(no subject)

[theweaselking]

CNN: 11% of Americans are absolutely stupid. Another 16% of Americans are severely stupid.

For bonus points: Combining those two leads to "27%", which is, once again, the Crazification Factor.

27% of Americans are too stupid to be allowed out without helmets, and that's a CONSISTENT number, across decades.

Comments

[anivair.livejournal.com]

In other news: Fox news has spent billions of dollars convincing people that it's a credible news channel instead of a hack mouthpiece for lunatics.

Long story short, full half of Americans are of below average intelligence and easily bored. Of those , I'd guess over half are both conservative and christian and are, therefore, exactly the sort of dope that Fox news is very good at conning into their pathetic propaganda machine.

What they have figured out, clearly, is that it doesn't matter how obvious they are. They don't need Me or you or anyone else with a brain, because they have already fooled the dummies into thinking they're legit. And they have convinced them that any of the sources that might discredit their lies are "socialist" or "nazi" or some other word that people dislike and are afraid of.

[unnamed525.livejournal.com]

Commie Nazis!

[maelorin]

teacher!

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, the universe isn't that simple. Radley Balko, who does a superb job on justice system atrocities with a specialty in SWAT teams fucking up and a fair amount about corrupt and incompetent forensics, is a Fox commentator. Andrew Napolitano, who is bad on abortion but who also thinks that both Bush2 and Obamo should be up on charges for violations of civil liberties, is a Fox commentator.

Most of the rest (including the most famous ones) are seriously bad influences, but that doesn't mean you should dismiss the whole station.

[anivair.livejournal.com]

No, I think it does mean that. I won't dismiss the idea that there are good people working there who should be working elsewhere, but when we're talking about a news network who reports lies more than half the time and opinions most of the rest of the time, I'll discount it all. I'd rather get my facts from people who traffic in them and if a few good people get caught in the crossfire, that's fine, because there are other people reporting about that on other networks and from other sources that are not largely biased.

If I have to fact check everything the news says, it's not worth my time. I'll watch a news station that isn't likely to lie to me.

[chrisrw109.livejournal.com]

I think you're totally discounting the craziness of the 29% who say he *probably* was born in the country.

[ambug666.livejournal.com]

Look, saying that he was *definitely* born in the USA discounts all sorts of possibilities including -- but not limited to -- changelings, aliens, and parthenogenesis. So the people who say *probably* are just hedging their bets. They may feel there is a 99.999999...% chance that Obama was born in Hawaii, but they don't want to completely discount the possibility that he sprung fully formed from his mother's forehead or appeared in this dimension due to an accident one dimension over or something.

[aeduna.livejournal.com]

Inverto-athena....

[opaqueplanet.livejournal.com]

Parthenogenesis and being born are not mutually exclusive. Just because it hasn't been observed naturally in mammals doesn't mean it couldn't happen. It's been induced in rabbits and mice, so it's certainly possible. And the offspring were almost certainly born.

Or are you using the Shakespeare's definition of born, and suggesting that Obama was "from his mother's womb untimely ripp'd"?

[ambug666.livejournal.com]

I'm saying that as long as there is the chance, albeit infinitely unlikely, that President Obama is a worldwide mass hallucination, we cannot say that he was *definitely* born in Hawaii.

Or if you want a more serious and saner response, see torrain's below.

[opaqueplanet.livejournal.com]

for sure, for sure. I only took issue with the exclusion of parthenogenesis as a type of birth. Virgin birth is still birth.

I'm kind of neurotic about words.

[ambug666.livejournal.com]

Hm, I was using it to mean something entirely different.

I had been led to believe that in ancient times, there was a belief that -- for example -- garbage produced flies. Not that flies laid eggs in garbage that were then born into maggots that became flies, but that flies appeared in garbage from nothing as if by magic. I was informed that this was known as parthenogenesis.

My very small web search has not been able to confirm my definition of that word, but it has easily confirmed yours, so I was *probably* using the word incorrectly.

Now I really want to know what the process of garbage "creating" flies was called.

Learn something new every day...

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

I would go with "abiogenesis".

[ambug666.livejournal.com]

Professor Wikipedia agrees with you, although it suggests the term Spontaneous Generation would be more precise.

Too bad, because I love the way parthenogenesis rolls off the tongue, especially in Nemesis.

[opaqueplanet.livejournal.com]

Also, frogs are created from mud.

[torrain.livejournal.com]

Some of them might simply be like me, and saying "probably" because they really do not care enough to fact-check. What percentage of Americans didn't vote in the last election?

[chrisrw109.livejournal.com]

You won't get me to argue the fact that a large percentage of the American electorate are mindless sheep who are simply to lazy to become engaged in the process but prefer to complain about it later. I find that fairly nauseating.

Particularly speaking as an African American, given what we had to do to *get* the vote makes the fact that a large number of us choose not to fairly ludicrous.

[argonel.livejournal.com]

What are the helmets for, mounting point for a warning device so normal people can avoid interacting with them? After all it's hot like they have much to fear from head injuries or brain damage.

inbreeding. keeping it in the family.

[maelorin]

the helmets are to protect *us* from *them* ... random head wobbles and sudden urges to head butt or charge like a bull-at-a-gate ...

with the kind of craniums some of these folks have ...

and they were all driving in front of me today

[mejeep.livejournal.com]

Perhaps it's written on my forehead "do something stupid in front of me, you already do anyway". All day Wednesday I had to "watch out for the other guy" with folks doing bone-headed driving in front of me. I had to stomp on the brakes for 2 bicyclists going the wrong way on a 1 way street, at night, in the dark, with no lights or reflectors on the bike or clothing. Somehow they are not responsible for their personal safety. It's up to the rest of the world to carefully go around them :"<

Re: and they were all driving in front of me today

[aeduna.livejournal.com]

Argh. Its people like that that get _me_ killed when I'm on the bike because "all bike riders are idiots"

[sbloyd.livejournal.com]

In my 2302 Gov't class, we have a guy who's convinced Obama was born in Kenya. His latest 'proof'? "GLOBE magazine" has found his Kenyan birth certificate, he says. Yes, the tabloid.