FARK.com: (4984520) BBC takes a look at why derp Americans are derp

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		BBC takes a look at why derp Americans are derp (news.bbc.co.uk)		174
		More: Obvious, Americans, Vice President Al Gore, poor people, French Revolution, Richard Hofstadter, voting booths, supermajority, political scientists

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174 Comments (+0 »)

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DrBenway

2010-01-30 07:30:11 PM

Derp-American community outrage will be strong. Which is fine, because I haven't been getting enough pointing-and-laughing exercise lately.

theurge14

2010-01-30 07:59:41 PM

Because fly-over state Republican "small-government" WASPy outrage types are derp derp.

Mentat

2010-01-30 08:00:27 PM

Riche

2010-01-30 08:00:28 PM

Repeat.

Derp.

===========================================

Soooo....Since this thread will be going down the 'ol memory hole soon, does anybody want to confess some deep dark secret?

Shostie

2010-01-30 08:02:33 PM

Maybe the BBC's time would be better served by narcing on their neighbor for having a bird bath that is 92 cm tall when the regulations CLEARLY specify that bird baths shall be NO TALLER than 90 cm and NO SHORTER than 80"!!!

hoopy22

2010-01-30 08:03:01 PM

Yes, I don't care what happens to my country. I don't care how much my children will be on the hook for. I want MINE!

This author has the reasoning power of a 7th grader.

RanDomino

2010-01-30 08:03:05 PM

you thread 'derp' twice

Riche
Soooo....Since this thread will be going down the 'ol memory hole soon, does anybody want to confess some deep dark secret?

In 1990, I raped and murdered a girl, and last year I tried to pin the blame on a popular TV political pundit.

Shostie

2010-01-30 08:03:14 PM

Riche: Repeat.

Derp.

===========================================

Soooo....Since this thread will be going down the 'ol memory hole soon, does anybody want to confess some deep dark secret?

I once put my penis inside the memory hole.

sonnyboy11

2010-01-30 08:03:38 PM

Queue up the derp dog pic, stat!

siagis

2010-01-30 08:03:48 PM

look sir, droids!

Englebert Slaptyback

2010-01-30 08:03:48 PM

Why do people often vote against their own interests?

Because people don't understand - and don't want to understand - the issues well enough to know what their own interests are and how those interests might best be achieved.

This seems to come from the "I dropped outa community college but I know more about economics/healthcare/finance/defense than those gol-durned polly-ticians". How can people even muster that mindset??

genner

2010-01-30 08:04:15 PM

Shostie: Maybe the BBC's time would be better served by narcing on their neighbor for having a bird bath that is 92 cm tall when the regulations CLEARLY specify that bird baths shall be NO TALLER than 90 cm and NO SHORTER than 80"!!!

Your neighborhood still allows birdbaths?
Won't someone please think of the children!

hitlersbrain

2010-01-30 08:04:52 PM

What did you expect? "Welcome, sonny"? "Make yourself at home"? "Marry my daughter"? You've got to remember that these are just simple ~~farmers~~ derps. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know... morons.

www.threedonia.com

The_Terminator

2010-01-30 08:05:31 PM

Hurr durr anything the Republicans want is against your interests, anything the Democrats want is in your best interest, derp derp derp

Englebert Slaptyback

2010-01-30 08:05:51 PM

genner

Your neighborhood still allows birdbaths?
Won't someone please think of the children!

Let the record show that genner is in favor of dirty birds.

PeppaJack

2010-01-30 08:06:00 PM

repeat, but that is one fine picture.

RanDomino

2010-01-30 08:06:05 PM

Englebert Slaptyback
Because people don't understand - and don't want to understand - the issues well enough to know what their own interests are and how those interests might best be achieved.

actually it's because starting in the early 1900s there was a concerted effort by wealthy industrialists to undermine the education system, which has since become the conventional educational system. But I can't possibly know that, I'm way too stupid to understand the issues.

Lumoclear

2010-01-30 08:06:20 PM

I thought it was because Americans aren't Canadian.

Intelligent_Donkey

2010-01-30 08:06:29 PM

That picture is the quintessence of redneck fury.
I just stopped in here to point that out.

Obnox

2010-01-30 08:06:52 PM

Everyone who voted for Labour over the last few years read that story with a lump of irony in their throats.

