And as to that article, which may have been in the NYT...actually that would make sense...the NYT app is a great way to kill time...but it did seem kind of self-explanatory, that stupid people are stupid enough to believe that they're not stupid. I mean incompetence, stupidity...they walk hand in hand with each other I guess, but it kind of seemed like a well-accepted truth. You don't usually meet people who are actually stupid who think they're stupid. I'm related to a couple of people who are actually stupid, and one is convinced she's a total genius. Of course what was mostly worrisome about reading that article was the thought that maybe you were incompetent, and you were one of those people who just didn't know it. How do you know you're too incompetent to judge your competency?
And I agree with you on the Fox News lineup, but I think the worst among them is Glenn Beck. Honestly, I think for the most part if you get rid of him, you've got a bunch of harmless morons who somehow got TV shows. The only person I think stood a chance at actually mattering was Bill O'Reilly, who kind of blew it at some point and reverted to being a joke. What I really don't understand, and this probably accounts for the fixation lots of liberals have on discussing it (seriously, I was assigned Glenn Beck jokes in a class because the teacher said "sure I've heard a bunch of Glenn Beck jokes, but I hate that guy so much that I never tire of them" which about says it all), is how Glenn Beck managed to evade joke status. His show is such ridiculous nonsense that I cannot figure out how even the most, I guess I should say, incompetent people fell for it. It completely blows my mind that this dude inspired an entire movement. Actually that's why the tea party movement scares the shit out of me. It may look like a bunch of harmless people, but it is a SHITLOAD of harmless people, who are all doing what Glenn Beck told them to do. My god. It's terrifyingly apocalyptic. I understand this less easily than I understand how Bush could've won two elections, or how to comprehend how the universe could be infinite and somehow expanding, and yet how it could be a certain age (and it's like 13 billion years or some shit like that), or how Robert Pattinson's brain works. I've spent so long hating that patriotism has somehow been hijacked by a bunch of conservatives, how it's like if you don't wear your flag t-shirt at the appropriate times you're some traitorous socialist who should move to Canada, but I draw the line at hijacking history and rewriting it to serve your completely fucked-up and shallow purposes. Actually, I draw the line at comparing your dumbass plights with the Holocaust, but since that's not related to the Thomas Paine thing, it's really a different line.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2010-07-04 11:25 am (UTC)And as to that article, which may have been in the NYT...actually that would make sense...the NYT app is a great way to kill time...but it did seem kind of self-explanatory, that stupid people are stupid enough to believe that they're not stupid. I mean incompetence, stupidity...they walk hand in hand with each other I guess, but it kind of seemed like a well-accepted truth. You don't usually meet people who are actually stupid who think they're stupid. I'm related to a couple of people who are actually stupid, and one is convinced she's a total genius. Of course what was mostly worrisome about reading that article was the thought that maybe you were incompetent, and you were one of those people who just didn't know it. How do you know you're too incompetent to judge your competency?
And I agree with you on the Fox News lineup, but I think the worst among them is Glenn Beck. Honestly, I think for the most part if you get rid of him, you've got a bunch of harmless morons who somehow got TV shows. The only person I think stood a chance at actually mattering was Bill O'Reilly, who kind of blew it at some point and reverted to being a joke. What I really don't understand, and this probably accounts for the fixation lots of liberals have on discussing it (seriously, I was assigned Glenn Beck jokes in a class because the teacher said "sure I've heard a bunch of Glenn Beck jokes, but I hate that guy so much that I never tire of them" which about says it all), is how Glenn Beck managed to evade joke status. His show is such ridiculous nonsense that I cannot figure out how even the most, I guess I should say, incompetent people fell for it. It completely blows my mind that this dude inspired an entire movement. Actually that's why the tea party movement scares the shit out of me. It may look like a bunch of harmless people, but it is a SHITLOAD of harmless people, who are all doing what Glenn Beck told them to do. My god. It's terrifyingly apocalyptic. I understand this less easily than I understand how Bush could've won two elections, or how to comprehend how the universe could be infinite and somehow expanding, and yet how it could be a certain age (and it's like 13 billion years or some shit like that), or how Robert Pattinson's brain works. I've spent so long hating that patriotism has somehow been hijacked by a bunch of conservatives, how it's like if you don't wear your flag t-shirt at the appropriate times you're some traitorous socialist who should move to Canada, but I draw the line at hijacking history and rewriting it to serve your completely fucked-up and shallow purposes. Actually, I draw the line at comparing your dumbass plights with the Holocaust, but since that's not related to the Thomas Paine thing, it's really a different line.