AT via Magic Studio
It's a sad commentary on our culture that we have to talk about an epidemic of ignorance, but we can no longer dismiss this syndrome as a mere irritant.After four long years during which our democracy was under constant peril, one might say the November election cured that crisis, at least for now, returning the American voter and American values to center stage. Zealots of the Left, however, continue their tired chorus of accusation and cancellation. It is staggering how blind to election results and deaf to the voices of voters they seem to be. Wokeness may be in retreat but this core cadre, still including many in legacy media, continue their ranting about existential threats and trying to shame us into shedding crocodile tears over illegals. They have doubled down on their playbook even though its tenets have been hollowed out, proven false again and again.
This failing mindset was perfectly captured by the perspicacious novelist Saul Bellow, an early victim of political correctness: “A great deal of intelligence,” Bellow observed, “can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is great.” What we have been witnessing is proof of the Bellow equation: the Left ever more desperately clings to its illusions, and its investment in ignorance commensurately soars. Their conjured existential crises have evolved from global warming to climate change, to Russian collusion, Trump 45, then Trump 47, and now expanding to include Elon Musk, every challenge to the Deep State, and whatever Executive Order happens to be signed today.
I recall being puzzled long ago at the leftist declarations of certain of my acquaintances, wondering what sources their hypereducated intellects were consulting to support their emotional pronouncements. Gradually I realized it wasn’t about their words, it was about that emotion. They weren’t using their once-questing intellect to get to the truth, they were just consulting their newly-discovered elitist tribe (coached by legacy media) to see what cue card they should read. They were not exploring and processing knowledge, they were just mechanically reciting leftist sound loops, dressed up with Ivy League syntax. You hear a lot of accusation and derision in those loops, but seldom do you hear words of cognitive engagement, words that reflect a genuine interest in discovery or the shared advancement of knowledge that until now drove human progress.
For years many of us wanted to believe this was just a passing naivete. No longer. At this point the Left’s deliberate lack of interest in the truth can only be called willful ignorance. It is impossible to embrace the 1619 Project, or claim that Winston Churchill caused World War II, without deliberately ignoring actual, easily accessible history. Perhaps the most blatant examples are the zealots’ pronouncements that grammar, spelling, and math are constructs of white supremacism — particularly disturbing since impressionable students are being indoctrinated with this ignorance.
<img alt captext="AT via Magic Studio” class=”post-image-right” src=”https://conservativenewsbriefing.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/we-can-cure-democracy-but-can-we-cure-stupid.jpg” width=”450″>Too many of our institutions are entrenching stupidity and proliferating it throughout society, spreading not just disregard for truth but also an inability to articulate clear rational thought. If you don’t understand that this embrace of ignorance underlies the plummeting scores in our schools (the new National Report Card shows our students failing math and reading), the abysmal decline of media, the promulgation of climate myths, and the tendency of Democrats to act like screaming banshees instead of offering substantive dialogue, then you need to put down your phone and go read a book. Responsible adults pursue questions to get to the truth. When did these people stop asking questions?
“We are born ignorant but one must work hard to remain stupid,” that quintessential American Benjamin Franklin stated. The Left has been working very hard indeed. An essential ingredient for their stubborn ignorance is narcissism, which was on blatant display in the Left’s 2024 presidential campaign and at their recent conclave to baptize new leaders. Their toxic mixture of ignorance and ego lets them pretend they know everything. With bizarre confidence they treat ignorance as a virtue, not a political handicap. They pat each other on the back and deem themselves the true emperors. But not a one is wearing any clothes
It’s a sad commentary on our culture that we have to talk about an epidemic of ignorance, but we can no longer dismiss this syndrome as a mere irritant. The Left doesn’t simply make themselves irrelevant, they are infecting our institutions with the virus. They dumb down public discourse, which means that those who incessantly cry wolf with shrieks of “threat to democracy!” and “Constitutional crisis!” are the real threat to democracy. The most inhuman, amoral regimes of history were made possible by the ignorant. “Anyone who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities,” warned Voltaire. Willful stupidity is toxic to a healthy democracy and ultimately our way of life. Jefferson was not speaking lightly when he observed that a civilization cannot be ignorant and free at the same time. Do we need a reminder: civilization is not something other people do; we all participate and each of us shares responsibility for it.
No off-the-shelf cure exists for stupidity. It can’t be reversed by executive order. With rare but wonderful exceptions it cannot be mitigated by a single teacher. The antidote has much to do with thinking for yourself and cajoling those around you to do the same. Don’t be shaped or led by the ignorant. Push back with facts. Stop supporting the elite universities, which have become incubators for ignorance. Mock the narcissism that breeds it. Let the legacy media die their well-deserved death. Stop being silent when you encounter stupidity leaking out of your local schools.
Before he was martyred by the Nazi regime, Dietrich Bonhoeffer recognized the terrible truth behind his fate. “We have more to fear from stupid people,” Bonhoeffer concluded as he faced execution, “than evil ones.” Great countries, like great people, can be done in by ignorance. America won’t be great again if we don’t push back against the stupidity.
Eliot Pattison’s nineteen novels include the award-winning Skull Mantra series, casting a spotlight on human rights abuses in China, and his Bone Rattler series, which explores the complex people and events leading to the American Revolution.
Image: AT via Magic Studio
