the DNC/Comedy Central plot is exposed!

Leeds: The Democrats are using fools like Jon Stewart to try to dumb down the country by priming idiot kids into thinking that comedy is news and news is comedy.

o_O

Trannybot asks:

If only there were evidence out there somewhere to support his supposition that Americans are getting dumber.

"Sometimes in order to make progress and move ahead, you have to stand up and do the wrong thing." - Congressman Gary Ackerman (D-New York), explaining why he supported the new welfare bill.

DamnYankees: Leeds: The Democrats are using fools like Jon Stewart to try to dumb down the country by priming idiot kids into thinking that comedy is news and news is comedy.

The Republicans are using fools like the Christian Right to try to dumb down the country by putting up barriers to the dissemination of knowledge in our schools under the auspices of religious freedoms.

Yeah, that's the same thing.

One attacks critical thinking skills and the other removes facts from the curriculum. So, yeah.

Leeds: DamnYankees: Leeds: The Democrats are using fools like Jon Stewart to try to dumb down the country by priming idiot kids into thinking that comedy is news and news is comedy.

The Republicans are using fools like the Christian Right to try to dumb down the country by putting up barriers to the dissemination of knowledge in our schools under the auspices of religious freedoms.

Yeah, that's the same thing.

One attacks critical thinking skills and the other removes facts from the curriculum. So, yeah.

i believe the correct response is to ask if you will sell me drugs.

People are just as dumb, but now dumb people have platforms that amplify their voice, give them a wider audience and record their dumbness in a permanent and widely accessible electronic format.

Unfortunately we're culturally adjusting to this still, as previously getting something printed or broadcast required you to have some credibility and that you had something worthwhile to say.

Mugato: Robespierre: We need a national broadcasting agency, where they get funding no matter what.

The BBC is a model for us. For profit news is simply and incentive to lie.

I'm not sure that giving the government the means of controlling the news is a good idea.

And you do realize that they make you pay a fee for each screen you have in your house and they have roving vans that drive through their streets listening to your house to see if you're tuned in on an illegal unregistered TV...

It seems a bit too Orwellian for my tastes.

Leeds: Mugato: Robespierre: We need a national broadcasting agency, where they get funding no matter what.

The BBC is a model for us. For profit news is simply and incentive to lie.

I'm not sure that giving the government the means of controlling the news is a good idea.

And you do realize that they make you pay a fee for each screen you have in your house and they have roving vans that drive through their streets listening to your house to see if you're tuned in on an illegal unregistered TV...

It seems a bit too Orwellian for my tastes.

No one said we had to transplant the entire system.

ChimpMitten: DamnYankees: No they haven't asshole. Government is not functional, and America is simply noticing.

The people get the government they deserve. The people are easily manipulated idiots and have therefor given themselves a dysfunctional government by voting in people whose main platform consists of declaring that the government is broken and the only way to fix it is to break it more. is going to give away as much free shiat as possible to as many people as possible, so no one has to do a farking thing for themselves anymore.


FTFY

What has happened is that over the course of 40+ years, the Republican Party was hijacked by a radical faction who believe their agenda, their entire agenda, and nothing but their agenda MUST be implemented by any means necessary... and few people in the media will stand up and acknowledge it. One network, lead by a paranoid nutcase, actually cheers it on and encourages it.

In service of this goal, the dumbest, meanest, most xenophobic, most easily manipulated and exploitable people in the country have been given a seat at the conservative table. It's the Rush Limbaugh-ization of America. People who would have once been ignored and told to STFU by both parties are invited into the process by the right and told that they're truest, bestest, most realest Americans ever.

Because politics is, in reality, far too boring to hold their interest, it has been given the professional wrestling "heroes and heels" treatment... where everything is a pitched battle between good and evil and evil must not be allowed to gain even a single inch. Look at the comments section in that article, and you can see exactly what I'm talking about... people who are rabid politcal partisans, but who clearly don't know much (if anything) about actual political issues:

"Boy, he sure is right about that. Thanks to 40 years of turning the school system into a liberal indoctrination camp, our collective IQ has dropped significantly."

"Well, the people kept returning him to Congress for over 30 years, despite continuing incompetence, so I think he has a point about the stupidity of the public."

