Quickies
Skepchick Quickies, 6.3
- Charles P. Pierce talks about his new book, Idiot America and the rise of American anti-intellectualism. (Thanks to bibliotequetress.)
- The odd spiritualism of Arthur Conan Doyle.
- A response to Pat Robertson’s claim that gay marriage will lead to sex with ducks. (Thanks to Emory.)
- From Simulated comic Product: Null hypothesis. (Thanks to Autotroph and Carl.)
Re: Pat Robertson’s comment:
Maybe that’s what it will lead him to do, but not the rest of us. I’ve wanted to tell him to go f— a duck for years. :-D
Re: The Duck Sex Singers:
These girls rock! The Fundies cannot stand against clever women with senses of humor.
Thanks Pat, I’ll never look at ducks the same way again. I hope you’re happy…
@QuestionAuthority: F–k, f–k, f–k a duck,
screw a kangaroo
fingerbang an orangatun
orgy at the zoo!
I read the American Idiot pice, and I think he’s right. We no longer have information, we have infotainment. We have 24-hr news. We have political commentary passing as real news. No one knows what’s real anymore, we just know what everyone really thinks.
RE: American Idiot
Charlie Pierce seems to be focusing on “the media” as leading the charge towards a dumber America. But he’s stopping one step short of the driving force.
It is my opinion that our consumerist/capitalist society provides a cultural impetus towards ignorance and gullibility as a way of expanding market and increasing profit.
Fearful, superstituous, and ignorant people can be seperated from their cash more easily than skeptical, sane people.
I’m not suggesting a “conspiracy”. I believe this is simply the outgrowth of market forces.
It risks less capital to create products that appeal to people’s emotions because we have all evolved the same basic set of emotional baggage. We come ready-made into the world ready to believe the most outlandish claims.
Only a subset of society wants the high end, intellectual stuff. There’s very little call in our society for home chemistry sets compared to Xbox’s. There’s very little market in our society for copies of Cosmos compared to porn.
Even the most skeptical and intellectual of us is influenced by the siren call of pop-culture and marketing. It takes a conscious effort to be skeptic but no effort at all to be an H. Sapien.
Our economic system is simply geared to exploit that fact.
A goose. I’ve always wanted a goose. They are angry and rough.
@tiger kitty: Down, girl. Down.
@tiger kitty: I like to goose!
They’ve completely missed the point of the hate crime bill. If you’re going to shoot me, shoot me because I just drop kicked your little sister, not because I like to look at winky.
@SkepLit:
I think you are absolutely right. Throw in the social control of advertising and professional marketers, whose raison d’etre is to invent need and emotional uncertainty, and you’ve got a recipe for disaster.
Or is that a recipe for profits?
Pierce is mostly right but I think the roots of proud ignorance run deeper. The sweathogs were the heroes of ‘Welcome Back Kotter’ before Reagan was elected.