# Stupid liberal idea of the day **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 20, 2011, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-liberal-idea-of-the-day/579086 "2011-04-20T15:35:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 148
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2014, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-liberal-idea-of-the-day/579086/2941 "2014-11-17T17:15:27Z")
> [@Rune](#): > > … he thought the best way to represent the scientific community was by sending a spacecraft on a ten year voyage to land on a comet a gazillion kilometers from home. Only idiots gives a rats ass what kind of shirt he wore… Now, if the shirt had rat’s asses all over it … 😃 > [@Rune](#): > > … The shirt wasn’t all that bad either. I mean it was clearly a crime against fashion and good taste. But against chicks? Not really. Way to make [del]the offenderatti’s[/del] decent peoples’ point for them, dummy. > [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > I want RNATB to summarize more things… Concur. ---
**Author:** ![hotflungwok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/edb3f5/32.png) [@hotflungwok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hotflungwok)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2014, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-liberal-idea-of-the-day/579086/2942 "2014-11-17T18:07:20Z")
> [@Rune](#): > > Well I don’t give a shit that you’re offended or embarrassed and neither should he had. Go be offend-embarrassed in Yank-land if you’re a yank. Yes he should have, and he was. No one asked him to cry. > [@](#): > > No he thought the best way to represent the scientific community was by sending a spacecraft on a ten year voyage to land on a comet a gazillion kilometers from home. Only idiots gives a rats ass what kind of shirt he wore. Bullshit. He was the spokesperson for the scientific effort, you dress like a scientist, not like a color blind pimp. The queen of England doesn’t go walking out wearing fishnet stockings and a clear plastic miniskirt, not because she can’t, but because she’s the freakin queen. Image counts, and only a fucking moron doesn’t get that. > [@](#): > > The shirt wasn’t all that bad either. I mean it was clearly a crime against fashion and good taste. But against chicks? Not really. Your opinion on the matter has been noted, and given all the respect it was due: none. No one gives a shit what some idiot knuckledragger on the internet thinks about what people should or should not be offended by. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2014, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-liberal-idea-of-the-day/579086/2943 "2014-11-17T18:13:04Z")
> [@](#): > > I want RNATB to summarize more things. _The Lord of the Rings_ (film version): Peter Jackson rips off Ralph Baktiari, spends rest of career having arse kissed and odebunking rumor that orcs are native to New Zealand. Also, guy from Rudy still looks 19 and totally has hots for Elijah Wood (along with rest of humanoids in Middle Earth, and your humble correspondent. His eyes are so purdy.) Law school (US version): Here, read thousands of cases that have been superseded in nearly every jurisdiction and would never come up anyway. Also, this will in no way prepare you for the bar exam or anything you will encounter in actual practice of law, assuming you can find a job. _Labyrinth_: adorable film for children ruing for adults by David Bowie’s terrifying crotch bulge and questions of whether statutory rape laws apply in Goblin Kingdom. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2014, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-liberal-idea-of-the-day/579086/2944 "2014-11-17T18:27:58Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > Could somebody kindly illuminate what the hell \*\*Rune \*\*is talking about? There are few who can. The language is that of Morons, which I will not utter here. ---
**Author:** ![Norse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a9adbd/32.png) [@Norse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Norse)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2014, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-liberal-idea-of-the-day/579086/2945 "2014-11-17T19:57:35Z")
> [@Rune](#): > > Have you ever had […] to work with some of the brightest in various fields? Their social skills often lacks a great deal to be desired. Just because he can land a spacecraft on a comet doesn’t mean he knows how to dress or behave in a manner you seem to find respectable. I tend to think he was merely a geekish kind of person who had no idea that what he did was wrong or knew how to handle the shitstorm. Considering that **Rune** , by European standards, is about 150km (nearly a hundred US miles) to the right of Genghis Khan, politically speaking, and I’m (by US standards) a dirty commie librul Euro, I find it somewhat disconcerting to see that I fully agree with him. And I work in a University, so I assume I’ve got some experience in evaluating the social skills of high-level scientists… ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2014, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-liberal-idea-of-the-day/579086/2946 "2014-11-17T22:17:12Z")
