So here’s my dilemma: I read remarks recently attributed to Louie Gohmert (memorably described by Charles Pierce as “the dumbest mammal to enter a legislative chamber since Caligula’s horse”) that several people had posted to Facebook. Even though it was Louie Gohmert, I was sure it was satire.
But then I read the same quote on a news site I have always found credible. And a search on Snopes came up empty.
It’s hard to believe, but here, presumably, is Louie’s reason for voting against funding for a program to encourage more women to enter STEM fields:
‘And, you know, that’s just not the way God intended us to be treating women. I know that everybody is today talking about equality and we’ve got groups that are trying to make us believe that women are equal to men. However, that’s just not the case. God didn’t make us equal. It is ourselves, we have created this illusion of equality. And you want to know what the most powerful evidence of that there is? Simple biology. We have parts they don’t and vice versa. So right then and there you’ve got proof of God’s master plan.’
Women were created for one thing and one thing alone. We are insulting the Lord by allowing women to act like men. Women are beautiful creatures, no doubt about that. We marry them, we look after them, we provide for them and we love them, but that does not mean they are the same as us. It is the job of a woman to stay at home, to maintain the household, to bear children and look after them after they’re born. Nowhere in the scriptures does it say that women should be chasing after fancy titles and knowledge. The only knowledge they need is the one we men allow them to have.’
And we wonder why Americans tell pollsters that the country is on the wrong track….
I understand that there will people in any large country who are simply retrograde ignoramuses. What I don’t understand is why other people vote for them.
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