# Move over Louie Gohmert, there's a new idiot in town.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/move-over-louie-gohmert-theres-a-new-idiot-in-town/832407
**Category:** Politics & Elections
**Created:** [April 11, 2019, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/move-over-louie-gohmert-theres-a-new-idiot-in-town/832407 "2019-04-11T21:41:30Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2019, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/move-over-louie-gohmert-theres-a-new-idiot-in-town/832407/21 "2019-04-12T12:35:12Z")
Kerry’s poli sci degree is a BA so poli sci is a “pseudo-science.” :smack: Does Speaker Pelosi have the authority to have Massie spanked?
> [@Drum\_God](#):
>
> Ladies and Gentlemen, may [I introduce to you](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRBfM709Yqc) the Congressman from Kentucky, Rep. Thomas Massie…
> The most shocking part is that Massie thinks he totally owned Kerry during the exchange. How does a man this stupid manage to get into a position of authority?
[A famous scene from _Inherit the Wind_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtNdYsoool8) portrays a similar fight, in America’s past, between science and ignorance. But at least the politicians of those days were sincere and serious.
When Hollywood portrays the abominable hearings, like OP’s example, of the present era, they won’t hire stars like Spencer Tracy to engage in witty repartee. The scenes will feature hebephrenic clowns portraying Gohmert, Massie et al, all incapable of anything but laying turds on the floors of Congress, pointing at their turds and laughing.
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### Author:  [@Drum\_God](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drum_God)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2019, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/move-over-louie-gohmert-theres-a-new-idiot-in-town/832407/22 "2019-04-12T12:55:33Z")
Thank you all for the thoughtful replies. The idea that Massie was pandering to morons (“See, y’all, I’m just as stupid as you!”) had not occurred to me. I look for political leaders to know stuff that I don’t. I suppose there are other voters who prefer that their leaders be stupid.
In any event, then, I will still consider Louie Gohmert, the Pride of East Texas, as the stupidest person in Congress. Massie isn’t stupid, he just thinks his voters are.
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### Author:  [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2019, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/move-over-louie-gohmert-theres-a-new-idiot-in-town/832407/23 "2019-04-12T14:02:53Z")
He’s not pandering to morons. His speaking points, reiterated on twitter, are common among climate change deniers, many of them with prestigious education who are not in political office and are only into it to protect opinions they have cemented through prolonged Dunning-Krugering and confirmation bias research.
Being intelligent doesn’t prevent you from being stupid, just like being Jewish is no guarantee against becoming a white nationalist.
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### Author:  [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2019, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/move-over-louie-gohmert-theres-a-new-idiot-in-town/832407/24 "2019-04-12T15:11:03Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#):
>
> Yeah, this is a “you’re not a real scientist, hur hur, shut up” moment. Of course the distinguished gentleman would mind his words if addressing a straight science Ph.D. who would instead be accused of being a cloudheaded theoritician who doesn’t actually make and fix things people use.
>
> There’s at least 57 polities that participate in the Democratic primaries: 50 states, DC, 5 unincorporated territories and Americans Abroad. But I’ve always seen Barry’s “57 states” as just an honest brainfart after an exhausting stretch of campaigning rather.
Yeah, that. He meant to say “47 out of 50” and it came out “57”.
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### Author:  [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2019, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/move-over-louie-gohmert-theres-a-new-idiot-in-town/832407/25 "2019-04-12T16:39:41Z")
I have no doubt you have mischaracterized Massie.
I am not surprised that you didn’t quote from him.
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### Author:  [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2019, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/move-over-louie-gohmert-theres-a-new-idiot-in-town/832407/26 "2019-04-12T16:56:39Z")
> [@septimus](#):
>
> Kerry’s poli sci degree is a BA so poli sci is a “pseudo-science.”
Why do you think those programs have adopted the term “science”? It is to co-opt the high regard of actual science. Kind of like how Trump named his bunk classes “Trump University”.
Before “political science” existed, those duties were undertaken by successful individuals. The progressive movement, associated with pseudo-science like eugenics from the beginning, sought to creat a class of “experts” to manage society and behavior. They adopted the language of real science to do this.
This should be offensive to anyone who has respect for actual science, but many otherwise smart liberal scientists and engineers buy into the “expert” narrative many social “sciences” have created.
A political science degree is not a credential that should be given any credence whatsoever. It is the credential of an individual who seeks to control, influence, and coerce people without having earned their respect by using the state apparatus.
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### Author:  [@Chingon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chingon)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2019, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/move-over-louie-gohmert-theres-a-new-idiot-in-town/832407/27 "2019-04-12T17:50:36Z")
Ok, cool.
