"Stupid Is As Stupid Does": Forest Gump

My Liberal Brother-in-Law is not Stupid, But . . .

Both my brother -in-law and his wife have PhDs in either Education Technology or Academic Administration. However, you may feel about those specific degrees, these are not stupid people. Both have had careers in academia involving responsibility with accountability. Now retired from university life, they have a successful consulting practice, often working in Turkey and other counties in the Middle East. My sister-in-law has twice been a Fulbright Scholar. Not something an idiot can accomplish.

In family gatherings we avoid direct discussion of politics to keep things civil in deference to my 97-year-old mother-in-law. I am OK with that. Yet in general conversation it is often obvious that neither one of them really understand how The Constitution molds how the USA is set up.

They praise how trains and other forms of public mass transit make life convenient in Europe and other places. They feel that a strong central government should force construction of high speed passenger train network across the US. Discussions of population density or flexibility of travel are brushed aside as are any examination of taxation, jurisdiction, and eminent domain issues.

I once noted that the state of Texas itself is as large as France. Texsas is also as large as all of Spain. I noted that a very large proportion of the US population live East of the Mississippi with density increasing East of the Appalachian ranges. In comparison, virtually no one lives between the Mississippi=Missouri river complex and the West Coast relatively speaking. This too was brushed aside in the context of high speed trains.

My private observation is that their travel is often sponsored through a grant or on an expense arrangement. Additionally, it is my view that private expenditures for travel are also sponsored in a sense, as they will get or have just received a significant fee. Perhaps naively, I suspect that there is some tax provision for business expenses too.Sure, it is easy to hop onto a high-speed train for a day trip (a round trip) if money is no concern. The locals in those countries cannot do that.

Telling remarks often cropped up in casual conversation though. My brother-in-law was impressed that in Turkey, some town will be struggling economically due to changing times. In these cases, the Turkish government will step in with some light industry, often it is manufacturing tourist-oriented consumer products . . .and that is what the locals must do. This is fully supported and admired by my brother-in-law.

In another chat he wished that the USA had a "genuine Ministry of Education" to keep "the crazies" out of local school boards and ensure uniformity of standards and curriculum. I refrained from pointing out tht there is a cabinet level Department of Education that reports directly to the President. What he meant was that State. local authorities and parents should have little or no control of education

They both really want central control of every aspect of society. They have no concept of The Constitution as a basic tripartite framework that molds our national government.

They have a family business as consultants. They are not wild-eyed socialists . . .but they seemingly are oblivious to their socialist attitudes and beliefs or how the progressive agenda is bringing ruin to our society and nation.

I'd be interested in their side, directly, rather than through your lens.

First let me say yes, you brother-in-law and sister-in-law are in fact stupid. They are credentialed certainly and they are not ignorant. But they are stupid. They can look at a problem and not see the obvious because they've been indoctrinated not to. There are many people like that out in the world. Sounds like they are also have a narcissist streak. They know better then everyone else (and why shouldn't they think that? look at all their credentials)

Do they have kids? That's usually the dividing line between stupid and everyone else. When you have a little girl or boy whose future depends on you, most people sober up about their ridiculous beliefs that the government can do anything better. It can't. It truly only does a few things well at scale and our Founders understood that/. It must be restrained, at all turns from increasing in power and scope. I don't want the government teaching my kids that men wearing dresses and cutting their dicks off is anything but a mental disorder for example.

They think man is perfectable when in fact he is flawed and PRONE to mistakes. They ignore this and assume all of us together is smarter or has more rights than one of us. It's not an illogical thought, but it's one that 15 minutes in the real world should disabuse people of.

No, they're not smart people. They are in fact stupid sheep. They maybe the stupid sheep with the best wool, but they are still stupid sheep.

There is nothing wrong with how they view things, ICU. I am sure they think you are odd for supporting Trump. It's all relative. As long as they are good people, that's all that should matter to you IMO when it comes to fam, so political views be damned.

I'd be interested in their side, directly, rather than through your lens. Originally Posted by HDGristle

Can't help you there. Neither one would ever participate in any forum on this board.

What I will say is that they are basically good people. Parents of an independent adult son who is effective and successful in his field. They are doting grandparents of two great grandkids.

Respect and cordiality go both ways in our family.

Their world view is and has been molded by careers in academia, culminating, for both of them, in tenured professorships. This means that they are recognized as authority figures. They ae accustomed to expounding on what is what and expecting that their view will be accepted as truth.

Respect clearly doesn’t go far when you're using them as examples in a hooker board political forum about... what exactly?