Thread by @jamisonfoser

Something that isn’t properly understood (particularly among journalists) is that The Right spent hundreds of millions of dollars and decades creating a facade of intellectualism and a key part of that was marketing nitwit partisans as “brilliant..”

https://twitter.com/sahilkapur/status/1321140797245251584

And a lot of journalists were active participants in this, both because they got suckered by dumb arguments and because praising the intelligence/seriousness of this right-wing faux intellectuals was a easy way to demonstrate their own seriousness and “objectivity”

See also: “Paul Ryan is a wonk”

It’s worth noting that the vast majority of these conservative “intellectuals,” like the decision-makers in the news media who helped brand them as such, are white guys.

Meanwhile, they called Sonia Sotomayor dumb.

Ayanna Pressley definitely knows what she’s talking about far more consistently than Paul Ryan, but she doesn’t get the “omg brilliant policy wonk” treatment by the mainstream media. 🤔🤔🤔

Anyway: it’s awful that Brett Kavanaugh is out here writing opinions riddled with factual errors that would get him a D- in 10th grade civics. People should be outraged. But not surprised. He’s a partisan hack and we’ve never had any real reason to think he’s particularly bright.

Has anyone checked in with Amy Chua or Akhil Reed Amar to get their reactions to Brett Kavanaugh’s error-filled assault on democracy?

I would genuinely be interested in reading the reactions of legal scholars who previously claimed Kavanaugh to be brilliant.