Hook Em
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### Author:  [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2019, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/move-over-louie-gohmert-theres-a-new-idiot-in-town/832407/28 "2019-04-12T18:26:30Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#):
>
> He probably does understand, but he believes, correctly, that his constituents don’t, and will think that his obvious sophistry is actually a cogent argument.
That. He \*seemed \*clumsy about it because it’s a clumsy point to argue if you know better. The pols who are dumb enough to believe in denialism, or just accept it as plausible, are much smoother and more practiced about saying so.
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### Author:  [@Chisquirrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chisquirrel)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2019, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/move-over-louie-gohmert-theres-a-new-idiot-in-town/832407/29 "2019-04-12T20:20:05Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#):
>
> I have no doubt you have mischaracterized Massie.
>
> I am not surprised that you didn’t quote from him.
I have no doubt you failed to even watch the cite provided and only opine from a position of ignorance and contempt for the OP.
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### Author:  [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2019, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/move-over-louie-gohmert-theres-a-new-idiot-in-town/832407/30 "2019-04-12T20:31:52Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#):
>
> I have no doubt you have mischaracterized Massie.
>
> I am not surprised that you didn’t quote from him.
I’m not surprised that you’ve mischaracterized the entire exchange without actually watching it.
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### Author:  [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2019, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/move-over-louie-gohmert-theres-a-new-idiot-in-town/832407/31 "2019-04-12T20:47:50Z")
> [@Chisquirrel](#):
>
> I have no doubt you failed to even watch the cite provided and only opine from a position of ignorance and contempt for the OP.
I don’t even know the OP, but I knew he mischaracterized the exchange because Massie is not dumb. I watched and validated the hunch.
> [@Superdude](#):
>
> I’m not surprised that you’ve mischaracterized the entire exchange without actually watching it.
I didn’t characterize the exchange at all. What are you talking about?
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### Author:  [@Drum\_God](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drum_God)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2019, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/move-over-louie-gohmert-theres-a-new-idiot-in-town/832407/32 "2019-04-12T20:57:56Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#):
>
> I don’t even know the OP, but I knew he mischaracterized the exchange because Massie is not dumb. I watched and validated the hunch.
This exchange with Sec. Kerry is the only thing I know about Rep. Massie, so I may have mischaracterized the man as dumb. However, the “points” he was trying to make are beyond dumb. They were so misguided that Kerry, a man familiar with negotiating with the worst of humanity, was at a loss for how to proceed.
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### Author:  [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2019, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/move-over-louie-gohmert-theres-a-new-idiot-in-town/832407/33 "2019-04-12T21:35:12Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#):
>
> I don’t even know the OP, but I knew he mischaracterized the exchange because Massie is not dumb. I watched and validated the hunch.
Ok then that is worse, Massie is smart enough to dismiss what needs to be done so as to put party ahead of country… or the world for that matter.
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### Author:  [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2019, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/move-over-louie-gohmert-theres-a-new-idiot-in-town/832407/34 "2019-04-12T22:01:12Z")
> [@Lance\_Turbo](#):
>
> He’s not actually dumb. He has a BS and MS engineering degrees from MIT. …
> [@](#):
>
> Massie: _Well, You’re the science expert. You have the political science degree_.
So, Mr. Massie: you are an engineer…_and yet you’ve never driven a train_??!?!?!?!?!??
So much for _your_ supposed ‘expertise,’ Mr. Massie. Good day, sir!
Massie quotation from transcript at:
> **[Is This the Dumbest Moment in Congressional History?](https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/dumbest-moment-congressional-history-820690/)**
>
> Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) asked former secretary of state John Kerry a bizarre question about climate change during a congressional hearing.
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### Author:  [@Drum\_God](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drum_God)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2019, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/move-over-louie-gohmert-theres-a-new-idiot-in-town/832407/35 "2019-04-13T03:56:34Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#):
>
> Massie quotation from transcript at:
>
> [Thomas Massie Asks John Kerry Dumb Question About Climate Change](https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/dumbest-moment-congressional-history-820690/)
Thank you for the transcript. Sadly, it just doesn’t do the moment justice. The smug tone that Massie has is just priceless. He acts like he thinks he has really put one over on Kerry; that he has somehow proven something or other. Of course, the people that Massie is hamming it up for probably thinks that their guy did put the egghead academic in his place.
