the right to be stupid

In Berlin, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told students that in America, as part of its freedoms, "people have the right to be stupid."

I can imagine any number of countries guffawing ... "and the Americans sure as hell exercise that freedom!"

And sometimes it's hard to disagree with that assessment.

But it is also an assessment that appears, with little substantiated evidence, to let the guffaw-prone off a strikingly-similar hook.