CNN.com is running a story today about a countrywide Federal crackdown on sex traffic in underage girls. This Federal initiative began in 2003, but according to the kind of people who post comments, child prostitution is Barack Obama's fault. And not just that - Obama likes people to abuse young girls. You see, some of the culprits were from Somalia where most people are Black and nominally Muslim. Obama's father was from Kenya which is on the same continent as Somalia. Therefore Obama is a Muslim and a child molester who wants to protect child molesters.
I realize it's fashionable amongst liberals who aren't scientists to say that IQ means nothing, but it certainly does. If yours is above room temperature, you'll question the presence of "therefore" anywhere in that statement. You won't see it as the fair and balanced "other side" of the story.
The inability to see that this string of pronouncements doesn't even superficially resemble a logical or factual progression seems more than prima facie evidence of congenital and irredeemable idiocy. I'm sorry to sound all Democrat here, but there's something wrong in making it hard for a brain surgeon to get a green card while allowing massive political power to people who only resemble human beings in that they walk on two legs - and rising to power by riding their wave of idiotic anger.
John1865
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/09/mark-warner-move-on-tea-parties_n_780864.html
ReplyDeleteThere you go...Mark Warner says Progressives at MoveOn and the democratic equivelant of the Tea Party Movement...
More freak-o-politics: Joyce Kaufman, Allen West's Chief Of Staff, Advocated Hanging Illegal Immigrants Who Commit Crimes.
ReplyDeleteYup, now you know why I am selling my condo. I don’t want oppression and murder committed in my name.
I have a confession to make, Capt.
ReplyDeleteI work really hard at not writing off most of humankind off as dumb as a brick. Oh, I believe in everything that I say about the need for communication and reasonableness, but those beliefs don't come easily.
At least four or five times per week on average, I call my sister and announce that most Americans are idiots. Ususally it's because I've read the comments after some news story. The story doesn't have to be about the government or politics. It can be about the pros and cons of getting permanent eyeliner tattooed on your upper and lower eyelids, but someone in the comments will begin a thread that decries Obama as a Muslim socialist hater of America who was born in Kenya. (I've decided against the tattooed eyeliner.)
I share your frustration and disdain for many of my fellow human beings. However, when I'm in a calmer frame of mind, I try to understand their meandering thought processes. Perhaps I'm just a cockeyed optimist and I refuse to accept that people are truly that mindless. I like to think that those voices of idiocy represent only a fraction of society. I like to think that they have no self esteem except that which they believe they acquire from making outrageously stupid commentary on the Internet.
I look hard and deep to find the common ground, the good within people, but I admit that there are times when I really just want to yell, "Are you stupid?"
"I look hard and deep to find the common ground, the good within people, but I admit that there are times when I really just want to yell, "Are you stupid?"
ReplyDeleteI think I do too, actually - on both counts. The effort is too much for me much of the time. Because I think a lot of the insane beliefs are simply rationalizations for racism -- hell, I know it is -- it's too much for me and I dream of deserted beaches. Actually I live a quarter mile from a deserted beach, so don't ask me why I'm indoors typing!
Yes, that thing about giving the government power to kill in cold blood. Florida is one of those states that wants to give the government the power of life and death but thinks it wants less intrusive government. What they want is cut-rate security without any responsibility or concern for justice. That and ethnic purity and of course der Zweck heiligt die Mittel.
ReplyDeleteSheria and Capt. Fogg,
ReplyDeleteKnow what one simple dino thinks the trouble is? I don't know that the trouble is raw intelligence; I suspect that many humans just aren't taught how to think for themselves. If they don't consistently get that kind of encouragement as children, their efforts end up being pitiable when they venture forth an opinion as adults. They're trying to do something for which they have almost no preparation. You might as well ask a walnut-brained dino like me to put together a complex model airplane as ask these guys to connect a coherent set of thoughts, or make grammatical sense, or evade the nets of the cynical wordsmiths and hucksters who prey upon their anxieties and exploit their hopes.
It's surely possible for such grown-ups to learn a new trick or two or three intellectually, but the difficulty there is, I reckon, that when you get to be a certain age, it's humiliating to admit that you don't know how to think for yourself -- it's much easier and more satisfying just to latch on to some "strong and wrong" (Bill Clinton's fine phrase) pundit and go around repeating with great conviction what that person says.
Dino, I think that you're on to something. I think that I hang on to the notion that people can learn new tricks is because to believe otherwise is to give in to despair. Where do we go from here if we surrender to the idea that we are doomed to continue on a path of hate and bigotry?
ReplyDeleteCapt., I envy you your deserted beach!
"People do not process information in a neutral way. Their preconceptions affect their reactions. Biased assimilation refers to the fact that people assimilate new information in a biased fashion; those who have accepted false rumors do not easily give up their beliefs, especially when they have a strong emotional commitment to those beliefs. It can be exceedingly hard to dislodge what people think, even by presenting them with the facts." -- Cass Sunstein, "On Rumors"
ReplyDelete