"In a democracy (‘rule by mob’), those who refuse to learn from history will be the majority and will dictate that everyone else suffer for their ignorance."
I could see this on Jeopardy…
A: Air Conditioning, Cable TV, and an Xbox
Q: What is “Poverty in the United States Today?”
Do the right thing: cut the apron strings, already. Oh, and get the “feddle gummint bureaucrappy” out of areas where it has no honest constitutional business operating. Like so-called “welfare”.
That’s all these white kids are, of course. Racists. The one kid of an Asian heritage doesn’t count, of course. By The Zero rule*, he’s also racist.
Don Surber (who says he got it off FB) posted a pic that ought to be a slap in the face to the whiny crybabies like the guy I posted a pic of earlier this week. I’m stealing the pic. Sorry, Don. *heh* (No, not really.)
Now, that’s someone with his head screwed on straight.
We stopped giving candy to kids who came by several years ago when the normative behavior seemed to have become, “Gimme!” instead of a more polite and appreciative behavior. I’d consider dispensing candy again if I had a couple of these filled with “penny candy” and set to dispense a couple of lil pieces of candy for a quarter.
“Gimme,” indeed. Little monsters. (And I include the parents of those little monsters who went around demanding their candy when I say “little monsters”. At the very least, they have tiny, withered ethics and little positive influence on their children, the front line monsters.)
As the comment went at The Coalition of the Swilling, where I saw this,
I’m sure whoever’s idea it was has been sacked. Along with all the llama trainers.
Watch Does U.S. Economic Inequality Have a Good Side? on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.
1. DO watch the whole thing and
2. DO share this with everyone you know!
Shooting fish in a barrel, tasking candy from babies: both several orders of magnitude harder than ridiculing OWS, since the OWS crowd does that to itself without even being aware of it. Exhibit #3,476:
She (that is female, isn’t it?) can’t figure this one out on her own? Of course not. Such self-made idiots need to go live in an assisted thinking facility. “Here, dearie, don’t bother with trying to think things through. Let me make all your decisions for you.” After all, it’d just be the next reasonable step from letting the Mass MEdia Podpeople Hivemind and Academic Nut Fruitcakes do their all their so-called “thinking” for them.
And, even given the expenses, I think such a move could be a net gain for society as a whole.
OK, so you may have the “right” to vote, but are you really qualified to cast that vote? I’d suggest that at least two things must obtain before a citizen who has a right to vote is right to exercise that right. Those two things are
Given those two criteria, I doubt more than half (if that) the people who cast their votes on election day(s) throughout America are qualified to do so. Sure, they may have opinions, but opinions informed by ignorance are worth the information that is their basis.
Try these out on friends, acquaintances and associates:
Could you pass a US citizenship test?
and
The SHORT FORM of this Civics Literacy Test
Any of those three linked quizzes should afford an adequate look at one’s basic American civics literacy.
As for adequate knowledge of candidates and issues, the best test is simply this: is your primary source of information the Mass MEdia Podpeople Hivemind? Then, FAIL. *heh*
Just sayin’. (I hate sharing the polling place with people who are too lazy to do their homework before casting their vote. Really hate it.)
If you fail the simple tests of either basic criteria, please stay home the next time the polls are open. Really, it’s for your own good as well as that of society.
Note: the quiz found at Could you pass a US citizenship test? is the least well-framed of the three offerings above, but does accurately reflect the really poor framing of a current real citizenship exam. *sigh* Some of the question/answer combos are reflective of a “history” and “civics” view that is more propaganda than actual history and civics, such as, “What did the Emancipation Proclamation do?” (The real correct answer: Nothing but provide for disingenuous propaganda,” but the “correct” answer according to the test–which I dutifully rendered–was the lie, “Freed the slaves”.)
Still, on that “test” because I have for all my life had a semi-dyslexic recall of the geography of the “Left Coast”, I almost missed a question. (Yes, I said “A question” *heh* Don’t make me brag about my scores. Just let it be with “My eighth grade American Civics class would have been amused to be asked to take tests this simple.” No, seriously.)
Continue reading “Are You Sure You Are Qualified to Vote? Hmmm?”
I recommend this post highly. Its subject matter is extremely important in almost every area that impacts our lives today, but since it seems to lie outside the issues that are most loudly trumpeted as urgent, critical issues, the fact that the “half-educated” it refers to (or less, actually) are mostly creating the problems that face us mostly disappears in the noise.
The author of the linked post applies the problem of people who think they know more than they do to the influence such people have exerted to bring about the current economic woes we face, but that only touches the very tip-top 1/4 inch of the iceberg, leaving the rest (including that which is submerged*) to bedevil us.
Always remember the importance of a well-informed (as opposed to ignorant or misinformed or DISinformed) electorate in a representative republic, especially one with far too many democratic elements.
“In a democracy (‘rule by mob’), those who refuse to learn from history are in the majority and dictate that everyone else suffer for their ignorance.”
(Go ahead and read. I’ll still be here when you get back… )
Of course, participatory government depends upon a literate and well-informed populace, something Iceland has and the U.S. no longer does.
But were such a thing to take place here–a literate and well-informed electorate to effect a peaceful, constitutional revolution, I’d like to see one thing especially come from it.
I’d like to see a change to the eighth amendment excluding both elected federal officials and “feddle gummint bureaucraps” from protections against “cruel and unusual punishment” so those convicted of abusing their offices/positions could be tarred, feathered and used as “parade torches” on July 4th every year.
Of course, it would take following the amendment process fully, so that such proper and due punishments could be effected legally… 🙂