It’s a question most everyone aware of the man has to ask those who cover him, or even themselves if they bother to pay attention to his outright madness — why even bother with paying any attention to the man? Why endlessly call out his stupidity and lies? Why pay attention to incessant legal troubles, or spend time addressing his well documented narcissism?
It’s a question that can only be answered on a per-person basis — I can’t say for certain why other people cover him, but I can say my reasons for it.
The man is, on a whole, insignificant. Previously a relatively well received individual in the Young Earth Creationist movement, he’s sense been ostracized by even that community of crazies, with most other leaders in this conspiracy theory movement considering him “toxic” in a sense, for reasons of both his multiple personal issues but additionally due to the tenacity with which he holds on to “proofs” of a Young Earth that virtually every other YEC group has acknowledged are fraudulent (the Ica Stones are a fine example of this) and beyond a few people who can only be described as hate preachers (Matt Powell, Kent’s new live in boyfriend partner in crime preaching being one of them) and others who are outright militant in their absurd view of reality.
Kent is an old man, losing reach by the day even in his own community. His “preaching” every day usually consists more of him addressing whatever current drama he’s caused (such as body slamming his then-wife Cindi) or randomly insulting people who have proven him wrong in the past. His ceaseless bringing up of Aron Ra is a fine example.
As I’ve described before, he’s an overgrown child. He can’t just let things be and move on — his ego is simultaneously over-inflated yet maldeveloped, resulting in him hyper-focusing on everything but his supposed goal of preaching the Bible to others to “save” them.
In modern internet parlance, the behaviors he exhibits make him a “lolcow” in much the same way as Chris-Chan. He will, inevitably, react to anything and everything said about him — he can’t ignore it, as it feeds well into his persecution complex and his sense of self importance. His cult of followers down at Dinosaur Adventure Land are a captive audience to hear his hour long rantings on everyone and everything he feels attacked by; it’s outright hilarious to watch when you think about it, that he can’t let anything go. He’s that immature, but then again, it’s a behavior identical to the God he claims to worship, so perhaps he’s just playing the perfect Christian.
The way he talks about others, in itself, is worth mentioning. He easily gets frustrated and directly attacks his opposition with grade school insults — he will regularly call people morons, say that their ideas are “stupid,” that someone would have to be an “idiot” to “believe evolution” and similar phrasings. This extends into the overall way he talks, using either explicitly biblical language (example, always talking about “murmuring” in any case where he thinks someone is talking about negatively about him or DAL while there) or just uses oddly archaic and, for all practical purposes, incorrect in modern parlance, forms of words — saying “evidences” instead of pieces of evidence, “drownding” instead of drowned or drowning, or, to get into something more rough, there is a documented case of him referring to a child with down syndrome as “mongoloid” in a quite serious tone, as if he has no clue such is antiquated and offensive to many. This wasn’t done in an “edgy” joke style, mind you, as some might for comedy, oh no — this was seriously the word chosen explicitly to refer to the medical condition.
There are layers upon layers, as you can see — from the anti-science idiocy he spouts, to the way he treats those close to him, to just how he behaves even in front of the camera, the man invariably is a perfect mix of absolute absurdity that a certain type of person just can’t ignore him. That’s not meant in a good way, either.
Why have I decided to write about him? I’d have to say, it’s because of his pure arrogance. He thinks he’s smarter than everyone else, better than them, that he’s right and the rest of the world is wrong, that he can do no wrong and is innocent of every claim made against him. I can’t stand that attitude, regardless of if it’s from someone in their 20’s or their 60’s. Kent Hovind is, for lack of a better term, a complete asshole who’s fragile ego is so easily damaged by anyone and anything I can’t help but say my piece on the man and his cult. It’s hilarious when you think about it, yet tragic at the same time because there are still so many people who, for some strange reason, choose to follow him and join him at his cult compound. Hopefully that number will shrink to zero in the next few years, but only time will tell on that.
In a sense, this is just practice for bigger fish. Kent is nothing in the grand scheme. I just want to use him to sharpen some of my analytical processes before I move on to others who are actually deserving of my time. That’s why I’m not rushing to write too much about the man, just taking it one concept at a time (something he’d love, I’m sure) as I feel the urge.
Until next time.