someone like, for example, Mitt Romney. I don't like Romney; I didn't like him when he ran against Obama. But he's normal. He had policy ideas and theories which I didn't agree with but at least he had some. He came across as a clueless plutocrat and he didn't present well when rubbing shoulders with the unwashed proletariat but he didn't seem insane. He doesn't have a history of debauched personal behavior and outright fraud. You wouldn't expect him to barge into a dressing room full of naked teenaged girls or paying off a porn actress or brag about grabbing women's crotches and certainly not raping them in department store dressing rooms. I don't think Mitt has ever been accused of a felony, let alone convicted of one (or 34). If Harris had run against and been defeated by Romney I would have been deeply disappointed but not horrified; the people who voted for Romney in 2012 weren't dumb; just IMO mistaken. I wouldn't have attributed Harris losing to Romney as the result of rampant misogyny (though it certainly would have been a factor) because there would also have been rational reasons for some people to vote for him. There were no rational reasons to vote for Trump. He offers nothing good, useful, sensible or decent. Voting for him was dumb, at best; if you knew exactly what he is and thought, "Yeah, I want more of that," you're worse than dumb, you're evil.

Something changed among U.S. voters in the past 10 years, and the effect is that a lot of people have become very misinformed. The choice to vote for Trump is inexplicable. It's like a mass hysteria event. Like tupipmania.

Kardashians,

Honey Bo-Bo,

Duck Dynasty - Xtian-Fascist-Nationalists - Nazis,

Dugan - Quiverfull Xtians - Incestuous Pedo with sisters,

Falwell Jr - drunken sexual exploits.

Whitewashing + Normalizing stupidity.

... pushed upon us as the most astute business man since ever.

Donald J Trump - The Apprentice Reality Show.

have all replaced facts, expertise and critical thinking - which are no longer considered important qualities.

As the OP makes clear - in the recent past (ie 60s - 00s) people had disagreements, but it was largely based upon views that were informed by broadcast TV (the 3 major networks and PBS) as well as newspapers, magazines, books, etc - content that was created/edited etc by experts and credible people.

Our culture is garbage - that's the problem - and our politics have come to mirror that.

A black man was elected President and the crackers lost their shit. It has been non-stop white male grievance ever since.

That something you see is the far right surrounding them with a rich and deep network controlling their intake of info from journalists and a firehouse of bs using ai to target groups by nterest and sector, this time at least. She could have easily beaten trump. Him and the richest man in the world and disinformation from Russia, Chinand Iran is a whole new equation that we just were not prepared for.

the use of the work maybe in your title.

One of the problems with internet posts is that they are not thoughtful and nuanced.

I am not saying that some fun is not to be had when we all pile on, click and like stuff. To a moderate extent that makes online interactions more fun than not - as long as it is recognised that it is not all humor/fun and that hyperbole will never entirely capture complex realities.

I like yardwork’s writing because it seems almost quaint- as if it is from an era when people actually bothered to read whole sentences.

Oh I also write occasionally in the style of the internet troll (well maybe not troll but internet user), but whatever the position, the posts I tend to like here are thoughtful and not overly reductive.

I do think the internet is making us collectively stupider as a species. This was 2008:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Is_Google_Making_Us_Stupid%3F

Now it is so much worse. One cannot get rid of the internet, but I do think it needs more study to be truly useful and fun rather than the organ of stupidity and terror it has become.

I'm 79 and have been working with computers (as a user, not a developer) since they were programmed and instructed with punchcards. Over time, though I still love computers and the internet (which among other things is a marvelous boon to the disabled), I have become more and more of a Luddite. For example, I have only recently started to work with Windows 10 (having been using Windows 8.1 since about the time 10 came out), and getting angrier about it daily. It just has too many shiny objects - by which I mean apps and features which for me do nothing except distract.