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### Author:  [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2019, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/move-over-louie-gohmert-theres-a-new-idiot-in-town/832407/36 "2019-04-13T07:18:05Z")
> [@Drum\_God](#):
>
> … The smug tone that Massie has is just priceless. He acts like he thinks he has really put one over on Kerry; that he has somehow proven something or other. Of course, the people that Massie is hamming it up for probably thinks that their guy did put the egghead academic in his place.
Yes, Massie knew he was just playing the role of clown. He was pretending to be a moron in order to appeal to real morons. (Is it possible to find similar bullshit in Congressional transcripts from 50 years ago, or is this level of bullshit new?)
At SDMB, we almost all see Massie’s bullshit as a pretense of stupidity. (@ **WillFarnaby** — you can see this too, right? When you’re not trying to twist the hearing’s dialog into some unrelated narrative.)
What is especially sad is that ordinary FoxNews couch potatoes were not Massie’s primary target audience. He was playing especially for one man: the Couch Potato-in-Chief, DJT.
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### Author:  [@SOJA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SOJA)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2019, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/move-over-louie-gohmert-theres-a-new-idiot-in-town/832407/37 "2019-04-18T09:40:34Z")
> [@Drum\_God](#):
>
> Wait a minute. Massie has advanced degrees from MIT yet does not understand varying carbon levels in geologic timeframes? Seriously?
>
> So you’re saying that what we may have here is an MIT engineer scoffing at a Yalie’s liberal arts degree having the word “science” but not being a real science?
>
> I did not look into Massie’s credentials, I admit. I am stunned to hear that he has such a prestigious education. Did he maybe hit his head on the way to the committee room?
Oh, he knows the truth. He’s just rather push his false facts through to get the GOP base and big sectors to keep donating.
GOP leaders present themselves as idiots, but they’re not idiots in reality. They play idiots to rise up their base and keep getting that sweet corporate money.
Except Trump. He’s an actual dumbass.
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### Author:  [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2019, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/move-over-louie-gohmert-theres-a-new-idiot-in-town/832407/38 "2019-04-18T10:06:20Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#):
>
> I’m not sure the party that keeps re-electing Hank Johnson to GA-4 has a lot of moral high ground from which to sneer at the stupidity of other parties’ voters.
> [@HurricaneDitka](#):
>
> I guess I could have posted Maxine asking the bank CEOs about student loan programs the other day, about a decade after the federal government took over student lending, but Johnson’s concern about Guam capsizing is such a classic moment in history that I couldn’t resist.
> [@Wikipedia](#):
>
> During a House Armed Services Committee hearing on March 25, 2010[33] concerning the U.S. military installation on the island of Guam, Johnson said to Admiral Robert F. Willard, Commander of U.S. Pacific Command, “My fear is that the whole island will become so overly populated that it will tip over and capsize”, to which Admiral Willard replied, “We don’t anticipate that.”[34][35][36] **Johnson later said that he was using a facetious metaphor to draw attention to the potential negative impact caused by the addition of 8000 marines and dependents and potentially up to 80 000 workers during the base’s peak construction period to an island of 180 000 people**.[37]
Not to be a jerk, but if you took a statement like that literally, you have absolutely no business calling out anyone else on their intelligence.
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### Author:  [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2019, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/move-over-louie-gohmert-theres-a-new-idiot-in-town/832407/39 "2019-04-18T13:08:13Z")
> [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](#):
>
> Not to be a jerk, but if you took a statement like that literally, you have absolutely no business calling out anyone else on their intelligence.
I don’t know, I just watched the actual interaction with the admiral and it doesn’t look like he’s being facetious to me. The whole interaction is here, although they stop right after the admiral says they don’t anticipate that will happen:
That video is admittedly making fun of him by showing his statement twice, but they show the whole thing in context. He spends the whole time talking (very slowly, and barely getting the facts out) about how small an island it is, and then, seemingly seriously, expresses concern that it could tip over. I suspect their statement after the fact was just cover.
I don’t know anything about Congressman Johnson and for all I know, he’s a master of deadpan humor, but I didn’t pick it up from that clip.
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### Author:  [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2019, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/move-over-louie-gohmert-theres-a-new-idiot-in-town/832407/40 "2019-04-18T13:33:06Z")
It should be re-emphasized that having advanced degrees is no guarantee that a person won’t espouse pseudoscientific nonsense.
For example, there’s a discouraging [number](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Egnor) [of](https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2014/01/06/eben-alexanders-bogus-trip-to-heaven/) [neurosurgeons](http://americanloons.blogspot.com/2013/04/505-russell-blaylock.html) who espouse woo/bizarre conspiracy theories.
And that doesn’t even include Ben Carson.
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