This is the dumbest time in history. Sure, there have been periods where mankind as a whole was far more hopelessly stupid than we are now: like when we burned witches in Salem, Massachusetts in the not too distant past. However, our hyper-intelligent modern era has brought on a new dynamic: the willfully stupid. These are people who know better, but don’t care, and either choose to believe stupid things, or are so consumed by their own grievance that they don’t even exist in our shared reality. Bill O’Reilly is the vanguard for this era, as he embodies both of our primary models of willful stupidity. Per O’Reilly last night on his web series, “No Spin News:”
“You know, am I mad at God? Yeah, I’m mad at him. I wish I had more protection. I wish this stuff didn’t happen. I can’t explain it to you. Yeah, I’m mad at him.”
O’Reilly’s comments came in response to yet another report of sexual harassment while he worked at Fox News. The New York Times reported that O’Reilly paid out a whopping $32 million to settle new sexual harassment allegations by a longtime Fox News analyst. In response, O’Reilly blamed God, because everyone knows the only way to get in to heaven is to violate someone else’s humanity, then blame your own transgressions on the deity responsible for the afterlife.
Jacob Weindling is a staff writer for Paste politics. Follow him on Twitter at @Jakeweindling.