Oh, I don't think it is an intelligence problem. It's a religious problem. Faith, when it gets twisted, can become blind, and otherwise intelligent and sane folks act in stupid and crazy ways.Slappys overlords are lying. Slappy doesn't have the intelligence to formulate an independent thought of his own. He is only circling back to what his overlords have told him to say.
The best kind of faith is not blind, but has sufficient evidence for it that makes it a rational choice, but not enough evidence that faith is not required. But since human beings are spiritual beings and need something to fill that void with, sometimes they feel more spiritually satisfied if they have more blind than rational faith.
By virtue of being Leftists, they reject a traditional faith to fill their spiritual void and they substitute political ideology and secular humanism to meet that need. And just like cults within traditional faiths, they seek a less rational faith that matches their fervor. Leftists, if nothing else, are highly committed to their religion, so a tendency toward irrational faith is compatible and common.
This plays out practically all over this board every day. A lot of ignoring inconvenient truths, a lot of sophistry of varying degrees of quality, a lot of parallel reality, and a lot of denial.
But I get it. If someone posited that Jesus Christ never existed, or that if he did, he wasn't God in the flesh, and they made their argument - I doubt there is anything they could present that could move me off my faith. But, perhaps the difference is that I do have several rational bases of evidence to back my belief. If I couldn't provide any rational basis, then that would be blind faith. But I recognize the behavior as it relates to faith in our resident Leftists.