No, Microsoft, I don't want your games. I have my own games, literally hundreds of them, which I keep on a portable hard drive so they'll be out o f the way when I'm not using them. No, Microsoft, I don't want your damn copilot, which I have already uninstalled more than once but keeps coming back. I don't want your damn mail, I want you to leave my Yahoo mail alone. I don't want your damn Xbox, those are not the games I play. I don't want your OneDrive. I don't want your ugly backgrounds, How many will i have to tell you one at a time I hate, before they are all gone? I don't want Cortana, I don't want anything 3D, or OneNote, or Outlook, or Feedback Hub, or Phone Link, or publisher, or snip and Sketch, or any of the shiny objects I have uninstalled, which took days of my time.

And that's just Windows 10. I shudder to think about what 11 or 12 might do to me. All of hat can be uninstalled - you can fins multiple versions of directions to do so in search engines (some of which don't always work depending on which update you ae on, which suggests to me that a lot of people don't want them.) But their presence take up space and memory and makes everything one wants to do slower, and they are such a distraction - I am beginning to believe a deliberate distraction. I suspect Microsoft could actually make more money by selling new versions on new and even rebuilt computers with the absolute bare minimum required to run the system and selling options separately. But putting out all these shiny objects forces our attention away from the real world and dumbs us down. It's not just the media which removes us from reality with shiny objects. I find myself screaming multiple times per day. And if I am, how is a dumb or intellectually lazy person going to cope with the floods of information, misinformation, and disinformation to which we are all subjected?

Oh, and don't even get me started on how much harder it is if you need a screen magnifier. The one on Windows 10 does not even see everything it is on top of. Just one example - if I put in a usb drive and Avast wants to scan it, I must disable the magnifier just to find the Avast command. (and immediately enable it again in order to find i he drive in File Explorer.)

You said so many things I think. I feel the same way about the new shiny shit of no use beyond distracting one. Somehow I have managed to dial them down to the lowest nuisance level.

But I have realized finally that right now part of the controls lie with me alone. So I am dialing down my smartphone and net use and regulating them.

I can almost feel my brain zombifying sometimes when I stare at the phone for hours. It was unavoidable during this election but at least now I am setting limits. When I look back at the last decade and a half of my life especially, but more broadly the past 25 years (I am 46) , I have lost more time to worthless internet stuff than anything else. For now all I can do is regulate my own behaviors. I don’t find the internet addictive so much as something you use to shut off your brain when stuck at work, which happens to me a lot. In the end, bad for work and my brain.

However I am at least relatively educated and aware. To have lie filled click bait colonize your brain all the time cannot be good for you if it is below the threshold of your awareness.

You might enjoy Carr’s blog soldierant:
https://www.roughtype.com/

(Sadly he has now moved his blog to this execrable site I cannot stand. I regret every penny I have ever given that site). The only website I’ll ever do is DU. If DU winds down some day I suppose Mastodon it is. I rather liked Mastodon (unlike my various other forays into that type of media) relatively. You had to use your brain a tad more there.

I hate the zombifying and icky feel of clickbait. I don’t know how anyone can stand it.
My one complaint with DuckDuckGo (which I use over Google) is the promotion of MSN sites for news.

MSN sites are filled with ads and hideous ones at that. The only time I was amused was when they started offering me couches during the last election cycle probably thanks to my numerous searches for “Vance and couch” ;-/. The one high point of the last election cycle silly as it was 😁.

However the election turned out I still giggle over that alone. That was organic internet silliness not a slick campaign thing -the one thing I do actually like about the internet is when human life breaks through in its organic form past all the foul commodified rot.

It is helpful to know that one is not alone, isn't it.

I don't use any search engine for news except very occasionally to find a particular site or a particular article. Mostly my use is for historica ir literary or artistic information, or for shopping. I think everyone agrees Duck Duck Go has annoying features. But I can live with it. I certainly like its large printk at least on my browser (Google used to have print like that but now it's miniscule)

except on a system with pretty basic duties like web browsing, streaming, and light Office suite use.

Anything under 1TB of storage is probably a headache waiting to happen.

If one is looking to run a resource tight set up then it may be time to transition to Linux.

Also, 10 is already sun setting in a years so you may as well be annoyed with 11 instead and be done with it since you are just moving.

