Stupid is as Stupid Does

By definition: stupid is as stupid does is a proverb meaning that a person's intelligence can be judged by their actions. It suggests that one's behavior is a truer indicator of intelligence, rather than appearances or claims.

Claiming to be intelligent, as too often many on the Right do, but then claiming is not the same as being. From my years of observing and interacting with people on the Right and from numerous studies I’ve read it is obvious their claims to intelligence are only that, claims with little in the way of factual evidence.

On the spectrum of intelligence in America we go from the lower end of the scale, those on the Right, as opposed to those on the Left at the higher end. The variance is quite considerable.

But it is more than a simple scale. What is important is that those who demonstrate lower intelligence are also those most likely to be influenced by hucksters, charlatans, influence peddlers, conspiracy theorists, and control oriented political hacks.

Because the large number of Right-wingers with low intelligence vote, we now have a madman in the Oval Office, one who is served by just as equally stupid sycophants and toadies. Trump’s policies are bankrupt morally, ethically, and legally, and the fact that his mental health is ponderously close to insanity does not bode well for our country. This state of affairs is something I feel strongly about addressing in my own small way in my Posts.

Related to the issue of intelligence there are other issues and concerns that need to be addressed. They cannot all be addressed in one Post so I have selected a couple that go well with the four real life experiences I’ve chosen for inclusion.

The issues are:

• Confirmation bias. Tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of one's existing beliefs or theories.

• Failure to verify facts.

• Intractability.

• Naivity.

• Wannabe.

Okey, ladies and gentlemen, boy and girls, it’s time to take the kid gloves off and say it like it is about the Conservative Right and its stupidity merging into idiocy.

Below are four real life incidents I have personally experienced and am happy to share with you to emphasize my points about the stupidity and the other concerns I’ve identified in terms of those that make up the political Right in the United States.

1) Patton to Invade China?

In 2021 I had occasion to take a taxi to the Boise VA Medical Center with another veteran who was quite animated about how General Patton had proposed that the United States should rearm the Germany Army and with the American Army he would lead them against Communist China.

Huh? This was news to me. Over the years I have studied WW II extensively and am quite familiar with many aspects of that conflict.

General George S. Patton did advocated at the end of WW-II a plan for rearming the Wehrmacht (the German Army) and with Patton’s 3rd Army he would lead them against Russia.

He NEVER said anything about invading China.

Aside: A What if?

It seems that the gist of the scuttlebutt, I’ll call him Mr. C, and his fellow conservatives in Boise learned from an internet site was about Patton’s plans to attack China.

At first I thought I should try and enlighten his mistaken belief about what Patton had actually advocated but he was absolutely adamant. He was enthralled to the point of near delirium with the whole idea of our defeating China that I just didn’t have the heart to burst his bubble by imposing reality on his parade.

You see, by 2021 I had learned after so many years of fruitlessly trying to reasons with Conservatives that I wasn’t going to succeed and so I kept quiet and let him rave on with his glorious notion of America’s superiority over the Chinese.

What I wanted to inform him of was just how far off base his information was. He was claiming that the reason Patton wanted to invade China was that China was our biggest foreign foe at the time.

This example showcases the idiocy of many people on the Right-side of the spectrum.

But let’s take a step back and address reality of the world situation in 1945 in terms of the issues I noted above.

• Failure to verify facts.

In 1945 China was just coming off some ten years of war with the Japanese Empire.

China was still engaged in a civil war between Chiang Kai Shek’s Kuomintang government and that of Mao’s Communist insurgents. So, in 1945 Communist China didn’t even exist.

Geographical issues.

Another issue the Right-siders didn’t seem to bother to take into consideration is that it is over 4,500 miles by air between Berlin, Germany and Beijing, China. But by the poor railroad and surface roads it is a much longer distance and  so supply lines would have been stretched to the limit and would be impossible to manage.

Political issues.

The Soviet Union and Eastern European countries were not likely to grant Patton’s army access to cross their territory. No kidding, Dick Tracy.

Historical issues.

Maybe the Conservatives got Patton’s plans to attack Russia confused with General Douglas MacArthur’s plans for China since his views were similar enough in outlook.

I’m not attempting a history lesson only giving as much as is necessary to clarify the stupidity of the those on the Right. What I’m demonstrating is how little grounding they have in history, geography, international politics, economics and other issues that they should have addressed before making such a stupid statement.

But what is new for them? They really are stupid! Not only stupid but intractable in their thinking.

Unfortunately I only was able to interact with Mr. C for about five minutes as we each had medical appointments to keep.