Ryker's Peninsula

2010-01-30 08:06:56 PM

Starring Rob Schneider as Scott Brown.
Rated PG-13.

OutsmartBullet

2010-01-30 08:06:57 PM

That lady did not evolve the whole way.

relcec

2010-01-30 08:07:11 PM

Bush gave the middle and lower class significant tax cuts of around $150 billion a year. Obama gave an extra $83 billion a year to those who work so little they don't even pay taxes, which is significantly more that will be clawed back when the taxes on the rich are reinstated. Guess who will end up paying for Obama's generosity to those who barely work? Yep, the middle class. It looks like the majority of working Americans weren't voting their interests when they elected Obama, but now they are again. The sponges already vote for Obama by huge majorities. The BBC should stay the f*ck out of it since they know not what they are talking about.

TheManofPA

2010-01-30 08:07:30 PM

Gore: "Under the governor's plan, if you kept the same fee for service that you have now under Medicare, your premiums would go up by between 18% and 47%, and that is the study of the Congressional plan that he's modelled his proposal on by the Medicare actuaries."

Bush: "Look, this is a man who has great numbers. He talks about numbers. "I'm beginning to think not only did he invent the internet, but he invented the calculator. It's fuzzy math. It's trying to scare people in the voting booth."

Mr Gore was talking sense and Mr Bush nonsense - but Mr Bush won the debate. With statistics, the voters just hear a patronising policy wonk, and switch off.

No snark, just a sad sad headshake that I read this in their voices and got very sad for how things went.

Son of Thunder

2010-01-30 08:07:41 PM

It might be tempting to put the whole thing down to what the historian Richard Hofstadter back in the 1960s called "the paranoid style" of American politics, in which God, guns and race get mixed into a toxic stew of resentment at anything coming out of Washington.

But that would be a ~~mistake.~~ fark politics thread.

exatron

2010-01-30 08:08:04 PM

Riche: Repeat.Derp.===========================================Soooo....Since this thread will be going down the 'ol memory hole soon, does anybody want to confess some deep dark secret?

I'm responsible for Glen Beck and Rush Limbaugh's popularity.

Obnox

2010-01-30 08:08:32 PM

PeppaJack: repeat, but that is one fine picture.

Veruca Salt finally grew old.

FlashHarry

2010-01-30 08:08:47 PM

well, considering this ad is sponsored by one of our "news organizations..."

CajunPalomino

2010-01-30 08:09:00 PM

*sits back, grabs the popcorn*

akula

2010-01-30 08:09:30 PM

This whole "you're voting against your own interests" bit is pure unmitigated bullshiat.

The core assumption is that people should vote for whomever promises them the most money/programs. It ignores the fact that people have more motivating them than money- many people aren't interested in the government being their Santa Claus. Sure, they'd get a higher standard of living, but it will be at the expense of somebody else. They also understand that politicians lie. That's right- the campaign promises are rarely fulfilled and everybody knows it.

When you view the world through nothing more than the good old Marxist class struggle lenses I suppose you could think this way, but people are more complex than that. Poor BBC writer and Subby McDumbfark are going to need to get that through their heads.

genner

2010-01-30 08:09:45 PM

Englebert Slaptyback: genner

Your neighborhood still allows birdbaths?
Won't someone please think of the children!

Let the record show that genner is in favor of dirty birds.

When will the governmnet stop playing poltics and provide funding for bird showers in every backyard? They're so much more efficient than baths. Why do you hate the enviroment?

sage37

2010-01-30 08:09:48 PM

TheManofPA

2010-01-30 08:10:09 PM

relcec: The sponges already vote for Obama by huge majorities.

I like to think of my self as knowledge about the ways of internet arguing, but I have never heard of "sponges". Can someone define this one?

/actually serious if it is well-known

BumpInTheNight

2010-01-30 08:10:09 PM

kukukupo

2010-01-30 08:11:11 PM

FTA:

"Political scientist Dr David Runciman looks at why is there often such deep opposition to reforms that appear to be of obvious benefit to voters."

Here is your reason. "Appears to be".

IshadymilkmanI

2010-01-30 08:11:16 PM

JudgeReinhold

2010-01-30 08:11:19 PM

"It's like a French Revolution in reverse in which the workers come pouring down the street screaming more power to the aristocracy."

Nothing more to say here.

