Was What Happened on November 8 Stupidity? Unfortunately Not.

Many progressive thinkers such as myself were stunned at what seemed like the utter stupidity that led to the election of Donald Trump. But then I realized it was not stupidity at all. It was typical human intelligence. The key word is human.

Intelligence did not evolve so that animals in the hominin lineage could understand the world better or keep facts straight in their minds. Those are two of the functions of intelligence but not the most important. The most important benefit of intelligence, during human evolution, was so that some individuals could bend the facts, warp reality, and create delusions that would trick other individuals into following, supporting, or helping them. That is, the major function of human intelligence has always been to gain individual advantages, whether by using the truth or by using lies. (A good liar has to be very intelligent.) Not what is best for a country or the world, but the individual. Trump acted in a supremely effective fashion to gain advantages for himself.

Though it makes me sick to think about it, I must admit that Donald Trump seems to have the genius of knowing how to manipulate people. He knew exactly how to evoke a resonant sympathy with what is in the hearts of most people: racism, sexism, and general hatred. All of his words were in the service of these purposes. He knows that human intelligence does not primarily care about facts, but rather beliefs and impressions. When he mocked disabled people, he was evoking the old childhood memories of bullies on the playground.  He played our brains like the keys of an organ. In this way he was able to completely deflect attention away from the evil things he has done. He did not appeal to our love of humankind or our logical understanding of the equality of races; instead he stirred up hatred of anyone who is different from him. He got his followers chanting “Make America Hate Again” (oops, sorry for the slip) without ever specifying which Yesteryear America he was talking about. The Great Depression? The Confederacy? The wars of extermination against Native Americans? Trump disabled, in his followers, the very ability to ask or even recognize the existence of such questions.

Democrats just don’t get this. Every time, over and over, Democrats cite facts as if they matter. Well, apparently they don’t.

For me, the problem is that Trump has used the rest of us as raw material for his own individual expansion of power. But maybe the solution is also individual. What do I do now? Maybe all I can do is pay attention to and enjoy the direct responsibilities that I have, rather than to try to fix the world or to even nudge it a little away from catastrophe. And who knows? Maybe in my writing and teaching I will end up changing the minds of some people—not to get them to share my political opinions (which I cannot do at a public university) but to start using their brains in a more empathetic and logical fashion. I got up this morning and taught two classes. I was really depressed but I managed to make those two classes some of the best I have ever taught. I even invented, on the spot, a new activity for student involvement in learning about how nerve transmissions work. Maybe some of my readers and students will start noticing that there is more to the world than just their deep visceral hatreds and prejudices. And I can do this no matter who is president.

There might be a kind of truthful and pure intelligence that evolved somewhere in the universe in some species; but that place is not Earth and that species is not Homo sapiens.

I also published this in my science blog. The two blogs are actually different most of the time.

t I have, rather than to try to fix the world or to even nudge it a little away from catastrophe. And who knows? Maybe in my writing and teaching I will end up changing the minds of some people—not to get them to share my political opinions (which I cannot do at a public university) but to start using their brains in a more empathetic and logical fashion. I got up this morning and taught two classes. I was really depressed but I managed to make those two classes some of the best I have ever taught. I even invented, on the spot, a new activity for student involvement in learning about how nerve transmissions work. Maybe some of my readers and students will start noticing that there is more to the world than just their deep visceral hatreds and prejudices. And I can do this no matter who is president.

There might be a kind of truthful and pure intelligence that evolved somewhere in the universe in some species; but that place is not Earth and that species is not Homo sapiens.

Welcome to a New Year of...Craziness?

Welcome to the new year. It is a major election year in the United States, and you can expect it to be totally crazy, irrational, and disgusting.

As I have previously written, the human brain did not evolve to help us understand ourselves, or the world, or the cosmos, but to dominate one another and, sometimes, to cooperate with one another. Conquests and alliances and mates. That's what human intelligence evolved for.

Recently, the alliances part has shrunk. This year, intelligence will be used primarily in the service of antagonism. One example of this is that the Republican Party has become the party of hatred toward anyone who disagrees with it. The right wing of the Republican Party even seems to hate the moderate Republicans. I can't quite figure out what Donald Trump's message is, but it sounds like, "I hate everyone who disagrees with me in any way." Can you imagine a progressive person like myself yearning for the old days when "Republican" meant someone like Mitt Romney, or George W. Bush, or George H. W. Bush, or Ronald Reagan? At least they didn't talk like they hated everyone.

This being a religion blog, I would like to tie this in with conservative Christianity. If Donald Trump ends up being the Republican nominee, you can bet your bottom euro that conservative Christians will support him enthusiastically as the person whom God has chosen to lead us forward in these immoral modern times. And the reason they can do this is that they seem to be completely convinced that, for Republicans, there is no such thing as hypocrisy, and Republicans need never be ashamed of anything they do. They are, after all, God's chosen people.

A couple of examples. The most visible one is, of course, Trump himself. He cheated on wife number one with the woman who became wife number two, and on wife number two with the woman who became wife number three, and fathered a child out of wedlock. Obviously God's choice to make America a moral nation again.

A second, recently-visible example is the Kentucky county clerk, Kim Davis, who refused to issue marriage licenses to gay couples. She believes that God gave her the right to make up the law for herself. But even more than this, she is a hypocrite. A thorough, complete hypocrite. She puts herself up as an example of morality, yet she has had four marriages. She gave birth to twins fathered by the man who was to become husband three five months (count on your fingers, folks) after divorcing husband one; they were adopted by husband two. She is on number four, and God knows how many more husbands He has planned out for her. She claims to have repented, but she still puts herself up as an example of morality. (Should we forget all about her past, because she has repented? Republicans would not allow any Democrat to be forgiven. As a matter of fact, in the case of President Obama, they invent sins to accuse him of.)

Republicans consider themselves exempted from whatever moral standards they think God expects the rest of us to follow. This means that they can and perhaps will do anything, anything at all. Combine this with the fact that they think God wants them to possess as many semiautomatic weapons and other firearms as possible, and you get a scenario of total chaos. I hope I am wrong about this, but it is best to prepare oneself mentally and not be taken totally by surprise should the worst possibility come to pass.