re: #8 HappyWarrior

I still contend he wasn’t as smart as he thought he was but as you said, so much what he did was rationalizing whether that was Jim Crow, Apartheid, or right wing authoritarianism.

I’ve known people who are unquestionably very smart, but have blind spots where their brain stops reasoning, and goes for rationalization instead. At that point they can make up arguments that sound really good at first hearing but which rationally are pure nonsense, but because they NEED TO believe them, they can’t hear the bullshit they’re spewing.