This came up in an atheist subreddit recently, where people were asking what’s stopping the world in general and humanity in particular from improving and my answer, as should be no surprise, is “stupid people”. It’s certainly more nuanced than that short answer, but I noticed that it was a pretty common answer to the thread.

Except a lot of those responding seem to be missing a very obvious problem: that it’s more than just the religious who suffer from this particular affliction. So let’s  look at it.As should be no surprise, there were numerous posters, primarily on the political left, who wanted to turn this into a political diatribe, and to some degree, they are correct. Politics, like religion, often results in purely emotional, non-intellectual maneuvers that are not in anyone’s best interest. Yet they could only see this on the political right and never on their own side. Many people are blinded by ideology and that’s not doing the world any favors. When Trump pandered to the religious right, that was a terrible thing and I’ll even agree with that, but when Biden panders to the far left, that’s just as bad and they just can’t see it.

Yes, there is a cult of personality that grew up around Trump and that is, as any rational person should recognize, stupid. Yet the same thing springs up around those on the left and these very same people who recognize it about Trump, they are completely ignorant about it when it comes to those in their own camp. Why? Because these people are suffering from an emotional form of  delusion that insists they mindlessly back anyone on their side of the aisle and attack anyone on the other. This is a problem that a lot of people suffer from, but no one wants to point fingers at themselves. It’s what has led to violence between various religious groups, like the Catholics vs. the Protestants or the Sunnis vs. the Shities, but it also leads to in-fighting between different groups in politics. Whether anyone likes it or not, there are no double standards. If it’s wrong for one, it’s wrong for all. But many people are too dumb or too brainwashed to recognize when they are in the wrong.

And that’s really where the stupidity comes in. Far too many people, even a majority, think that just because a position makes them happy, it must be objectively correct. Some can even see it when it happens on the other side, but virtually never when it comes to their own personal ideology. They can recognize the problems in others, but rarely in themselves. This also came up in the discussion and I thought it was important to point out that, for the religious, faith is all, but only their faith, never the faith of others. All other religions are wrong and they are right, even though they all are doing essentially the same thing. But this is not just a religious problem. It occurs in many areas of life.

But try getting people who are engaged in it to agree and you’re just asking for trouble. Because these people have some mental blocks and most of that is the over-reliance on emotion and a lack of critical thinking skills. In other words, they’re kind of dumb. Your feelings have zero impact on objective reality. Now there’s nothing wrong with having emotions and they are perfectly fine at the right time and place. Yet for far too many people, they cannot identify where emotions are applicable and where they are not. It keeps them from making rational decisions and that’s really what’s screwing up the planet today in my opinion. Reacting and not thinking. Believing and not reasoning. This kind of thing needs to stop.

A lot of them will claim that’s just how they are. They’re just super-emotional and that’s just fine and dandy. Absolutely nothing has to change, but they’re wrong. Yes, they can be naturally predisposed to being overly-emotional but that doesn’t change the obligation to deal with reality in a mature, intelligent way. Yet even those who are out there, claiming to be operating rationally, I find them time and time again sinking into an emotional reaction when it serves their purposes and pretending that their feelings somehow make them correct. That’s not how it works. Someone might be naturally predisposed to be attracted to young children, that doesn’t mean we don’t hold them accountable not to act on those predispositions. Your biological makeup isn’t an excuse to act like an idiot. We’ve unfortunately reached a point in our societal evolution where facts are no longer important if they get in the way of emotions. We’re no longer allowed to criticize those who are holding factually incorrect ideas because feelings now mean more than reality.

That’s just wrong. People should be criticized for acting like idiots. It’s why we need uniform standards of behavior. Yet today, with social media, people just act like they want to act and so long as they can find a select group of other idiots to follow them around and sing their praises, they get undeserved influence and that’s where the problems begin.

So please, everyone, just grow up. That goes for the religious and the non-religious alike. It goes for the left and for the right. No one is immune. If you’re just wearing your emotions on your sleeve, you need to stop. Recognize that you are wrong. Save it for an appropriate time. Rent a fucking clue. Because the farther we go down this road, the worse things will get. It’s bad enough already. Time to make a rational change.