"Term limits best offer. this people have never worked in their lives and call us stupid . Including the pres they could not operate an lemonade or a hot dog stand. A community organizer becomes a pres what a joke and ackerman has the ordasity to call us stupid and we are paying there salary."



I see them all the time on facebook. They're like someone who's picked a football team to be a fan of, but in reality knows little but the bare bones about football.

"Auburn sucks! Alabama rules! I hate Auburn fans. Auburn is the worst team ever!"

"What are you basing that on?"

"The fact that they suck!"

"Their passing game? Ground game? Defense? Individual players? What specifically are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about fark Auburn, that's what!"


They're like a crowd at a WWE match jeering the guys they hate. It's emotional, not intellectual. They picked a side and if that side wins, they win. If that side loses, they lose.

These people would have never been interested in politics 20 or 30 years ago. They wouldn't have sat around and watched 'This Week With David Brinkley." But Limbaugh and his ilk and Fox News and the right-wing blog-o-sphere have dumbed it down and made it sport. The rest of the media caught on and figured out that it was good for ratings.

thurstonxhowell: I don't think people are getting dumber. I think dumb people are getting louder.

I agree. In the old days, there were no Re: FW: FW: FW: emails, no blogs, no alternative publications like NRO that were easily accessible. The more extremist thought was relegated to newsletters and magazines that one had to seek out. There was no way for this thought to leech out into the mainstream and become "common knowledge."

Now, nonsense starts at thinktanks, is seeded in FW FW FW emails, goes to Worldnut Daily, then to NRO, then NY Post and Fox, and then into the Washington Post, NY Times, and CBS- agenda setting media. The internet was the "missing link" to propel radicalism into the mainstream.

Leeds: Sadly this guy is correct. And it's being brought about by both parties.

The Democrats are using fools like Jon Stewart to try to dumb down the country by priming idiot kids into thinking that comedy is news and news is comedy.

The Republicans are using fools like the Christian Right to try to dumb down the country by putting up barriers to the dissemination of knowledge in our schools under the auspices of religious freedoms.

So one side is hoping to dumb down the electorate so that more people vote Democrat and the other side is hoping to dumb down the electorate so that more people can be counted as religious.

I've never met Congressman Ackerman but I think he's spot on with his comments in this article.

Actually it's historically been proven that the more educated the person the more likely they are to vote Democratic. They also tend to be less religious.

Cletus C.: Sometimes in order to make progress and move ahead, you have to stand up and do the wrong thing

------

Some Democrats, like Representative Gary L. Ackerman of Queens, , voted for the bill as part of a strategy to help Democrats in November.

''It was not a happy decision,'' Mr. Ackerman said. ''This is a bad bill but a good strategy. In order to continue economic and social progress, we must keep President Clinton in office. And we are within striking distance of a majority in the House in this year's elections.

''We had to show Americans that Democrats are willing to break with the past, to move from welfare to workfare. Sometimes in order to make progress and move ahead, you have to stand up and do the wrong thing. If we take back the House, we can fix this bill and take out some of the Draconian parts.''

Mr. Ackerman said Democrats had failed to fix the welfare system when they controlled Congress. ''Shame on us,'' he said. ''We must bear the burden of blame. We should have fixed it when we had the opportunity. Then we would not have had the anguish of this particular vote this week.''

------

Yeah, what a moron... Saying that sometimes you have to cede ground and do things you'd prefer not to in order to exhibit a desire to compromise and a good faith willingness to work together.

rumpelstiltskin: Modern conservatives are stupider. How can anyone deny it?

I would argue people have always been dumb, the conservative "leadership" just got smarter. I think it's less about the people getting dumber and more about cynical republican leaders realizing that after the dixiecrat revolt in the 60s they had a base heavy with people who were poorly educated, racist, and very, very angry. That's a pretty volatile mix that you can easily whip up in a furor over virtually nothing.

"Look over there, a negro and white girl holding hands!" OUTRAGE!

"Look over there, two boys holding hands!" OUTRAGE!

"Look over there, a muslim wants to build a mosque!" OUTRAGE!

