That Time The Stupidsphere Showed Up

WARNING: POST CONTAINS POLITICS AND SNARK BUT ALSO SOME STUFF THAT ISN’T.

If you follow me on Twitter (which I’ve told you not to do), you probably see the occasional RT or screencap from me, when the Stupidsphere shows up to tell me how stupid they are.

I wanted to talk about that in a forum that’s a little more complex than 140 characters will allow.

Let me define the Stupidsphere: contrary to their tiny-brained reasoning, I don’t define the Stupidsphere as a group of people who see things differently. Sure, I think denying climate change is stupid. Yes, I believe that clinging to debunked lies to prop up a narrative or worldview that is inconsistent with reality is stupid. Yes, I believe trying to convince yourself and anyone else that it’s really about ethics in games journalism is stupid.

But just because someone identifies as conservative, and I identify as liberal (and, in fact, so far to the left of mainstream politics in America the only person in government who comes close to actually representing my beliefs is Bernie Sanders, with Elizabeth Warren in a close second), that doesn’t make either one of us objectively stupid. I’m not afraid of differing opinions or ideas about how to make a country great, or how to best ensure people have safe, healthy, productive lives.

I’m never going to see eye to eye with someone who is in the NRA, because I personally don’t believe there is any reason, at all, for a private citizen to own an assault rifle. Hunting rifles? Sure (even though I don’t hunt and think hunting for sport is barbaric). Handguns? I hate them, and wish private citizens didn’t own them. I also realize that I live in a place (and on a difficulty setting) where I don’t ever feel like I’ll need one for self defense (though I believe that if we didn’t have such a gun violence epidemic in America, nobody would feel like they needed one in the first place).

I’m never going to see eye to eye with a person who denies that humans are massively changing the climate on our planet, even though every non-fossil-fuel-funded study concludes that we are.

I’m never going to see eye to eye with a person who believes that OMG THE TERRORISTS are lurking around every corner, so we should something something bomb Iran.

I’m never going to see eye to eye with someone who believes that women shouldn’t have absolute and unchallenged control over their own bodies.

I’m never going to see eye to eye with someone who believes that Atlas Shrugged is anything other than a piece of poorly-written fiction, instead of a manual for how to run a country.

That said, even if we don’t see eye to eye, we can still be friendly. We can still play games and have drinks and love our kids and enjoy a sunset together. While I strongly disagree with those people, and I’m going to work as hard as I can to stop their beliefs and ideas from affecting my life, just as they’re going to do the opposite. That’s fine.

HOWEVER.

I do believe that a person who goes to a website that is specifically designed to encourage him or her to go on Twitter and harass me with their pathetic insults, and regurgitated and debunked talking points, over and over again for the sake of yelling at me is stupid. Profoundly, incredibly, mindnumbingly stupid. Dunning-Kreuger stupid.

These people are the Stupidsphere, and when they poke their heads up out of their epistemic closure, this is what typically happens:

StupidsphereI wrote that in reference to the news that Ted Cruz, who is on record denying all sorts of science (in addition to every other stupid asshole thing he does) will be chairing the Senate committee that oversees NASA.* (Yep. Elections have consequences. I get it, even when I don’t like it. It would be great if Texas would stop fucking up Congress with assholes like Ted Cruz, though).

So these people really love their eagles and American flags, and I think they have a medical condition where they can’t reach orgasm until they visit Stupidsphere HQ, find out who they’re outraged at for the day, and then let the insults fly.

The last time these idiots invaded my mentions, it was because I pointed out that a lot of GOP officials (elected and otherwise) were investing a lot of energy trying to convince Americans that ISIS (or ISIL or IS or A Bunch Of Fucking Assholes Who Should Be Launched Into The Sun Already or whatever they call themselves at the moment) was LITERALLY LURKING UNDER YOUR BED AND TRYING TO KILL YOU, and I suggested that this was likely related to the upcoming election. Now, before I get to what the Stupidsphere HQ said about me, I’ll further observe that the impassioned proclamations of IMMINENT DEADLY ISIS DANGER all seemed to immediately stop on November 5th. ISIS is terrible, and it is an organization does terrible things, but being terrified of them seems to be exactly what they want, and I find it odd that these supposed patriots would be so eager to help them. But, you know, election. So there’s that.

