Friday, October 1, 2010

Dumb or Stupid?


Dumb and Dumber?    Maybe Just Stupid?
by 1Tea-edTexan
In late September, investigative journalist and  talk show host, John Stossel, made an appearance on the Fox News program, The O'reilly Factor. Stossel was there to speak out about how Americans, particularly young Americans, are ill-prepared to vote.
Host of the Factor, Bill O'Reilly, who is not one to let his personal ratings go unnoticed, gave Stossel free rein to expound  his proposition that young people are too dumb to vote. Stossel came prepared to support his notion that young people are stupid with prerecorded videos of  random,"on the street" interviews with young people who were asked to identify the images of notable political and entertainment personalities who are in the news of late.
As to be expected, the clips clearly demonstrated that the particular set of people questioned could not readily identify the Vice President of the United States, The Speaker of the House, or the House Minority  Leader, but they quickly and easily identified a celebrity from the Situation Room.
While Stossel presented the snippets as prima facie evidence that "young people are just too dumb to vote",  he neglected to include other data or documentation to support his assertion. There are innumerable variables in facial recognition that render his presentation seriously flawed and  besides, it was likely edited and weighed to support his claim.
That was not the first time Stossel has taken a swipe at America's youth. In January, 2006, while anchorman at ABC 20/20, he featured a program, "Stupid in America" which was more of a frontal assault on schools, educators and administrators than an examination of the intelligence or learning abilities of children. To his credit, the program did focus national attention, for a time, on our failing educational system.
In the same week that Stossel appeared on The Factor, Senator John (swift boat) Kerry (D. Ma.) told reporters that "We have an electorate that doesn't always pay that much attention to what's going on so people are influenced by simple slogans instead of facts or truth or what's going on". That was Kerry's opinion but he offered no supporting data.
Is there a parallel here?  Is this conservative talk show host and this liberal Democratic senator,  on opposite ends of the political spectrum,  saying the same thing?  This appears to be the case!
But, WHY?
Arrogance, Pals, Arrogance. There may be other more subjective and  less conspicuous reasons for their demeaning charges against young people but I cannot come up with a single objective reason.
For the most part, I avoid using the words "stupid" or "dumb".  Both are perfectly good words and may sometimes find valid application to some persons, acts or situations, but to say that anyone  is too stupid to vote, too stupid to participate in government at the lowest level,  is the highest degree of self-serving  arrogance,
That being said, there is always an exception and sometimes arrogant people do stupid and arrogant things and the act of voting or even calling for a vote becomes a grave mistake and a  colossal act of stupidity.  The case in point would be the Affordable Health Care Act in which 435 "uninformed" members  of The United States House of Representatives met on a Sunday to vote on legislation that no one had bothered to read, that would cost untold millions and affect the lives of every living American and all future generations.  The bill passed by a vote of 219-212.  Yes, there are times when some people are too stupid to vote but stupidity knows no boundaries and it is not limited to the young.  Need I say more?

Dumb or Stupid?
by Freedom Fighter
The complexity placed on young and old alike has changed drastically over the years. When we make a distinction between dumb and stupid many factors have to be considered Our great grandparents, although unschooled had the knowledge to build a house or cabin. They grew their own crops and hunted or raised their own meat. They could carve out a life for their family while standing against all elements placed before them.
In the eyes of many today they could be considered dumb but far from stupid.
Einstein would forget to put his pants or shoes on if an idea hit him. Was he dumb or stupid?
Many of our young people and middle age know nothing about politics. They may be dumb on one  subject, but genius on another.
On the other hand many might be like myself when I was young. I was more interested in the opposite sex than who was being elected to office.
I saw the same show on O'Reilly with John Stossel that 1Tea-ed Texan did. I agree with Texan there are no boundaries to stupidity. I think John displayed that very well. Children today are not taught history or politics as we were. This makes it hard to choose between dumb and stupid. Today's youth are taught to praise the stupidity of Obama. There are a lot of young people I respect because they do want to know what is going on in government.
I guess what I would have to call stupid are the people who voted on a health care bill we didn't want or a President they knew nothing about.
Dumb would be when you don't understand a subject. I fall into this category on many subjects. I say stand up for our youth, we could be all they have left.