People didn't get dumber, people stayed dumb. It's more that with the massive advances in mass media over the last two decades they've crafted an easy way to mold their ill-educated, angry base. Plant a far out story in some crackpot right-wing blog, let it gain traction with the fringe, mold it into a "just asking" story and plant it in "legitimate" Newscorp outlets. Finally, blame "the liberal media" for not reporting the "issue". This helps to legitimize the crack pot blogs while smearing the "traditional media" that didn't report the "story" in the minds of the targets and helps you shift people even farther into right field and even farther away from basic common sense and reason.

Eventually, you get to the point we're at now where they've virtually completely abandoned all reason and right-wing True Believers come into places like Fark and start posting crap to Free Republic or lobbyist front websites and just having no ability to comprehend that these are not legitimate sources of factual information.

It's truly terrifying how effectively millions of right-wingers have been cynically molded into drones that can be fed insane marching orders full of the most obvious lies that they'll mindlessly carry all over the place without question. It's just nuts how effective the leadership has been.

Go back and read some magazine pieces from 30, 40, 50 years ago. It was just as stupid as now. There was just less of it and that made it seem more important and well-thought-out. It wasn't. People were, in general, more ignorant back then too. There just wasn't as much information available and any information came to them very slowly. People look back in time to when they were younger through a filter and only see the "good" things, but if they could have total recall they'd see that the culture back then was just as stupid as it is now, just less free.

The ancient Greek philosophers knew democracy couldn't work (see Plato's Republic). There was no way the man in the street would know enough to be able to participate in running the country. During the Enlightenment, people figured out that the missing piece was general public education and its corollary, a free, active, and honest press. If we are losing those two things then our democracy is going to fail.

technicolor-misfit: Cletus C.: Sometimes in order to make progress and move ahead, you have to stand up and do the wrong thing

------

Some Democrats, like Representative Gary L. Ackerman of Queens, , voted for the bill as part of a strategy to help Democrats in November.

''It was not a happy decision,'' Mr. Ackerman said. ''This is a bad bill but a good strategy. In order to continue economic and social progress, we must keep President Clinton in office. And we are within striking distance of a majority in the House in this year's elections.

''We had to show Americans that Democrats are willing to break with the past, to move from welfare to workfare. Sometimes in order to make progress and move ahead, you have to stand up and do the wrong thing. If we take back the House, we can fix this bill and take out some of the Draconian parts.''

Mr. Ackerman said Democrats had failed to fix the welfare system when they controlled Congress. ''Shame on us,'' he said. ''We must bear the burden of blame. We should have fixed it when we had the opportunity. Then we would not have had the anguish of this particular vote this week.''

------

Yeah, what a moron... Saying that sometimes you have to cede ground and do things you'd prefer not to in order to exhibit a desire to compromise and a good faith willingness to work together.

Then I will say you are correct, sir.

humanshrapnel: squeez cheez: If things don't go your way, just blame the people for being better informed infromed than at any other time in history. Yep.

Fixed.

Rotsky?

Since he's a Democrat he had to leave out the next statement.... 'Mission accomplished'

Satanic_Hamster: squeez cheez: If things don't go your way, just blame the people for being better informed than at any other time in history. Yep.

No. People have access to being informed. Instead, they watch nothing but partisan shrill shows or incompetent corporate media.

You just go ahead and keep telling yourself that. Soon enough you will believe it.

DamnYankees: No they haven't asshole. Government is not functional, and America is simply noticing.

Try not paying your taxes and see how non-functional it is.

missiv: [i479.photobucket.com image 462x661]
Modern politics.

The audience is made up of lobbyists. The voters are at home watching the theater, on their flatscreens, thinking everything they're seeing is all real.

shiat. shiat. shiat.

This is the best analogy of all time. Ever. So, the GOP would be the Ultimate Warrior, a drug addict who spouts derp like hair grows on my ass? And the Dems would be the Hulkster, a drug addict who at least you can understand with a ring of hair?

And, who exactly would Bobby "The Brain" Heenan represent? How about... sorry. I'm getting into this.

Mugato: Leeds: The Democrats are using fools like Jon Stewart to try to dumb down the country by priming idiot kids into thinking that comedy is news and news is comedy.

