Mad magazine is still around?
There are only two choices whose implications are global (or, not mainly US specific): Obama and Ebola.
I choose ebola.
What did Charles Barkley say this time? He seems to say a couple dumb things a year and I’m not coming up with any specifics.
Other: GamerGate.
While all the choices include a healthy dose of stupidity, most of them have some sort of parallel issue or co-factor that make it hard to determine exactly how much is stupidity and how much is something else unsavory.
Barkley: Stupidity colored by standard huge-ego issues.
Braley: Never heard of this. Sounds pretty stupid, but no real impact outside of Iowa.
Cosby: “Meme me” was stupid, but there’s that whole serial rapist thing.
Ebola: Probably the runner-up. Much stupidity, but journalistic sensationalism was a big part, too.
Obama/ISIS: Stupid to admit not having a strategy yet, but not yet having a strategy was probably forgivable given the speed with which the situation developed and its complexity in the context of Iraq/Syria/Iran/Middle East in general. (And yes, I’d feel the same were this a Republican administration.)
NFL: Financial incentive to protect a star player and still all-too-common ignorance about domestic violence in general.
Donald Sterling: Racism. Which is itself stupid, of course, but to me it still stands apart as a separate problem. And, as pointed out, he profited mightily anyway.
Now, certainly, misogyny was a factor in GamerGate, and there was obviously some despicably evil behavior on the part of some of the participants. But I dunno, somehow it just seems to me that pure, glorious, unadulterated stupidity really shines through GamerGate in a way not seen in the other possibilities.
I don’t remember what he said recently that was stupid, but his ALS ice bucket challenge was certainly memorable:
Barkley said that he didn’t think that Ferguson/Garner was necessarily police brutality. I think that his opinion is becoming magnified because he is black and is “expected” to believe the opposite. It doesn’t seem like a super RW position; he isn’t Ben Carson. Maybe off the beaten path but he doesn’t seem to be positioning for politics.
Gamergate: stupidity on all sides. And it’s been 42+ years; stop adding -gate to everything!
First when Adrian Peterson was charged with child abuse, Barkley made a boneheaded defense of him. He also made some unappreciated comments in the aftermath of the Ferguson rioting.
I think Dick Cheney has made a late dash for a nomination in this.
Ebola. For a couple weeks, anyone who had visited an entire continent or had a relative, friend, nephew 32 times removed, aunt’s cat, or former neighbor who’d visited/had a layover in/knew a dude in said continent was a risk for THE DEADLY PLAGUE THAT WILL TEAR APART AMERICA AND, THEREFORE, THE UNIVERSE!!11!!
Oh, and bonus points for the fact that, once it became apparent it wasn’t a direct threat to the US, all interest in foreigners dying horrible deaths vanished. Funny, that . . .
I don’t think they did. From anecdotal reports I have heard with my own two ears, they were rabble rousers, change agents, or agent provocateurs from “someplace else”. As my elderly friend used to say, “believe half of whatcha see and nuthin’ ya hear (referring to the media)”
C’mon… do you really think the locals would set fire to their own community centre? Their local, black owned, stores?
Here’s a nugget to think about
"The government & corporations of Missouri, conspired together to reduce the property values of “mom & pop” stores that refused to sell their livelihood.
What triggered Ferguson to become the center of a national propaganda campaign that could very well be used to take away more rights and freedoms? Why was that exact spot chosen for this? Because some high level super rich corporate types decided they wanted to take the main avenue of Ferguson and turn it into a large strip mall, and mom and pop stores refused to sell.
Take a look at this initiative which failed because mom and pop stores said NO: "
copy/pasted from some weird website called “datehookup.com” here’s the link with the conspiracy theory
http://www.datehookup.com/Thread-1389305.htm
it is a conspiracy- but sure sounds convincing! I’ve seen it happen. Funny how Mark Zuckerberg just bought a huge new property in HI I am wondering if he is getting out of it before it goes to hell. Anyone been there lately? They have a new low-income community centre, a few “Big Lots” type stores (Grocery Warehouse, Big Lots, and another I can’t think of right now) this bizarro world of “green streets initiatives” they make huge promises about “modernizing” and “making the city better”, get big checks from the federal govt, then come in and shit up the community. They hire cronies with zero experience to build ugly, formless buildings with some sort of low income promise in mind yet these jerks get paid the big money to come in and turn a NICE little haven into a literal 3rd world low income crap hole.
SOME one wanted their hands on Ferguson to get THEIR piece of the pie. When it wasn’t handed to them on a silver platter they figured they could get it for pennies on the dollar if they just used the old slash n burn model.
How’s them apples?
The “North Korean” hack of Sony to prevent release of a shitty movie where their pissant little dictator is assassinated. All the theater chains quake in their boots and say they won’t show it. Sony Pictures caves and says they’ll stop release. Everyone and the President says that sends the wrong message. George R.R. Martin says he’ll show it in his theatre. The BitTorrent folks volunteer to torrent it worldwide. Hustler publisher Larry Flynt says he’ll make a disgusting porno about Kim Jung-un. Now Sony says they still want to release the film.
The really stupid thing in an already monumentally stupid chain of events: Some venues were going to switch to playing Team America: World Police, where Jong-un’s father and predecessor Kim Jong-il sings “I’m so ronery” in marionette form. Paramount said “NO!”
It sure is, and it’s just as timely and funny as ever.
I’d say Kansans re-electing Sam Brownbeck after he trashed the economy and promised to DOUBLE DOWN on the things he did to trash the economy, apparently because Brownbeck’s opponent was discovered to have visited a strip club in his 20s, certainly is a leading contender. I feel very sorry for the people who live in Kansas and didn’t vote for Brownbeck. I’m enjoying a certain amount of schadenfruede in the recent discovery that Kansas’ budget is even more whacked out than was initially thought.
Of course, I live in Georgia, which re-elected a governor who led his state’s economy with such brilliance that Georgia currently has the highest unemployment rate in the nation. Yes, even higher than Kansas’. Higher than perennial loser-states Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana. So I’m being a bit of a hypocrite here. Or would be, if I had voted for Governor Deal.
I pretty much only buy Mad once a year, for the “20 Dumbest” end-of-year feature. By one magazine a year, I can tell that the magazine has changed a lot from when I read it as a kid, but the satire still works.
Got my copy of 2014’s “20 Dumbest” yesterday!
It has to be Ebola. Not that the people mentioned don’t rate, but the Ebola reaction was on the order of mass hysteria.
Sadly, I have no idea where to buy a copy of Mad these days.
QFT.
Where the worlds greatest nation is pushed around by some pissant would be Stalin.
I want to go meta:
Barbara Walters picking Amal Alamuddin Clooney as the Most Fascinating Person of 2014 is mega dumb. Marrying George Clooney makes you fascinating???:dubious:
Me too. I liked it when I was a kid, because making fun of pop culture seemed like comic genius. Nowadays I pay no attention to movies, TV, or pop music, so most of it just goes right over my head. But the “20 Dumbest” list has a certain je ne sais quoi. The way that it inverts everyone else’s attempt to list the greatest or best or most popular things of the year just seems like the perfect satire of the more pompous and narcissistic media outlets.
And if anyone was wondering, the NFL’s mishandling of the Ray Rice situation was #1. Ebola hysteria was #2.
Pretty much anywhere that has a magazine rack! And chances are, your local hometown library has it, although they may keep it behind the counter to deter vandalism.