It’s not that I was completely unaware of the fact that the internet is largely populated with people who need help in telling the difference between a fork and a spoon. Or whose idea of great literature is See Spot Run (I always cry at the end too.) Or whose notions of sublime cinema run the gamut from The Flintstones (That Barney Rubble. What an actor.) to Fast Times at Ridgemont High. (Man, I so wanna be kewl like Spicoli.)
After all, I’ve been blogging 4 years and I’ve seen it all. And writing 1500-2000 word essays everyday as I do, you eventually get used to people not reading what you write, or not understanding what you write, or not being able to read what you write and simply say any old thing the pops into their empty heads in the comments. It’s a pet peeve but I am gradually getting to the point where I understand that it’s not really these people’s fault. They are products of an age where taking the time to read and digest anything longer than a People magazine profile on “The Sexiest Man Alive” just isn’t done. The effort is better spent playing World of Warcraft or downloading classic porn or watching reruns of Charmed. (Man that Alyssa Milano is so hot.)
Thankfully, about a third of us have the cognitive and reading comprehension skills to thrive in this milieu of ideas. And someday, we shall rule the world. To those of you who actually read what I write, took the time, and made the effort to comment intelligently (even though most of you disagreed with me), thank you. You know who you are.
And no, it’s not you. Or you. Or the two thirds of you commenting on my much linked post from yesterday. For you – even if you agreed with me – I say, don’t worry. The world will always need dental assistants, telephone solicitors, dish washers, burger flippers, and government workers. I’m sure that someday, you will find a place where your rather unique, um, skills will be utilized to the fullest.
Give blood recently?
8:35 am
Thankfully, about a third of us have the cognitive and reading comprehension skills to thrive in this milieu of ideas. And someday, we shall rule the world. To those of you who actually read what I write, took the time, and made the effort to comment intelligently (even though most of you disagreed with me), thank you. You know who you are.
And no, it’s not you. Or you. Or the two thirds of you commenting on my much linked post from yesterday. For you – even if you agreed with me – I say, don’t worry. The world will always need dental assistants, telephone solicitors, dish washers, burger flippers, and government workers. I’m sure that someday, you will find a place where your rather unique, um, skills will be utilized to the fullest.
Give blood recently?
Yes I have, have you?
As to the typed and thoughts of “A SHORT, BUT PIQUANT NOTE, ON KNUCKLEDRAGGERS”, you seem as smug and elitist as Obama is.
I shall honor the Obama Presidency, just as Obama honored our flag and anthem.
OH. I won’t call you Shirley, but at least WE stand on some common ground as >i>I think both of us enjoyed Airplane.
8:40 am
Damn, I erred with italics in my last sentence. Guess I better find the nearest Burger King®, according to your typed words, huh?
8:46 am
Don CeSar,
Your comment(s) above frighten and confuse me.
9:06 am
Alas it is so true. You have had only 4 years to discover this ‘truth’ about those who inhabit the internet. But may I suggest a different boundary to this profile? I would propose that you expand it to include just about everyone who has “graduated FROM” (in the last 30 years), and those who are still in the American school system. For more years than I wish to remember I had to re-teach the students of an aviation maintenance school a few of the basics such as arithmatic, basic algebra, English gramma, and of course, reading comprehension. These students were in the upper quarter of their class, and from many different states.
As an aside, I just found your blog, and I will return to it frequently to read more of your interesting matterial. It is always nice to find someone else who sees/finds thing like you do. Thank you.
Try as I might, I can’t find anything to disagree with above. Nor can I think of anything insulting to say about you.
Guess you’ll have to keep coming back until something pops into my head.
ed.
10:16 am
I would laugh if I wasn’t crying.
I read your blog because you represent that thoughtful, provocative, opinionated person that appeared as Locke and Demosthenes in Ender’s Game but rarely appears in reality.
I fear that you are wrong about “Someday, we will rule the world.” The canny, amoral con men on all sides who get elected by pandering to the worst in the voters are very successful. They promote the lowest form of thought and discourse. And they are incapable of dealing with items such as our crumbling infrastructure, or the best way to educate our kids. They are carefully two steps behind sleazy businessmen who peddle the latest snake oil knowing they will face no repercussions.
In that climate, following the rules is for chumps.
As I said, it makes me sad.
11:18 am
I cannot believe you are claiming to be the Sexiest Man Alive. You don’t even show your picture.
11:45 am
#6 Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder and supposedly there’s a lid for every pot. Our host is a bit weight challenged, but at least has the admiration and adoration of his wife and cats. I thought his homage to one of the mousers who passed away was quite touching.
And I wonder what his take will be on series 24 once it restarts with a rumored far more liberal cast.
