Stupid is not Ignorant
by Jay Johnson
The Amazon Rain Forest is burning out of control. Smoke from the Amazon fires is turning day to night in cities 1000 miles away. Most of the fires were set deliberately to clear pastures for cattle. The easiest way to clear a Forrest to make a pasture is to set it on fire. For the last 30 years the Amazon has lost an average of 31,000 square miles a year from deforestation for ranch land, to raise beef.
The tropical Forest that supplies 20% of the worlds oxygen is now producing Co2 , the gas that causes climate change. But why would you want to set the lungs of the world on fire? Money. Money can be made from beef and no money can be made from the oxygen the Rain Forest produces. The current president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, is a climate change denier who says he will not preserve nor protect a centimeter of Rain Forrest. He says that Brazilians have the right to make all the money they want from their own land, and now refused the offer of money from the G7 to help battle the out of control fire.
When I think about Bolsonaro’s policy toward this Global problem I say to myself, “How Stupid.” When I see climate denier, Trump rolling back EPA rules and relaxing mining and drilling standards on protected lands in this country, I think the same thing… “Stupid.” After much more thought I do not believe these men are Stupid. They are much more dangerous than just being stupid…. they are IGNORANT.
Being a wordsmith, adjectives and labels are very important, especially describing people of power. Stupid is having or showing a great lack of intelligence or common sense. Intelligence is not the issue. In fact our President is a self proclaimed genius.
Trump supporters believe, arguably, that he is a rich man because of “some sort of” intelligence. This is not an essay on the IQ of Trump or Bolsonaro nor a question of either man’s sanity. I believe both to be much more dangerous because they are Ignorant. The word “ignorant” is an adjective that describes a person in the state of being unaware, and can describe individuals who deliberately ignore or disregard important information or facts.
Ignorance and Ignorant come from the root word “ignore”.
Ignorance then is not so much a description of knowledge or intelligence but a quality of awareness and acceptance. Facts are facts, and scientific facts are things that can be proven true time after time. You take water and heat it up enough it will turn to steam and eventually disappear. Fact… you can prove it at home on your own stove. The fact that humans are contributing to the climate change of our planet by dumping poison into the atmosphere is scientific fact. These studies and facts are all almost general knowledge. An uneducated person may not be aware of these facts, as would be the case if one was stupid. However, to know the facts, and dismiss them or IGNORE them is IGNORANCE. Both Trump and Bolsonaro know the facts, but they ignore the facts that are not good for them.
I would suspect that Bolsonaro is very much like Trump. He was supported and endorsed by Steve Bannon. I do not know the depth of his ignorance, but it runs very deep in the orange clad brain of Donald Trump. Trump is ignorant to any truth, that he is not the best-ever, the brightest and most successful.Trump ignores his oath as president. Trump ignores any compassion for those not “loyal” and praising him and those who do not agree with him.
Trump ignores climate change. Trump ignores the fact that his words have any affect on the rest of the country while claiming all good comes from what he is doing. Trump ignores and rejects any fact that the world is not the oyster of rich white men. Trump simply ignores the truth about anything that does not support his selfishness.
Trump supporters are not stupid either. They know Trump is a liar, a cheater and a vulgar racist but they IGNORE those facts because the economy is good? They are like the Brazilian cattle ranchers, as long as I make money… the hell with the world’s oxygen supply. IGNORANCE.
So let’s be fair. Donald Trump is not the Stupidest President we have ever had…. He IS however the most IGNORANT President we have ever had and that is so much more dangerous.
As you were,
Jay
Jay Johnson is a ventriloquist and actor, best known for his role on the television show Soap. He played Chuck Campbell, a ventriloquist who believed his puppet Bob was real and demanded everyone treat Bob as human. He has also appeared extensively on television as a ventriloquist, actor and celebrity guest on game shows .He hosted two series of his own, So You Think You Got Troubles (1983) and Celebrity Charades (1979).
Jay Johnson: The Two & Only! written and performed by Jay Johnson, opened on Broadway to rave reviews at the Helen Hayes Theatre on September 28, 2006. The show earlier had an acclaimed off-Broadway runs in New York and was also performed in Cambridge, MA, and in Los Angeles. The Massachusetts performance garnered the New England Critics Award, and in Los Angeles Johnson received the 2006 Ovation Award for Best Solo Performance. Jay Johnson: The Two & Only! deconstructs and demonstrates Johnson’s lifelong obsession with the art of ventriloquism. The show is a Valentine, not only to the art, but also to his mentor and friend Arthur Sieving, who created Johnson’s first professional puppet. The show is aided and abetted by a cast of ventriloquated characters, including his Soap alter ego, Bob. Johnson won the 2007 Tony Award for Best Special Theatrical Event for the show. He is the only ventriloquist to ever be nominated and win an American Theatre Wing Tony Award or an Ovation Award. The show is available on DVD HERE. This article is from his blog The World is a Stage. He also has a lot of videos on You Tube.
SLIDESHOWS via Getty Images
Featured page image: photo credit: europeanspaceagency Wildfires in Brazil from Copernicus Sentinel-3 via photopin (license)
