"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."
It’s a tough question. If you’re unfamiliar with the reference, take some time out. I’ll wait. Meanwhile, I’ll leave this here for interim consderation:
Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.–Napoleon Bonaparte (ascribed)
There is such a thing as human evil. I’ll allow no argument on that point, because any argument otherwise is simply either stupid* or evil. Period. So, accept as axiomatic that human evil exists. Is it then stupid or evil to look human evil in the face and see good? (I’ll allow a third option: insanity.)
Examples abound:
Idiots who defend Islam as a “religion of peace”. Stupidity or witting enabling of the evil hate cult of Islam?
People who assert that America is an unjust society, because we have people they class as poor? Evil or stupid? Consider this:
Ahhh, I’m tired of this already, and my BP is starting to climb… *sigh*
So, are those who are enablers of the hate cult of the Butcher of Medina evil or stupid (or both–likely, IMO)?
Are those who seem to be actively attempting to destroy our society via such activities as encouraging the kleptocratic “gimme” culture evil or stupid (or both–likely, IMO)?
And when do we stop ascribing destructive behaviors to stupidity alone and start calling it malice?
Yes, I aborted a bunch of stupid/evil material ranging from “pro-choice” (which is really, “Deny ANY choice to the unborn”), “Edumacation”, the Thugs Standing Around program of full employment for goons and petty tyrants, and “feddle gummint” tyrannical meddling in citizens’ lives while actively enabling outlaws to The Cult of Anthropogenic Climate Scare-ism and numerous points in between. One can select any issue dominated by the lies of the Mass MEdia Podpeople Hivemind, politicians *gag-spew* and Academia Nut Fruitcakes and plug it right into the “Stupid or Evil” matrix for consideration.
*I include in my use of “stupid” acts of witting, deliberate avoidance of facts. Witting, deliberate distortion of facts is evil–slander against truth.
Cold wave. Breakin’ out the long johns. *shiver* 😉
It’s Global Warming! (It’s called “Summer”.)
I can recall a super hot summer thirty-something years ago, complete with drought in some places and floods in others, that “warring” camps were using to either prognosticate an impending ice age or to debunk the climate scare-ist ice agers (all of whom, if still alive, are now global warmista scare-ists).
Because what comes out of a Dhimmicrap’s mouth is deceptive… always.
Hmmm, kinda reminds me of some Mass MEdia Podpeople as well (although, what are the real differences between Dhimmicrap politicians *gag-spew* and Mass MEdia Podpeople apart from the size of audiences?).
Son & Heir spent about $7 on a new hardback novel recently ($4 of that in shipping!). He let me read it first. Nice guy. It was well-written by just about every metric. I spent about $7 for a paperback the other day and found gripe after gripe to make about the writing:
Wrong words abound, e.g., “brake cables” instead of “brake lines” when speaking about the possible sabotage of a car. (Cars have only emergency brake cables; the main brakes are hydraulic and served by lines, not cables. Not a quibble.)
Bafflingly stupid grammar in a published work, e.g., “have rode” where “have ridden” is de rigueur. (“Rode” is simple past tense; the past perfect takes the helper, “have” and requires the use of “ridden”.)
With these kinds of things scattered all over the place, my primary “enjoyment” of this book has been using a red pen to correct the errors.
And this thing made the NYT book list.
No, I’m not naming the author or citing the book title. I wouldn’t want to let Google find those here. Just check page 176 on new paperbacks you’re considering buying, Mmm’K?
Yes, I meant to write that. And I know that the words are “Fractured Phrases”. So, why? Simple. Most people I see and hear botching common words and phrases do so unwittingly. And therein lies a stealth danger to society, especially a society built, as ours once was, on shared cultural memes that cut across multiple imported ethnic and cultural traditions, enabling the kinds of cross-cultural communications that created the Melting Pot Society.
The single largest factors in the destruction of a healthy common culture here in the US are the growth of illiteracy* in the US and the Mass MEdia Podpeople Hivemind. The illiterate among us aren’t limited to those who cannot read at all but include those who simply do not read and those who, when they do read, read only crap and scarcely understand even that. Having not read much at all, they are easy prey for the lies about current events, history and civics that are the toxic stew served up daily by the Hivemind in entertainment (“news” and other crap on TV as well as movies and manufactured “music”) that is designed to misinform and twist values away from those which made America, at one time, a great nation.
But what’s this gripe I have against fractured phrases and words? Simple, really. I see an apparently growing trend toward the subliterate and illiterate who simply do not know the meanings of common words (look for consistent uses of “then” for “than” or “affect” for “effect” in a person’s writing, for a couple of common examples: subliterate tending toward illiterate) or are so lacking in grounding in any broader culture than the simplistic, twisted culture presented by the Hivemind that they botch even simple child’s games.
Really? Yes. I ran across a long, massively stupid, “discussion” on a social media site recently where someone asked why paper beats rock, rock beats scissors and scissors beats paper. About one in four answers made any sense at all. No, seriously. A failure of both basic literacy and any sense of a culture beyond the Hivemind. (BTW, rock-paper-scissors has been around for thousands of years. Apparently, it takes a modern American Hivemind-dominated culture to denude it of any coherence.)
Minor examples of a major problem. “Major problem” because these minor examples are much, much less than the tip of the iceberg.
Sure, I think Apple is evil, what with all the i-Crap, the i-tracking, the Apple Straitjacket®, etc., but I’m really only posting the following because it’s humorous:
Poor puppy. Well, at least maybe that’ll deal with the constipation…
“OK, what’s with the excrement humor two posts in one day?” they all ask. And I answer, “Well, at least they weren’t inappropriate.” *heh*
This would be the appropriate answer to Cwazy Unka Joe Biden’s slanderous fat mouth, if more people had as much intestinal fortitude as Sarah Palin:
If we were really domestic terrorists, shoot, President Obama would be wanting to pal around with us wouldn’t he? I mean he didn’t have a problem with paling around with Bill Ayers back in the day when he kicked off his political career in Bill Ayers apartment, and shaking hands with Chavez and saying he doesn’t need any preconditions with meeting dictators or wanting to read US Miranda rights to alleged suspected foreign terrorists. No if we were real domestic terrorists I think President Obama wouldn’t have a problem with us.
Oh,wait, she did say that. At least she has the guts to tell the truth. Indeed. Best answer to Cwazy Unka Joe Biden and other dhimmicraps calling anyone who disagrees with their intent to spend the US into a grave “terrorists”.