The left does not tolerate dissent or free speech nor apparently even secret elections if the union card check supported by Obama is passed. And yet apparently the ignorant masses are prepared to put a dangerously naive neophyte into the White House. God save us (Yes, I’m aware Mr. Moran is an atheist, but at least in mold of Madeline O’Hara.)
11:46 am
Rick, guilty as charged (sometimes)
12:07 pm
Rick, I donate blood regularly; most recently last month. I consider it one way to give back to the community, almost as important as voting!
12:35 pm
I would like to apologize for profanity in general, and to Chuck Tucson in particular. I don’t react well to being called a liar. I meant everything I said with the exception of the suggestion to Chuck that he perform an impossible feat on himself. Sorry… that, by itself, is certainly worthy of being labeled a knuckle-dragger.
I’ll endeavour to stay on-topic henceforth.
12:39 pm
The inability of a person to admit that they are wrong, or even to admit that they made a simple grammatical mistake (for example, writing a few sentences that do not accurately reflect what they really feel, but claiming everyone else’s dictionary is wrong) does not speak well of the level of confidence that they have in themselves or the ideas they profess.
12:52 pm
Great post and great site you have!
Would you like a Link Exchange with our new blog COMMON CENTS where we blog about the issues of the day?
http://www.commoncts.blogspot.com
12:56 pm
Michael Reynolds (comment #6)- Picture of Rick: http://tinylink.com/?GJoCrICTaz
Clearly, the sexiest man alive.
1:03 pm
Why you arrogant son of a … Kidding!
I’ve only recently been able to accept that, as far as the level of intelligence of the average person goes, this is as good as it will ever be, and it’s going to get worse. And I read “The Marching Morons” like, thirty years ago!
Does admitting you’re slow get you off the hook?
1:52 pm
I feel bad for Rick suddenly! He spends a lot of time on his postings and he wants intellectual discourse from his readers, but instead he has to read the ramblings of a bunch of belly button gazers who can’t even spare 10 minutes to edit their posts to make sure they are on subject. His cats could write better comments than we do! But, let me reflect: have I always spent adequate time on my posts? Have I always made sure they were relevant points? Hmm. Probably not. There were a few times when I was exhausted from studying and just wanted to type something to entertain myself, even if it wasn’t 100% related. Call it “keyboard therapy”. I think that’s why most bloggers enjoy blogging. I am certainly guilty of that from time to time. I am also guilty of skimming over quotes in Rick’s posts if I have already read the article he is mentioning. I read about politics way too much and sometimes I just need to SLOW DOWN…
But Rick, if my posts ever seem more like decorated party napkins than relevant intelligent discourse, please let me know. Until then I would be honored to take up space on your webpage with my idle thoughts!
4:05 pm
What an avalanche of response to a recent post. To busy to read all but just to prove the above point and have a good laugh. I would call myself conservative with libertarian tendencies but this guy is the absolute moron:
People often ask what’s the difference between conservatives and libertarians? There you have it. You see the difference. Conservatives are too polite, or as we libertarians like to say, too friggin’ wimpy.
You conservatives can accept Obama as your President if you want. We libertarians will humbly refuse, thank you.
We will fight for seccession or at least greater autonomy for Texas and other states.
We will advance all the evidence that Obama is the Nazi-Fascist that he is. And we will call him that with glee.
We will attack him at every possibly turn.
The guy is the complete polar opposite of a libertarian. There is nothing that we agree with him on. He is Stalin/Hitler/Mao Tse Tung/Mugabe/Castro/Bin Laden all wrapped up into on.
Sorry our conservative allies wish to appease him instead of fightback. But that’s okay, our conservative “pals” have been the weak link if the movement on the Right since they abandoned our libertarian hero Barry Goldwater in ‘64.
4:21 pm
Count me as one of those “government workers” oddities who does read what you write and for the most part agree with much of what you say. On the government workers comment I disagree. There are many more dedicated workers who work for lower pay (in exchange for job security) and day in day out make sure the physical and virtual infrastructures are being watched and protected with the tools we are given than the incompetents who get the press and give the rest of a bad name.
4:22 pm
Prewar Spain, Italy, and Germany. See you at the barricades. That is where we are headed, and both sides have their hands in it.
4:41 pm
short way to end dialogue….call people knuckledraggers or idiots. My sister-in-law told me she no longer wanted to discuss politics with me because I referred to liberals and supporters of the same as idiots. It woke me up.
4:55 pm
Judith,
It’s important to understand that there are literally brain chemistry differences between left/right leaning people. There is a reason that people on both sides have trouble understanding why someone on the other side could believe what they do.
Unfortunately, instead of trying to understand the differences, it’s often much faster and easier to just call them idiots. It also avoids any awkward introspection as well.