It’s no real surprise that **Rune the Reactionary** decided to tard up the thread with idiotic and misplaced indignation. He is, in this case, an embodiment of Lewis’ Law: Comments on any article about feminism justify feminism. I quite like former (?) SDMB member and professional astronomer Phil Plait’s take on this incident: > [@](#): > > Importantly, the next day, clearly upset he had caused such a fuss, Taylor apologized on air sincerely and graciously for his actions. For the most part, the people who were upset accepted his apology and moved on. This is true. Taylor himself seemed genuinely contrite. It was not one of those “Sorry if people were offended” non-apologies. I won’t say that no-one was calling for his job, because i haven’t read every single blog post and message board post on the subject, but most of the people who criticized him in the first place did, as Plait says, accept the apology and move on. But, of course, the backwards morons saw this as another chance to pile on what they perceive as liberal-feminist-PC-offenderati-whatever groupthink. Morons like **Rune the Reactionary** produced what Plait calls a “frothing torrent of backlash misogyny.” As Plait correctly notes, this is not about prudery or prurience. It’s about a broader atmosphere in which a brilliant scientist thinks it’s OK to wear a shirt like that to work in the first place, and where he also thinks it’s completely fine to explain the complexity of his fascinating project by saying, about the spacecraft, “She’s sexy, but I never said she was easy.” Plait argues, and i agree with him, that none of this is evidence that Taylor is a horrible misogynist. He is probably just a little clueless. But his particular brand of cluelessness reflects an environment where women are generally thought of as less competent and intelligent, and where sexism has historically been a real problem. As Plait notes, a fish doesn’t even notice the water it swims in. Plait finishes his piece: > [@](#): > > If you think this isn’t a big deal, well, by itself, it’s not a huge one. But it’s not by itself, is it? This event didn’t happen in a vacuum. It comes when there is still a tremendously leaky pipeline for women from undergraduate science classes to professional scientist. It comes when having a female name on a paper makes it less likely to get published, and cited less. It comes when there is still not even close to parity in hiring and retaining women in the sciences. > > So yeah, it’s just a shirt. > > And it’s just an ad. > > It’s just a saying. > > It’s just a TV show. > > It’s just the Internet. > > Yes, but you almost make as much as a man does. > > It’s just a catcall. > > It’s a compliment! > > It’s just that boys will be boys. > > It’s just that she’s a slut. > > It’s just that your dress is too short. > > It’s just that we want to know what you were wearing at the time, ma’am. > > It’s just it’s just it’s just. > > It’s just a death by a thousand cuts. No one cut does the deed. In the end, they all do. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-liberal-idea-of-the-day/579086/2947 "2014-11-18T22:43:19Z")
a gimme, “_Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage. And basically, call it the stupidity of the American voter, or whatever, but basically that was really, really critical for the thing to pass_” and, “_American voters are too stupid to understand the difference_” from one [Jonathan Gruber BS(MIT), PhD(Harvard)](http://www.politico.com/story/2014/11/jonathan-gruber-obamacare-voters-white-house-response-112856.html#ixzz3JSj9kVUR), one of the primary authors of Obamacare/Zomneycare. I mean, in context, he is not even slightly wrong, but in mouthiness and tact, he could use a touch of coaching. ---
**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:** [November 18, 2014, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-liberal-idea-of-the-day/579086/2948 "2014-11-18T23:05:27Z")
Yeah, I’m surprised no one put it up on the thread it up before now. It’s up there with Romney’s 43% comment as far as foot in mouth. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-liberal-idea-of-the-day/579086/2949 "2014-11-18T23:33:38Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > a gimme, > > “_Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage. And basically, call it the stupidity of the American voter, or whatever, but basically that was really, really critical for the thing to pass_” > > and, > > “_American voters are too stupid to understand the difference_” > from one [Jonathan Gruber BS(MIT), PhD(Harvard)](http://www.politico.com/story/2014/11/jonathan-gruber-obamacare-voters-white-house-response-112856.html#ixzz3JSj9kVUR), one of the primary authors of Obamacare/Zomneycare. > > I mean, in context, he is not even slightly wrong, but in mouthiness and tact, he could use a touch of coaching. He is actually totally wrong, as witnessed by the fact that Americans were never actually fooled. Democratic Senators from red states were fooled, so more accurately Gruber should have said that the stupidity of red state Democrats was necessary to pass the bill. “I mean, seriously, those guys thought they could vote for ACA and survive? What morons! We really put one over on them!” ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-liberal-idea-of-the-day/579086/2950 "2014-11-19T01:13:17Z")
Mind if we call you “Stretch”? ---