Anyway, the Stupidsphere HQ twisted my words, and told their mouth-breathing acolytes that I had said that ISIS wasn’t real, was actually something Republicans invented to win an election, and that none of the truly terrible things those people had done were actually real.

The Stupidsphere went nuts, and I ended up spending a good part of an evening blocking hundreds of people  — not because they disagreed with me, or because I couldn’t handle their incredible insights, but because they were belligerent assholes who were so goddamned stupid they couldn’t even read what I said for themselves and realize that Stupidsphere HQ and the Stupidsphere Leaders were just straight up lying to them.

And why would the Stupidsphere HQ do that? Gosh, I don’t know. Maybe it has something to do with advertising and clickbait and page impressions. Or maybe not. I don’t know, I’m not a doctor.

Anyway, back to yesterday’s Stupidsphere freakout.

Please enjoy this bit of brilliance:

More_StupidsphereThis is really common when the Stupidsphere goes on the rampage. They’re obsessed with insults based on things like sexuality and penis size, and while they declare themselves to be champions of free speech and expression, they are very eager to tell me to shut up and just go back to acting, even though I apparently suck at it. (Ironically, one of the loudest voices in the Stupidsphere is a right-wing actor who they never want to shut up and stick to acting. That’s kind of weird).

Brilliant Intellect Stupidsphere“Shut up Wesley” is one of their favorites, because everyone knows that the sickest of burns is always based on something nearly thirty years old, involving characters from a TV show.

Yesterday, though, something seemed to rise above the usual spew of bullshit. I kept seeing the same thing over and over again, and it was so outrageously stupid, I realized very quickly that it must be one of the talking points the Stupidsphere latches onto in order to prop up and sustain their fantasy world where immigrants are sneaking babies filled with bombs into America to take our jobs and then kill us in our sleep after forcing us all into having gay abortions for Kenya.

The talking point was that President Obama had declared that NASA’s mission (remember this was all started because I love NASA and I’m not thrilled that an anti-science, climate change denying asshole now holds NASA’s funding in his hands) was going to focus on — I am not making this up — “Muslim Outreach.”

Witness:

Muslim Outreach StupidsphereThis one has the bonus of not only including the talking point, but also the insult (which seems poorly considered to me. If I’m so irrelevant, why is this stupid person spending any time attacking me? If I’m so irrelevant — which they are very keen to suggest — why does Stupidsphere HQ even pay attention to me? Why not spend their time attacking and harassing someone who is relevant? It just seems like a misplaced effort, is all.)

So I used DuckDuckGo to find out exactly WTF this is, and who was Stupid Patient Zero for the talking point. My suspicion was Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh.

TA-DA! It is, in fact, Rush Limbaugh.

Here’s what Limbaugh said on his March 6 show:

“Hey, Ms. Gregoire, never mind that Barack Obama made NASA into a Muslim outreach department and it’s Barack Obama, your idol and hero, that makes it necessary to pay the Russians $70 million for every astronaut to the space station,” Limbaugh said.

[…]

Limbaugh reached into the early flare-ups of the Obama presidency for his quip about NASA’s conversion into a “Muslim outreach department.”

The notion stems from remarks by Bolden in an interview with an Arabic TV channel in 2010. Bolden identified three priorities from Obama, including finding “a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math and engineering.”

The Obama White House refuted Bolden’s remarks once outrage swelled, with spokespeople emphasizing the agency’s mission is space exploration and not diplomacy.

Limbaugh also accused Obama of shutting down NASA space flights. Obama certainly played a role (the shuttle flights stopped while he was in office), but the plan to scuttle the space shuttle program started before Obama took office, and Congress has not fully funded budget requests to speed along the creation of a private American space fleet.

Those omissions go beyond the realm of hyperbole. We rate Limbaugh’s claim False

I found that in about 30 seconds. I would have found it faster, but I was typing with one hand, as the other one was busy scratching my head because I couldn’t believe that anyone who doesn’t accidentally set themselves on fire every day would believe it.

