A commenter who made a monumentally stupid assertion in commenting on a recent post led me off on a rabbit trail today, which, in turn, led to this gleaning from several past posts of thoughts about people who simply do not think. From, “Facts vs Feelings”
I met an old guy who runs a junk store who’s a good example of “feelings over facts”. He had on his shelf a bottle of clear amber fluid labeled “Pepper Beer–not for drinking”. Naturally that led this unmoderated tongue to comment, “What a shame. Beer is for drinking” which led to…
“Beer destroyed my family,” and a tale of growing up in a family where his father got drunk on beer and was abusive. No amount of pointing out the fact that the beer didn’t force excessive amounts of itself down his father’s throat making him into an abusive drunk was going to convince him of his father’s responsibility for his own drunkeness. No, it was the beer that did it.
*feh* Such people are idiots. Inanimate objects, chemical substances and the like do not make people harm others. People make themselves do harmful things, including making the CHOICE to abuse mind-altering chemical substances of all kinds.
The bushwah about people, including addicts, not being responsible for their actions is the perhaps single most harmful meme in our society today.
From September 22nd, 2008’s post, “Are You Too Stupid to Vote?” noting the results of the Civics Quiz found here,
Heck, face it. Most American citizens who now possess the right to vote don’t know the fundamentals of our government structure, our history or anything genuine about current events (most still getting their information from the Mass Media Podpeople Hivemind propaganda machine).
Too stupid to be allowed to vote, and yet it is this mass of stupid people who will elect the congresscritters and administration that will exercise power.
Scary.
BTW, that civics quiz? Got 100% right. Anyone who gets a lower score either wasn’t paying ANY attention in grade school (OK, maybe junior high), or else was but suffered their earliest lobotomy in public school. Seriously, folks, it’s one easy-peasy quiz… and those who took the quiz who had held or currently do hold public office were the lowest scorers. But that’s OK. Most folks failed it outright, anyway.
And these same civics-illiterate boobs can (and do) vote. See especially the finding that those who watch the news are less well-informed than those who don’t.
And here, noting the difference between so-called “radical” and so-called “moderate” Muslims is an example of correcting misconceptions foisted on self-enstupiated sheeple by the “philosophy of consolation for Western civilization as it commits suicide,” as espoused by Mass Media Podpeople, politicians *spit* and Academia Nut Fruitcakes, is “The Difference Between ‘Plain Old Muslims’ and ‘Islamic Terrorists'”
“Plain old Muslims” claim the Koran (choose your own trendy spelling) is their literal guide to a holy life.
Islamic terrorists claim the Koran (choose your own trendy spelling) is their literal guide to a holy life.
“Plain old Muslims” revere Mohammed and view his life and teachings (of which the Koran, Hadith, etc.) as worthy of emulation in all of life.
Islamic terrorists revere Mohammed and view his life and teachings (of which the Koran, Hadith, etc.) as worthy of emulation in all of life.
Now, THE distinction: Islamic terrorists honestly, forthrightly and openly seek to actually emulate the bloody Butcher of Medina, while “Plain old Muslims” are either just not all that serious about actually following Mohammed or are living lives of lies, decieving the Dar al Harb.
There. Now you know the single most significant difference between “Plain old Muslims” and Islamic terrorists.
And, from The Islam Comic Book,
[audio:Islamnot4me.mp3]And from a 2009 re-post (of a 2007 piece) on morality vs. the very nearly universal deceit that is accepted in our society,
M. Scott Peck wrote some 20 years ago or so about “People of the Lie” (a pretty insightful book, IMO, and one with particular application to understanding the Mass Media Podpeople Hivemind and politicians *spit* as a class) wherein he said that the truly evil “are masters of disguise and cloak themselves with masks of respectability, goodness and often piety.”
The Lie is central to the destruction of a moral culture, and it is by continually lying about darned near everything, continually selling the culture of The Lie that the culture of the Mass Media Podpeople Hivemind (almost entirely congruent with a culture of The Lie) makes its lies into reality, as sheeple ape the Mass Media Podpeople Hivemind in their daily life, in everything from envy of the lifestyles seen portrayed on the dullertainment offered to the political agenda of the Hivemind as revealed in dullertainment and “news”-ertainment programs.
And art. I saw a segment of a public television show the other night featuring an “artist” who painted on wood using house paints. The “artist” was shown as an example of a modern primitive painter. The “artwork” displayed was crap. And that’s speaking kindly. The worst stuff I’ve seen in years. Presented as “art”. When the very idea of art is debased to such a level, is it any wonder that in performance art we have such excrescence as “rap”? (Go on: try to make a convincing argument that listening to rap “music” does not debase an individual. Try. Please.)
But about all sorts of topics, from Islam to Healthscare, from taxes to “welfare” the increasingly illiterate (in many, many ways), self-enstupiated sheeple who get all their news propaganda from the Mass MEdia Podpeople Hivemind and their understanding of the Constitution from the American Communist Liars Union ARE the problem. As the money quote in the blog header says,
“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.”-third world county’s corollary to Santayana’s Axiom