**Author:** ![Rune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e68b1a/32.png) [@Rune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rune)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-liberal-idea-of-the-day/579086/2951 "2014-11-19T01:20:11Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > “Chicks”? Seriously? “Chicks”? I was going for tarts but didn’t want to upset your delicate American sentiments. I’m a nice guy like that. If your sister is hot you can send me her number. > [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > **Rune** gets upset that he can no longer wear shirts with naked ladies to his probation meetings and loses his shit. Don’t have probation meetings around here. You’re not the pinnacle of civilization so stop pretending the whole world should be like you guys. Don’t want your SJW predator drones snooping down on us, and certainly don’t want your fucked up penitentiary system. > [@hotflungwok](#): > > Image counts, and only a fucking moron doesn’t get that. He’s a fucking moron then. Wasn’t that precisely what I said upthread? A person of questionable social skills. So fucking what? You can staff your world with public relation managers and guys in sleek suits, I prefer mine to be with real genuine people, even when they do display an abysmal lack of fashion sense. > [@mhendo](#): > > It’s no real surprise that **Rune the Reactionary** decided to tard up the thread with idiotic and misplaced indignation. He is, in this case, an embodiment of Lewis’ Law: Comments on any article about feminism justify feminism. Everything has a law these days. The only Lewis I know however, is Inspector Lewis. But I always was more of an Inspector Morse kind of man myself. I’m quite the reactionary in that way. > [@mhendo](#): > > I quite like former (?) SDMB member and professional astronomer Phil Plait’s take on this incident: [yay yap yap] What an annoying whiney little man. Good thing he doesn’t post on this board, that’d be most undesirable. “Death by a thousand cuts” – hysteric much? It’s more like helicopter parenting for the grown ups. Every little obstacle must be removed and paved over no matter how trivial, until you end up with a hellish sterilized and bland environment and life. Go fuck yourself. Life sucks sometimes, and you scrape your knees when you fall down. Chipper up, put on you big girl panties and solider on. Or don’t. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-liberal-idea-of-the-day/579086/2952 "2014-11-19T03:34:59Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > from one [Jonathan Gruber BS(MIT), PhD(Harvard)](http://www.politico.com/story/2014/11/jonathan-gruber-obamacare-voters-white-house-response-112856.html#ixzz3JSj9kVUR), one of the primary authors of Obamacare/Zomneycare. Yeah, that guy seems to be a complete tool. I’m not sure how much of a liberal, or even Democrat, the guy is since, as you note, he was also a key architect of the Massachusetts plan under Governor Romney. But still, a dick. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-liberal-idea-of-the-day/579086/2953 "2014-11-25T03:48:30Z")
The NY Times urges the US to end a program that helps doctors defect from Cuba: > **[Opinion | A Cuban Brain Drain, Courtesy of the U.S. (Published 2014)](https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/17/opinion/a-cuban-brain-drain-courtesy-of-us.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=c-column-top-span-region®ion=c-column-top-span-region&WT.nav=c-column-top-span-region&_r=0)** > > It is hypocritical for Washington to praise Cuba’s efforts in fighting Ebola while inviting Cuban doctors working abroad to defect. Not because it’s ineffective, but because it is. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-liberal-idea-of-the-day/579086/2954 "2014-11-25T03:52:40Z")
> [@Rune](#): > > What an annoying whiney little man. Good thing he doesn’t post on this board, that’d be most undesirable. “Death by a thousand cuts” – hysteric much? It’s more like helicopter parenting for the grown ups. Every little obstacle must be removed and paved over no matter how trivial, until you end up with a hellish sterilized and bland environment and life. Go fuck yourself. Life sucks sometimes, and you scrape your knees when you fall down. Chipper up, put on you big girl panties and solider on. Or don’t. He used to post here. He was a much more interesting poster than you ever have been. I consider you a very poor tradeoff. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-liberal-idea-of-the-day/579086/2955 "2014-11-25T06:49:39Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > The NY Times urges the US to end a program that helps doctors defect from Cuba: > > [http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/17/opinion/a-cuban-brain-drain-courtesy-of-us.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=c-column-top-span-region®ion=c-column-top-span-region&WT.nav=c-column-top-span-region&\_r=0](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/17/opinion/a-cuban-brain-drain-courtesy-of-us.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=c-column-top-span-region®ion=c-column-top-span-region&WT.nav=c-column-top-span-region&_r=0) > > Not because it’s ineffective, but because it is. Well, it does constitute theft. Cuba puts a lot of effort into training medical personnel, essentially free college for them, the US is stealing that resource by taking those doctors. And “but because it is [effective]” is a classic **adaher** failure to understand the story. It does not seem all that effective, managing to steal not even five percent of Cuban medical personnel abroad. The issues in question have nothing at all to do with the effectiveness of the policy, more to do with reasonable foreign relations and not being assholes just because we can. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2014, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-liberal-idea-of-the-day/579086/2956 "2014-11-27T01:25:27Z")