However, he easily represented so many other conservatives I’ve known where his inability to grasp reality, instead maintaining his beliefs so he could keep the ‘truth’ of his unreality in place.

Aside: What if?

Patton had an obsessive dislike for Russia and felt that the US and Britain should have been harder on them than they were on the Nazis.

He knew that with Stalin in control in the Soviet Union the other Western Allies would find themselves facing an adversary even worse than Hitler. But the United States and Britain were controlled by democratic processes in their governance, they were tired of war and had no intention of continuing with another one. Besides, in both countries, the people only wanted peace and prosperity and any attempt to continue with a war against the Soviet Union was unthinkable.

All this is true, all one needs do is read the evidence as shown by newspapers, legislative representatives, unions, churches etc. to see how both nations felt.

In the Soviet Union’s case Stalin was a dictator and controlled the state. There was no one to oppose his rule.

Tragically, in hindsight, which is generally twenty-twenty, Patton was correct in his fear of Stalin and what he was planing for Europe and the world. An Iron Curtain did fall over Europe just as Patton predicted and when Stalin got the Atomic Bomb in 1949 were were locked in a Cold War that was, and its vestiges still are, more fearful than WWII.

Yes, Patton was correct in his assessments and predictions but it is too late and we were stuck with politicians that were completely snookered by Stalin’s ruthlessness.

My second example was with a gentleman in Boise who I’ll identify as John Doe 1. I interacted with him for approximately two years through a Boise organization (SHIP) that provides free rides to veterans, the elderly and the those with disabilities (pretty much nails it for me).

In my third example I identify him as John Doe 2 and interacted with him for about one-and-a-half-years. I met him through a Social Agency that matched people who could no longer drive with one of their volunteers.

In the fourth example I interacted with a lady, also with SHIP, I identify as Jane Doe and interacted with her for about one year.

I point this out to show that in these three cases my social interactions were for longer periods which allowed me to become well accounted with all three. Although I am well to the Left on the political scale I found all three agreeable individuals, a strikingly dissimilar instance from the majority of encounters I’ve had with those on the Right.

I don’t know why unless it’s my charming personality and massive good looks? Well, may be not come to think of it.

2) Submarine Warfare

As noted I got along well with John Doe 1 so I have no axe to grind with him. The reason I use him as an example is due to his intractability over an issue that came up between us.

One day I mentioned about books I had been reading about submarine warfare in WWII and how the submarine’s officers had to deal with the complexity surrounding the sinking of enemy vessels. His instantaneous reaction was to tell me that the officers had nothing to do with sinking enemy vessels, that it was the subs crewmen who were the ones who sunk enemy vessels with torpedoes they fired.

I tried to explain how inaccurate his perception was of the process of sinking a ship. He wasn’t having any of it. No matter what I told him about the intricacies of torpedo attacks he steadfastly refused to acknowledge any involvement by the ship’s officers.

I note here that he never served in any branch of our armed services and had a rather slanted view of the roll of officers versus crew members in military service. I’m not sure how he came by his low opinion but it was blatantly clear he had no use for officers.

It seemed to me that he was coming from a parochial view of the differences in rank in the military, and that his rural upbringing had inculcated a negative view of officers and a positive one for enlisted men.

What I tried to get him to understand was how World War II submarines were equipped and operated but he simply ignored what I was telling him. He didn’t want to hear about the complicated equipment that took time to learn how to operate and that it wasn’t a mater of simply loading a torpedo and pushing the firing button to be successful in sinking enemy vessels. But no matter how hard I tried it was fruitless.

I told him how much training the officers had to go through and the details of how to operate the advanced instruments, including sonar systems for detecting targets, torpedo data computers for fire control, and depth charge protection from anti-submarine warfare employed by the enemy.

These technologies were crucial for navigation, target tracking, and engaging enemy vessels effectively; it was far more involved than simply loading the torpedos, that was the crews job and the one which they trained for.

Sonar Systems

The equipment included the sonar systems which were manned by enlisted men but it was the officers job to use the data and navigate to the target. The sonar system operates by emitting sound pulses and listening for echoes to determine the distance and direction of vessels. It also served the function to keep a watch out for enemy destroyers without revealing the submarine's position.

Torpedo Data Computers (TDC)

This system provides fire-control solutions for firing torpedos. The TDC automatically tracks targets and calculates the necessary angles and speeds of the submarine and the target vessel for effective torpedo firing. It wasn’t just a matter of point and shoot. As with a rifle one has to gauge range, movement, and angle you want for the shot to strike the target.

