Greg Gutfeld opened his monologue on Gutfeld! Wednesday evening by putting a name to something I’d be willing to bet most of us already recognize. The left’s latest routine, he explained, runs on a willful refusal to acknowledge reality, followed by a demand that everyone else do the explaining. Gutfeld called it “performative ignorance.”
And he was spot on.
“So the left has a new song and dance they’re inflicting on us, and it’s called ‘performative ignorance,’ where people fake a lack of knowledge about the most basic laws of life and then expect you to explain it,” Gutfeld said.
The scam starts with feigned confusion over things no serious adult struggles to understand. “They claim to be baffled by the simplest concepts,” Gutfeld said. “‘What do you mean, boys can’t become women?’ ‘Can you explain this to me?’ ‘Let’s have a conversation.’” That so-called conversation usually comes with shouting and intimidation, since “their idea of a conversation is standing an eighth of an inch from someone’s face, screaming like they’re the sergeant from Full Metal Jacket.”
Gutfeld then explained how the tactic works.
“They think volume equals value, and if you respectfully disagree, they’ll respectfully spit in your face,” he said. Performative ignorance requires no effort from the people who use it, but dumps all the work on their targets. Gutfeld compared it to being challenged to a race by someone who pretends not to understand the concept of running. “‘What are sneakers?’ ‘What do legs do?’ Forget dragging them over the finish line. You have to drag them over to the starting line, too.”
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“It’s amazing what we have to explain,” Gutfeld continued. “‘How do jails work?’ ‘Why is bail important?’ ‘Why is an erection in a women’s locker room a nonstarter?’” He compared it to talking to a child, with one crucial difference. “It’s like explaining why the sky is blue to a four-year-old. The only difference is the four-year-old won’t call you racist when they look stupid.”
Then came the real irony of the situation.
“It’s funny that the left spent decades claiming that they were the smart ones. They went from pretending to be Mr. Spock to Forrest Gump.” He said the act depends on ignoring what everyone else can plainly see, especially on gender ideology. “You know it when you see it, fat weirdos who dye their hair purple and slap on some support hose. And don’t question which hose it’s supporting.” The performance demands applause anyway. “‘Oh, isn’t she stunning and brave? Especially when shaving her bikini line near her nut sack.’”
I couldn’t have said it better myself.
The endgame, Gutfeld argued, involves exhausting the public with dumb questions, “while pushing nonsense under the assumption there’s no knowledge to refute it. To them, communism is always a new thing. You know? Even though there are still people alive who suffered through it waiting in line for toilet paper, and not because Jerry Nadler nuked the bathroom. And ICE raids? Oh, that’s sadistic exercise.”
Gutfeld answered that claim with facts.
“ICE has detained roughly 400,000 people and the percent of properly detained illegals is between, like, 99.8 and 99.95%. I haven’t seen a success rate like that since I was cruising the singles bars. But if you tell them that, they’ll say, “Math is racist.” Mention that raids are caused by politicians refusing to share info between local and fed law enforcement, and they’ll freeze up like my pool boys when I put on my rubber glove.”
The worst thing is that the accusations keep getting dumber. “They’ll accuse ICE of checking papers,” Gutfeld said. “Well, how the f*** else do you find out whether someone is here illegally?”
Gutfeld continued, “It’s like the cheating spouse who keeps getting caught and blames his partner’s insecurities, which is why it’s pointless to explain things, ’cause what’s driving these creeps isn’t a desire for enlightenment. It’s ego. Just like their purple hair and six nose rings, it’s so you pay attention to them. It’s why they crashed that church the other day, and after acting ghoulish, they express shock over people’s outrage. “Oh, but isn’t this free speech? We’re just asking questions.” No, you’re not. Harassing people, stalking, shoving, and blocking traffic isn’t speech, just like someone with a penis isn’t a woman.”
Performative Ignorance: The Left’s Favorite Fake-Out pic.twitter.com/6nU6vDLIu0
— Gutfeld! (@Gutfeldfox) January 22, 2026
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