I love close analysis of language. A good close analysis of language can reveal so much about our values, thoughts, desires, feelings. So, it was with great pleasure that I read Dr. Greg Garrett’s post on the use of the phrase “[adverb] stupid” in current political discourse, particularly as it is used by Newt Gingrich:
“This ‘Obama is Stupid’ statement or implication has become a common trope of the Right in recent months, and one we see in the mouths of many writers and politicians.
But, thankfully, this is not some hit piece on Gingrich or an excuse to mock the Right; Dr. Garrett calls our attention to the core issue: a fundamentally unChristian tendency across the political spectrum to dismiss and diminish the Other Side.
“[A]s hard as it might be for us to stomach, as appallingly stupid as it might sound, we have to be open to the possibility that we might be something less than totally right, and that those we oppose may be less than totally wrong.”