You go read those 350 comments. 2/3 of those people never bothered to read what I wrote – they simply substituted what they thought I was writing about and commented on that.
And that’s not stupid? That’s not idiotic?
I don’t call everyone stupid or an idiot. And if you note there are some people who agreed with me I called an idiot. Read this from Ben Smith at Politico. This mentality was heavily represented on that thread:
Reagan Dems and Independents. Call them blue-collar plus. Slightly more Target than Walmart.
Yes, the spot worked. Yes, they believed the charges against Obama. Yes, they actually think he’s too liberal, consorts with bad people and WON’T BE A GOOD PRESIDENT…but they STILL don’t give a f***. They said right out, “He won’t do anything better than McCain” but they’re STILL voting for Obama.
The two most unreal moments of my professional life of watching focus groups:
54 year-old white male, voted Kerry ‘04, Bush ‘00, Dole ‘96, hunter, NASCAR fan…hard for Obama said: “I’m gonna hate him the minute I vote for him. He’s gonna be a bad president. But I won’t ever vote for another god-damn Republican. I want the government to take over all of Wall Street and bankers and the car companies and Wal-Mart run this county like we used to when Reagan was President.”
The next was a woman, late 50s, Democrat but strongly pro-life. Loved B. and H. Clinton, loved Bush in 2000. “Well, I don’t know much about this terrorist group Barack used to be in with that Weather guy but I’m sick of paying for health insurance at work and that’s why I’m supporting Barack.”
I felt like I was taking crazy pills. I sat on the other side of the glass and realized…this really is the Apocalypse. The Seventh Seal is broken and its time for eight years of pure, delicious crazy….
6:43 pm
“As to the typed and thoughts of “A SHORT, BUT PIQUANT NOTE, ON KNUCKLEDRAGGERS”, you seem as smug and elitist as Obama is.” He much worse than you think. Maybe he’s John ‘traitor’ Murtha or John ‘traitor’ Kerry’s brother, or lover and stupidity is catching.
I think in the next couple of years we’ll find out if the elitest can raise enough food to feed themselves and it’s a good bet they can’t. If the Marxist Hussein O is elected it may not take that long. I know my $30,000 or so per year in free labor as a volunteer fire fighter will end the day he enters the white house. I’ll watch what happens when the taxpayers have to start paying for the work currently done by hundreds of thousands thousands of volunteers. Massive tax increases will be required. In one very small county we save the taxpayers over $10 million per year.
9:22 pm
Hey Rick, your 2/3 – 1/3 analogy struck a chord with me. Thats about the proportion of building managers and tenant representatives who never read the reports and minutes that my Architectural firm supplies them with. Just like the commentators on yesterdays much-maligned post, %67 of these guys that we deal with every day simply fight us with what they want to be in the reports/minutes, not the content in front of their eyes! My co-workers that I shared this with, all agreed with the 1/3 read vs 2/3 never read proportion. An astute observation you made…
PS - I’m needle-phobic, so I can’t give blood without fainting. My father does give monthly, however, and I am always thankful for those citizens who do.
PPS - I also got a kick out of that Ben Smith post!
10:29 pm
I had been blogging for about two years and felt the same way. Then I had the bejeezes scared out of me when confronted with the fact that people were actually reading what I wrote, quoting me, linking to my posts, and generally thinking I know what the hell I’m talking about. A sane man might have quit, but that’s just not me.
10:48 pm
So what are you trying to say, the world of the stupid is a target rich environment? Damn it, guess I better get that bullseye off my back.
4:41 am
Ken:
You on the other hand are totally connected to reality.
5:42 am
I think if you had any balls you’d just list the people you have issues with. If the people you speak of are really knuckledraggers as you say , using your logic, they wouldn’t actually be able to read this post would they? So all I can say is you are in deep denial about where the conservatives,which you are a high ranking player in their club, have failed miserably and you are projecting on a few commenters here. Go on with your articulate class warfare spew all you want, but I think a few folks have probably brought you a few reminders how pathetic your little movement has become and your anger has no place to go. It’s ironic immolation and only you and your card carrying members are to blame. Not the media, not acorn, not Bill Ayers, not Jeremiah Wright, you and your oh so powerful conservative movement. Just ask yourself, if the conservative movement is so utopian why is John McCain the nominee? Good Luck.
You have very serious problems. How does this post show that conservatism has failed? Kind of a stretch, don’t ya think? I mean, how did you get that from anything I wrote above?
And it’s not class warfare. We’re talking about Jefferson’s aristocracy of the mind – sadly, you can’t join for obvious reasons.
And your last bit – conservatism pushing utopia? Bwahahahahahahah….If you’re going to show your ignorance, might I suggest you go to a site where people are equally clueless? Like Daily Kos or some liberal site?
ed.