“Everything is falling, dear
All rhyme and reason gone
It's just history repeating itself
And, babe, you turn me on
Like an idea
Like an Atom bomb.” – Nick Cave
Most of the time I’m amused by Bill Maher, but he’s onto new kick that he unveiled on his own show and then used again today with Rachel Maddow. “The American people are too stupid to be governed.” Hold up there Bill, isn’t that edging to some Stalinist maxim about how “people are sheep and easily led to the slaughter?” I know a majority of voters have proved their innate pig-ignorance by countenancing eight walking-nightmare years of the George Bush White House miasma, but, like I said yesterday, without some kind of belief the people are somehow worthwhile, there goes the ballgame. Reach for your revolver. Test the cyanide on the dog. Maher needs to realize what we’re talking here is education or the lack of it. How do you recognize that McCain – as he stumbles from senior moment to senior moment – is the new Herbert Hoover in this remake of The Wall Street Crash, and that Obama could be a potential FDR? It’s not easy if you’ve never cracked a history book and don’t have a clue who Hoover and FDR really are. And who taught Americans to distrust intelligence? Or knowledge? How do you make an informed decision when you’re not informed? I really hope We The People will ultimately prove we are merely dumbed down. Not fundamentally dumb. Remember, the rest of us are counting on you. It’s never too late to study. In fact, here’s a first lesson. The picture above is of a breadline in 1929. Without radical change and reform, that’s what 2009 will look like, only in digital color.
The secret word is Condemned
Test the cynide on the dog? Are you that deep in the bunker?
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid I have to agree with Mr. Maher on this one; the majority of Americans are as dumb as a box o' rocks.
ReplyDeleteI think I'm about average-to-high in smartitude and smartosity (I never finished my BFA, but I read constantly, question everything, and my brain is a storehouse of useless "Jeopardy question" knowlege), but compared to most of the people I encounter on a daily basis, I'm a fucking genius of Einstein/Hawking proportions. When I lived in South Carolina I felt like one of those Star Trek aliens with the gigantic, pulsating brains that were about five sizes too large for their bodies.
Examples: Bush was elected to not just one, but TWO terms in office (and by a pretty wide margin). Britney Spears is rich and famous. "The World According to Jim" is still on the air. Huge numbers of people think that Budweiser is good beer. I've actually heard on more than one occasion that "...readin' books jest makes ya stoopid." Most High School grads don't know when the War of 1812 was fought.
You live in more-or-less civilized L.A.; come on down to Jacksonville, FL and I'll show you the appallingly REAL America, bro.
Jettboy's right. Out in the red states, they are irredeemably fucking stupid. And proud of it. The think otherwise is just socialist romance.
ReplyDeleteI live in New Mexico,a state that does not fare well in national education statistics. There are some stunningly ignorant people here. But the thing is, I trust my fellow regular idiots to be relatively more decent in a collective jam than the sociopaths who claw their way to the power centers. Maybe I would agree with Maher if he said America is too dumb to be governed by a bunch of assholes, who are either too clueless themselves as to what they really are, or too twisted to give a shit and live to manipulate people for their own pathetic, pointless, neurotic ends.
ReplyDeleteA man after my own heart. God bless you MikeM.
ReplyDeleteThis is completely off topic, though...
ReplyDeleteSay you "had your way" so to speak, with a zombie... would that be necrophilia? I mean... it's reanimated, yeah? So... where's the line on this one?
Anyone?
& just to be clear, I'm not talking about the Haitian "brain-washed" zombies... Romero all the way.
Rather than think the American people are too stupid to be governed, I think that the vast majority of the American people are so stupid that they HAVE TO be governed, NEED TO be governed.
ReplyDeleteSilly me.
ReplyDeleteThought Bush had to steal a few votes here and there to win last time(s) in spite of the graft.
Better watch out kids as Mick and Eddie once said.
Nope, Valerie, completely untrue.
ReplyDeleteGranted, the fucker snuck in the first time 'round; the second time he was elected by a solid majority. No matter how many non-Republicans (myself included) dislike Bush, in the last presidential election he handed John Kerry's ass to him on a platter.
Proving again that most average Americans are...well, plain ol' fucking stupid. Use any euphemism available (easily led, confused, out of touch, blinded, misled, uninformed...whatever), "stupid" works just fine for me.
"he handed John Kerry's ass to him on a platter."
ReplyDeleteA 3 million majority in the popular vote from a total of over 120 million votes? That's about 2.5%
35 more ECV than Kerry?
Hardly an ass whupping let alone a landslide and that's the encouraging base that Obama starts from this time out.
Don't know where you live Jettboy but back in 2004 here in Spain there was considerable media consensus about suspicious results.
ReplyDeleteA quick Google search now came up with a long CounterPunch article from November 8, 2004
Votes Aren't the Only Thing Missing in Ohio
Media Black Out on Vote Fraud Allegations.
by DAVID SWANSON media coordinator for the International Labor Communications Association.
"Specific evidence of miscounting has been uncovered. And, despite the national media's near-blackout of the issue, local reporting has documented some of the problems. In fact, although you won't learn it from the corporate media, three members of Congress have asked the General Accounting Office to investigate irregularities with voting machines in the November 2 election. The Congress Members, John Conyers, Jerrold Nadler, and Robert Wexler, cited a few of the problems that have already arisen, including a machine in a single Ohio precinct awarding Bush an extra 3,893 votes, machines in North Carolina losing 4,500 votes, machines in Florida miscounting absentee ballots, and voters in both Florida and Ohio reporting machines registering votes for Bush that were intended for Kerry.
More troubling than these problems and others like them is the fact that much of the electronic vote counting is in the hands of private companies, produces no auditable record, and can easily be tampered with..."
But of course they're such an honest bunch, you must be right.
Faux. It's necrophilia. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
ReplyDeleteYeah, and Counterpunch is a source of reliable information. Please.
ReplyDeleteI don't like the end result any better than you do, but the simple fact is that Bush won the election; no shadowy conspiracies, no election fraud, no blood pact with the Dark Gods of the Underworld...just a staggering number of dumbasses, mouth-breathers and hardcore fans of Jesus who bought into the Republican line of bullshit.
He won. Lots of stupid people voted for him and he won. Simple.
Triskaidekaphobic 13 intervention.
ReplyDeleteHate to tell you this Jettboy but all those cheap plastic coffins are the Standard Dumb Majority version. You should see the Genius model they got ready for the aliens with gigantic pulsating brains.
ReplyDeleteOhhhhhhh, the coffins...Honey, maybe you should try getting your information from a bit more reliable source than CounterPunch, conspiracy websites, YouTube, Alex Jones, or your favorite sci-fi writer.
ReplyDeleteThose scary 'coffins' near Atlanta are NOT owned by FEMA, nor are they on property leased by any government agency. They are on the property of the manufacturing company (according to land records, it's Wilbert Inc.)located in Covington, GA. They are manufactured plastic burial
vaults used as an alternative to concrete in-ground burial. The locals have known about 'em for years.
If you don't believe me, just ask Elvis, Buddy Holly and Jack Kennedy the next time their spacecraft lands to drop off the Loch Ness Monster.
That's one theory about the coffins.
ReplyDelete