They’re Not Stupid

Ever seen someone do something boneheaded? Ever hear someone say something so completely ignorant of basic facts that you wonder how they manage to feed themselves every day? You probably thought to yourself, ‘this person is a grade A moron.’

Now, think hard and honestly. Have you ever been that grade A moron? Have you ever stated something to be true that you later learned was complete BS? Have you ever tried to do something and screwed up so completely you feel like you shouldn’t ever be allowed near sharp objects again? Come on, you know you have.

We’re all stupid sometimes. We’re all morons sometimes. Most times we can recognize this about other people when they are the ones taking a turn with the stupid stick. We can find empathy for them and don’t assume that is their entire existence.

However, there are times when we forget this. And when politics gets involved it gets harder to remember. Especially if you’re on the more left leaning side.

People who tend to lean left, or toward the democratic/collective/group mindset, look for solutions through logic and science. They want to solve A so look for what would be the best solution. They look to science and logic to help them decide what to do. Conversely, those more on the capitalistic/individualistic/right leaning side look at what they want to do and use science and logic to justify why they should do it.

Look at climate change for example. For many people, it is a thing that is happening, scientific studies have shown it, predictions show more severe consequences. In order to address this, they look at the science and come up with solutions that prevent those drastic outcomes. Anything is on the table to consider for stopping the outcome they fear.

Those that are Climate Deniers look at what Changers are trying to do and think, “what are they really trying to accomplish?” It’s not that they don’t trust science. Or are stupid. It’s that fundamentally, deep down, they see people using climate change as a justification to do X.

They themselves may not distrust the science. They themselves may never do something as underhanded as twist science fact to suit their ends. But they know some people would. They know that some people would put out bullshit scientific studies to prove whatever they want to prove.

This is that Fundamental Difference we’ve talked about before. The Deniers aren’t stupid. They’re doing a stupid thing, sure but its because of that fundamental difference in how they see the world. And the most frustrating thing is they aren’t wrong either.

There are people who do manipulate science to get it to show what they want. There are people who manipulate facts. Many of them are on the right leaning side (though not all). Those that lean right think its okay, because that’s their team. They assume the other side is doing the same thing.

For those on the left leaning side, they don’t do that though (generally). They look at science to inform decisions rather than use science to justify decisions. So there would be no point in manipulating the science.

The right thinks the left is stupid because they trust the science. The left thinks the right is stupid because they’re ignoring the science. But it’s not stupidity that’s the problem here. It’s a lack of empathy.

The right needs to try and engage with their democratic side a bit more and recognize that for the people they disagree with, especially for big world ending things like climate change, we’re not trying to manipulate them. We’re genuinely concerned for the well fair of everyone if we don’t work together to address this growing problem.

The left needs to engage that conservative side in order to understand that deniers aren’t stupid. Thinking they are, and especially calling them that, isn’t going to help anything. Denying climate science may prove to be a monumentally stupid thing to do. But think hard. Have you ever been convinced not to do something because someone told you you were stupid? No, you did it anyways and then felt stupid after you did it and realized how stupid it was. So what could have someone done instead of just calling you stupid? How could they have stopped you? That’s the real challenge we face.