You have heard our opinion, now let us hear yours.

Take our 15 question quiz at RednecksForAmericans go to Radical Richard's Corner and show Stossel he was wrong.

16 comments:

  1. Rebel Bill1/10/10 7:33 PM

    I like the blog the two of you wrote, but I think both of you are missing the point. There are a bunch of dumb idiots out there that are too stupid to vote. 90% of them are in Congress. The other 50% are the people who vote for popularity. I know many young people who are devoted to politics. I also know many more who are devoted to drugs and getting a free living. If you take the stupidity as you call it out of our country then over 50% of the population including lawmakers will ruin our country.

    Now if you want to write a blog write about something you know about, then let's hear it.
    I've always respected what you have said FF, but I disagree with you on this one. There ARE people who are too stupid to vote. In the end that will bring us into dictatorship.

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  2. Mad Sally's Roommate1/10/10 8:18 PM

    R-Bill, I agree and disagree with what you have to say. Our young people are not that stupid, tho many of them could be on drugs. Our Country is making a change right now and we do have to give them a chance. Where are we going to be 2 yrs. from now, if we can't let a new generation come in? If RR was writeing this I would fight him all the way, but FF tries to look at both sides of the story. As an ex-Dem, let's see what happens in Nov.

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  3. People our President is bringing into this country jobs and industry, why can't you see it? Mr. Bush brought our country down so far that we may never get out of it. President Obama is making it where I can have a living now. I have cut you off of facebook because you are so biased against a different opinion that I don't think you have the intelligence to speak your propanganda, as for me, take your website and shove it. You're nothing more than a bunch of republicans that got us into this mess.
    Bye-bye-stupidity.

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  4. It is not so much that our youth are stupid. They aren't being taught in today's schools what we were taught. History and learning our constitution takes a back seat to subjects such as slavery and the greed of capitalism. Some of the newer classes offered to our students are; suicide prevention, drug abuse, sex education. The shame of it is those subjects take away from the learning of important subjects and preparing them for the future. They are important subjects, but should really be taught in the home. We do not encourage our children to learn about our Founding Fathers and what our country was built on. If our youth are too stupid to vote then the system is to blame for not seeing they are receiving the proper education.

    Here is a link to a good blog on this subject:
    http://www.songoftruth.org/profiles/blog/show?id=4612011%3ABlogPost%3A26479&xgs=1&xg_source=msg_share_post

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  5. I hope my roommate (Mad Sally's Roommate) has a date tonight. All I heard last night was politics. She's turned into a political watchdog, big change from a Liberal. The only salvation I have is she likes to pick on Radical Richard.

    I think both of you did a wonderful job on the blog. Stossel has never impressed me. I think he's like Geraldo who likes to hear himself talk. Many young people are struggling today, like myself, to make a living. The only time I have to post on different sites is on the weekend, then hopefully maybe once through the middle of the week I can come back and read the other comments.

    I do hope we see a drastic change after Nov. 2nd.

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  6. Anonymous, I normally don't comment on sites but yours caught my attention. You speak of biased as if it doesn't pertain to you. You appear to me to be a person that can't take ridicule. If someone doesn't go your way, you take him off you site. I went to my FB to see if you were a friend to take you off, but anonymous doesn't come up.
    By the way you say 'President Obama' is helping you improve your lifestyle, does that mean you've become a political politician, or did you just welfare and food stamps?

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  7. I have not found anything that Obama has done that has helped me or this great country.
    On Huckabee last night they sent reporters out to colleges and asked students if they were going to vote in Nov. Remarkably the majority of them said no, because they were not informed enough about their politics in their home town or state.
    Too bad, but at least they admitted they didn't have enough knowledge to vote. Does that make them too stupid or too dumb to vote?

