I don’t like that title, “Lesser people.” Don’t like what’s under the title, either.
It’s what I’m thinking, though, and the rule is, I write what I’m thinking, and try real hard not to hide from myself, so let’s pop this pimple, not cover it up.
My intelligence is, I think, a smidgen less than average. Sure as shit I ain’t Descartes. I’m a high school dropout, haven’t read most of the classics, and I’m vividly unfamiliar with anything any intellectual might call ‘intellectual’.
Sometimes, though, I ponder things larger in scope than merely me and my situation. I look at the stars, and wonder whether anyone’s out there, maybe seeing the speck of light that is our sun from their distance, and wondering if anyone’s out here, too.
Some mornings it seriously surprises me that there’s so much something all around us, when there could just as easily have been nothing but nothingness.
I ask myself and enjoy asking others semi-tough questions, like: What do you truly believe, and why? What do other people believe, that you reject? What questions have you found no answers for? I’m aware of the profound injustice inherent in damned near everything humanity does, and wonder how much more injustice I’m unaware of.
And lately, a big thought I can’t shake is that there are people — some, many, maybe most people — who simply don’t ask such questions. They can recite what they’ve seen on TikTok or TV news as if it’s their own opinions, but they can’t go deeper without scurrying to change the subject. If the subject can’t be changed, they’ll turn it into a joke, and/or look at you like you’re nuts.
It feels dangerous to say it, but these are lesser people, who simply don’t have greater thoughts. They frustrate the hell out of me, because they can only talk about the football team, their religion, their new car, the sit-com they’re enjoying, the job they hate, the people they’re angry at, and their new shoes.
Perhaps they also ponder the mysteries and marvels of the universe, but don’t want to talk about it? Or they don’t want to talk about it with a fat, mildly odoriferous old man?
If so, that’s cool. That’s a choice, and I too have days when muscle aches and petty arguments and celebrity gossip are all I can think about… but it’s not every day. It’s not an entire life of me me me, and Maria said this, and Mike said that, and listening to sports talk radio to be “well-informed.”
And when someone says something to me, I run it through a rudimentary logic-check in my head. It’s not even on purpose — that’s just the way my head works. These lesser people seem to lack that ability, and reject anything that clashes with whatever shallow idioms they’ve heard recently, which are all too often along the lines of, “The immigrants are eating the dogs, eating the cats.”
Which brings us to the psychological and political pimple I’m trying to pop: A lot of these lesser people admire Elon Musk, don’t believe in climate change, voted for Donald Trump, and hate hippies and cross-dressers and Muslims, and whoever they’ve been told to hate. Lesser people are not merely dimwits; they are the target audience for our current crop of PT Barnum billionaires pushing the end of everything that’s decent about life on Earth. And you know, life on Earth has never been too terribly decent.
Lesser people are a kinda huge problem, but I’m absolutely not proposing that they deserve lesser rights. I’m not endorsing eugenics, not suggesting any restrictions on stupid people’s freedom to be stupid, or speak their empty minds, and vote for the worst candidates in every election. I will always believe freedom is a good idea, even if it kills me, which it might.
But we’ll never solve the Lesser People problem without this level-headed, three-pronged solution. Details available on request (which nobody will request), but the very short version of what humanity and America need is:
① Improved public education. Require all kids to participate, either by attending or by passing the same tests as if they’d attended. And remove idiots from control over school curriculum.
② Media that’s not controlled by the same PT Barnum billionaires advocating hate and fear and normalizing stupidity. Make it illegal for billionaires to push their agendas with slanted news coverage.
And ③ perhaps most importantly: We must greatly increase public impatience and mockery of out-and-out ignorance.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
4/15/2026
Leave a Reply