Too bad The Daily Show gives more comprehensive and unbalanced news than a lot of networks. Sorry but it's true.

Is "unbalanced news" a term that implies "as factual as 'The Onion'" ???

Because if it is, we're in agreement.

Why should the Weekly Standard have a problem with this? Conservatives like Jonah Goldberg have been pretty straightforward about it.

Leeds: Mugato: Leeds: The Democrats are using fools like Jon Stewart to try to dumb down the country by priming idiot kids into thinking that comedy is news and news is comedy.

Too bad The Daily Show gives more comprehensive and unbalanced news than a lot of networks. Sorry but it's true.

Is "unbalanced news" a term that implies "as factual as 'The Onion'" ???

Because if it is, we're in agreement.

Are you suggesting that the Daily Show's segments are entirely fictional?

Leeds: Mugato: Leeds: The Democrats are using fools like Jon Stewart to try to dumb down the country by priming idiot kids into thinking that comedy is news and news is comedy.

Too bad The Daily Show gives more comprehensive and unbalanced news than a lot of networks. Sorry but it's true.

Is "unbalanced news" a term that implies "as factual as 'The Onion'" ???

Because if it is, we're in agreement.

So you don't understand the difference between commentary on real stories and fake ones I see.

qorkfiend: Leeds: Mugato: Leeds: The Democrats are using fools like Jon Stewart to try to dumb down the country by priming idiot kids into thinking that comedy is news and news is comedy.

Too bad The Daily Show gives more comprehensive and unbalanced news than a lot of networks. Sorry but it's true.

Is "unbalanced news" a term that implies "as factual as 'The Onion'" ???

Because if it is, we're in agreement.

Are you suggesting that the Daily Show's segments are entirely fictional?

No, not entirely. But their segments are edited in precisely the same way Andrea Mitchell's Romney segment was edited. (I assume you saw that news story break this week.)

Anyone can take a video clip of someone making a valid point and re-edit it to make it look like they are batshiate insane. It works for Michael Moore, it works for Jon Stewart and up until this week's scandal it worked for Andrea Mitchell.

Fart_Machine: Leeds: Mugato: Leeds: The Democrats are using fools like Jon Stewart to try to dumb down the country by priming idiot kids into thinking that comedy is news and news is comedy.

Too bad The Daily Show gives more comprehensive and unbalanced news than a lot of networks. Sorry but it's true.

Is "unbalanced news" a term that implies "as factual as 'The Onion'" ???

Because if it is, we're in agreement.

So you don't understand the difference between commentary on real stories and fake ones I see.

Something tells me you failed English in middle school.

Re-read the posts and perhaps you'll see why you are broadly written off as a dimwitted fool.

Gulper Eel: heap: you make no case that he is wrong.

consider that for a moment.

He's a time-server. NYC congressman is a gig for life if you're not stupid (Weiner) or corrupt (Rangel...maybe).

Find me the truly important legislation Ackerman's written and gotten passed. He worked on the baby-HIV testing part of the Ryan White Act. Worthy, but that was 22 years ago.

The rest? Not exactly controversial. He helped push Bush into a regulatory ban on downed cattle being used as food.

I can't even find people saying nice things about his record on Daily Kos.

And this is pretty much standard for NYC Democrats - Queens especially. Show up, push the D button, make sure you take care of Israel, take care of the party bosses, get re-elected, lather rinse repeat.

You ignore the most important part of being a Congressman- taking care of concerns of your district. That goes a long way. It's not all about being on Meet the Press.

Leeds: pay a fee for each screen

wut?

Leeds: roving vans that drive through their streets listening to your house to see if you're tuned in on an illegal unregistered TV

double wut?

"But the thought leaders on talk radio and Fox do more than shape opinion. Backed by their own wing of the book-publishing industry and supported by think tanks that increasingly function as public-relations agencies, conservatives have built a whole alternative knowledge system, with its own facts, its own history, its own laws of economics. Outside this alternative reality, the United States is a country dominated by a strong Christian religiosity. Within it, Christians are a persecuted minority. Outside the system, President Obama-whatever his policy errors-is a figure of imposing intellect and dignity. Within the system, he's a pitiful nothing, unable to speak without a teleprompter, an affirmative-action phony doomed to inevitable defeat. Outside the system, social scientists worry that the U.S. is hardening into one of the most rigid class societies in the Western world, in which the children of the poor have less chance of escape than in France, Germany, or even England. Inside the system, the U.S. remains (to borrow the words of Senator Marco Rubio) "the only place in the world where it doesn't matter who your parents were or where you came from."

