As a BIG Jon Stewart fan and progressive, I am duly humbled. Video
Does this really come as a surprise? George Carlin was a comedic god, yet he had moronic fans. Good taste in comedians doesn’t lead to intelligence.
It’s one thing to acknowledge something in the abstract, but seeing firsthand is an altogether different experience.
I think this interviewer is doing more to restore sanity than the attendees he included in the edit.
Ha! I’m good friends with the couple on the left around 3:00 - don’t know the other guy they’re with though. I can back them up for not knowing what’s going on in their congressional districts - like they said they just moved in the past few months.
Most of the people in this clip don’t come across as that moronic, IMO. I was there, and I’m surprised they couldn’t edit together some more compelling/hilarious footage - there were plenty of wack-job/weirdo/drunk people to choose from.
That didn’t seem so bad really… you can’t even begin to compare that stuff to the kind of things you find the in the tea party videos.
Sure, there’s a lot of “umm” and “uhhh”, and it’s frustrating to watch the interviewer lob them these idiotic obviously fallacious arguments and see them fail to come up with the counterargument on the spot, but it’s a lot easier from the couch than on a busy street with a camera in your face. Also a lot of the people he was pressing to come up with answers were pretty clearly just there for the show, and not really pretending otherwise. There’s not really anything moronic about that.
It’s a shame he’s dead. I’d be interested in seeing how many people would say they got their news from George Carlin skits.
I doubt very many people were there for any other reason that it was the hip thing to do. How many people at Woodstock could name every member of every band that played there…or even every band?
I thought the video was pretty crap, to be honest. Firstly, contrary to what the interviewer seems to believe, Stewart and co. rip on FOX a hell of a lot more than they rip on MSNBC for the simple reason that the sheer volume of delusional, balls-out lunacy emanating from FOX dwarfs that coming out of other cable news channels.
Secondly, while I don’t deny that MSNBC’s coverage can be selective, and that the rhetoric of their pundits occasionally crosses the line, the simple fact of the matter is that even the most incendiary issues raised by the network at least tend to have a general and tangible (albeit occasionally tangential) connection to observable reality. When someone like Olbermann gets all worked up, it’s generally because he’s exercised about something real, like the Republicans writing paeans to the troops with one hand and signing bills which under-fund veterans medical facilities with the other. He might sometimes go too far in terms of rhetoric, but at least there’s a kernel of truth in what he’s saying. When someone like Glenn Beck says Barack Obama has a deep seated hatred of white people, or equates a 3% increase in the marginal tax rate on the top 1% with the worst excesses of Eastern Bloc socialism, all the while talking over a backdrop of Nazi storm troopers goose-stepping in time to Deutschland Erwache, he’s not just being hyperbolic. He’s wrong, factually and morally.
To equate MSNBC with Halfrican Obama’s Baby Mama Terrorist Fist Jab Where’s Your Birth Certificate FOX News is just disingenuous.
Edit: That said, the interviewer was right when he pointed out the incongruity having dumbshit Truthers at a rally to restore sanity, and I was disappointed that no-one he interviewed had the balls to agree with him on that.
I don’t get your point. I go to a local festival most every year, and it’s one of the bigger ones held in the US but fuck if I know who most of the acts are, and I’m not there just to be a part of the scene.
A better example of moronitude is here.
What, you mean the type of person who thinks that going to a stand-up comedy show and/or standing around in DC waving a sign will have any tangible effect on anything of any significance might not be the pinnacle of intelligence? I’m shocked.
That said, I didn’t think the video was indicative of anything but standard-level stupidity.
Chers for that. You really have to wonder about some of those people.
The point is that going to a rally of any sort does not automatically make you an expert on anything.
The people attending this rally (I’ll wager a lot more than just those interviewed) weren’t political experts. They went to hang out and be “part of something”. Sure, they were enthusiastic. Sure, they went to hear the message that they’d hope to hear. Doesn’t mean they knew fuck all about politics.
The people attending Woodstock weren’t music experts. Interviewing a select few of them about what went on there would have produced similar results to this set of interviews. They were enthusiastic, they went to hear music. Doesn’t mean they could answer questions about it in an exit interview.
I didn’t see anything all that stupid about the first few people I watched. One guy’s sign fell apart–that’s supposed to make him dumb?
Excellent point, Freudian Slit. You win the thread.
Looking up at everyone else… :rolleyes:
Thanks, that was hilarious.
Concur, except for the 9/11 truthers and the one bearded guy with the Republicans are eeeeeeeeeevil rhetoric. Everybody else seemed to be a fairly reasonable person looking primarily to have some fun and tell people to like, totally lighten up, man. So what’s so moronic about that?
After I posted, I watched a few more. I agree that the 9/11 guy was scary dumb, but I really wasn’t seeing anything all that moronic. Interviewer guy seemed to think it was horrible that the people got their news from Jon Stewart, and while it would be great if people would look at a big variety of sources, I’m not sure that everyone has the time and inclination for that. At least they are watching someone who’s intelligent.
The guy around 7:00 didn’t seem dumb to me either. When the interviewer said that he thought that the response to a right wing news channel was a left wing news channel, his response was that a library with just right wing viewpoints should have the opposing view represented. And then interviewer guy replied, saying he thought it should just have books. Which is all well and good, but I don’t think that we’re ever going to just get pure neutrality. I got the sense that the interviewer was trying to point out that the idea of even having a left wing news show was so stupid, and from there, tried to find people who he viewed as stupid…don’t think it worked out so well…
The 911 ‘Truthers’ are the only real embarassment here I’d say. Although the interviewer shows up the attendees’ ignorance of local politics, at least they don’t fill that void with hateful misinformation. It’s hard to capture a fair cross-section in these crowds but the ones here at least didn’t have a bile-spewing wild-eyed fanaticism about them.
I really liked the “Not Hitler…Not Hitler…Hitler!” sign. 