) can pretty safely state that bin Laden and I did not, uh, agree on much, but blowing up the World Trade Center is probably the most principled and defensible thing he ever did.”

Lost in Translation

President Biden, who turns 81 this week, needed some help last week on Veteran’s Day at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It is the 485th time since taking office the president has publicly appeared, well, lost.

Apparently, the Army sergeant had to instruct the Commander in Chief not to climb in.

Meanwhile: Across the pond

Just a little detour from American Looneytunes … proof that we do not have a monopoly on stupidity.

King Charles III recently made an announcement that the Monarchy was going to do everything in its power to help ease the economic burden on poor families in the U.K.

This is how he made the announcement …