Scalia was cruel and nasty, but had a genius for picking apart arguments he disliked. Thomas’ particular skill is grifting his way through power, but at least his legal philosophy is batshit crazy. Alito is stupid, cruel, and crazy in a deeply boring “let’s take Truth Social away from grandpa” way.
I feel like we need a word to describe smart stupid people. The ones who are intelligent, its just they use that intelligence to rationalize believing stupider and stupider things.
Nixon famously nominated a dull blade for SCOTUS, G. Harrold Carswell. Known as an intellectual lightweight, his nomination was defended thusly:
“Even if he were mediocre, there are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers. They are entitled to a little representation, aren’t they?"
I think people like me who do not have law degrees assume lawyers must be smart but I’ve met a few who are complete dunces so I guess it must not be that hard?
You know he and Martha-Ann sit in the living room every evening, drinking wine and showing each other batshit right wing memes on Facebook until they're frothing at the mouth
there’s a popular assumption that even if these guys are cruel and reactionary, they are analytically intelligent enough that they aren’t gonna fall for Q Anon level bullshit. wrong! they’re stupid in very regular ways!
