By Smaktakula
It’s not a crime to want to seem more intelligent than you really are. There are a great many ways to affect this which are not only effective but also appropriate, such as wearing glasses, carrying an NPR tote bag or bringing up the New York Times more than once in a polite conversation.
Just as there are appropriate ways to feign intelligence, so also are there inappropriate ways. Chief among these are statements designed to sound intelligent to other idiots, but break down under a smidgen of scrutiny. One such canard is the oft-heard assertion that “all wars are fought over religion.”
It is absolutely true that religion is the cause of all armed conflicts, with a few notable exceptions: World War I, World War II, the Vietnam Conflict, the Soviet Revolution, the French Revolution, the Indian Wars, the Chinese Revolution, the Russo-Japanese War, the War of 1812, the Gulf War, the American Civil War, the Italo-Abyssinian War, the Cuban Revolution, the Korean Conflict, Sino-Vietnamese War, the Franco-Prussian War, the American Revolution, the Crimean War, and far, far, far too many others to name.