Posted on 10/25/2004 7:14:35 AM PDT by Lucretia Borgia
So I'm in the local Blockbuster the other night, returning some DVDs. It was a slow night, and the clerks were ignoring me and talking with each other while I was popping open cases and making sure my kids had put the right discs back in the right boxes. As I snapped the last case shut and dropped it down the return chute, I began to pay some minor attention to the clerks' conversation, and that is when I heard one of them utter the most absolutely amazing statement:
"No, dude, I cannot vote for George Bush, 'cause, like, I am so much smarter than him."This, I must admit, caused a moment of sheer stunned silence on my part. I wondered: should I just shake my head and go off to look at the new releases? Bite my tongue and quietly leave the store? Or should I slap that little turd down without the slightest hint of mercy?
"Ah, I see. You're smarter than a Harvard MBA. That must be why you're a fat, pimply guy with a greasy pony-tail who works for minimum wage at Blockbuster."Maybe I should have done that. Maybe it was a teachable moment. But I've worked in education, and I've been a TA, and I have found that the Socratic method is completely wasted on people who are beyond irony. So, at that moment, I chose to take a deep breath, shake my head, and wander off, to mind my own business.
But the moment has stayed with me, for several days now, and I've continued to wonder: just why do liberals insist on characterizing President Bush as being stupid? After all, the man flew supersonic jet fighters for the Texas Air National Guard. He received an MBA from Harvard. While I've met a few arrogant gonzo lunatic fighter jocks, and more than a few ethically repellent MBAs, I have yet to meet one of either group that I would consider "stupid."
No, the more I think about it, the more firmly I come to believe that the real problem lies in the nature of modern liberalism. It must be hard to be a liberal these days; there is so little ammunition left in the can. You see, as nearly as I can determine it, the key reason why liberals insist on calling President Bush "stupid" is that that is the only insult they have left. Any other perjorative term they might use could offend an important liberal constituency. I mean, before they could even start to think about calling him, say --
-- an amoral skirt-chasing, commie-loving, draft-dodging, race-baiting, baby-killing, bribe-taking, pill-popping, coke-snorting, pot-smoking, crack-smoking, pole-smoking, boy-buggering, lesbian-licking, sheep-sodomizing, promiscuity-promoting, ambulance-chasing, morbidly obese America-hating alcoholic traitor --
-- why, they'd have to repudiate John Kennedy, Ted Kennedy, Bill Clinton, John Kerry, John Edwards, Barney Frank, George McGovern, Jimmy Carter, Jesse Jackson, NARAL, NOW, PETA, and NAMBLA, just for starters.
So, like I said, the painfully circumscribed vocabulary for invective that is permitted to modern liberals --
Why, it's almost enough to make you feel sorry for the poor dumb bastards.
They have their post removed and they are kicked off.
If it isn't bothersome enough to hear comments like this, what really chaps my ass is when someone suggests that I, as a voter, must be stupid to vote for Bush.
Unless I'm mistaken, John Edwards himself said that "only ignorant people" would vote for Bush. And, we know that Teresa Heinz-Kerry said that we'd have to be "idiots" to oppose her husband.
Where did we lose the concepts of respect and civility? When did it become wrong to have a difference of opinion?
Years ago, I got a chuckle out of a Dear Abby article, in which Abby opined about engineers and how they were one-dimensional and set-it-their-ways. If anything, in engineering school, we learned that there were many ways to approach a problem...some worked, some didn't. My payback for that Abby article is now seeing the inability of the so-called intelligentsia--the liberal arts majors--to even consider the validity of critical opinions.
-A Proud Critical Thinker (99th percentile GMATs...so don't call me stupid...and voting for Bush!)
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Great points! I've always wondered why that's their major attack.
People who think they know it all are a pain in the a$$ to those of us who do.
He's DEAD, Jim !!
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This past Saturday, I was shopping for groceries and the bagger, named 'Sunshine' had a big Kerry/Edwards pin
right on the end of her upper anatomy. You picture
that. These people advertize their ignorance.
That's simply not true. Liberals believe in centralization of power to a relative few who "know better", abetted by mob rule of those who believe government is the answer, aka democracy. This will get you "one size fits all" solutions, which typically are not the best solutions for anyone.
The United States was founded as a representative republic, so that each individual's freedoms were only limited insofar as their exercise interfered with the rights of others. Rights were defined as the ABSENCE of interferece with your pursuits, not a guarantee of a specific outcome. Franklin Roosevelt intentionally perverted the use of the words "liberty" and "freedom" so that many people are unclear about this concept today.
What liberals envision, and what we have to too great a degree, is a massive outcome equalizing machine which is less concerned with staying out of people's way so they can live their life than with crushing everyone to an exactly identical shade of beige mediocrity (lest someone's self esteem suffer).
Freepers, there is some real bias here. My friend is without question a very smart man, too smart to hold his expressed opinions if he were not blinded by bias against conservative positions, especially those expressed with a Texas accent.
This is a forum for conservatives. A conservative would never vote for Kerry. That is why your friend was zotted.
Haven't you got all the electrons to where they're going by now?
Regards,
A_R
No, 32 years of being a conservative in a liberal world, who wants to discuss issues with like-minded folks makes me RIGHT about the fact that the Admin Mod would zot that guy.
He was in the wrong place. This is not a forum for the type of things he wanted to discuss.
Did anyone catch the statements on TV over the last week or so by Edward Prescott, who received the Nobel Prize for Economics on October 11? He obviously has some sort of speech impediment, and can hardly express himself without a lot of effort. Regardless, Prescott is obviously brilliant. Inarticulation is not indicative of a speaker's level of intelligence. And I bet that any of us can recall meeting or knowing very articulate people that were liars, fools, or con men.
People are easily flim-flammed and impressed by smooth talkers, and don't listen to what they say. I worked with a guy once that was a very polished and very well spoken, great qualities in the business world. Many were impressed with him, but I wasn't. He spoke up often in meetings, sounding great, but his words were empty. It is as if he is saying, underneath it all, "if you take 2, and add 3 to it, the result will be 5." He was only stating the obvious, and bringing up very basic matters -- never an original thought -- things that everyone already knew, but he said these things in such a way that many people were impressed. When I mentioned this to a couple of co-workers, they were surprised, so I just told them to really listen to this guy -- he sounds great, but he doesn't really add anything of value to the discussion. Then they started really listening to the guy, and they agreed with me. Someone like this is great for a sales position .... they can articulate that company line all day long and sound great doing it. But they are not leadership material if, underneath it all, they never come up with anything but a parroting -- no matter how beautifully stated -- of what we already know.
A zot used to be a wonderful, awe-inspiring display of power directed towards the truly moronic poster. Mostly to the poster who pretended to be something that he wasn't (a Kerry supporter pretending to be a Bush supporter while making inane points) Premature zotting will decrease our enjoyment of the experience in the long run, plus we learn less.
A_R
"I will admit I am a liberal."
Please tell me what you see in the "liberal" mindset. I have a difficult time fathoming what an honest, rational freedom-minded individual can see attractive about the liberal point of view.
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