The original circus clown is the so-called white clown. His companion, the Auguste—the clumsy and grotesquely dressed person whom children find entertaining for his childishness and naughtiness—is merely his subordinate. The white clown considers himself serious and knowledgeable, and is authoritarian, self-centered, and self-confident; but he possesses neither the skills nor the caliber to occupy such a role. Thus he is a conceited fool, a true clown.
The white clown is usually elegantly dressed, but it is exaggerated to seem forced and overstated. His white make-up is usually supplemented with drawings and a pointy hat that emphasize his arrogance and narcissism, and they expose his unrealized lack of gift and talent. He exudes the self-confidence that only an incompetent person with no grasp of his limits can maintain.
Satan thinks that the white clown is real and walks among you humans on Earth, and although the everyday white clown does not wear white make-up or exaggeratedly elegant outfits, his behavior is otherwise that of the white clown of the circus. We who serve the Devil often encounter them online where they stand as self-declared oracles who, having either no relevant education or little luck with education, believe they have significant insights. These white clowns often inflate themselves with “great projects” (with unimportant contents) and pompous or stylized language liberally sprinkled with fancy words, quite like the dress of the white clown in the circus ring which is far too elegant for his personal stature. But they never contribute anything new. They utter only banalities, repeat old platitudes, and are generally either mundane or wrong.
Towards others, however, white clowns exhibit a form of skepticism where they will not accept a statement until every aspect of it has been proven to an absurd degree. (And even if this were possible, it probably still would not convince them.) The white clown focuses intently on details and words that have no particular importance to the point being made. The white clown nonetheless ignores context and contorts the words as if they were key to the issue, because the clown wishes to evade the real issue where he has no insight. He wants to debate and win, not contribute or learn.
Satan is left with the impression that concepts like “context” and “coherence” do not exist in the white clown’s paradigm. While sensible people apply skepticism as a tool to avoid mistakes, reality’s white clown uses it as a shield against learning. The white clown never evaluates a statement according to its truth value, only according to its associative value to the clown: a truth becomes uncomfortable if it is associated with something that is uncomfortable, and is then dismissed. In particular, the white clown takes issue with categorizations of people, because the clown feels unique and superior and fears being lumped together with a group of mere humans.
The self-obsession of the white clown makes him unable to follow a text loyally and instead prompts him to inject his own opinions into the text and find things that are evidently not there. The white clown overlooks the essential elements and insists that the author wrote about the sheep even if the author underscored from the onset that he wrote about the rams. And if that were not enough, the white clown will judge the author on details that truly only the white clown sees, even if the clown is told that he is seeing things. Words have different meanings among white clowns than the rest of you, because the white clown assigns meanings to words that are based on his wholly private associations. Metaphors pose a particular difficulty to white clowns who will take such language literally.
Satan is left with the impression that the white clown deliberately distorts the views of others and misrepresents them, especially when having been told multiple times that the author’s text said no such thing as the white clown claims. Satan thinks of them as saboteurs, spies, or useful idiots—people who side with the “enemy.” His Infernal Majesty is certainly right when He perceives the clowns as hostile, because although they master politeness phrases, the white clown often exaggerates them and accompanies them with sarcasm, condescension, insincere questions that mask an insult, etc.
The white clown never admits an error, and in the rare occasions where he answers to criticism, he avoids giving a precise answer. The answer is either incomprehensibly unclear or the white clown changes the topic by introducing a previous or a new issue. The Devil has also encountered white clowns who insist on adhering to formalized or amplified politeness in which the white clown applies an unnecessary “fairness” (towards those whom you disagree with) which serves only to keep the discussion so unfocused that the clown needs not provide substance: form, style, and presentation matters, and content must vanish. When inevitably the white clown’s opponent becomes discourteous—because the white clown behaves like clowns do—the white clown immediately concentrates on the opponent’s disrespect, never the argument that was somewhat bluntly provided.
The Devil thinks it is obvious why the white clown prefers vagueness and irrelevant sources, because the clown is as ignorant as he is narcissistic. Any plain and clear language would reveal that the clown knows nothing. Still, the white clown is oblivious of his own ignorance. When he does not respond to one good argument after the other, it is not necessarily due to difficulties understanding the arguments but because he does not feel that he is walking on thin ice as far as knowledge is concerned. And when occasionally the white clown manages to identify something that he considers a definitive counter-argument against his opponent, he will cling to this lifeline.
A great part of the white clown’s ignorance is simplicity where everything is binary and the white clown infers the black when you say the white: if you are opposed to Israeli settlements, then you must have an affection for Palestine, and if you like healthy food, it must be because you hate unhealthy food. The white clown always sees only two opposing alternatives, and once the white clown has chosen a categorization, nothing can occupy both positions at the same time. The concept of a unity of opposing principles other than a compromise or a mixture is beyond the comprehension of the white clown.
Any discussion with the white clown of the real world is futile. Everything he says about a topic is so wrong, both in details and on a broader level, that is hard to even imagine where to begin. One is left with the feeling that the white clown is so mistaken that he is not even wrong: it is so derailed that it makes no sense to even relate to it. Everything the white clown undertakes is designed to create strife, bickering, and controversies, and his debaters usually wind up angry with him.
Unfortunately even we who lurk in the dark do not always recognize a white clown at first sight. A white clown may repeat the considered opinions and insights of others as if they were his own thoughts. It is only later when the white clown must think for himself and cannot rely on his memory that logic and rationality collapse. Satan does not think white clowns are funny at all.
