As IF Times

Just recently, Gavin Newsom, a presumptive candidate for President, stated in front of a crowd of a predominantly black audience in Georgia that he too was a poor student.  “I am like you, I’m a 960 SAT guy, I can’t read”.

One, it’s bald faced pandering at best and two, an incredible insult to the audience at worst.  All of sudden, other Democrats such as Bernie Sanders have also stated that they can’t find their birth certificates and he would be denied the right to vote if new voting laws were enforced.

This may explain a lot of the constituency of the Democratic Party and their historical record of pushing the most low IQ legislation while in office.  Let’s take Newsom at his word that he’s illiterate and functioning at a suboptimal intellectual level. Why would that make him suitable to run a nation? When you consider the bench of the Democrats; the various bar tenders, illegal immigrants, social workers, DEI appointments and those that have never held a job outside of government, it’s a wonder that the nation still exists.  How could anyone with no real world experience, slick hair or not, be allowed to control the direction of the largest nation in the world?

What it tells you is that pandering to people low on intellectual fuel is a winning strategy. As the graphic above shows it’s a strategy that will continue to be reinforced in order to maintain a complaint electorate.

Contrast this to an exceptionally brilliant and driven personality such as Elon Musk.  This man is the Horatio Alger of our time. He came from nothing, got an education and began to pursue his vision. Not for self-aggrandizement, but for the future benefits to humanity. He failed numerous times, spent his own money on his adventures, not just OPM and continues to push the boundaries of human capability.  He is more than Alger, he is really the Copernicus of our time, pushing against accepted orthodoxy and laying the foundation for truly remarkable scientific pursuits by others.

And yet in the school systems, they are actually reducing the expected levels of achievement for students so as to not cause distress to those less capable.   While the top universities in the world are still populated by the big name US schools, the constituency of attendants are revealing.  At MIT for example, the graduating class of 2028 is expected to be 47% Asian, 37% White/Caucasian and 11% Hispanic.   Statistics also show that 11% are foreign students. With the competition so strong to get into such institutions, it’s a fair bet that students won’t get there by simply following the watered down education in their formative years.  So we can see that higher learning is still desirable at the top end schools.  But the vast majority of students who never make it to the Ivy league schools will be products of a watered down education…and hence malleable to convincing narratives.

Which is why it’s easier to understand the willingness of the general public to bring into office, people who are demonstrably substandard in their abilities.  This can only be attributed to tribalism, a theme we’ve touched on before.  Tribalism seems to be a bigger pull for people than logic. We can see this on a national scale in the nation once known as Canada. Despite the conspicuous destruction of so many of their once honorable institutions, a large irrationally tribal contingent continue to support policies implemented by governments which are clearly self-destructive.  But as long as it’s not American, it’s good.

People like Elon Musk and Gavin Newsom represent the polar opposites in society.  One is driven by self-determination and by looking forward towards what humans can achieve and what could be, while the other exists by entitlement and looking to sell people what should be. Sadly, the education system is churning out way more followers than visionaries.

link:  https://www.nbcolympics.com/news/alysa-liu-champion-who-cant-stop-smiling

Image from Getty Images NBC

That people are tribal is not a new revelation; it’s a basic human condition which exists in our DNA for reasons likely linked originally to survival.  We can probably accept that when people were running around in loincloths and bearskins, it was a good idea to side with the people that looked like you and behaved similarly. It provided some degree of safety to be part of a supportive group in an otherwise hostile environment.  You identified with your group.  We all know of the mythic rivalry between the Hatfields and the McCoys, two rival Appalachian  families who feuded for decades just because their names were different.  The families of Romeo and Juliet; same thing.
On a much larger scale, we have always had divisions of populations based on such identifiers as religions, on ethnicity and race,  on regions and nations and also based on ideology. History shows that the consequences of belonging and identifying with one group over another one can be serious and even fatal.   Lots of wars have been fought based on the disputes both between and amongst such factions.

In today’s slightly more civilized world, these tribal instincts are manifest in less consequential but no less heated loyalties.  Much of these tribal urges are now focused on sports. We all know of the rabid fans in the soccer world during the World Cup when national pride is contested on the soccer pitch.  The activities of a nation can come to halt if a given nation’s team is a contender.  Most recently, the huge commercial event known as the Super Bowl was held and partisan supporters of both teams displayed their fanatical devotion by paying exorbitant sums just to be present at the event and to buy and wear the partisan colors.  This despite the fact that the lives of fans would not be affected in any meaningful way at all, regardless if their teams won or lost.  It was just a tribal thing.

At the moment the 2026 Winter Olympics are being held in Italy and this is the proto-typical occasion to show tribal support for your people, which means for the most part, your country.  People identify with these athletes only because they represent their tribe. If their athletes succeed, there is the notion of reflected glory for the fans of the nation, that they too are part of that athlete’s success.  While it’s natural to root for your country, the feats of the athletes have little to do with their nations.  It’s the result of years of dedicated effort to reach their level of competence. With that said, there can be no greater glory than to stand on the medal podium with your nation’s national anthem playing for everyone.  When the American women’s hockey team won their gold medal, they all collectively stood and sang their national anthem. On the other hand, you could see the heartbreak in the faces of the Canadian team who came up short.  It wasn’t just the loss, it was a loss for their nation. People vicariously live through these athletes representing their national pride.   Nationalism and patriotism is still a strong binding tie for most populations which is why we witness so much backlash against the talented skier Eileen Gu who elected to compete for China instead of her native United States.  The exact opposite was the affection for skater Alysa Liu who was unabashedly patriotic for the United States,  a story which is more compelling given that her father is a refugee from China.

Unfortunately this notionally non-partisan world class sporting event is being used more and more as a political billboard for many participants.  Certain among the American contingent have taken to use their 15 minutes of fame to criticize their own nation or to highlight issues that have nothing to do with competitive sports.  The dynamic of the “me me me” mindset has unfortunately made its way into the arena of sports, a venue which is meant only to showcase the best talents of dedicated athletes.  As the Dixie Chicks intoned years ago, ‘just shut up and sing’.