I linked to that article on Twitter, and the predicatable Stupidsphere response was that Politifact is partisan (it is not) and that I should rely on “unbiased” news sources like — again, I am not making this up — FOX News and Real Clear Politics (whose co-founder stated: “we have a frustration all conservatives have”, which is “the bias in media against conservatives, religious conservatives, [and] Christian conservatives”.[3])

So to clarify and sum up the original point I think I was trying to make: I do not believe that everyone who sees things differently than me is part of the Stupidsphere. I know for a fact that everyone in the Stupidsphere sees things differently than me, and for some reason they have to really be loud about it.

And the whole thing actually makes me kind of sad. The Stupidsphere HQ and its leaders are all making money off of their gullible followers, and they’re all helping to prop up a political establishment that deliberately makes things worse for working class people. The Stupidsphere HQ and its leaders don’t give a shit about the people who follow them and leap into action when told to do so. All they care about are their clicks, and they’re laughing at them all the way to the bank.

*NB: The NYT quotes Ted Cruz this morning:

“Texas has a major stake in space exploration,” Mr. Cruz, a Republican, said in a statement on Wednesday, referring to the space center in Houston. “Our space program marks the frontier of future technologies for defense, communications, transportation and more, and our mind-set should be focused on NASA’s primary mission: exploring space and developing the wealth of new technologies that stem from its exploration.

The Stupidsphere is crowing about this like crazy today, using it as evidence of how stupid I am, and how fucking amazing and wonderful Ted Cruz is. What I don’t see in his statement, though, is anything about observing Earth, studying our climate, or continuing to fund missions that are related to those things.

I would love to be wrong about this. I would love to look back in six months, or a year, and marvel at how awesome NASA’s funding has become since Ted Cruz took over. I would love for that to happen.

But Occam’s Razor — which the Stupidsphere can’t use because it requires them to engage in critical thought — says that I’m probably not going to be doing that. Ted Cruz is a liar, and contrary to what he says today, he’ll do everything he can to undermine NASA’s missions.

186 thoughts on “That Time The Stupidsphere Showed Up”

  2. These people (StupidSphere) hear a blurb on the radio or on Fox News and spout it off like it is fact. Then you ask them to explain and they got nothing. People – please think for yourselves and base your opinions on fact, not the opinions of radio/tv show hosts.

    And no one on this Earth, including the people who work there, believe that Fox News is unbiased. No news network is completely unbiased, but Fox?? It’s like watching the Colbert Report, only it’s not a joke.

    1. “And no one on this Earth, including the people who work there, believe that Fox News is unbiased.”

      I hate to break it to you, but…the Fox News fanbase does indeed believe they’re unbiased. There’s a fanbase that believes that the regular media has a LIBERAL bias and that Fox is the only news channel that is “telling the real truth”.

  3. Wil, I enjoy your site, but today’s post, in my opinion, is an example of everything that is wrong on both sides of the aisle. Conservatives decided from day 1 that Obama would be a failure, and they find talking points that support that position. You have made the same decision about Ted Cruz and NASA, namely that he is going to mess it all up, simply because he is a Republican, or a Conservative, or whatever he is. An analogy would be if someone said, “I used to watch Big Bang Theory, but they are adding Wil Wheaton to the cast, and I didn’t like his performance in , so I am not only not going to watch, but I am going to post my displeasure and vent my frustrations on the internet.”

    To be honest, I don’t know enough about Ted Cruz to know how well he will do. Maybe he loved space as a kid and really wants to support NASA and scientific exploration, and maybe he isn’t smart enough to tie his own shoes in the morning. I just think that instead of reacting to appointments like these, we should all (Republican, Democrat, Liberal, Conservative, Romulan, or Klingon) give each other the benefit of the doubt and work with what we have instead of worrying and getting frustrated by what might happen.

    That is the kind of man I want to be, and that is the kind of world I would like to live in.

    I would also like a chocolate malt.

