# NEW Stupid Republican Idea of the Day (Part 3) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 4, 2023, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-3/986588 "2023-07-04T21:42:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 166
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2024, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-3/986588/3301 "2024-01-29T12:53:34Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > I think the cognitive function being checked for here is whether the subject has the situational awareness to _ask_ for resources to complete the task. I am reminded of a story (forget the title) where part of the applicant screening process is a long quiz/questionnaire of pointless trivia. People who give up too quickly are rejected. People who plow all the way through are tapped for middling desk jobs. What they’re looking for are the ones who stick with it a while before objecting “This is bullshit!”. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2024, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-3/986588/3302 "2024-01-29T13:17:33Z")
This side conversation reminds me of some of the tasks on a BBC show called Taskmaster. The show tends to reward lateral thinking so it’s funny when each member is asked to do something like “Stand here and throw an object into the bin over there”. Most people standing in front of a table full of ‘objects’ will naturally assume those are the only objects they’re allowed to use. A lateral thinker will realize the instructions didn’t specify that and instead pick up a handful of gravel and throw it in the general direction of the bin. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2024, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-3/986588/3303 "2024-01-29T13:31:02Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > The show tends to reward lateral thinking so it’s funny when each member is asked to do something like “Stand here and throw an object into the bin over there”. Most people standing in front of a table full of ‘objects’ will naturally assume those are the only objects they’re allowed to use. A lateral thinker will realize the instructions didn’t specify that and instead pick up a handful of gravel and throw it in the general direction of the bin. I got suckered once by a guy who bet me five bucks he could hit a stop sign from where we were standing with, say, a snowball on his first try — and, as we’re both looking at the stop sign on the other side of a pretty wide street, I decide, _yeah, that seems like a pretty good bet_ — and he breaks out the big grin and turns around, and I turn around, and, sure enough, there’s a stop sign _right behind us._ Boy, what a dope I was! Anyway, he missed. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2024, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-3/986588/3304 "2024-01-29T14:07:02Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > I wasn’t old enough to be paying any attention whatsoever to politics, but presumably the Right was equally angry when MTV started their Rock The Vote campaign back in the 90s. Not in any large measure. Maybe a bit worried but not apoplectic and certainly not tying them to any sort of conspiracy theory as some sort of undisclosed government asset. You have to remember that in the 90s, Fox News, the internet, and the subsequent right-wing monoculture that now dominate the landscape were in their nascent stages. There may have been some tut-tutting in some corners about kids eventually growing out of their youthful indiscretions but widespread condemnation of a public drive to encourage voting would not have gone over well. There’s a lot of truth in the idea that the very parents who warned their kids about the dangers of trusting random people on the internet are now the same people espousing ludicrous, largely right-wing conspiracy theories they got from random people on the internet. Their kids turned out mostly alright. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2024, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-3/986588/3305 "2024-01-29T14:15:50Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > presumably the Right was equally angry when MTV started their Rock The Vote campaign back in the 90s. Not at all. Encouraging others, especially the kids, to register and vote only became a Bad Thing since the rise of Trumpism. ETA: Just adding to the post by @Great_Antibob ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2024, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-3/986588/3306 "2024-01-29T14:17:48Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > There may have been some tut-tutting in some corners about kids eventually growing out of their youthful indiscretions but widespread condemnation of a public drive to encourage voting would not have gone over well. Being of the appropriate age at the time, what I recalled was everyone and their dog desperately wanting young people to start actually voting. The vast majority of young people not voting was seen as a major problem, and everyone wanted to solve it. I don’t recall any partisan split on this issue, they were all courting the youth vote, because they knew it had the potential to be large enough to tip the scales in any direction. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2024, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-3/986588/3307 "2024-01-29T14:54:38Z")
A youth voter turnout of 55+% is very bad news for Republicans. And she’s telling her very young and very loyal fan base to register and vote. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2024, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-3/986588/3308 "2024-01-29T15:44:50Z")
And very female, in the wake of _Dobbs_. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2024, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-3/986588/3309 "2024-01-29T17:57:04Z")
She also whooped it up when somebody blew up the Georgia Guidestones. > **[Failed GOP governor candidate cheers ‘satanic’ Georgia Guidestones blast -...](https://georgiarecorder.com/2022/07/07/failed-gop-governor-candidate-cheers-satanic-georgia-guidestones-blast/)** > > State investigators are looking into an apparent attack at an offbeat granite monument detractors have described as satanic. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2024, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-3/986588/3310 "2024-01-29T17:59:40Z")
