The weaponised idiot through NewsFlicks

PUBLISHED
June 22, 2025

KARACHI:

Now not way back, I stumbled upon an outdated clip of George W Bush internet hosting Vladimir Putin at his Texas ranch. Bush, in his standard informal swagger, spoke in awkward metaphors, grinned too regularly, and gave the impression not able to place in combination a sentence with out both fumbling or attaining for one thing vaguely Texan. “I regarded into his soul,” he mentioned of Putin, virtually as though he have been describing a horse as an alternative of the president of a former Chilly Struggle rival. The instant felt surreal, borderline comical. However it brought about a query I haven’t been in a position to shake since.

How may any individual who got here throughout as so visibly silly upward thrust to develop into the president of essentially the most tough country on Earth?

To start with look, it appears like a fluke. A fortunate son of a political dynasty who stumbled into the White Space. However as I adopted the path, what I discovered used to be way more aggravating. Bush wasn’t on my own. And it wasn’t simply incompetence. It used to be a development. One I’ve since come to consider as ‘the upward thrust of the weaponised idiot.’

This isn’t about one nation or birthday celebration. It’s a world phenomenon. Donald Trump in america; Narendra Modi in India; Imran Khan in Pakistan; Boris Johnson in the United Kingdom; Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil. And now Javier Milei in Argentina. All of them glance and sound other. However all of them depend at the identical system. Seem silly. Talk in slogans. Bypass good judgment. Stir emotion. Dodge responsibility. Win.

The idiot, it seems, isn’t a computer virus in fashionable politics. He’s a characteristic.

Every of those leaders has embraced a sparsely built symbol of being plainspoken, relatable, even laughable. They confuse, distract, and entertain. They dominate information cycles with outrageous quotes and absurd posturing. Trump suggests nuking hurricanes. Milei brings a chainsaw to rallies. Khan fumbles via fundamental coverage questions after which claims divine inspiration. And but, their supporters love them now not in spite of these items, however as a result of them.

Once I first began writing about this development, I believed it used to be simply the failure of political establishments. However then I came upon the writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German theologian who used to be imprisoned and finished through the Nazis. In 1943, Bonhoeffer wrote one thing that struck me like lightning. He mentioned, “In opposition to stupidity, we’re defenseless.”

Bonhoeffer wasn’t speaking about intelligence within the educational sense. He used to be describing a type of ethical blindness that overtakes folks once they forestall pondering severely and give up to collective emotion. Silly folks, he argued, don’t seem to be at all times unintelligent. However they’re willingly passive. They let others assume for them. And essentially the most bad section? They consider they’re being righteous.

He wrote, “In dialog with him, one just about feels that one is dealing by no means with him as an individual, however with slogans, catchwords, and the like that experience taken ownership of him.”

That’s when it clicked. Those leaders aren’t successful in spite of having a look like fools. They’re successful since the masks of foolishness is a good defend. The sector is way more forgiving of stupidity than of evil. If you’re making a monstrous resolution however appear to be you bumbled into it, folks shrug and say, “He’s simply dumb.” However should you glance calculating and actual, you’re a risk. In a abnormal method, the idiot is more secure than the villain.

That is how Bush used to be in a position to start out two wars, let 9/11 occur on his watch, release torture systems, and crash the worldwide economic system and nonetheless be remembered through some as a well-meaning doofus who painted canine after retirement. His gaffes turned into a logo. The chaos turned into a distraction.

Milei is in all probability essentially the most exaggerated model of this pattern. He acts like a TV persona, makes exaggerated faces, yells about socialism like a cool animated film persona, and simplifies Argentina’s financial cave in into “the fault of the left.” He speaks with the entire nuance of a viral meme, however now sits on the best of a rustic in disaster. He gives no transparent trail, no actual plan. Simply quantity. Simply vibes.

Why is that this so efficient for the political proper specifically? As a result of conservatism has at all times situated itself as protecting “the average guy” in opposition to elites. So what higher avatar than a pacesetter who looks as if the average guy, speaks clumsily, mistrusts mavens, and gifts himself as a sufferer of the device? A pacesetter who says, “They’re now not guffawing at me, they’re guffawing at you.”

On this theatre of absurdity, the opposition infrequently stands a possibility. As a result of they are trying to argue with details, provide white papers, be offering detailed insurance policies. However you’ll be able to’t win a rap combat with a analysis paper. The idiot doesn’t reply to good judgment. He drowns it.

The media tries to fact-check, however finally ends up amplifying. The establishments attempt to prosecute, however best deepen the narrative of persecution. The general public tries to withstand, however regularly finally ends up puzzled and exhausted. On this fog of performative stupidity, actual injury occurs quietly, to democracy, to rights, to the guideline of regulation.

In the meantime, tough avid gamers lurk within the background. Billionaires like Elon Musk, who publicly mock those leaders however privately align with them. Trump’s business conflict made no sense economically, however it passed energy to American monopolies. Modi’s populism is embraced through India’s company elite. Khan’s posturing distracted from disastrous financial control, however made nice tv. Those leaders don’t seem to be puppets. They’re prepared performers. However they don’t seem to be pulling the entire strings both.

As Bonhoeffer warned, the combat is not only political. It’s ethical. The risk of the weaponised idiot isn’t in how he thinks, however in how he teaches others to not assume. In a global the place simplicity is energy, the place memes defeat reason why, the place loyalty replaces regulation, stupidity turns into a political device. Now not a situation. A method.

So what are we able to do?

First, we will have to identify the development. Giggling at those males best makes them more potent. We will have to divulge the process in the back of the insanity.

2d, we will have to forestall underestimating what looks as if buffoonery. Underneath the chaos is calculation.

3rd, we will have to construct actions that talk to emotion with out surrendering to stupidity. Other folks need readability. However readability does now not imply self-esteem. We will have to discover ways to be in contact higher with out dumbing issues down.

Since the age of the idiot is some distance from over.

And if we stay mistaking the masks for the person, it’ll be us, now not them, who finally end up having a look silly.

Suhaib Ayaz is a contract contributor

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