On 4/14/2011 1:40 AM, Invisible wrote:
> When I read stuff like this, I find myself wondering: Are all American
> people actually stupid? Or is it merely a very vocal minority?
>
A very vocal and "powerful" minority, many from old money going clear 
back to the, "my right to take my slaves into a non-slave state and 
still treat them as slaves there is being infringed, so the federal 
government should stop those states from stopping me from doing that!", 
era, all the way up to the present day, "The federal government 
shouldn't prevent states from doing, passing, or making legal/illegal 
anything they want. Hands off my state!", rich, white, old money types 
are responsible for most of this. And, their choice of method to make it 
happen is the same as rich, over privileged, "My rights should be 
paramount above the state!", Romans used to handle the situations: Make 
sure your supporters are too ignorant to realize what is going on, then 
distract them, as much as possible, with non-existent threats, and 
pointless entertainments.

There is hardly any point in being smart, if you are ignorant, your 
history is handed to you by the very people that want to keep you that 
way, and they know your fears, since they created many of them, so well 
that they can simply trot out something for you to fear, every time 
something serious is going on. A good example being the whole Wisconsin 
mess. Do government workers make more than other people? Depends, do you 
mean can they pay their house off faster, buy a boat, buy a car, dress 
in better clothes, buy more expensive food, etc.? Hell no, in that 
respect they make **less** than non-state workers. But... Add in health 
care, fake BS about vacation time, and a few other things that you can't 
use to buy anything, clothe yourself with, or in any way, shape or form 
actually "save money", or be better off than other people, in general, 
and you can claim they make more money.

Distract them with all the "bonuses" they get, which in the end, they a) 
gave up before the new law had even been penned, never mind passed, and 
b) does jack shit to make them better "paid" than other people, and 
idiots like the lady in line at work will stand there and tell you to 
your face, "I think what they are doing to those people is right", 
because somehow its connected to a nonexistent VAT tax that no one will 
*ever* see added in Arizona, so long as its Republican run, or how much 
their milk was today, compared to 40 years ago.

These are not stupid people. They have simply been lied to, so often and 
so persistently, and pushed so often in just the right ways, to convince 
them, that they can't see past their fear of what someone else *says* is 
going on.

The last two times some idiot tried to do with the Teabagger Party is 
trying in Washington, in cutting spending, and rich people's taxes, 
without placing one dime into new jobs, once in the US, and once in 
England (if I remember right), the result was an "increase" in the 
depressions of the time. But, no.. these people are convinced the 
problem is government workers, unions, and someone, other than them, 
actually giving a shit if they get sick, or are starving to death, after 
they retire. Why? Because someone said so, and has told them of all the 
stuff that will be lost (or rather, which they plan to cut, defund 
and/or replace with something worthless), if they don't take a chainsaw 
to the rose bush, instead of pruning shears.

> (I don't know about crazy, but all the American people that I've
> personally met have been notably stupid. Given the tiny sample size,
> that's not terribly significant, however...)

Again. Don't confuse stupidity for ignorance and fear.

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