We’ve been measuring stupidity incorrectly

It’s 70 years since the death of prophet of doom / visionary genius (delete according to taste) George Orwell. As supposedly grown-up countries bow down to and elect right-wing authoritarians, you imagine Orwell not so much turning in his grave as on an advanced spin cycle. Were he still alive, what would he make of it all? What would he think about our love affair with Big Brother-levels of surveillance, data harvesting and misinformation? About our current leaders? About us, the proles, and why we vote for such terrible people?

It’s always been too easy to dismiss right-wing ideology as the politics of the thick. It’s not like we’re short of examples: from the Brexit Party MEP complaining how Britain will have no EU representation when it leaves the EU, to the ongoing horror show in the White House, people voted for stupid. This is why we have far more left-wing intellectuals than right-wing ones: the ratio of Noam Chomskys to Jordan Petersons is — fake statistic alert — a million to one. And it’s why right-wing thugs far outnumber any other kind.