    1. I don’t see how we (or anyone else) can make Ted Cruz a failure as you suggest. That is entirely upon him. Republicans actually have the political power to clog up government, making Obama appear to be a failure beyond the real scope of his power.

      NASA’s support isn’t a function of who’s “watching”, nor is it a function of its success or failure; it’s entirely at the whim of politicians. NASA is merely an additional instrument to humiliate Obama in the last years of his presidency.

    2. As someone once said, “A good predictor of future action is past action.” Cruz’s past actions show he has little understanding of science himself and often rejects it even though it is presented by those professionals with better education and more experience that he does — i.e. those who would know better.

      So Wil’s expectations are far from unreasonable.

    3. It doesn’t seem like he is basing his judgment of Ted Cruz simply because he is a republican. I think he is basing his opinion off of previous known facts about Ted Cruz, his anti-science mentality and that most of his talking points turn out to be flat out lies.

      But what do I and my crocodile brain know.

    5. We have given them the benefit of the doubt for the last 30 years. And here we are. No space shuttle, getting hotter all the time, and no plans to fix any of this. But we have tax breaks, so there’s that.

    6. “You have made the same decision about Ted Cruz and NASA, namely that he is going to mess it all up, simply because he is a Republican,”

      Re-read the post. Wil isn’t opposed to Ted Cruz chairing that committee because Ted Cruz is a Republican. He’s opposed to it because Ted Cruz “is on record denying all sorts of science.”

  4. Holy Long rant, dude!
    I am with ya 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000%.
    Preach the word brutha!!

  7. http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2014/mar/12/rush-limbaugh/rush-limbaugh-says-barack-obama-turned-nasa-muslim/

    “Obama did not want Bolden to extend NASA’s cooperation to solely Muslim countries, Logsdon said, but also to non-traditional countries in South America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. The American space program could be “an instrument of political goodwill” and help developing countries get involved with modern space activities, Logsdon said. ”

    ….

    “The retirement of the 30-year-old space shuttle program may have happened under Obama’s watch, but the process was triggered during the administration of President George W. Bush.

    In 2004, Bush called for retiring the space shuttle once the International Space Station was complete. [….] In the interim, NASA is paying for seats aboard Russia’s Soyuz space capsules for missions to the International Space Station. Other countries, like Japan and Canada, have reached the space station via Soyuz capsules, too.”

    ….

    “Regardless, one thing is clear: NASA is not closed for business. The agency has a $17 billion budget and is spending it, Logsdon said. There are satellites en route to Pluto and Jupiter, a rover on the surface of Mars, and work being done on the successor to the Hubble space telescope, he said.

    NASA spokesman David Weaver said the agency is working on a plan to launch American astronauts to the space station and not rely on Russian transport, but Congress needs to fund Obama’s budget requests.”

  8. Are these from the same group of people who paid all that money to straighten the Mississippi so it didn’t flood and then had to spend more to put it back because it was flooding worse. Or that paid all that money to clean out all the nature stuff out of places in Oregon’s waters then spent more to put it all back, because the water got too warm and the Salmon and other fish were being killed from no shade. Am just wondering. In my opinion this country is full of people who could be called StupidSpheres for the crap they come up with. The above stuff is anywhere being the dumbest. Top of the list was paying the farmers not to grow food and causing The Dust Bowl that killed a great deal of our country.

  9. Wil,
    I read your post and then sat for a while digesting it and everything you spoke about. I am conservative, not as far right as you are left, but never the less there is a large chasm between out ideologies. That being said, I can agree on many of your points that you spoke on. I too believe that I have a right to think and believe the ideas that I hold are my truths, but more importantly, I have to accept that those ideas that others have are no less valid to them. I can have (and have had many) heated discussions with those who disagree on my points of view, but at the end I feel I have always walked away with something new to consider, even if I disagreed with it. I think you are a stand up guy, and I commend you for your courage to speak of your point of view. This is what makes us American, to have discussions and learn from one another, and sometime afterwards to sit down, have a drink, and enjoy our freedom.

