Moderate Rant: "Can I help you with that white sheet?" edition

I accepted a friend invitation from someone who was a friend of a friend and thought I was someone else, and I thought she was someone else.  We have had a few interesting conversations about her studies (biology) and little chit-chat.

Last Tuesday, we talked about an assignment she had for a history class - "Who was the most influential politician of the last 150 years?"  It sounded interesting, so I asked her who she was doing.

"Golda Meir," she says.  "Or maybe Margaret Thatcher - I'm such a feminist."

I laugh, thinking she's kidding.  

"I know most people are probably going to do Abraham Lincoln, but I can't.  He's responsible for most of our social ills today."

I read through that a couple of times to make sure I read it right.  "Ummmmm....how's that?"

"Well, he freed the slaves."

Okay, I think.  She HAS to be just yanking my chain.

"Ha ha ha," I says.

"I mean, seriously - if he did have to free them, why couldn't he have just shipped them all back to Africa where they came from?"

I then occurs to me...she's not kidding.  She's serious.

"Ummmmm....", says I.  "Well, there's the fact that most of the slave population was born here.  So there's a language issue with sending them back, to start with..."
"Where's the problem?" she writes back.  "It's not like any of them really speak English now anyway..."

I'll spare you the rest of the conversation - it only went downhill from there into a racist/Objectivist rant, and the end of which I bid her goodnight and immediately removed her from my friends list.

It has been a very long time since I have run into that level of bigotry and hatred in person (okay, mostly in person).  And in the past, that bigotry and racism has also been tied to a sub-par intellect - stupid people can and will believe stupid things.  

But we had talked about the advanced-level biology that she was working on, and the intellectual level of what she was doing made my head hurt.  So she's not stupid, by any stretch of the imaginiation.  Yet she manages to hold on to this racist view of the world were all the darkies should have been shipped back to the jungle because they are sub-human.  Anyone who doesn't go to college only does so because they are lazy and stupid - there's no other excuses.

What breeds this among intelligent people?  How can someone this smart end up with these conclusions?  I ask because these are the people who end up leading foundations and groups that breed this kind of hatred.  I'm just confused.

Lack of motivation

Which seems a strange thing to say when starting a new blog.  But I have outlines I should be working on, a house that I should be cleaning, or other stuff that should be done right now.  Sam is watching Yellow Submarine and I should be using this time productively.

See Nick procrastinate.  Procrastinate, Nick, procrastinate!

Ha ha ha.  Ah well.

Many things to consider lately.  Will ruminate about them later.