What Trump supporters can teach us about intelligence
In this context, when we think of them, we think of people who are and have always been known as unintelligent, uninformed and impressionable. But, there are some nuances to that.
If you ask people whose family members and/or friends fall for the movement, some would actually describe them as intelligent, which is why their support of Trump is a huge surprise.
For me, that teaches us a few things.
First, we should think twice about how we define intelligence and, unfortunately, many of us do so in a shallow manner. We think it is simply about doing well in schools and universities, being well-informed, being able to do mental calculations and even having successful careers; rarely we see it as our ability to think.
We rarely see intelligence as our ability to learn from the information we gather by trying to understanding how it applies to our life, in which it turns into knowledge that expands our horizons and using the expansiveness of said horizons to perceive topics from as many perspectives as possible, even ones we vehemently disagree with, which gives us the ability to form comprehensive conclusions, without falling the pressure of fence-sitting, conformity and contrarianism, and to change said conclusions when the horizons expand even further.
Because it is somewhat complex and abstract to appreciate quickly and easily, such perception of intelligence is not as sexy. But, it is certainly a lot less shallow, as it compels us think twice before worshiping certain individuals as “geniuses”.
What if a truly intelligent person still support Trump? How can that be, some of you wonder. Well, here’s the thing: intelligent people are also human beings.
And do you know what humans do? We make mistakes. No matter how reasonable and knowledgeable we are, we still can have lapses of judgement, which includes falling for the most obvious empty rhetoric and the most obvious lies. None of us are entirely immune to cultism. Our intelligence has a limit.
But, there is a belief which irks me and it is frustrating how it is not talked about more often: intelligence and morality are the same thing.
Here’s a admittedly patchy analogy: just because you know how to build a robot or concoct drugs, that does not mean you will do it. Likewise, just because you can have discussions about morality from various schools of philosophical thoughts, just because you can discern what is good and bad for your fellow human beings, that does not mean you will do what is right for them; whether it is bystander effect, selfishness, or any reasons I cannot think of, there is no 100% guarantee you will do it.
Morality is not simply about having a “moral” belief, it is about putting it into practice.
Unless you can give me links to multiple peer-reviewed studies which show otherwise, I refuse to believe intelligence and morality are the same thing. In fact, the more I interact with my fellow human beings, the more I am convinced of the lack of correlation; I have encountered too many immoral yet intelligent people and kindhearted yet stupid ones.
So, even if those Trump supporters are indeed geniuses, I don’t see how it makes them any less hateful and violent towards their fellow human beings.
If anything, I would argue correlating intelligence with morality is harmful, as it compels us to undermine bigots and extremists’ intellectual capability to fulfill their dangerous agendas.
My point is you have to rethink how you perceive intelligence.
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