# Republican National Committee explores new frontiers of stupidity **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 5, 2004, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-national-committee-explores-new-frontiers-of-stupidity/227658 "2004-02-05T13:29:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2004, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-national-committee-explores-new-frontiers-of-stupidity/227658/21 "2004-02-06T22:51:15Z")
Well, boys and girls, if it’s a fake pop-up designed by the evil lecherous Democrats, they did a pretty good job. The pop-up link takes you [here](http://www.republican-info.com) for more of the same stirring rhetoric. I look forward to stunning revelations. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2004, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-national-committee-explores-new-frontiers-of-stupidity/227658/22 "2004-02-07T00:12:00Z")
**SMTWTFS** : Good point, but note that I said India _and Asia_. India does indeed have a large percentage of English speakers, but **jeevmon** has been bleating about stereotyping Asians as a whole, with Indians as a subset of the group. When you lump the population of India in with the populations of China, Japan, and the rest of South East Asia, the number of English speakers is, indeed, going to be a minority of the whole. I probably would have been clearer if I’d just said “Asia,” though. My bad. > [@jeevmon](#): > > No, it is a stereotype. It is a stereotype to assume that, just because the call center has been moved to India that all of a sudden you won’t be able to understand the person on the other end of the line. What if instead of India, we said that the call center had been moved to the Compton area of L.A., the Pilsen or Back of the Yards neighborhood in Chicago, Northern Louisiana, or South Boston? Yes, what if indeed? If I have trouble understanding a Boston accent, does that make me racist? Does that make Bostonian a race? Normally, I’d mean that rhetorically, but in this case, I’d like an actual response to that, because I half suspect the answer is “yes” in your cock-eyed worldview. See, it’s not biggotted to point out that unfamiliar accents can, indeed, impede comprehension. And Indian accents are not overwhelmingly common in the US, so US citizens, trying to get help with software they bought in the US, from an American company, are generally going to find their level of customer service reduced when the person trying to help them speaks English in a way unfamiliar to them. This is not the fault of the guy working in the call center. This is the fault of the company that decided that providing good customer service was less important than saving a few bucks, and shipped their call centers overseas. And somehow, I doubt that they’re really bending over backwards to make sure that all their employees speak perfect English. If that were an actual concern, they wouldn’t have shipped their call centers to Asia in the first place, would they? > [@](#): > > After all, those are places where the English that is spoken may not be “of the norm,” either becauase of idiosyncratic forms or heavy accents or both. Hell, the President of the United States and his father were both born in the U.S. and attended Andover and Yale, and neither one is particularly well-known for their command of the spoken English language. Yes, and if I called up Microsoft to get help with some of their software, and everyone on the other end of the line spoke like George Bush, I’d be pretty pissed, too. > [@](#): > > I take offense at this stereotyping because I happen to be Indian. My family happens to be Indian. And my family members in India and in the U.S. speak English just fine. Sometimes with an accent, yes, but so do many Americans, including ostensibly educated ones like the President of the United States. And I generally have an easier time understanding English spoken by Indians who grew up in India than I do understanding most of what comes out of the mouths of a lot of people who grew up here in the U.S. and, presumably, learned to speak English in the U.S. But somehow, I get a lot of people assuming that I can’t speak English, or condescendingly praising me as “so articulate” when I do speak English. I think they’re surprised you’re so articulate not because you’re Indian, but because you’re clearly dumb as a brick. They weren’t expecting more than monosyllabic grunts, and are taken aback by actual words, to say nothing of complete sentences. Meanwhile, why don’t you take your hysterical persecution complex and peddle it where someone gives a shit? Start with a Google search for therapists in your area. I’m sure they’d love to hear from you: you’ve clearly got enough issues to finish financing their new BMW. > [@](#): > > So, yes, “Asians can’t speak English” is a stereotype. Some Asians may not be able to speak English, and I will agree that it is not a native language for most Americans. But there are many, many “Americans” who can’t speak it all that well either, including many who were born, raised, and educated here. English is not a native language for most Americans? Wow. Who knew? Incidentally, all those Americans who don’t speak English well that you keep prattling on and on about as if they were somehow relevent to this “debate”? They shouldn’t be working call centers, either. Jobs that require good communication skills should be staffed by people with good communication skills. It is not bigoted to suggest that those communication skills will be less