repost from the last thread it apparently died while I was typing this…

Sarcasm: I’d like to vent my opinion…

I just watched that astonishingly painful clip in the thread downstairs. I will say my snarky mean two cents to get it out of my system and then move on to a more serious comment.

Snarky mean comment: Kids, don’t do drugs. This is what will be left of your brain.

More serious comment:

Much like giving beauty queens and local Reverends the same footing as actual scientists the same footing in an evolution debate, this show is another example of the extreme anti-intellectualism in America and the resentment that people Americans feel for people who actually know something.

It is not that there are no Americans (or others on American television) with a clue, it is that they are given the same validity as the puppet show. Exactly when was the last time you heard some narcissistic, self inflated and second functionally grade educated show-biz twit sound enlightened about anything? We could ask the very valid question of, what in God’s name allows us to even consider listening to them?

The sad, but true, answer is that if we correctly say to these prats that their opinions are useless, that they do not know their asses from holes in the ground, and that they are in general, wastes of human potential, and should therefore shut up and let those with educated and non-intoxicant addled minds talk about grown-up matters, we also have to be non-hypocrites and actually shut up and learn ourselves when confronted with someone who knows more than we do. Pride goeth before the fall. What we have reaped in this culture is a sense that everyone is entitled to everything without actually earning it - this includes respect of one’s knowledge in the form of believing that one’s own shattered thoughts and meaningless ramblings have the same validity of actual knowledge.

Here are some old time conservative values (That I admit I can use improvement on myself):

1. Listen more.
2. Read more.
3. Respect teachers and scholars.
4. Consider it a personal duty to make oneself into a teacher and a scholar (of something).
5. Do not waste time on fools. Do not suffer them gladly.
6. Try to be humble.

How positively beautiful it would have been if someone would have said: We just answered your question several times. If you do not believe us, then why did you ask in the first place? If you did not understand us then ask about what you don’t understand and stop posing.

This is what I would say to my kids in class - and I have had several that have reminded me of this twit. The difference though is that in a university setting, there is at least, the social structure that they actually do need to listen to me if they want to learn the material and do well on the exams - and they actually do assume that I know more about the topic then they do.

Why does it not work here? Mostly because, outside of a structured environment everyone believes that their opinion is golden. Had the others properly put that fool in his place, they would have appeared arrogant and rude and it would have no longer been an entertainment show. It would have been something to take seriously. People hate that. They like the illusion of intellectual discourse but not the reality of learning.

I am sick of this country at times. Someone should start reminding people that opinions are like assholes - everyone has one.