The Stupid and the Evil

People are stupid.

This isn’t exactly a news flash (as recent school board proceedings across the country will readily demonstrate), but it certainly bears repeating. And Virginia — inspired by the fact that stupidity is “in” this year decade — has decided to jump on the bandwagon by pushing a state Constitutional amendment explicitly denying legal rights to same-sex couples.

It’s stupid — or at least ignorant — enough to make such bans a matter of law. But to actually write such discrimination into the very fabric of government is bringing that stupidity down to full-blown mouth-breather level.

Of course, there are those who would argue that not everyone pushing for this amendment is a room-temperature-IQ idiot, and I’ll readily agree. There is another faction favoring this amendment: the out-and-out evil. Those who actually understand that the only practical result of such an amendment (since such unions are already illegal) is to enshrine discrimination into the Constitution, to almost irrevocably deny citizens the rights conferred to others. Those who fully comprehend that passage of this amendment will have absolutely no effect on the lives of its citizens other than to shout out loud that we hate people who are different. After all, all the morons have to do is vote for this measure — somebody with half a brain actually has to craft it, to cynically exploit people’s ignorance for their own benefit. Since, really, the whole brouhaha’s all about getting the garden slugs to come out and vote Republican. Civil rights be damned — after all, for the most part, gay people don’t vote G.O.P. anyway. Screw them. The Republican party doesn’t give a rat’s ass for anybody except their hardcore base.

As for those who aren’t quite so opportunistic, who actually believe (or, more accurately, profess to believe) that this amendment is worthy in its own right, there’s another motivation altogether. It’s a sort of hedge against the notion that people might not always be quite as stupid as they are now. Sure, they’re happy to say they hate gay people now, but what happens in ten years, when they realize — just as happened with racial minorities 40 years ago — that people actually deserve equal protection under the law? They might actually — gasp — decide that bigotry is bad, and change their minds. Can’t have that now, can we? Gotta keep those uppity fags in their place, now and forever.

That is evil. Hands-down. No waffling, no compromise, no equivocation.

The fact that people are stupid isn’t about to change. And insofar as their stupidity actually affects those of us who can fire the occasional synapse, I’ll continue to mock and belittle them to the end of time. But for the most part, people can’t really help being dumb. But those who aren’t so stupid? They’ll get no quarter from me.

So to those of you who favor this amendment, you’ve got to pick one. Which are you? Just plain stupid, or outright evil?