  10. You know what, Wil? I have been following what you do — as an actor, a writer, a podcaster and (through some of those) as a dad and a husband and a friend — and I am consistently impressed by your honesty, intellect and integrity. You seem like a great guy, and I am sorry you have to put up with all this abuse. You don’t deserve it.

  11. Welcome to the world of political opinion on the interwebs. Believe it or not, those who post conservative views on twitter are trolled as well. We who have read your blog know that you are liberal. I, too, am socially liberal. I believe strongly in gay marriage and love for all people. I am also a Christian. I get trolled any time I post my beliefs by people assuming I am a dumbass because of my faith. I get the same thing when people learn I’m a Texan (redneck banjo-playing shit kicking bigoted homophobic dumbass). Negative stereotypes hurt people. I have heard you negatively stereotype me because of my political views. (not personally, but in general rants). It hurt, because I found out my nerd hero hated me without even knowing me. It made me afraid to mention my faith or political orientation (not like I would in normal conversation, anyway) because you might not want to play Lords of Waterdeep with me.

    I empathize with you. Trolls who attack you because of your beliefs are reprehensible. You deserve better. This Obama frenzy reminds me of the Bush hatred that to a lesser extent is still happening. Carefully thought out opinion seems to be a rarity and people seem to believe that stream of consciousness gut reaction is what today’s instant social media is about. Critical thinking isn’t being practiced when blurbs are regurgitated with no thought. I am sorry that idiots engage you that way.

  12. I won’t comment on the stupidsphere, I’ll just say one personal thing:
    I’m a scientist and we rely heavily on the Landsat satellites which are observing the Earth at 30m resolution. ESA, the European Space Agency is launching a similar satellite in April, but they will compliment each other beautifully. And I hope that that’s how it’s going to be in the future: NASA and ESA complimenting each other beautifully to assure we have all the information we need about out planet.
    Now back to your regularly scheduled political stupidity that will likely kill this hope.

  13. So sorry you have to deal with this much crap – especially when it’s not even factually based. Sigh.

  14. Oh, and the real irony here? Conservative Jesus once proclaimed that American should be ‘a shining city upon a hill whose beacon light guides freedom-loving people everywhere’.

    Via, presumably, outreach to other countries.

  17. Politifact, of course, is biased. Conservatively biased. Their mission is to look unbiased, which makes them pretend that truth is halfway between the parties, which makes them judge democrats harshly and conservatives kindly. Look no further than one of their “lies of the year” being the accurate claim that republicans want to end medicare as we know it.

  19. steve:
    Politifact, of course, is biased. Conservatively biased. Their mission is to look unbiased, which makes them pretend that truth is halfway between the parties, which makes them judge democrats harshly and conservatives kindly.

    I think the balance is aimed more at number of lies, instead of the location of the truth. (The location of the truth being halfway is more a media thing.)

    I.e., if they judge 100 statements a year, and 50 of them are liberal and 50 conservative, they’re trying to have roughly the same amount of truth and lies, or at least put a bunch of them vaguely in the middle. It’s not where the truth is, it’s just a numbers thing.

    OTOH, last I checked, they’ve actually become very good at rating nonsensical conservative memes, and I’ve started linking to them instead of snopes. (Presumably, they feel less of a need to balance those.)

  20. Wil, I wonder if someone should create a ‘bot that learns how to troll the trolls, and then (after half an hour) let’s them know that they’ve just wasted their time talking to a machine?

  21. I am conservative, but hopefully not a “stupidsphere” conservative. I just think its stupid to try to argue using 140 characters unless you can get into some kind of link battle with someone. And anyway its useless because you are link battling and saying things that you would never say in person. Its just better to agree to disagree and tweet pictures of food and sunsets.

    That said I wished people researched their votes as fervently as they argue. That is where everyone needs to direct their passion.