From the everyday world. Intellectual laziness.

I used to go out and scream into the wind and all I saw were dead eyes.

I kept it up for awhile, because I am the sort who only does things to please myself. But, even that was eventually not worth the effort.

Am I always correct and righteous? Of course, not! But, I don’t need to be, if there are others around me with a spark.

18 is a national merit scholar computer science major who took 11 AP classes plus post secondary classes at the state flagship university and not a community college.

23 was national merit commended and earned a chemical engineering degree from one of the best engineering schools in the country.

They were arguing yesterday with me...some of the dumb things they have glommed onto via the internet....


There is no difference between the Democrats and the Republicans.

Kamala is worse on Palestine.

A ticket if Bernie on top and Warren as VP would have won.

Hamas is not a terrorist organization.

Biden did nothing for workers. He is just a probusiness shill.

Kamala is a fraud, she said she wanted the young vote with all those celebrities but then tried to get moderate Republicans and drove all young people away.

I couldn't believe the bullshit they claimed about Obama and indiscriminately using drone strikes to kill civilians.

....
I could go on. But they and huge parts of their generation are the worst purity voters.

Then they defended people in their generation who voted third party or left president blank.

I said holy shit. It's a choice between two alternatives. How can you condone throwing away a vote...that is essentially a vote for the felon.

She shouldn't have had Liz Cheney on stage. She deserves to lose.

They blamed that and not sexism and racism.

Unfortunately, intelligence doesn't make people immune to propaganda. I would expect young people to be particularly susceptible, simply due to them having less life experience. Even so, the members of their generation were the most likely to vote for Kamala Harris. How do you explain the fact that so many of their elders' votes went to Trump?

Propaganda targeted to different micro-groups was effective.

Many of the private schools have become expensive baby sitters and after school minders for the wealthy.

George Carlin on Stupid People

"This country is finished!". (He didn't have much hope left).

intelligent people practice family planning and make thoughtful informed decisions in life.

It's idiocracy the movie but in real life.

They revel in their lack of education and knowledge and dismiss expertise as "elitism."

is not valuing education, not valuing reasoned discussion of important issues.
I've met people with master's degrees who, outside their area of education, were only interested in sports.
And I've met people with no higher education who had wide-ranging interests.

The Democratic Party does need to remember that many voters don't read very well. We need to keep our messaging short and simple. We aren't always good at that, but I thought Harris and Walz did a pretty good job, comparatively. I don't think that's why she lost.

Having trouble reading is different from what I mean by dumb. I used to teach reading to adults. My students weren't dumb. They had reading disabilities or they'd had to drop out of school. They were smart enough to know they wanted to learn to read. They had jobs and families, and thoughtful things to say about current events.

Thanks for that link!

Based on the grid, it looks like Bandits (Putin, Musk, other sociopathic billionaires) figured out how to unite Stupid people (Trump,l misinformed voters) with Helpless people (more voters). The Intelligent voters were outnumbered.

The lesson the true owners of the Republican Party took away from Nixon wasn't to find higher quality candidates, it was to find candidates they could control, complete imbeciles or ethically compromised people who would sign whatever papers were placed in front of them.

He had horrible policies but wasn’t stupid. I think that was the core of W. Bush’s daddy issues. HW knew his son was a dumb as a rock frat boy. And W Bush knew that nothing he could do could earn his father’s respect. Not even becoming President.

He had a closet full of secrets he wanted to keep hidden.

It's just appalling.

Use blinkers, or change their headlight brightness properly.

It is endemic in our society. We are literally becoming the people in Wall-E

We are in the throes of idiocracy in this country and I don’t know if we can reverse it.

Young men, and often women, were taught duty, loyalty, honoe, respect and the value of work, and working together.

This does not mean I have supported America’s foreign wars.

And here we are today, with a degenerate criminal about to take a wrecking balk to our country, elected by too many Americans who are drowning in ignorance.

National service of some type should be a requirement.

