Is willful stupidity a sin or is it a sign of mental illness?
Conservatives have recently started claiming that their views are not treated equally by the press. Well duh, maybe that’s because those views are so far removed from reality that they are blatantly false. Who wants to pick up a newspaper and read a headline that says; “Science Got it Wrong! The World Is Only 6,000 Years Old And Yes It Is Flat”
Climate change is real; universal health care has a rightful place in any society that calls itself civilized just as guns don’t; the press is not the enemy of the people any more than access to information that counters ignorance and superstition is; and tax breaks for the rich with massive increases in military spending will not make America great again. Instead, such unstainable conservative bookkeeping errors pose the real threat to our national security as it moves America closer to bankruptcy. This is exactly what happened to the Soviet Union as it poured far too much money into its military and could easily be part of Putin’s ultimate plan for revenge against America. No amount of prayer, anger or threats of Armageddon or any other nonsense that finds a home in conservative minds has the power to save us from the real world ramifications of conservatism.
In the conservative alternate reality, the world is whatever your gut tells you it is. It is a place where irrationalism is preferred over science. Where ignorance, stupidity and a lack of education all find places of acceptability within circles where such things are held in high esteem. It is the age-old battle between the “elites” or those capable of seeing a better future based upon change, and those who fear progress.
Signs of psychopathology can be seen among conservatives, especially when you consider a wide range of illness indicators. In his award-winning 2005 book, Dr. James Whitney Hicks discusses 50 signs of mental illness including denial, delusion, hallucination, disordered thinking, anger, anti-social behavior, sexual preoccupation, grandiosity, and paranoia. In Donald Trump, conservatives have found their new king. The fact they cannot see the clear signs of his mental illness is simply because it mirrors their own state of mind.
