Boebert and Greene Showcase the Dunning-Kruger Effect in Another Stunning Display of Foolishness

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Dunning-Kruger graph

Welcome to the shallow end of American politics. This is where you find a thick cluster of irrational, shallow, gullible and incurably dim-witted Republicans. Stalwarts among them include Louie Gohmert, Devin Nunes, Jim Jordan, Marsha Blackburn and Ron Johnson. While the group has lost Michele Bachmann and Steve King in recent years, they’ve since made up for it by adding Tommy Tuberville, Lauren ‘Loco’ Boebert and Marge Greene, all of whom are doing their bit to lower the average IQ of the entire Republican party.

Boebert and Greene seem particularly fond of the spotlight – though ‘spotlight’ is somewhat ironic given how dim they are; a reflection pool has more depth than these two fatuous fanatics. But that doesn’t stop them from taking every opportunity to prove how utterly daft they are.

Their latest effort to elevate themselves above the mainstream was more proof – as if we needed it – that both have a chronic case of the Dunning-Kruger Effect. This effect is evident in those of mediocre ability who believe with unwarranted confidence that they’re quite able and smarter than average. It’s a case of being too obtuse to know just how dense they are, and Boebert and Greene – along with all the others at the shallow end – fit the description all too well.

Last week they both chose HR 941, the reauthorization of the TRANSPLANT Act* to once more distinguish themselves in the great batshitery stakes. The Bill comprises the National Marrow Donor Program and the National Cord Blood Inventory, programs that were created specifically to match bone-marrow donors and cord blood to cancer patients who need these life-saving medical interventions to survive.

It passed quickly and with overwhelming bipartisan support. As the Maddow Blog noted, the public rarely hears about these measures since “Uncontroversial Bill Passes Without Controversy” isn’t a compelling headline. On April 15 the vote was 415-2 but this one didn’t go unnoticed.

As the Maddow team observed, there is nothing controversial about life-saving medical therapies — there are no lobbyists trying to turn leukemia patients into villains — so why wasn’t the vote unanimous? Who voted against HR 941?

It was no surprise when a quick check of the Library of Congress Roll Call website revealed the two “no” votes came from the shallow end of politics. But why would Lauren Boebert and Marge Greene vote against a non-controversial, life-saving medical therapies Bill? Did they not know the Bill would pass easily anyway or were they registering some kind of protest vote against… something?

The Maddow team wanted to know too so they probed for answers. They discovered that Boebert had broadcast her reasons on Twitter in a tweet that read in part, “I’m not voting for bills that don’t go through committee.” Now that’s a gobsmacking level of stupidity right there. The Maddow team explains.

While it’s true that the bill didn’t get a committee hearing, that’s because the programs the bill reauthorizes already exist — and already work. There wasn’t anything for lawmakers to discuss at the committee level, which is why 415 members voted for it.

Will Boebert vote no on every reauthorization Bill and all other non-controversial legislation? Or will someone take the hour or two needed to explain to her what it took the Maddow Blog three lines to cover?

At least that wasn’t going to be Marge Greene’s rationale. Since being censured by the House, she has no committee assignments and couldn’t care less what happens there without her. So why did Greene vote no?

[E]ven more interesting was the statement Greene’s office sent to the Daily Beast, complaining, “Nothing in this bill prevents the funding of aborted fetal tissue by taxpayers. It opens the door for the [National Institutes of Health] to use this bill to research the remains of babies who were murdered in the womb.”

Evidently, Greene and her staff are labouring under the impression that the TRANSPLANT Act concerns fetal tissue and/or embryonic stem cells. If they’d done any research at all — like actually reading the Bill — they would have discovered stem cells are not exclusive to embryos.

In his article for The Daily Beast, Matt Fuller demonstrated how effective research can be in separating out fact from fanatical imaginings.

[T]his bill is about “adult stem cells,” particularly the stem cells that are collected after a baby has been delivered and cut from the umbilical cord. (The blood is then drawn or drained from the umbilical cord.) That blood has been used successfully thousands of times to help treat diseases ranging from cancer to osteoporosis, is credited with saving lives, and is typically fine with anti-abortion groups. Certainly, it was fine with the other 200 House Republicans who voted Thursday — almost all of whom consider themselves “pro-life.”

Those two “no” votes were a stunning display of the Dunning-Kruger Effect in action. Both Boebert and Greene really thought they were smarter than everyone else in the chamber. It’s interesting to note too that obviously no one in their party bothered to straighten out their pretzel logic because the very next day both of them eagerly shared their reasoning with the public. So far from displaying the superiority they thought they had, both of them made absolute fools of themselves.

After nearly four months in Congress, Lauren Boebert showed everyone that she still hasn’t managed to acquire so much as a basic understanding of the different forms of legislation or the processes and procedures concerning them. Nor does she have even a simplistic understanding of what does and does not go to committee.

As for Marge Greene, either she has a broad lazy streak or very poor comprehension skills. With no committee assignments, she has far more free time than her colleagues, time that should be used for thorough reading and research. Plainly, Greene is filling her time with something other than doing the job she was elected to do.

For many years, Louie Gohmert has been at the top of the leaderboard when it comes to stupidity levels in congressional members. But Boebert and Greene may surpass even his impressive list of faults and foibles.

With a seemingly unlimited capacity for batshit craziness, they may yet rival Gohmert’s fact-free talking points and extravagant misconceptions. Also interesting to watch will be how much further down they can drag the Republican party. With a free rein and no one restraining them (including Milquetoast McCarthy), the potential depth of the hole they’re digging is limitless.

* TRANSPLANT is the legislative acronym for the “Timely Reauthorization of Necessary Stem Cell Programs Lends Access to Needed Therapies” Act.

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7 COMMENTS

  1. 35 years ago we had bat-shit crazy GOPs, but the only ones that were elected to the level of Congress were Orrin Hatch, Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond. These days Hatch, Helms and Thurmond would fit right in with the mainstream GOP-Nazi party and wouldn’t even stand out. Meanwhile Boebert, Hawley and Greene would fit in squarely with the Hitler’s 1921-1945 National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nazi Party). Hard to find more terrible human beings in high government leadership positions since the founding of the US nearly 245 years ago. Plan to celebrate when all 3 are defeated and crawl back into their fascist cesspools of hate never to be heard from again.

    • The Trump Error (spelling intended) accelerated the Republican slide into the cesspools of hate by bringing it to the surface and giving it not just public acceptance but government approval. The civil rights opponents of the 1960s would’ve been in their element.

  2. Search these people for hidden depths of anything and you’ll find only scarcely hidden shallows stretching right across that broad lazy streak.

  3. Minor point of English language: the expression is “a free rein”, as in “giving a horse its head.” The Repugnican dummkopfs in your hilarious article would be more akin to “giving a horse its ass.”

    • I’m reading your comment and thinking, “Yes, it’s “a free rein” – why are you saying this?” Then I look at what I wrote… major facepalm! I expect Grammarly to pick up these mistakes but it missed that one! But then even I didn’t pick it up on my read through – another facepalm. Thank you for bringing it to my attention.

      • Thanks for not taking offence, Michelle, at what even I mesself considered to be a minor nitpicky point of usage, when what I really wanted to do was heap praise upon your article… including your excellent style.

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