The people already had something to rebel against, and found out how authoritarian the government was starting to be.
Kent State.
Mass troops in the streets against organized kids marching at them yelling slogans against the war "Hell NO we won't go!"
Kids putting flowers in the ends of rifle barrels as those rifle barrels are pointed at them.
Blacks rebelling about civil rights.
Women trying to get heard and have their rights.

After all this was over and women had gotten the birth control pill and then their right to abortions, that's when the republican real work began.

And here we are.

Where has the critical thinking gone?
Where has the rebellion gone?
Where has the organized rebellion gone?

We were turned into easy pickin's for the MAGAts.

It's much easier to stare at your cell phone than understand what is going on in the world. And the people in corporate power were giving kids the reasons to stare into their cell phones and also feeding the kids the opinions they were to express. If they were able to have opions at all.

[END RANT]

Because of that they don't understand causality. These people typically accept simple solutions for complex problems.

That was almost word for word my nightly rant.
Since the election my "nightly and daily rants" have increased dramatically. Actually, I have been super angry, angrier than usual anyway, all the fucking time over any little thing and person.

It's not elitist to recognize that ignorance will be the death of us all. Ignorance kills. It destroys. It causes harm.

Yeah, I know you used the word dumb.

They know it is a lie. It is a cover for the racism, hatred and greed.

And I'll do the same for whoever agrees with you.

Calling your opponents dum, lazy, and uneducated. Isn’t the way to sell your brand. Fwiw, my neighbor (a retired doctor) voted for Trump, and he is one of the smartest people I’ve met. We just don’t agree on politics. I can’t emphasize enough, just how wildly unpopular the party’s social agenda is.

And I know a large number of MDs who are very smart in their one area but dumb as hell on many others. Education doesn't necessarily make one smart. I think one poster had it right above - it's not smart/dumb, it is the ability to critically analyze the world. Many people just can't do that and/or were never taught HOW to do that.

repukes LOVE having others to look down on and hate

He's one of the dumb media people I was talking about, filled with righteous indignation over minor things while he ignores important things.

The Democratic Party doesn't have "a social agenda." That's a made-up thing promoted by dumb people. The Democratic Party, since the 1960s, has pushed for more rights. More rights for Black people, women, gay and trans people, children, and minorities. That's unpopular with some people but there's more of us than them.

When women and minorities vote against our own rights by buying into the Republican lies about "social agendas," we're being dumb. When white people who depend on health care, public safety, and laws vote for somebody who promises to tear those things down, they're being dumb.

Your neighbor is either dumb, or so mean and evil he actually agrees with Trump's policies. He chose to vote for Trump because somebody else puts pronouns in their email signature? That's dumb.

gawd these idiots who fall for blatant propaganda - they literally care more about what sports teams trans folk are on than they care about climate change or the war on women

this is NOT "politics as usual" - this is DEMOCRACY vs a FUCKING DICTATOR

WAKE UP!!!

MAGAts are invalid by definition. Anyone who condones a rapist and abuser has no validity. So the MAGAt and his or her opinion can fuck right off. They are dumb. The doctor you mentioned is dumb and evil. He might be good at doctoring but please tell your neighbor he is a piece of shit.

This isn't about politics, it's about character, decency, and morality.

MAGAts lose me when they worship a rapist.

Get 'em stupid and keep them that way. They are easy to control that way.

There is a reason why those of Asian descent excel. It has nothing to do with race. They still believe that education is the key to success and they insist that their children get that education. It's as simple as that.

You are right on yardwork!

poor, ignorant and armed to the teeth. It's the army they didn't have to pay for. that's why they've let gun laws run wild and removed accessibility for higher education.

You nailed it, 4catsmom. DAYUM.

Mission accomplished.

Thanks, Reagan.

it's about people being smart enough to know better actively CHOOSING to believe the lies and disinformation instead of facts and truth because their cult leader Donnie tells them to...

Knowing better but doing the dumb thing anyway.

Trump said watch me do this stupid thing and American voters said, hold my beer!

Because they're free to be dumb about reading/lifelong learning, and that those are important for a citizen to do, they don't know what secures or endangers their freedoms.

