Looking at a lot of the posts in this thread I have to say, the OP has a point. Probably not the point s/he was trying to make (i.e. all the stupid assholes in America are Republicans and/or Conservatives…though there are some gems in this thread from those groups as well :p), but a point none the less. There are a lot of stupid, ignorant people in this country (and I’m sure me saying that will have irony meters going off and howls of laughter from the, um, gallery as well)…and, based on my own anecdotal experience, in every other country as well.
The thing is that it’s a given that most people don’t know a lot about the broad range of topics discusses. Generally, that’s why sound bites work so well on both sides of the political spectrum…folks simply don’t have the time OR the inclination to really dig in to complex topics and get to the bottom of the underlying issues. Its easier to say stuff like ‘NO. Wages have stagnated for decades due to Reaganomics and waiting for the trickle down. The middle class shouldn’t shoulder any more of the burden for the country’s bills, and the poor obviously don’t have any money to spare’ (sorry rogerbox but your post was the easiest to cut and paste from that provided a perfect example of this in action), or some other equally meaningless drivel about Obama and liberals being socialists bent on making the US into a European socialist paradise or whatever. It’s simply easier to go with sound bites that give you nice, easy and mostly brainless answers that align with ones political worldview…and most people (myself included, since I’m militantly lazy and shiftless) are going to take the easy route and only listen to stuff that generally aligns with that political worldview.
Doesn’t make folks stupid, necessarily (though gods know there are a hell of a lot of stupid folks out there…from what I understand half the people out there are below average in intelligence, if you can believe that!! :eek:)…it just makes them ignorant. Being assholes, of course, is in the eyes of the beholder (and that sucker always has an unbelievable THAC0 and AC, and is simply a nasty customer if memory serves)…I think that, in general, folks are willing to cut folks who are on their ‘side’ of a given debate or political world view some slack, asshole wise, while being overly harsh on folks who are, obviously, assholes on the other side. On this board it’s easier to gang up on someone like OMG or <insert some other well hated ‘right wing’ 'doper here>, while cutting some slack to 'dopers with a more left leaning world view wrt the whole issue of who is or isn’t an asshole.
Just some random thoughts since I’m bored while waiting for a ride to a meeting.
I don’t have a cite for you, but anecdotally I know a lot of Mormons and I don’t know any who homeschool. And I don’t know any under age 50 who have problems with the standard curriculum, at least through high school.
I have a mormon friend who is at BYU now and him and his brothers+sisters were homeschooled all the way through high school, so I probably got my anecdote confused with data. But I was right about the evangelicals.
Well, we’ll be better able to gauge the chances of this happening later today, when the final decision is made on the Pennsylvania voter ID shenaningans.
Only mostly dead! My grandmother voted in 2008, when she was not quite 104. It was her 21st straight presidential election. She won’t be voting this year she says, because she hasn’t kept up on election news well enough.
GOOD MORNING PRESIDENT TRUMP
I’m going to have to take the opportunity to bump this thread from 2012. I could leave my thoughts on this 2016 election in so many other threads this morning, but I know that I said it all back then. It has always been clear to me that this country deserves Trump. He is just so especially representative of America. How anyone is surprised surprises me.
And now I shall make a wild and impossible prediction for the next four years!
… drumroll please!!! …
America will look mostly the same in 2020, and Trump will probably be re-elected. There will be some stupid shit passed, there will be a R Supreme Court balance for another generation, there will be some protests, there will be some school shootings, there may even be a war or two… and America will look mostly the same in 2020. And the Dope will remain shocked SHOCKED! that there are still so many stupid assholes around.
Quoth Me:“There is no harebrained bullshit stupid enough that fully half this country won’t get behind it.”
Thank you, PeanutGallery. I too, underestimated that number. Though I could agree with most everything you said, it’s these (above, quoted) issues that stand-out. I’ll not lose any sleep over it though. I’m an old, straight, above-poverty honkey, so I’ve got it pretty-good. I grow weary of it staying fucked-up for the less-fortunate, though.
And I grow especially weary of this God shit. Jesus-fucking-tapdancing-Christ. I can’t wait until he’s really, truly, and deservedly dead and gone from the US political dialog.
On the other hand it has made it a whole lot easier for rest of us to get a handle on America.
Previously you’d get in a conversation with an American on your travels and they’d be unfailingly polite, articulate, have a passable knowledge of the world outside the lower 48, have a considered views on things they thought should be improved together with an innate understanding of what made America great. And consequently, based on this straw poll of an accumulated cross section, you’d ask yourself again how is it that what is happening is happening? It seemed irreconcilable.
Now we just need to ask the simple question “Did you vote in 2016” and if the answer is yes it is a 50% chance they are a card carrying member of the United Klans of Dumbasfuckistan.
