Political imbecility is very easy to explain.
Two things are involved: facts and emotion.
In every issue (inevitably complex) not all the facts are available
(for instance, we think C02 is bad, when it’s good).
We have insufficient facts. Emotion fills in the rest,
creating a whole (or legitimate) opinion.
Zero facts create zero emotion
(and therefore no opinion)
and this is much preferred,
in terms of mass opinion,
than some facts and emotion based on some facts,
for emotion now creates opinion based on
limited facts, making that opinion inevitably wrong.
Limited facts equal limited understanding,
since knowing an issue which is even slightly complex
is not like a multiple choice test based on either/or.
The factually incomplete picture will inevitably be wrong,
a wrong which lives in democratic, emotional, opinion.