His face says “I’m absolutely doing this again.”

This is potentially the grimmest perspective I’ve ever read. I don’t think you’re wrong, either.

You can’t discount the selfish and hateful as stupid as even the most vile people can be cunning. I’d agree that the median conservative would be less intelligent than the median liberal, but that discludes the folks looking to take from others their money, freedom, and time in order to enrich themselves monetarily or psychologically. Not everything can be Hanlon’s razor’d, sometimes people just enjoy sucking.