common in a population for whom English is, at best, a second language. > [@](#): > > So, are you always a bigoted fuck, or did you just dust it off for this thread? Yeah, that’s real smart. Keep throwing around the word “bigot,” because God knows, we’ve got so little actual racism, sexism, homophobia, and religious strife in the world that we can afford to casually debase the word in this manner. ---
**Author:** ![Giraffe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giraffe/32/129_2.png) [@Giraffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giraffe)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2004, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-national-committee-explores-new-frontiers-of-stupidity/227658/23 "2004-02-07T00:15:42Z")
> [@jeevmon](#): > > No, it is a stereotype. It is a stereotype to assume that, just because the call center has been moved to India that all of a sudden you won’t be able to understand the person on the other end of the line. This has got to be the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. He didn’t say “Indians are too stupid to learn English”. He said “if you move a call center to a country where English is not the primary language, there is a lower probability of the person you talking to speaking English fluently.” Are you actually taking offense at the idea that English fluency is higher on average in countries where English is the primary language? ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2004, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-national-committee-explores-new-frontiers-of-stupidity/227658/24 "2004-02-07T04:28:33Z")
**Jeevmon** , you’re an idiot. For proof of this assertion let’s go to your last post > [@jeevmon](#): > > Sometimes with an accent, yes, but so do many Americans, including ostensibly educated ones like the President of the United States. And I generally have an easier time understanding English spoken by Indians who grew up in India than I do understanding most of what comes out of the mouths of a lot of people who grew up here in the U.S. and, presumably, learned to speak English in the U.S. So, you have an easier time understanding people that share your accent. However, if an American mentions that he has an easier time understanding someone that shares _his_ accent, he’s a bigot. This is moronic. I’d also like to remind you that most Indians learn the British form of English rather than the American dialect. There’s a difference. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2004, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-national-committee-explores-new-frontiers-of-stupidity/227658/25 "2004-02-07T08:27:13Z")
> [@Giraffe](#): > > This has got to be the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. He didn’t say “Indians are too stupid to learn English”. He said “if you move a call center to a country where English is not the primary language, there is a lower probability of the person you talking to speaking English fluently.” Are you actually taking offense at the idea that English fluency is higher on average in countries where English is the primary language? You do know that English is spoken widely in India, right? From the CIA World Factbook: “English enjoys associate status but _is the most important language_ for national, political, and commercial communication; Hindu is the national language and primary tongue of 30% of the people; there are 14 other official languages…” Emphasis added. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2004, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-national-committee-explores-new-frontiers-of-stupidity/227658/26 "2004-02-07T08:44:10Z")
> [@Measure for Measure](#): > > You do know that English is spoken widely in India, right? > > From the CIA World Factbook: “English enjoys associate status but _is the most important language_ for national, political, and commercial communication; Hindu is the national language and primary tongue of 30% of the people; there are 14 other official languages…” Emphasis added. You do know that someone has already posted that exact quote from the CIA World Factbook, right? Do try and pay attention. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2004, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-national-committee-explores-new-frontiers-of-stupidity/227658/27 "2004-02-08T07:39:40Z")
My god, two whooshes in one thread. **Whoosh the First:** I read **Bricker** ’s hypothetical situation as that of someone in the Democratic party unleashing **Republican** pop-up ads in an attempt to get people pissed off **at the Republicans**. Not, as some have interpreted it, as a situation in which Democrats counter with their own pop-ups. (And personally, I wouldn’t think that was too cool. I think that, if your enemy is as bad as you say he is, you should be able to turn people against him on the basis of what he actually does/has done; you don’t need to frame him.) **Whoosh the Second:** It was apparent to me that when **Tars** mentioned call centers outsourced to India, he was referencing [another thread current in the Pit](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=238011). I believe the focus of his sarcasm was companies that not only outsource jobs, but do so with no thought of what would be best for the customer, like hiring people who speak English well enough to be understood by Joe Lunchbucket. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-national-committee-explores-new-frontiers-of-stupidity/227658.md?page=1)