You Can’t Cure Stupid

There are too many stupid things going on in this country right now. Finding one of them to write about is kind of like shooting fish in a barrel. Way too easy, if you ask me. And it’s a shame.

The one that’s sticking out in my mind right now is the person who decided to pick up a flash-bang that was thrown at them, known right now as Luna von Woke. According to a few sources, the video is fake, but it certainly passed my muster. Others have said the video is real, but the GoFundMe for help to get prosthetics is fake (MEAWW). Regardless, it isn’t the first time someone on the Left has picked up a flash bang, so I’m going to assume this is real.

Now, picking it up at all was stupid, and I could leave it at that. If someone tosses a flash-bang my way, I’m going THATAWAY… any way that’s away from where it is, quick as I can. While they don’t explode in the same way a grenade explodes, they do go boom.

This woman, in the video, looks at the flash bang, then goes running with it in her hand. She doesn’t throw it back. She doesn’t drop it. She doesn’t toss it in a safe direction. She just holds it in her hand until it goes bang. At that point, she hits the deck, writhing and screaming as one would assume would happen when one’s fingers went in two different directions at high speed. Frankly, the fact that it WAS a flash bang might have saved the rest of her hand, as the intense heat of the magnesium probably cauterized the wounds. Still, I’m sure it hurt.

I’m finding it difficult to scavenge up any real sympathy for Ms von Woke. Her ability to think critically isn’t likely to get better, so while I feel bad when anyone gets hurt, that’s about the extent of it. The ouch she’s feeling isn’t likely to teach her not to do it again.

This is literally what happens when we don’t let our children play outside, burn themselves in controlled ways on “warm but not terminally hot” stoves, and use knives early in life. They don’t learn that actions have consequences. It’s just… well, stupid.

And as the title suggests, you can’t cure this kind of stupid. Anyone who actually has the power to think this stuff through is already in the process of doing so. They’re already not going to pick up an exploding thing and run with it, anymore than they’re going to run with scissors or not pay their mortgage. They know there are consequences.

The scary part is, there are more and more people every year who simply do not “get” why bad things happen to them. They don’t know why they get sick (after not washing dishes appropriately), don’t know why people don’t want to be around them (after not showering for days on end and/or not washing their clothing effectively), don’t understand why they aren’t getting hired for jobs (when they show up with facial tattoos and piercings, or show up late and act in a disrespectful manner). They truly seem to expect things to just be handed to them on a silver platter. When you try to help them understand, they get barely into it and give up. They just don’t care. They KNOW that if they just keep doing what they’re doing, someone will take care of them. They know that because it’s what has always happened. And they’re right.

When I was on the dole, it was embarrassing.  I was ashamed, and I hated it, but I did it because I needed to feed my kid and that was more important than my pride. No one “made me” feel that way… it was a natural reaction to being on welfare and having to get food at the food bank. Today, we seem to be expected to worry about how a parent is going to feel while getting food for their kid at a food bank or from SNAP. Frankly, I don’t really care. I don’t want them insulted, of course, because there’s no reason to do so and it’s just morally wrong. But I see no reason to go out of my way to make it less embarrassing. Why? Because that feeling of shame was highly motivating. I wanted to get a job (or at one point, a BETTER job) so that I didn’t have to do the embarrassing thing anymore. And I did.

I wasn’t harmed by being ashamed. My child and I had food. We had shelter. We had heat, and water. Our needs were adequately met, and then some. After I got off the dole, a number of years later, I went back and helped out. Even today, some 30 years past that horrible time, I still do volunteer work every year. Why? Because people helped me, and so I help others. Even in the face of the disgraceful unrepentant asses that come thru the door today. There might be one “me” in the mix, and that’s enough to motivate me to keep helping.

But I’m not interested in making it easier. Easier leads to unemployed people taking to the street to protest FOR fascism, rapists, and criminals. I don’t want it to be easier. I want it to be a slap in the face, to wake people up and get them moving.

If we can end the various waste caused by the people who are terminally stupid (be those people in the citizenry or the government), maybe we can start some programs that actually help people who are truly needy to get into a better place. When I read Hillbilly Elegy, I felt inspired. If our VP can lift himself up through hard work and determination, then so can anyone else. It ain’t easy. If it’s easy, you’re doing it wrong.