We used to say "You're entitled to your own opinion, but not to your own facts." Now we are all entitled to our own facts, and conservative media use this right to immerse their audience in a total environment of pseudo-facts and pretend information...

This is, unfortunately, not merely a concern for Republican voters. The conservative shift to ever more extreme, ever more fantasy-based ideology has ominous real-world consequences for American society. The American system of government can't work if the two sides wage all-out war upon each other: House, Senate, president, each has the power to thwart the others. In prior generations, the system evolved norms and habits to prevent this kind of stonewalling. For example: Theoretically, the party that holds the Senate could refuse to confirm any Cabinet nominees of a president of the other party. Yet until recently, this just "wasn't done." In fact, quite a lot of things that theoretically could be done just "weren't done." Now old inhibitions have given way. Things that weren't done suddenly are done."

That's from David farking Frum.

"When Did the GOP Lose Touch With Reality?"
http://nymag.com/print/?/news/politics/conservatives-david-frum-2011 -1 1/

DirkValentine: Leeds: pay a fee for each screen

wut?

Leeds: roving vans that drive through their streets listening to your house to see if you're tuned in on an illegal unregistered TV

double wut?

Sadly true

Leeds: qorkfiend: Leeds: Mugato: Leeds: The Democrats are using fools like Jon Stewart to try to dumb down the country by priming idiot kids into thinking that comedy is news and news is comedy.

Too bad The Daily Show gives more comprehensive and unbalanced news than a lot of networks. Sorry but it's true.

Is "unbalanced news" a term that implies "as factual as 'The Onion'" ???

Because if it is, we're in agreement.

Are you suggesting that the Daily Show's segments are entirely fictional?

No, not entirely. But their segments are edited in precisely the same way Andrea Mitchell's Romney segment was edited. (I assume you saw that news story break this week.)

Anyone can take a video clip of someone making a valid point and re-edit it to make it look like they are batshiate insane. It works for Michael Moore, it works for Jon Stewart and up until this week's scandal it worked for Andrea Mitchell.

Yeah. They're not a news program. But to claim that their segments are fictional on a par with The Onion is ludicrous.

Job Creator: DirkValentine: Leeds: pay a fee for each screen

wut?

Leeds: roving vans that drive through their streets listening to your house to see if you're tuned in on an illegal unregistered TV

double wut?

Sadly true

Assuredly, there's no private companies that make their customers pay a fee for multiple cable boxes.

DirkValentine: Leeds: pay a fee for each screen

wut?

Leeds: roving vans that drive through their streets listening to your house to see if you're tuned in on an illegal unregistered TV

double wut?

Not kidding.

I know, it's a bit ridiculous to those of us who haven't been subjected to that sort of government control.

Here's a Wikipedia article that explains it if you're interested: Link

And here is a picture of one of their "Detector Vans" that they use to catch people who have unlicensed televisions:

The people masochistic enough to follow politics and have regular contact with you have gotten dumber.

thurstonxhowell: I don't think people are getting dumber. I think dumb people are getting louder.

I agree. The problem is that now absolutely everybody has access to a global megaphone. There's not more of them, they just have an outlet for dumb ideas that back in the day had to make it past an editor. The distribution of intelligence is probably exactly the same as it was back in the day.

Mugato: qorkfiend: Yeah. They're not a news program. But to claim that their segments are fictional on a par with The Onion is ludicrous.

Yeah I was joking earlier but most of what the Daily Show does is simply replay what people say, unedited and then comment on it. And as someone who watches more 24 hour news shiat than I probably should, there are a lot of clips that they run on the Daily Show that I just don't see anywhere else. And you can call it biased if you want but it doesn't change the fact that those are real clips, they're not CGI or holograms or anything.

Unedited???

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