Americans think that people who scowl are really really smart. This is a result of the industrial revolution–the bosses grimaced and the working classes grimaced and after about fifty years of that kind of thing well, you don’t have to be Darwin to figure it out. Americans scowl as a means of protective coloration if you will. And since everyone is scowls (except news anchors) it’s impossible to employ social gravitas as a yardstick for stupid thoughts. Another way to put this is that everybody in America has stupid ideas and the grimace is the true embodiment of the social lie that something deep is going on under the surface.
The current putative president of the US is the Wizard of scowling. People keep asking on social media platforms and in the legacy press, “how did people vote for him?” And we hear all kinds of nearly true things: racism, owning the libs, misogyny, toxic men and their baby incels, lack of critical thinking, illiteracy, its a long list. But I tell you its the scowl. He scowls and lies about everything—and I don’t need to say any more. The scowl is his biggest snake oil trick. “I’m serious! America is being overrun by vermin people! Vandals got into my reflecting pool!”
All delivered with the moue of disgust that marks a good scowl. That mark of distrust and suspicion which good people find repulsive.
Planet of the Blind 