Frank Schaeffer on the village idiot

In his article, "How to talk to complete idiots" (see below), Morford includes a link to this interview of Frank Schaeffer by Rachel Maddow (included in this post for your convenience). Schaeffer is author of Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back. To summarize, Schaeffer states that the rest of us cannot "reorganize village life to suit the village idiot." The village idiots, according to Schaeffer, are fundamentalist Christians who constitute a "fifth column of insanity" in our culture. Such persons are bred to "reject facts as a matter of faith." This "evangelical subculture" has "rotted the brain" of the United States. Schaeffer is not attacking Christians as a whole; indeed, he describes himself as a church-going Christian.

How to talk to complete idiots

Read Mark Morford's skillfully written article, "How to talk to complete idiots," here.

Morford considers three options. He concludes, "The absolute best way to speak to complete idiots is, of course, not to speak to them at all."

Morford's conclusion dovetails with Farhad Manjoo's advice: if you want to kill the rumors about the death panels, stop talking about them. Read about it here.

According to Manjoo, the idiot's mythology about death panels or Barack Obama's birthplace or what have you gains currency even when it's being debunked.

Refuse to engage the idiot, and not only do you protect your own sanity, you avoid becoming unknowingly complicit in proliferating their particular idiocy.

Idiots refuse to play by the rules of rational, informed debate. So screw 'em.