If They Speak French, Don't Trust 'em.

As a general rule, if you must use a French phrase to express your meaning, you aren't thinking hard enough.

The Economist has a profoundly insulting article online discussing the "decline" of the Republican party. Describing it as a party that lost the "battle of the brains".

Joe Biden? (snigger) Really, Economist? You're going to argue the battle of the brains with Joe Biden on your side?

Not a smart move.

But you know a writer is an intellectual sinkhole when he quotes French socialist Julian Benda as he did here; "Conservative intellectuals are also engaged in their own version of what Julian Benda dubbed la trahison des clercs, the treason of the learned."

What is the point of referencing a French socialist when discussing American conservatism. Are you really expecting this to add gravitas to your ability to describe the GOP?

Not very bright.