Tea Leaves

And on the Seventh Day, He Bitchslapped them: A Manifesto in Rant Form

Scalzi identifies an initiative of the Georgia Department of Education to eliminate the word "evolution" from the curriculum as being stupid. And he's right. He has a bit to say about Creationists, and describes them as "willfully ignorant" rather than stupid. I think I disagree with that distinction: if you're a Creationist, you are stupid. If you know a Creationist, they are stupid. There is no shame in looking at a drooling idiot moronic pus-filled sack of barely firing synaptic connections and calling them "stupid."

Even if they are wearing an Armani suit and know how to lobby Congress.

Now, I understand (I think) what Scalzi is getting at: don't underestimate the enemy. That's good advice. Obviously, there's a risk that calling someone "stupid" will lead you to think that they pose no risk to you and yours, that they couldn't possibly outmaneuver you politically, socially, or financially. But as more than 200 years of US history and the current worldwide popularity of Britney Spears shows us, Stupid turns out to have quite a lot of influence.

Plenty of attributes are more dangerous in an enemy than stupid. An enemy can be cagey, crafty, aggressive, agile, persistent, evil, single-minded, and dishonest, and still be stupid. Just look at the American Family Association, for example.

So let's hear it for calling people stupid. I think we don't do it enough. The world has enough tolerance to go around that I feel like I'm just bringing a little balance to the table when I point out that, in objective terms, anyone who thinks the world was created in 7 days just a few thousand years ago is stupid. Really stupid. How stupid, you ask? Stupid in a accidentally-drank-drano-instead-of-vodka sort of way. Stupid in a drooling idiot mongoloid fucktard assrapes small children at the pancake breakfast sort of way. Stupid in a thinks Saddam masterminded the 9/11 attacks and figures if you have slanty eyes you must be Chinese sort of way.

Stupid, in other words, in a "You goddamn smug Christian pigfucker, I will do everything in my power to keep a moron like you from having anything to do with my child's education, and if you don't like it, you can choke on my bile and go into a permanent degenerative coma" sort of way.

Those of us who are not religious extremists did not start this culture war. But you had better believe we intend to win it.