Let me be clear about something: I refuse to pretend that stupidity deserves the same respect as informed, rational thought. I don’t care how many millions of people have been conned into believing something — a lie believed by millions is still a lie, and stupidity embraced by millions is still stupidity.

And I’m done apologizing for saying so.

Somewhere along the way, this country decided that instead of demanding better from people, we should lower our standards to meet them where they are. Instead of calling out nonsense, we’re supposed to “listen to all opinions” and treat demonstrably false claims as though they carry the same weight as documented, verifiable facts.

To hell with that. That’s not open-mindedness. That’s surrender.

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You believe Trump when he says that AI image — the one with the white robes, the healing hands, the bald eagles, and the Statue of Liberty — depicted him as a doctor?

You’re not being charitable. You’re being foolish. And someone needs to say that to your face.

You’re okay with a sitting president suing his own government — the government he runs, funded by your tax dollars — to personally enrich himself through multiple lawsuits?

That’s not a political opinion. That’s corruption so brazen it would make a mob boss blush. And if you support it, you don’t get a pass just because your team is the one doing it.

This is the same administration that has accepted what amount to open bribes — foreign money funneled into his properties to fund a ballroom — while the president simultaneously uses his office to pressure business partners, foreign governments, and domestic institutions into lining his pockets. At this point he might as well put up a sign: “Support for sale. Inquire within.” And his base would still show up to cheer.

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You think foreign governments pay for tariffs?

They don’t. This is not a matter of opinion. It is not a “both sides” issue. It is an indisputable economic fact that American importers and consumers pay tariffs — not the countries we’re targeting. Every economist across the ideological spectrum will tell you this. It is taught in every introductory economics course in this country.

I am genuinely happy to explain how tariffs work to anyone who wants to understand them. What I am not willing to do is treat a factually incorrect claim — fed to people by a con artist and amplified by a right-wing media machine that knows better — as a “valid perspective.” It isn’t. Being wrong isn’t a perspective. It’s just being wrong.

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Here’s what we need to get back to in this country, and I mean all of us:

Doing the right thing because it’s the right thing to do. Not because it’s convenient. Not because it helps our side. Because it’s right.

Calling out ignorance and treating it as such. Not coddling it. Not validating it. Not pretending it deserves a seat at the table of serious discussion.

Calling out hypocrisy every single time it appears. Without exception. Without hesitation. Without caring whether it makes us uncomfortable or unpopular.

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Everyone has the right to their own opinion. Nobody has the right to their own facts.

And having the right to say something has never — not once in the history of human civilization — meant that saying it was the right thing to do.

A few months ago, members of a Republican group chat were praising Hitler, joking about bringing back gas chambers, making light of sexual assault, and using language about Black Americans so vile it doesn’t belong in print. The First Amendment absolutely protects their right to say those things. Nobody disputed that.

What JD Vance then tried to do — defend those comments, minimize the outrage, and suggest that the real problem was the people condemning them — was simply wrong. Morally, completely, indefensibly wrong. Having the legal right to say something monstrous does not obligate the rest of us to shrug and move on. It obligates us to condemn it loudly, immediately, and without qualification.

That’s not cancel culture. That’s called having a spine.

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I am exhausted — genuinely, bone-deep exhausted — by the expectation that the people paying attention should constantly lower themselves to the level of the people who refuse to. That facts should be treated as opinions. That documented corruption should be debated as though it’s a gray area. That blatant, obvious, on-camera dishonesty should be handled with kid gloves so we don’t hurt anyone’s feelings.

The lowlifes don’t win because they’re right. They win because the people who know better keep acting like being decent means being silent.

It doesn’t. Being decent means demanding better. From our leaders. From our institutions. From each other. And yes, from ourselves.

The bar has been dragged into the floor for long enough.

It’s time to pick it back up.