This technology was more advanced than that of other nations, enhancing the effectiveness of American submarines during the war. But at the same time required months of training and experience to become proficient.

These are just two of the systems the officers had to be know inside out in order to employe them to achieve the desired results. Each officer had to know how to operate ALL of the systems in case the a given officer were incapacitated. The enlisted men did not know how to operate these advanced systems.

I could never convince John Doe 1 of the intricacies involved and he remained intractable in his belief that the officers were just along for the ride and it was the crew who was responsible for sinking enemy vessels.

So much for being willing to step outside your personal views and come to understand that there is more to life than preconceived prejudices and biases.

3) Scientific Method

I got along well with John Doe 2, even though he had been a Marine and I had served in the Army. Quite a feat to succeed at in itself.

One day he told me how stupid scientists are. I asked him how he came by such a blanket statement. His response was that he had seen on the internet (he told me he no longer reads books because everything was available on the internet) that scientists had reversed their view about cautions in eating eggs.

I tried to explain to him that the process of science is a self-correcting one. That whenever new data becomes available that present theories or advice has to be altered to reflect the new data.

He looked at me as if I had alien Demons growing out of my ears (this was years before Dancen Vancen informed the world that UFOs are actually piloted by demons).

I already knew how opposed to education and science the Right-side is and John Doe 2’s negative reaction to the new study on eggs just reaffirmed his belief in the uselessness of science.

Aside: Scientific Advancement

I find myself amazed at how pathetic people on the Right are about the advances science makes every year. For example, without Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity cell phones and GPS would be impossible. It is also necessary for scientists and engineers to have the intelligence to put Einstein’s theory  to practical use.

Oh well, I know I’ll never be successful in convincing the idiots.

4) Conservative Threats

Initially I got on well with Jane Doe until the subject of assistance to illegal immigrants (not the UFO ones). She claimed that the government was spending over $22-billion a year to help educate, feed, provide housing etc. to these, as she called them, ”deadbeats” or words to that effect.

Regardless of the reliability of her figures the issue that we actually tangled over was Donald Trump. I told her that he was an insult to America and should be removed from office. She came back at me with an angry tirade about how the Right-wing adherents are looking forward to a new Civil War, one they would win this time. This was in 2018.

Silly me. I challenged her on her contention that another civil war was justifiable. Oh me, I need to learn to keep my mouth shut when communicating with the radical elements of the Conservative Agenda. Jane Doe finally told me that she had friends who would like to pay me a visit and that I wouldn’t like to meet them.

Huh? I mean, what is that all about? But in reality I already knew how off the wall the fanatics are and how much they want to either control or exterminate us nonbelievers.

Oh well, since 2017 things have gotten very much worse where the Right-wing idiots are concerned.

So here’s a quick overall appraisal of Right-wing stupidity.

• Confirmation bias. The tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of one's existing beliefs or theories. Is especially true in my third example–John Doe 2’s condemnation of science–because new evidence confirmed his belief that science and scientists cannot be trusted.

• Failure to verify facts. Is especially the case for the first three examples where any effort on the part of these three Conservatives would have shown them the fallacy of their assertions.

• Intractability.

Proponents of the Conservative Agenda pose a serious concern for their refusal to accept information that doesn’t fit their preconceived notions and yet is valid. Intractability is one of the most polarizing issues dividing the Left from the Right.

Is easily seen in all four examples where a stubborn resistance to accept different interpretations which did not align with their preconceived attitudes.

• Naivety. A  very common problem, though definitely not restricted to the Right-side, it is also common among those on the Left.

Back in 2017-2018 I was still naive myself. I still hoped we might be able to come to some understanding between the Left and the Right but I now know that isn’t going to happen and that we on the Left had better start facing the reality of the Right’s hatred for us and be prepared to defend ourselves.

In my estimation all four of the principles in my experiences demonstrated just how naive people on the Right are.

• Wannabe. I want things to be the way I want them to be and if not then it is obviously another plot by the Liberals to fool me. Sort of a new take on ‘my way or the highway.’

Especially true for the submarine example where John Doe 1 was not going to listen to facts or any reasoning I attempted to engage his mind with. He wanted the crew to be the ones responsible for sinking enemy vessels. It was simply too important to him and no amount of effort on my part was goin to be of any avail in getting him to see the reality of WWII submarine warfare.

Well, that’s it for now but I will be posting more information not only on stupidity of the Right but many other issues like the methods they employ; intelligence; control and other concerns.