Indeed, Republicans are losing the national youth vote by over 25 points but the margin is even higher among young women. The long term problems MAGA is causing itself explains a lot of the current desperation and downright illegality imho. Republicans have captured the youth vote in living memory but lost it bigly beginning around 2004 - with no end to the trend in sight. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2024, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-3/986588/3311 "2024-01-29T18:13:31Z")
This is why I am always dubious about some of these ultra long term planners, like the [long-now foundation.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Now_Foundation). You can make all thoughts and plans for the 10,000 year future, but chances are some time in the next century or two some dick is going to feel different about out and put a kibosh on the whole thing. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2024, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-3/986588/3312 "2024-01-29T18:37:14Z")
How many Republicans are losing their minds over the Chiefs returning to the Super Bowl? A lot of them apparently think it’s a conspiracy to get Tay Tay to be there and endorse Biden. Idiots, the lot of them. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2024, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-3/986588/3313 "2024-01-29T18:42:01Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > A lot of them apparently think it’s a conspiracy to get Tay Tay to be there and endorse Biden. > **[Taylor Swift Will Not Perform at Super Bowl LVIII, Stage is All Usher's](https://www.tmz.com/2024/01/29/taylor-swift-will-not-perform-super-bowl-lviii-halftime-show-usher/)** > > Taylor Swift is headed to the Super Bowl in 2 weeks to watch Travis Kelce -- but for everyone thinking she might step into music mode while there ... we have bad news for ya. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2024, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-3/986588/3314 "2024-01-29T18:47:21Z")
> [@Folacin](#): > > I believe that she is also successfully encouraging her fans to register to vote (presumably only the ones old enough). Since they skew largely female, the QOP assumes that they will largely Democratic. But it’s not as though she’s being coy about just telling people to exercise their democratic rights. She came out in the 2018 midterms explicitly anti-MAGA, called Marsha Blackburn Trump in a wig, had a [change.org](http://change.org) petition on LGBT rights. Given the media shitstorm she constantly has to deal with I wouldn’t presume to say what she _should_ be willing to take on, but I _hope_ the next Era gets a lot more explicitly angry about women’s rights. She can write savage lyrics, she has 500 million followers across the major social media platforms. She’s not going to reach the MAGA base that are terminally detached from reality any more than anyone else, but the crux of this election is surely getting a motivated anti-Trump turnout. The international part of the Eras tour ends in August, she’s back in the US from October. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2024, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-3/986588/3315 "2024-01-29T19:03:06Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > A lot of them apparently think it’s a conspiracy to get Tay Tay to be there and endorse Biden. > > Idiots, the lot of them. If Tay Tay has a secret plan, 50 million obsessive Swifties will decode the Easter Eggs and work out the exact hour and manner in which her sequined wrath will be unleashed, but yeah - the likes of Scott Greer IQ 187 certainly aren’t going to figure it out. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2024, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-3/986588/3316 "2024-01-29T19:08:40Z")
If she’s actually able to get to Vegas from Tokyo, not rehearse, and still put on a show at the Super Bowl, she’s got my vote ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2024, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-3/986588/3317 "2024-01-29T19:09:09Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > But it’s not as though she’s being coy about just telling people to exercise their democratic rights. She came out in the 2018 midterms explicitly anti-MAGA, called Marsha Blackburn Trump in a wig, had a [change.org](http://change.org) petition on LGBT rights. But there have been other mega-popular stars who have advocated for Democrats, right? Beyoncé, for example. Did she catch this level of hate? Maybe she did. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2024, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-3/986588/3318 "2024-01-29T19:09:31Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > she’s got my vote Hold on, you do realize your not supposed to be actually voting _for_ Taylor, right? Although she does turn 35 in December. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2024, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-3/986588/3319 "2024-01-29T19:10:23Z")
> [@Stratocaster](#): > > Did she catch this level of hate? Maybe she did. Beyonce, unlike Swift, is not what many MAGAts would call a ‘race traitor’ > [@Riemann](#): > > Hold on, you do realize your not supposed to be actually voting _for_ Taylor, right? Although she does turn 35 in December. Tell that to the conspiracy theorists. Who can keep track of any of that nonsense? ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2024, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-3/986588/3320 "2024-01-29T19:14:54Z")
> [@Stratocaster](#): > > Beyoncé, for example. Did she catch this level of hate? It’s expectations. They know Hollywood and the music industry is almost entirely against them aside from a few has-beens and the mentally ill, but with Taylor they had a fantasy that she was their secret MAGA princess. Hell hath no fury like a mediocre White man scorned by a non-subservient woman. Look at what happened to the Dixie Chicks, who didn’t have Taylor’s superpowers. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-3/986588.md?page=165) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-3/986588.md?page=167)