Thread by @KrisAtLarge

*bigotry* is a subject that right-wing (and "independent") bigots—@NateSilver538, @DavidAFrench, @DKThomp, whoever, there's so many of these clowns—have attempted to keep as confused as possible. they want to pretend "bigot" is merely a slur, not a meaningful word.

(1/x)

but as I've pointed out before, bigotry is really just overdeveloped snobbery. the snob—the person who has very definite ideas about their personal superiority, and the superiority of their own intellect and tastes and everything else—is already showing "bigoted" behavior.

(2/x)

just as one may exhibit abusive behaviors from time to time without necessarily being "an abuser" (i.e. someone whose whole personality is abusive behavior), a snobbish person may say bigoted things without necessarily being "a bigot", i.e. someone who does nothing else.

(3/x)

a dedicated bigot—@NateSilver538, @elonmusk, whoever—has gone the whole length with their snobbery; they think that God or "genes" or some other powerful cosmic force *guarantees* they they are, in fact, superior and correct about everything, all the time, without doubts.

(4/x)

and thus bigots like @NateSilver538 and @mtaibbi tend to get very far in Western society, which places such a high priority on boundless egotism and confidence in oneself. bigots feel like they've got the ultimate reason to be confident: they're "intrinsically superior".

(5/x)

once you're saturated with bigotry, it pervades literally every aspect of your behavior—all of @NateSilver538's interactions with others, all his preferences and tastes, all his opinions, all his personal politics and ideologies, are manifestations of bigotry in some way.

(6/x)

why does @NateSilver538 (or @jonathanchait or @DavidAFrench or any other bigot) eat certain foods, avoid certain music, talk about certain pet political issues? bigotry. these are people who habitually do things in order to demonstrate their superiority over others.

(7/x)

@NateSilver538 thinks he's "intrinsically superior" to anyone who chooses their own pronouns—his reasons are stupid and illogical but that doesn't matter. he's already better than the "pronoun people", in his head. they're "dumb" and "moronic", he's a math genius. etc.

(8/x)

it's easy to see why people like @NateSilver538 and @mattyglesias have strayed towards "race science" of the @charlesmurray / @EPoe187 / @SwipeWright sort: they need to do SOMETHING to "prove" that they're the geniuses they think they are. so they look to magic "genes".

(9/x)

"I have super special 'Anglo-Saxon' intelligence genes" isn't a winning argument to anything, but @NateSilver538 and @mtaibbi and other racists really want to THINK that. these are people with fundamentally magical thinking about science and especially about biology.

(10/x)

the Evolution Fairy™ has waved a magic wand over @NateSilver538 and @DKThomp and the rest of them, and that's why they're the smartest people in the Cosmos—the mere fact that they can think in such a way about "evolution" shows how little they understand biology.

(11/x)

it's fairly easy to guess why @NateSilver538 &c. have developed such puerile ideas about science and biology and evolution in particular: these are shallow and superficial and "fun" loving people (right, @jonathanchait?) and they've learned "science" from entertainment.

(12/x)

@NateSilver538 &c. have a @neiltyson / @TEDTalks grasp of "science"—i.e. they've consumed a lot of superficial, badly written, intellectually incoherent, *memetic* content mentioning scientific ideas, and they think that's *enough*. remember, these people aren't educated.

(13/x)

this is the environment in which @bindelj / @Docstockk penis ideology has been able to flourish: a media culture stuffed to bursting with shallow and ignorant people like @NateSilver538 and @jonathanchait, scientifically illiterate people easily deceived by big words.

(14/x)

and of course the @GOP, which has always been *radioactive* with hatred of knowledge and education—for they're a party of Christian bigots like @DavidAFrench and @MattWalshBlog—has latched on hard to penis-policing ideology. it fits their antintellectual spirit very well.

(15/x)

the very idea that *biology* is something that Saint @RonDeSantisFL ought to be enforcing at gunpoint—i.e. the @MattWalshBlog / @DavidAFrench / #conservative goal for the United States—is ludicrous. that is not how "biology" works. it's pure Christian fanaticism.

(16/x)

it feels like the inevitable end result of right-wing Christian ideology that's been dedicated to destroying science for many decades now. what started with an attempt to erase evolution and global-warming is now ending with trying to police human sexuality and gender.

(17/x)

@DavidAFrench and @MattWalshBlog and all the other Christian fascısts have been trying to destroy American democracy and American science for a long long time. they have never varied from this goal; it's part of their personal faith, and they're proud of clinging to it.

(18/x)

and now we're paying the price. the Christians are making their last desperate push to destroy democracy in the west. @RonDeSantisFL is just the most obvious example of what Christians like @MattWalshBlog and @RepMTG want for America: fascıst dictatorship.

~Chara of Pnictogen