    And I will always follow you wil. If we have a disagreement on something, I just put the phone down and check back later. #burritowatch2015

  22. Here’s a whoop for Bernie Sanders! He’s my hero. I’m left of left and live in Vermont which tends to be left, except when it isn’t. I have a friend who is as conservative as I am liberal. We tease each other some – and he’s constantly trying to change my mind. Which he won’t. I don’t try and change his mind 1) because he is my friend and he has the right to his own opinions, and 2) because I find it’s best to lead by example. I’m sorry the stupid heads (my name for the stupidsphere) don’t have anything better to do with their time than to insult you, Wil. But perhaps it’s just as well, if they were focus their energy on actually achieving something they might wreck the world. (More than it already is.)

  23. Wil,

    I am conservative in many respects. I’m a Lutheran pastor, and a chaplain in the military. However, I am deeply grateful for your post and this:

    But just because someone identifies as conservative, and I identify as liberal (and, in fact, so far to the left of mainstream politics in America the only person in government who comes close to actually representing my beliefs is Bernie Sanders, with Elizabeth Warren in a close second), that doesn’t make either one of us objectively stupid. I’m not afraid of differing opinions or ideas about how to make a country great, or how to best ensure people have safe, healthy, productive lives….

    I’m constantly saddened by the knee jerk refrain from both sides of the political world. Most of the time, I would much rather treat people kindly, and have a reasonable conversation. Unfortunately, that is all too rare this days. So perhaps as you suggested:

    That said, even if we don’t see eye to eye, we can still be friendly. We can still play games and have drinks and love our kids and enjoy a sunset together. While I strongly disagree with those people, and I’m going to work as hard as I can to stop their beliefs and ideas from affecting my life, just as they’re going to do the opposite. That’s fine.

    If you’re ever in Nebraska (fly over country;) or the next time I’m on duty in San Diego, here is your invitation to have a cold one and just visit.

    Cordially,

    Mike

  24. I don’t think Ted Cruz’s aims to destroy NASA. According to a press release, he wants to “…focus our investment on the hard sciences, on getting men and women into space, on exploring low-Earth orbit and beyond, and not on political distractions that are extraneous to NASA’s mandate,..”

    I think he’s going to redirect funding to 1960’s style manned missions at the expense of “extraneous” NASA missions like satellite imagery and robotic exploration based out of JPL which is the bulk of NASA’s hard science these days that Cruz is so keen on.

    Manned missions are planned out of Texas at the Johnson Space Center and this would send a butt load of cash to Texas when the State is really desperate since oil commodity prices are crashin and won’t come back for a long while.

    These missions can’t happen though, it’s just too expensive and really won’t get us any of that hard science

    Give me a big eye in the sky and a remote control lab on Mars any day.

    By the way, I found a petition at the White House website to remove Cruz from this position. I don’t think that it can actually change his standing but you never know.

    https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/remove-ted-cruz-position-nasa-oversight-subcommittee-space-science-and-competitiveness/0hj7fRCY

  25. “gun-violence epidemic in america”

    -Wil Wheaton, straight out of the stupidsphere.

  26. Unfortunately there are people in the world who just don’t understand that their opinions don’t make something a fact.
    It is a real shame that you, and many of your peers, have to put up with this kind of crappola, from illogical troglodytes that can’t put together a logical argument so just spew primary school level insults recycled from their equally challenged peers.

    It takes all kinds to make a world and, as you said, people who disbelieve what you believe are not necessarily stupid. However so much of what they post is based on misinformation and bile from others who are stupid that we end up with a cloud sourced AI of stupidity. Stupidsphere is pretty bang on… I now have a name for the scourge.

  27. Clearly the individuals who responded to your tweet do not understand statistics while analyzing the Presidents job performance.
    Ted Cruz has wasted countless tax payer money. He is a known racist and he did not want funding for NASA. Ted Cruz continues to embarrass his constituents. Unfortunately, with the an unlimited resource called the internet, people still struggle to seek to understand and learn.
    Too much time and effort was spent over perfect candidates for President Obama’s (potential) Free College Program. They’ll take a piece of you, If you let them.

  30. This made me cringe/laugh. Stupidsphere . . . Love the name and will use it in my head for whenever my dad makes comments about politics. He uses all the sources you mentioned Fox, etc as proof that he is knowledgeable about things then anyone else.

  31. Marginalizing and insulting those who are not like minded are the weapons of the foolish.

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