Sex, Faith and Stupidity.

driftglass:

American culture is completely schizophrenic on three subjects, all interrelated: Sex, Faith and Stupidity.

Sex is a true, flat-out blessing. Period. And everyone damned well knows it. But while we soak our entire culture in it to the point of complete saturation, we also insist it is Harmful or Fatal if Swallowed!

Faith can be a blessing. It can almost miraculously nourish us and sustain us when we have nothing else. In utter darkness it can help lead us into an ascending path towards greater love, greater compassion and greater joy. And yet we use it as a sword to cut the legs out from under the Enlightenment. As a club to beat men down to the level of obedient beasts. And as a whip to form those beasts up into the ignorant armies that clash by night.

And then there is Stupidity. And to understand American culture you must first understand that it's not that some people don’t like to be stupid. Lots of people love being stupid, and lots of other people make millions of dollars every year telling them that it is perfectly OK to be stupid.

That it is a holy and noble and All-American thing to be stupid. That their God, in fact, requires it. That “elites” have ruined this country, and that only good, old-fashion, dumb as drywall morons can save us from their predations.

We generally refer to these people by the taxonomically correct term of “Republican”.

However while lots of people enjoy steeping in their own stupidity and bigotry, paradoxically, they are terribly frightened of appearing stupid.