You can’t steal people. Cuba doesn’t own them no matter how much they invested. Anyway, another stupid liberal idea: we need to keep marijuana from being commercialized. This has to be a problem only a liberal would ever worry about: > **[Marijuana Legalization Doesn't Have to Lead to Commercialization](https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2014/11/17/is-big-marijuana-inevitable-4/marijuana-legalization-doesnt-have-to-lead-to-commercialization)** > > Turning cannabis over to for-profit vendors carries two great risks: increased drug abuse, and illegal exports from the district to the rest of the country. Marijuana is not a sacred herb. It’s just a product. Big corporations peddling marijuana is actually substantially less harmful than big corporations peddling alcohol. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-liberal-idea-of-the-day/579086/2957 "2014-12-23T21:26:14Z")
Another stupid liberal, dodging the question, > [@"\[Kos](#): > > ([Mayor de Blasio shows how liberals should take control of right-wing planted reporters](http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/12/22/1353650/-Bill-de-Blasio-shows-how-Liberals-should-take-control-of-Right-Wing-planted-reporters))"]A reporter asked … (NYC mayor) de Blasio … if he approved of anti-police chants, with some equating the police to the KKK. Bill de Blasio … answered, “We’ve talked about this so many times. I am not going to talk about it again. Now the question is, what are you guys going to do? Are you going to keep dividing us? … Let’s get real.” ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-liberal-idea-of-the-day/579086/2958 "2014-12-23T21:48:43Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Another stupid liberal, dodging the question, I don’t think its stupid. The article makes the point clearer that he did answer the question, but the reporter kept asking as if he didn’t hear his answer. [QUOTE=Bill de Blasio] “So yes there are some bad people who say inappropriate things. There are some people who say hateful things. They have no place in these protests. They are not what I am talking about. I am talking about the vast majority of New Yorkers and vast majority of Americans who believe in peaceful democratic process. I don’t care where they are in the political spectrum. The vast majority of our citizens are good and decent people who do not say negative things, racist things nasty things to police, threatening things to police.” [/QUOTE] Not only did he answer the question fully, he added what else we should be talking about to help resolve the issue. ---
**Author:** ![Astral\_Rejection](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/258eb7/32.png) [@Astral\_Rejection](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astral_Rejection)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-liberal-idea-of-the-day/579086/2959 "2014-12-23T21:59:03Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Anyway, another stupid liberal idea: we need to keep marijuana from being commercialized. This has to be a problem only a liberal would ever worry about: > > Marijuana is not a sacred herb. It’s just a product. Big corporations peddling marijuana is actually substantially less harmful than big corporations peddling alcohol. You have an incredible knack for mangling an argument, idea, or concept until it has lost all nuance, simplifying until you’ve reached a stark black-and-white conclusion. If you would be more accurate in your synopses, maybe people wouldn’t think you were so wrong all the time. A more accurate recap here would be “_One presumed liberal suggests trying, for some undetermined amount of time, a “grow and give” policy for medical marijuana, as an alternative to high taxes or production quotas._” And you haven’t even explained **why** this suggestion is dumb, except to further mangle synopsis by implying the Stupid Liberal of the Day believes marijuana is sacred. He clearly wants to avoid two key risks, which are helpfully summarized in your own linked article: 1) drug abuse, and 2) illegal exports. Maybe his suggestion won’t work, but it has nothing to do with stopping “big corporations” from “peddling marijuana” just because. You take it a step further, however. By stating “This has to be a problem only a liberal would ever worry about,” you imply it’s the de facto liberal policy - except in DC, the city in question in your linked article, has a democratic mayor-elect who won’t allow the bill to take effect “[without first implementing a tax-and-regulation program.](http://www.denverpost.com/marijuana/ci_26876650/republican-congress-will-weigh-legal-marijuana-d-c)” It frustrates me when you do this. You can’t be bothered to understand nuance, facts, your own links, or proper debate form. Try harder, dude. ---
**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:** [December 23, 2014, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-liberal-idea-of-the-day/579086/2960 "2014-12-23T22:02:36Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Another stupid liberal, dodging the question, Doesn’t sound like it to me. [QUOTE= Blasio from your cite] “There are some people who do that. It’s wrong it’s wrong they shouldn’t do that. It’s immoral It’s wrong it’s nasty. It’s negative. They should not do that. But they my friend are not the majority. Stop portraying them as the majority.” [/QUOTE] I think that pretty straight forwardly answers the question. I just sounds like the reporter wouldn’t take yes for an answer. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-liberal-idea-of-the-day/579086.md?page=147) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-liberal-idea-of-the-day/579086.md?page=149)