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  8. I am on my way to the test and see how dumb I am *

    btw, I didn't pay much attention to politics before the 08 elections. I believed in right and wrong and have voted not along any party lines but by the best choice of the two evils.

    I am an independent who believes in the constitution and preserving it... enough said!

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  9. Democratic Cockroaches Hit All Time Low!
    GOP House of Representative candidate Allen West of Florida arrived home to find that Rep. Ron Klein (D-Fl) had sent out thousands of fliers listing his Social Security number!
    South Florida has the highest number of identity theft incidents in the country.
    The mailer was distributed by the state party. They have apologized saying it was just an oversight and have offered to pay for 2 years of identity theft protection.
    To me this is the lowest class of people you can find. No person or party should destroy a families life to win an election. Dems as well as Repubs are angered and protesting this. In my opinion these people are nothing more than cockroaches wasting good oxygen on the earth.
    http://RednecksForAmericans.com has sent in a contribution to help Mr. West put his life back together and support his campaign. We hope others will do the same.
    Donate here http://www.allenwestforcongress.com
    It doesn't matter if it happened to a Democrat or Republican, politicians should not stoop this low.
    We must take stupidity out of office in Nov. That means Dems or Repubs.
    Make your voice heard across our country. Our young people need us now more than ever.

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  10. Some of the people I have met prove to me they should not be voting.
    RR's comment shows how low liberals will stoop in order to keep their seats. People like this have no right to be representing anyone in the US.

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  11. Texas Teacher3/10/10 6:36 PM

    In no way am I saying any one is too stupid to vote, but I see it every day where young people have not been educated in politics. It is a shame our system has let it come to this. It would be nice if we could roll back 20 years when people were taught history and politics along with other curriculum.
    As far as I am concerned the majority of politicians will stoop to anything to be re-elected.

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  12. upsetindenver4/10/10 11:58 AM

    pinkpistol, I too have voted a split ticket and will continue to vote for the person I feel will better serve the country.

    Today's youth do not have the time to really study the candidates and their views, they look to their peers for guidance. That is exactly what happened in the last election, the college students and young were overtaken with the smooth talking dem. candidate.

    I think a lot of them are becoming educated in politics since 08. They voted for a popular candidate who promised so much, I must say I was nearly fooled by the man. Not even two years into his presidency, these young people began to realize the stupidity of their actions. Many will either not vote this year or will study the virtues of the candidates before heading to the polls.

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  13. Every one has some good points here, except anonymous. Too bad he's gone. He is probably one of the illegals who think our country owes him.

    Our youth are really strapped with a burden, they are learning just how far in debt our country is in, and they will have to pay back the debt of this administration. I respect the ones who are in college, many of them carrying full loads and also working. With their studies they seem to have little time for anything else. Young couples trying to get a start in life are realizing that both of them must work to make ends meet. It seems they are going nowhere. Our young people are stressed, not stupid. Many of them just don't have the time to follow politics like we do.

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  14. Anonymous should change his (her?) name to Dumb AND Stupid....but thanks to him for making everyone else look smart.

    The only thing that I see wrong with the youth today is that we have allowed them to be influenced by unaccountable, America-hating, big-government-loving, globalists in teachers unions.

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  15. It's not right for Stossel to say the youth are stupid. I am only 21, attending college and did not vote for Obama. I pride myself and my friends for knowing and understanding the politics of today. We have formed a bi-partisan group that meets weekly to discuss the weeks events. It is interesting to hear both sides. While I am more conservative and agree with them, there are some moderate dems who participate. Unlike Congress when we disagree we do not get mad at one another, we LISTEN and try to rationalize the problem.

    We started our group as 4 members who just don't have the time to know what is going on and decided we could share our combined knowledge. And guess what? it is working.
    We have 138 active members and are growing. Our goal is to stay informed and know the ups and downs of the candidates and political curriculum. We ARE NOT too Stupid To Vote!

    On November 2 we are planning a mass bipartisan exodus the voting polls. No matter how we vote we know our vote counts.

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  16. The youth are not stupid, they are just ill-informed. I hope this election they vote for the best interest for this country.

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