Shostie

2010-01-30 08:11:56 PM

TheManofPA: relcec: The sponges already vote for Obama by huge majorities.

I like to think of my self as knowledge about the ways of internet arguing, but I have never heard of "sponges". Can someone define this one?

/actually serious if it is well-known

Sponges are foam blocks that are highly absorbent.

Rev. Skarekroe

2010-01-30 08:12:04 PM

Repeat.
But a great article.

loonatic112358

2010-01-30 08:12:35 PM

Toshiro Mifune's Letter Opener

2010-01-30 08:12:44 PM

PeppaJack: newsimg.bbc.co.uk

repeat, but that is one fine picture.

! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

Is that Stephen King on the left?

Hau Ruck

2010-01-30 08:13:40 PM

PeppaJack: repeat, but that is one fine picture.

It needs a "Keep your gubmint hands off my Medicare!!1" or similar caption.

Obnox

2010-01-30 08:13:47 PM

akula: The core assumption is that people should vote for whomever promises them the most money/programs.

No, the core assumption is that people should vote for those whose policies increase the standard of living. Sometimes that's more money in your pocket, but it's much more than that. It's safer food, safer workplaces, spending on parks and roads and schools, social safety nets...you know, the kind of stuff you guys hate.

Majin_Buu

2010-01-30 08:13:57 PM

HMS_Blinkin

2010-01-30 08:14:04 PM

hoopy22: Yes, I don't care what happens to my country. I don't care how much my children will be on the hook for. I want MINE!

This author has the reasoning power of a 7th grader.

So you don't want your children to have better, cheaper, more widely distributed health care? OK.

the_chief

2010-01-30 08:15:07 PM

There is no simple way to explain why people do what they do.

hitlersbrain

2010-01-30 08:15:25 PM

relcec: Bush gave the middle and lower class significant tax cuts of around $150 billion a year. Obama gave an extra $83 billion a year to those who work so little they don't even pay taxes, which is significantly more that will be clawed back when the taxes on the rich are reinstated. Guess who will end up paying for Obama's generosity to those who barely work? Yep, the middle class. It looks like the majority of working Americans weren't voting their interests when they elected Obama, but now they are again. The sponges already vote for Obama by huge majorities. The BBC should stay the f*ck out of it since they know not what they are talking about.

Yes, everyone who needs help is a lazy drug addict. It has nothing to do with shipping jobs over to third world hell holes. Forget that hard working people's wages have not even kept up with inflation for decades while 'do nothing' parasite 'executives' have enjoyed ever more money for farking things up.

Keep licking that rich, flabby arse, something's bound to 'trickle down'.

Aging Americans need to realize that their brains are not aging any better than their bodies and maybe they need to think a lot harder before making decisions or just not make important decisions they don't have to.

GolemGolem

2010-01-30 08:15:29 PM

Oh why won't Majestic 12 just show themselves, I refuse to feel that politics actually decide our government's policies.I want the aliens making our decisions for us rationally..
May we all be Derp, the Brits too.

IshadymilkmanI

2010-01-30 08:15:38 PM

akula: This whole "you're voting against your own interests" bit is pure unmitigated bullshiat.

The core assumption is that people should vote for whomever promises them the most money/programs. It ignores the fact that people have more motivating them than money- many people aren't interested in the government being their Santa Claus. Sure, they'd get a higher standard of living, but it will be at the expense of somebody else. They also understand that politicians lie. That's right- the campaign promises are rarely fulfilled and everybody knows it.

When you view the world through nothing more than the good old Marxist class struggle lenses I suppose you could think this way, but people are more complex than that. Poor BBC writer and Subby McDumbfark are going to need to get that through their heads.

So, you're saying the reason that Texans, since they were used as an example in the article, hate the idea of being given a public option for healthcare that would probably be an improvement on the little-to-no coverage they already have, because they don't want to personally be a burden to somebody else?

You really think that's what's going through some angry lower-middle classer's mind when he's posting about 'BLACKBOMBUS ODUMBO'S MARXIST HEALTH RAPE' on every Breitbart article?

conejo

2010-01-30 08:17:01 PM

The average American, in this day and age, is a complete farking moron. I think that's what the author really wanted to convey but was too polite to say so. That's how the English are.

/part of the alleged top 2% of the population
//thinks that's BS too, because it's more like 5%.

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