What happens when freepers are forced to think ...

... and, Jesus Christ, it's an ugly scene. Recently, the New York Times' Paul Krugman wrote a column on the alleged pro-liberal bias in higher academia. Among other places you can read it is here at Free Republic, otherwise known as Mouthbreather Central.

Read Krugman, then read the comments that follow, which start with this gem:

Paul Krugman is a One-Man Circle Jerk

Oh, man, this guy makes my head hurt.

First, in a spasm of oratorical onanism, he flatters himself by implying that academics, through a process of intellectual self-selection, today represent some sort of awesome-brained uber-species of hominid, much as knuckle-dragging Republicans have grunted and scratched their way into populating the ranks of the brutish military. Well, if one accepts this basic thesis, then perhaps Krugman stands as testimony to the dangers of inbreeding, for Mr. Enron Advisor stands prominently as perhaps the economist most associated with the longest and broadest train-wreck of a professional record...

Then, rapid-fire, he starts in with a lefty Clif's Notes version of claimed Republican pseudoscience. These, like his economics and his Enron advice, he gets rather wrong. Sure, Bush says the jury is still out on "evolution", because it is, especially regarding certain of the more ambitious aspects of the theory: One doesn't have to be a Young Earther to have difficulties with the many hoaxes that have crept into the fossil record, and one needn't be a fundamentalist to see striking parallels between Genesis and the Big Bang theory...

If you're looking for a reason why conservatives don't quite fit into academia, man, do I have a data point for you.

AFTERTHOUGHT: If you have the time to kill, keep reading the comments section to get the full flavour of the Neanderthal mentality of the far right. In particular, notice the irony of this excerpt:

I think it's as simple as the age-old saying, "Those who can, DO, those who can't, TEACH."

In other words, we have conservatives who have nothing but contempt for academia, while simultaneously decrying the "fact" that they can't be a part of that very same academia. I'm sure you can be stupider than this but, I swear to God, I'm not sure how.