A Theory of Jerks, and a Query about the Term "Idiot"

I have a new theory of the jerk, just out in Aeon.

The piece uses the term "idiot" in several places to characterize how the jerk sees the world: "I'm important, and I'm surrounded by idiots!" In light of Shelley Tremain's remarks to me about the history of the word "idiot", I'm wondering whether I should have avoided it. I'd be interested in the thoughts of NewAPPS folks about this. In my mind, it is exactly the sort of word the jerk is prone to use, and how he is prone to think of people -- and of course he thinks of people in offensive ways and won't be bothered by offensive terms unless that's his particular moral high horse. So there's a conflict now between my desire to capture the worldview of the jerk with phenomenological accuracy and my newly heightened sensitivity to the historical associations of that particular word.

[illustration by Paul Blow]