Because I have had an opportunity to observe "stupid on purpose" up close and personal. I have experienced people literally create false memories because it was more convenient to remember it the way they liked it. I have observed people refuse to learn simply because they refused to have someone else tell them what to do. Being told to not start a fire in the kitchen was telling them what to do so they chose to start a fire again.
Because I've learned better. They choose to be "gullible" because they like the answer.
OK, I guess I would have to agree with you that there is a certain element of choice involved in gullibly falling for moronic bullshit, like the dogmas of the denier cult, because the bullshit is what you prefer to believe for political and/or economic motives, but the underlying deep retardation most of the deniers display still seems to be, in most cases, congenital, and so, essentially choiceless.
It is a very difficult question, whether they are displaying a fundamental retardation, some characteristic of environmental influence, or simply the results of personal choice. It has been one of my long standing questions.
I have known people that were truly mentally retarded. And, the often show none of the attitudes of the intentionally stupid. Often, they understand that they are slow, try really hard not to be, and actually display character that is far more "intelligent" than the intentionally stupid.
How do we account for Donald Trump or Rush Limbaugh? They are not lacking in basic intelligence or education.
What is often true is high levels of adrenaline does cause some sort of targeted mental imparement. And I have noted that there seems to be a connection between an addiction to being hostile and these intentional stupid.
In the last decade, there have been a number of studies that highlight the definitive characteristics of these intentionally stupid, "anti-liberal", self identifying conservative or libertarian republicans.
What I see as the predominate characteristic is a sociopathy. The Republican/conservative-libertarian ideals is most attractive to sociopathic personalities. They choose to be ignorant because it yields them the justifications that they want to justify their sociopathic personality.
What I see, fundamentally, is an asymetery in their ideas and attitudes. They maintain ideas and attitudes for themselves that justifies their sociopathic behavior while expecting others to present behavior that is beneficial them. There is an asymetery in how they judge actions. When they do something, they have a good reason. If you do the exact same thing, it hurts their feeling. It should be fairly apparent in examining the likes of Donald Trump and Rush Limbaugh that morality suddenly become all important when it is applied to others behavior and in a way that benefits Trump and Rush. But, for some reason, it is completely ignored when the shoe is on the other foot.
I am sure you are right that that there tends to be a measurable tilt in the direction of stupidity as a group. But, in my best educated examination, this is secondary to the simpler fact of choice to be ignorant. The ignorance, the stupidity, though, seems to always fall on the side of the ideas that is in their favor.
It's almost as if there is a stupid pill and whenever the opportunity arises such that taking it will result in stupidity justifies what they want, they pop a couple of them.
And when it comes to ignorance, and I know you've seen it, somehow they manage to skirt away from stating their dozens of conflicting concepts in the same post. In fact, they often manage to avoid overtly stating the underlying bullshit assumptions that they make doing so would make it apparent exactly how dissingenuous they really are.
I just can't give them the benefit of what little doubt I may have had. The stupidity is to cleverly contrived.
