Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue In The Land of the Free

BeingHope - Harshlands wrote: »

But I'm Asian, not American btw b:laugh

Saitada - Sanctuary wrote: »

This is the more direct and pertinent parts of my post. The sad truth is, I see every day people doing things that makes me wonder how they can even get up in the morning and dress themselves.

My wife was HIT by a car backing out of a parking space at the store. The woman who was driving.. was staring at her lap texting with her phone. Not paying attention to anything around her, or even aware that she had just hit a pedestrian with her car until my wife who after screaming at the woman that she was running her over slapped her hand down hard on the woman's trunk. That got her attention... she locked her cars doors.

No concern for the fact she had just hit my wife with her car at all.

Nope, she instead was 'afraid' because my wife, who had been screaming at her hat she was running her over, hit her car with her hand.

Pure unadulterated stupidity and idiocy.

And it's common. Growing in frequency.

It's a sad statement when you can say "Common sense isn't common" and be telling the truth.

~Saitada

Saitada - Sanctuary wrote: »

Nods. People wonder why I have such a low tolerance for others on the forums and why I am so mean and abrasive. Stuff like what happened to my wife is why. I have almost no tolerance for idiocy and stupidity unless the person truly is handicapped, in which case I will go way out of my way to be helpful. But people who should know better? Have the reasoning capacity to know better and don't? No. I have no tolerance for that at all.

~S

The Obituary of Common Sense
Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape.

He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as knowing when to come in out of the rain, why the early bird gets the worm, life isn't always fair, and maybe it was my fault.

Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you earn) and reliable parenting strategies (adults, not children, are in charge).

His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a six year old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.

Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job they themselves failed to do in disciplining their unruly children.

It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer Panadol, sun lotion or a Band Aid to a student but could not inform the parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.

Common Sense lost the will to live as the Ten Commandments became contraband, churches became businesses, and criminals received better treatment than their victims.

Common Sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar can sue you for assault.

Common Sense finally gave up the will to live after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.

Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust; his wife, Discretion; his daughter, Responsibility; and his son, Reason.

He is survived by three stepbrothers; I Know My Rights, Someone Else is to Blame, and I'm A Victim.

Not many attended his funeral because so few realised he was gone.

Bijorin - Dreamweaver wrote: »

Yeah, I'm American, and I'm pretty ashamed of the lower IQ that we're known for, amotng other things.

On the other hand, lots of attacks and wars happen because a deity someone believes in told them to, or that their enemies otherwise defies their religion. Look at the plane hijackers from 9/11.

You live here, so you're still one of us!b:victory

Okay, that I am proud of about America. Since we don't claim one culture or race, we have the best(and worst?) of every culture and race.

Saitada - Sanctuary wrote: »

Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue In The Land of the Free

Category: Books
Genre: Nonfiction
Author: Charles Pierce

"The culture wars are over. The idiots have won."

Charles Pierce, a writer for the Boston Globe begins his book with this sentence. I know how he feels - I've written on many of the topics he touches in "Idiot America", and feel a kinship-of-sorts with him.

His epiphany started when he visited Ken Ham's Creation Museum in Kentucky, and saw a dinosaur - wearing a saddle. Ham himself was conducting the tour that day, and what really drove home the certain knowledge of America's Dumbing Down was the ovation given to Ham when he said "We're taking the dinosaurs back from the evolutionists!"

(Asked how Noah's Ark survived the sheer weight of dinosaurs, Ham replied that "The dinosaurs in the Ark were young ones.")

That this piece of egregious idiocy would find a home in America no longer surprises Pierce.

Really.

While he loves cranks - solely because they are harmless, and lovable - Pierce draws the line at the likes of Ham, Limbaugh and O'Reilly, because "...they (lovable old cranks) don't spew bilious nonsense over 600 radio stations."

I couldn't agree more.

While he can't define a moment when it all 'began' (his is more of a Dismal Tide theory than a Big Bang of Moronity), he points to several events in the past few decades when stupidity was not frowned upon, but celebrated ("Perception is not reality") - and where truth is banned, idiocy is self-reinforced, and where pop-culture icons like Bono are revered for their 'political insight'.

We have, says Pierce, replaced intelligence and reason with Gut - and, he goes on to say, " 'Gut' is a moron."

The Dismal Tide is rising, warns Pierce, and the tide is a veritable ocean of ****, made manifest by our collective abandonment of anything which passes for brains.

It is no longer 'cool' to engage in critical thought, reason, or to espouse any intelligence. In a land which gave rise to Edison, we now have idiocy as a state religion of sorts; a nation of ingenuity and intellectualism now deteriorated to a point where more people voted for "American Idol" than for President in the last two elections.

Pierce goes on to point out other 'gems' of idiocy: A Federally-funded faith-based 'abstinence' program which teaches school-children that HIV can be transmitted through tears; a Texas law banning 'suggestive cheerleading'; a proposal in Alabama to ban books by **** authors.

As with any good rant, there are no conclusions - simply a call to action which, I fear, will likely not be heeded.

We live, after all, in the same country where people walk into open manholes while texting their "BFF's"; the nation which can't find itself on a map; the nation which went to war because its president said, "God told me to."

~Saitada

p.s. This is a book review I found while looking up something on idiots.

zaeri wrote: »

Australia.

Enough said.

Pity that the only image of Australia/Australians that most people get is the really stupid steriotype... Excuse me while I go feed my kangaroo! Not.

Once again, Australia = b:victory