There’s a pretty good chance you’re already familiar with what has been termed the “Dunning Kruger Effect.” But for any who may not be, I’d like to outline it, as the concept is what I want to talk about today.
The Dunning-Kruger effect is that of someone of low information or intelligence assuming the exact opposite about themselves. They believe themselves to be smart, when their ignorance is generally obvious and painful to behold. They are smarter than you are. They are smarter than facts laid out in front of them. If they believe that a turd is a diamond, then of course a turd is a diamond, because they’re smarter than you and can plainly see that the blowflies are all over a shiny diamond. This is the short description, but it’s a fairly concise one, and it’s good enough for the discussion we’re about to have. I want to talk about WHY stupid people get the idea that they aren’t stupid. And in case after case after case, the WHY is plain as day to see.
Yep. Religion. Seldom do you find anyone in the US with D-K delusions that doesn’t immediately identify him or herself as a “Christian.” And really, if you think about it, D-K and Christianity were made for each other. Doesn’t their holy book tell them that it, and it alone, contains all the truths of the world? This book condones slavery, beating women, selling off your daughters, killing people who don’t believe as you do and enslaving their children… these are not concepts that most people of conscience can subscribe to. This book also claims that God spoke directly to people (up until history began to be documented), that the Earth is only 6,000 years old (in spite of many towns in Asia having clearly existed for longer than that), that a dude existed who walked on water and fed thousands by conjuring up food out of nowhere (take THAT, L. Ron Hubbard and your OT levels!) Oh, and perhaps most importantly, it gives you a free pass to be the nastiest form of scum you can be, as long as you settle up with a couple of prayers at the end of the week. The people who buy into this are convinced that they, and they alone, are the keepers of a truth that is going to launch them straight into heaven while the rest of us toil in a pit of fire, no matter how well we conducted ourselves in this lifetime. With this kind of indoctrination as your foundation, you are equipped to live your life with a Dunning-Kruger point of view. I would go so far as to say that the D-K effect should probably be called the “Religion Bias” applied to all areas of life.
This is why debating the Trump dead-enders, or trying to reason with them, is a waste of time. They are the chosen ones, the keepers of the only truth, and nothing that hear about in the “fake news” media is going to change that, any more than any archaeological finding will make them rethink their notions about the age of the human world. To try to reach them is pointless, as they aren’t going to change the way they do things. Sanders, as just one example, couldn’t be more wrong when he says that we should be doing more to reach out to Trump voters. No, they are by and large a lost cause. If you want to defeat D-K and what it’s doing to this society, there is only one way to go. The 50% of us who never participate in elections must be brought in. Real-world truth, and what it means for us all, is undoubtedly going to fly further with them than it ever will with those who get their assurances from a book written by racist, misogynist goatherders thousands of years ago.