RuPaul is important. If you didn't know that already, it's not his job to tell you why.

With the eighth season of RuPaul's Drag Race revving a few episodes in already (#TeamBobTheDragQueen, personally), a new album (Butch Queen) and an original game show (Gay for Play) on the way, Ru's empire has only continued to grow upward and outward, and for good reason: he's smart as hell. (And a super funny, super gorgeous Glamazon too...but that's besides the point.)

In what is a supremely refreshing, and completely candid interview with Vulture, the iconic Supermodel Of The World discussed a wealth of hot button issues of the moment — drag, identity, accusations of transphobia, Lip Sync Battle, awards, societal norms, queer culture — all with the enlightened intelligence and bluntness of a very fierce Buddha.

You need to head over to Vulture to read the whole thing, but here are just some of the many morsels for thought sprinkled throughout the entire no-holds-barred conversation.

On life lessons:

Life is not to be taken seriously. Most people are dumb as fuck. If you look at their voting habits and their eating habits, you realize people are stupid. So we could talk about stupid people or we could just stay with smart people who know how to have fun and not even focus on what dumb people do. It's not worth it. I tell you this as someone who's a smart motherfucker: Don't waste your time fooling with dumb people or trying to figure them out or trying to educate them. It doesn't work. It's a lose-lose situation.

On the network's decision to remove the "You've got she-mail!" portion of RuPaul's Drag Race:

Well, the intention behind that word is a portmanteau that was meant as a way to be fun and to enjoy language. I talked earlier about the sweet, sensitive souls who find this world, when they uncover life's cruel hoax. The first stage is anger. Then bitterness. The third stage is laughter and irreverence and understanding that, "Oh! I can have fun. Don't take it too seriously. Have fun with it." So twist a phrase, curl a word, paint on a mustache. We do not stand on ceremony, and we do not take words seriously. We do take feelings seriously and intention seriously, and the intention is not to be hateful at all. But if you are trigger-happy and you're looking for a reason to reinforce your own victimhood, your own perception of yourself as a victim, you'll look for anything that will reinforce that.

On Lip Sync Battle:

Oh, I don't think of it. It's a poor ripoff of our show. Regular, straight pop culture has liberally lifted things from gay culture as long as I can remember. And that's fine, because guess what? We have so much more where that comes from. Take it! That's why [my new show] Gay for Play is such a fun thing, because we've taken the best of the gay sensibility and put it all in one place. And we're showing these bitches how it's really done. But it's funny how that works, even in gay culture. There's a certain "gay shame." Gay people will accept a straight pop star over a gay pop star, or they will accept a straight version of a gay thing, because there's still so much self-loathing, you know?

On the younger LGBTQ community and their connection to queer history:

I don't know. I don't really care about them. The truth is, they're on their own. They'll figure it out. There's nothing we can do to force them to say, "Look, this is important." Humans don't learn that way. I think about New York, and I had such a f--king great time there. Do I wish young people could experience that? Yes! Yes, I do. Am I going to work it out for them? No, bitch, you're f--king on your own. Work it out for yourself.

On winning an award:

I made a pact with myself when I was 15 that if I was going to live this life, I'm only going to do it on my terms, and I'm only going to do it if I'm putting my middle finger up at society the whole time. So any time I've had yearnings to go, "Aw, gee, I wish I could be invited to the Emmys," I say, Ru, Ru, remember the pact you made. You never wanted to be a part of that bullshit. In fact, I'd rather have an enema than have an Emmy.

Hero.

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