Kristoffer Ealy is a political scientist, political analyst, and professor in Southern California. He teaches American Government and political behavior, with a focus on political psychology, voting behavior, and political socialization. Subscribe to his Substack, The Thinking Class with Professor Ealy.

I woke up this past Saturday to a full, steaming, aggressively seasoned goulash of dumbfuckery. And under normal circumstances, I would have done what most rational adults do when confronted with the internet on a weekend morning — put the phone down, pour myself a tall glass of orange juice, and go about my Saturday like a person who has chosen peace. Maybe I catch up on some wrestling. Maybe I revisit a Star Trek episode I have already seen forty times but somehow still find comforting. Maybe I simply stare at the ceiling and appreciate the profound gift of not being online. Under normal circumstances, that Saturday would have been mine.

Unfortunately, we do not live in an era of normal circumstances. And so ignoring these idiots is no longer an option, because the idiots are no longer operating on the fringes. They are in the White House. They are on the Supreme Court. They are on cable television with SiriusXM deals worth more than most people will earn in a lifetime. They are in the halls of Congress. They are, in some cases, people who should know better — and that last part is what gets me the most. The word “should” is doing an enormous amount of heavy lifting in this piece, because I am genuinely no longer certain whether the stupidity is real or performed. But here we are, and here I am, so let’s get into it.

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The people dishing out this particular week’s barrage of bullshit are not random uninformed citizens firing off unhinged takes from a burner account. These are credentialed, well-compensated, platform-having adults who have made a conscious, deliberate, daily choice to be wrong out loud with confidence. The grift used to be legible — say something outrageous, collect the clicks, cash the check, repeat. But something has shifted. A lot of these clowns no longer seem primarily motivated by the money. A lot of them seem to genuinely want to burn the world down and film themselves doing it. And I don’t know if that’s more frightening or more clarifying, but either way, we’re going to talk about it.

Let’s start with Megyn Kelly, who had a lot to say this week after the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the Trump administration could strip Temporary Protected Status from approximately 350,000 Haitians and 6,100 Syrians — people who had been living and working legally in the United States under a program that has existed, without major controversy, since 1990. Every president before Trump, Republican and Democrat alike, had embraced it. Megyn Kelly’s response to this ruling was to go on her show and deliver what can only be described as a dramatic reading of a hate crime. “Go home. Get out. We know our country is better than yours,” she said, before adding, “Go back to fucking Haiti.” She then offered a half-hearted “sorry” that landed with roughly the same sincerity as a raccoon apologizing to a trash can.

Now here is the thing about Megyn Kelly that I need you to understand, and I want you to hold this thought carefully, because it is central to everything that follows: Megyn Kelly did not have to be a dumbass. This was a choice. A conscious, deliberate, sustained, renewable choice that she apparently makes every single morning before she sits down in front of a microphone. She graduated cum laude from Albany Law School in 1995. She was a Law Review editor. She won the Best Individual Advocate award in moot court. She went on to practice corporate litigation at major law firms. The woman spent years arguing cases for a living — which means she knows how to evaluate evidence, construct a logical argument, and distinguish between what is true and what she wants to be true. She has all the tools. She simply chose not to use them.

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