Identifying the superlative in an arena can be difficult. But one editor-in-chief believes he has done something akin to locating the most troublesome mosquito in the Okefenokee Swamp: identifying Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s “dumbest tweet ever.”
American Thinker top dog Thomas Lifson opens mentioning that the New York congresswoman’s real problem isn’t that she’s, let’s say, intellectually wanting, but that she epitomizes the Dunning-Kruger effect (i.e., she’s a low ability person who overestimates herself). He also mentions that this phenomenon’s cause, pridefulness, leads to self-destruction as “pride goeth before a fall.” Yet so far, says Lifson, Ocasio-Cortez has avoided such a collapse mainly because she hasn’t had much access to levers of power.
A good example of her “stepping in it” occurred Wednesday, when the representative for parts of the Bronx and Queens issued a tweet (below) that surely sounded good to her ears but that completely undermined the Left’s cherished affirmative action and other racial preferences.
This was oh-so tempting low-hanging fruit, a 35-mile-per-hour pitch right over plate — and the Twitterverse happily stepped up to bat. Lifson presents a series of the snarky responses, which he found via Twitchy:
Then there’s the below, of which Lifson is especially fond.
Now, again, Ocasio-Cortez is well known for suffering from foot-in-mouth syndrome, having made statements such as “unemployment is only low because everyone has two jobs” and “let’s flip this seat red!” (Was the latter a Freudian slip? Red was always the color of communism, after all.) Yet whether or not writing her off as stupid does her justice, it certainly doesn’t do the phenomenon in question justice.
It’s human nature to often dismiss those one disagrees with as dumb. In reality, though, Ocasio-Cortez is likely a person of at least average intelligence; she’s also comfortable in front of a camera and glib, which accounts for her political success. The real problem with the world’s Ocasio-Cortezes concerns the aforementioned lack of humility (and, related to this, self-knowledge) and application.
G.K. Chesterton, whom I often quote (some would say too much), was once called a “complete thinker.” What this means is that however smart the portly prince of profundity was, and he was brilliant, he also in his mind sifted matters to the very bottom. Such a person is his own toughest debate opponent, attacking his own arguments from every angle so as to find any holes and then filling those holes — with Truth.
This is, of course, the polar opposite of just embracing what feels right. The latter is easy, but doesn’t yield correctness (just political correctness). As professor and commentator Thomas Sowell put it, “It doesn’t matter how smart you are if you don’t think.”
Impediments to Thought
Yet there are prerequisites for complete thought. One can be introduced thus: A person won’t exhaustively search the cold depths for a great treasure, following the locational clues, if he doesn’t believe it exists. Oh, if he assumes there’s no treasure to be found but still likes traveling, he may wander using his feelings (what piques his interest) as the only itinerary guide. But he’ll be unlikely to discover what he’s not looking for — especially if he finds those dark, cold depths scary.
So it is with that greatest of treasures called Truth. It’s unlikely we’ll find it if we don’t search for it; it’s also unlikely we’ll search for it if we, having fallen victim to relativism, don’t believe it exists.
Yet being a complete thinker requires we search thoroughly, sincerely, boldly; we must be willing to look even at what’s scary, willing to turn over intellectual rocks hiding truths that topple our cherished ideas. This requires humility because we may have to accept that a half a lifetime (or more) of assumptions are wrong. It also requires courage and strength because we may have to accept the collapse of our whole world (view) and adopt a new one.
Moreover, as soon as we prioritize anything over Truth — if our love for the latter is exceeded by our lust for something else — we’ll rationalize away Truth that conflicts with our true passion; we won’t turn over that inconvenient rock. Of course, the false god worshipped could be many things: sex, pleasure in general, false ideology or faith, exercise of hatred, money, or fame — or power.
This phenomenon is precisely why even extremely smart people can zealously glom onto extremely stupid ideas (Friedrich Nietzsche comes to mind). It also explains countless more moderately endowed individuals who fancy themselves smarter than they are but, for lack of thinking, appear even less smart still.
