In Which I Absolutely Lose What is Left of my Patience and Possibly my Frontal Lobe
(Insert various and sundry petitions to YHWH and His or Her Divine Offspring Here)
Who the hell let this ignoramus on the radio?
I've really just had it up to here. Here being somewhere in orbit. For twenty years I have been dealing, I feel fairly reasonably, with ignorant bullshit. But this is really the final insult. I know we live in an anti-intellectual society, and I don't have to have read Richard Hofstadter to know it, because I found out the first time someone called me a nerd in kindergarten for having the temerity to be literate. I couldn't help it. I wanted to know, and so from an early age I found out that I could be popular, or I could know. I chose the latter, believing my mother and father when they told me it would be different when I grew up.
Lies, Damn Lies!
While I foolishly absorbed how refineries work and internalised how to get from Corpus Christi to Pearsall because my parents treated my like a Person with a Brain, everyone else was busy learning how to learn as little as possible so they could be Just Like Everyone Else and perhaps get elected President of the United States someday and most importantly, be Popular.
Steven Schwartz hit it --
It is seriously a problem how accepted, nay, celebrated, it is to be incurious. That's why someone as awesomely dim as Sarah Palin is hailed as the Second Coming of McCain's campaign. "Why, she's just like me! She is folksy and likes G-d! I'm certainly going to vote for her, rather than that uppity Negro!"
So this Obama-flag thing. This radio guy really doesn't have any clue what the Ohio flag looks like? I don't claim to have all of the state flags memorised or anything but the Ohio flag is DIFFERENT LOOKING. It's not like he misidentified, say, the Oklahoma flag or something (I think Oklahoma is one of about six states whose flag just has the state seal on it). I mean, he never just looked up the state flag article in World Book and had a look? Really? Never? Or even ever saw the Ohio state flag at a Cleveland Indians game, or at a VFW hall, or in Washington, D. C.? and NO ONE on his STAFF had Either?
That just seems willfully ignorant to me. This is not some random dude off the street; he's a radio host. Also, if he's going to make it his job to comment on stuff, he should know what he's talking about. And you know what? Random dudes off the street should, even if they can't remember that it's Ohio's, at least be AWARE that there is a flag like that in existence because it STANDS OUT.
Furthermore, I am sick AND tired of people wanting our leaders to be "just like us." I want someone smarter, faster, and stronger to be my leader. I don't want someone who mispronounces simple English words and who is unable to to find a coherant sentence with two hands and a flashlight. I don't want someone who thinks with his or her gut. You know, I WANT a former college professor. I WANT someone smarter and more educated than me.
I also want that in my deity, which is a whole other post, but I have definitely noticed that there is a weird dichotomy in some people's thinking about how G-d is so "awesome" but at the same time they put these massive limitations on G-d -- and it is to do with this same principle.
My brain hurts.
Who the hell let this ignoramus on the radio?
I've really just had it up to here. Here being somewhere in orbit. For twenty years I have been dealing, I feel fairly reasonably, with ignorant bullshit. But this is really the final insult. I know we live in an anti-intellectual society, and I don't have to have read Richard Hofstadter to know it, because I found out the first time someone called me a nerd in kindergarten for having the temerity to be literate. I couldn't help it. I wanted to know, and so from an early age I found out that I could be popular, or I could know. I chose the latter, believing my mother and father when they told me it would be different when I grew up.
Lies, Damn Lies!
While I foolishly absorbed how refineries work and internalised how to get from Corpus Christi to Pearsall because my parents treated my like a Person with a Brain, everyone else was busy learning how to learn as little as possible so they could be Just Like Everyone Else and perhaps get elected President of the United States someday and most importantly, be Popular.
Steven Schwartz hit it --
celebrated heads of state
and especially great communicators:
Did they have brains or knowledge?
Don't make me laugh!
They were popular!
It is seriously a problem how accepted, nay, celebrated, it is to be incurious. That's why someone as awesomely dim as Sarah Palin is hailed as the Second Coming of McCain's campaign. "Why, she's just like me! She is folksy and likes G-d! I'm certainly going to vote for her, rather than that uppity Negro!"
So this Obama-flag thing. This radio guy really doesn't have any clue what the Ohio flag looks like? I don't claim to have all of the state flags memorised or anything but the Ohio flag is DIFFERENT LOOKING. It's not like he misidentified, say, the Oklahoma flag or something (I think Oklahoma is one of about six states whose flag just has the state seal on it). I mean, he never just looked up the state flag article in World Book and had a look? Really? Never? Or even ever saw the Ohio state flag at a Cleveland Indians game, or at a VFW hall, or in Washington, D. C.? and NO ONE on his STAFF had Either?
That just seems willfully ignorant to me. This is not some random dude off the street; he's a radio host. Also, if he's going to make it his job to comment on stuff, he should know what he's talking about. And you know what? Random dudes off the street should, even if they can't remember that it's Ohio's, at least be AWARE that there is a flag like that in existence because it STANDS OUT.
Furthermore, I am sick AND tired of people wanting our leaders to be "just like us." I want someone smarter, faster, and stronger to be my leader. I don't want someone who mispronounces simple English words and who is unable to to find a coherant sentence with two hands and a flashlight. I don't want someone who thinks with his or her gut. You know, I WANT a former college professor. I WANT someone smarter and more educated than me.
I also want that in my deity, which is a whole other post, but I have definitely noticed that there is a weird dichotomy in some people's thinking about how G-d is so "awesome" but at the same time they put these massive limitations on G-d -- and it is to do with this same principle.
My brain hurts.
Labels: ignorance, Popular, weird flags, wtf
posted by Ivy at 01:16
0 comments