Dumb voters vote for dumb, oligarch-funded leaders who keep handing their taxes over to the oligarchs while raising the national debt and lowering their economic and tax benefits. Since Reagan we Democrats have been dragging both along, cleaning up their messes, which they're told by oligarch owned corporate media to blame Democrats for.

Forty years of this evil neoliberal strategy.

As of today, the dumb don't necessarily think that Republican leaders care about them, just about hurting who they both won't admit hatred for -- women and anyone not male and white. They think their shared "values" are virtues. They and their leaders don't know and don't want to know what democratic virtues are.
They both think they can create "reality by consensus" -- a fact free map -- so they never have to face the damage they do. And corporate media profits from playing right along.

Back in the days of Air America Radio, Chuck D called it the "dumbassification of America."

...cleaning up their messes, which they're told by oligarch owned corporate media to blame Democrats for.

And that's why I'm completely uninterested in playing the "Democrats are too elitest" game this time. That crap has been around since Agnew, accelerated by Reagan, reaching its first crescendo in 2000 (thanks for nothing, Nader, you dumbass), reaching even higher heights of stupidity in 2016, and now doing a victory lap.

this is bigger than just that part. Can we fix dumb? No. But we at least have to try with messaging and prevention.

Two things might work :

1. We have to fight the corporate defenders of dumb messaging along with cleaning up the messes. Why? Because use the dumb leader and media use words like "elitists" when we rightly point out the dumb. So we're in a three level fight while we do cleanup.

2. We have to prevent dumb if we ever win another election. Starting with schools.
The Dept of Ed cannot tell states what to do about their public schools unless those schools receive federal money; currently it's mostly in the form of Head Start and learning disability program funding, which states have not stepped up to pay on their own.

How?
We have to
a) have a majority that pass a law that re-establishes the Dept of Education, which itself will restore fund equitably through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA 2004); the federal disability payments under IDEA actually follow the student until s/he is age 21.

b) offer a national public school subsidy that travels with the individual student like disability money does, and does not go to school 'districts.' With that money, the student, no matter if he moves within a district, state, or across states, is guaranteed minimal instructional money in addition to what current states pay as "per-pupil-per-year expenditures."

Just the way payments go to disabled students now, this subsidy extends to all students who maintain a D average or better through high school and college.

Why? Because we have to try. Because it it works, students and working class families will see this as a big deal, and we'll earn back the votes Biden got in 2020.

So far, the only pushback I've seen is somebody echoing that dumbass Bill Maher about "social agendas."

Very weak. I am hoping for a more robust pushback but so far, nada.

the Maher pushback is all it gets, which counts for nothing, just like Maher.

No pushback is a good thing. Your OP says what needs to be said.

Their message is so simple, even dumb people can understand it. "We will destroy everything and take everything you have."

Why anyone votes for that is beyond me. Dumb.

Since we are all going to get hurt, I want trumpers to hurt big time.

That should tell you all you need to know.

or as a candidate, look like absolute shit for several decades non-stop. To the point to where the MAGATs have been crawling around like they are in chains or something.

Then, the expert conman comes along like a comic book hero to smite all of the evil Democrats who are responsible for everything that troubles you. Hitler 2.0.

Yes, Americans ARE that dumb.

Too many Democrats run around wringing our hands and blaming one another instead of blaming the dumb people who are destroying our.country.

Yes, I am blaming the voters, my fellow citizens, the biggest collection of entitled dumb twits the world has ever seen.

The wealthiest country on earth, the first democracy, destroyed from within because of... what? The price of eggs (cheaper than anywhere else in the world)? A handful of people using pronouns? A "social agenda" that gave equal rights to women and minorities? The world's strongest economy coming out of a global pandemic?

And it's always when it's too damn late. The regrets only start when the bullets start flying in their direction, or wind up in the hospital due to preventable maladies.

misery loves company. They are like the vengeful, selfish billionaires without the billions.

In fact, if exit polls are correct, the only income range where a majority of people voted for Trump was the middle class. A strong majority of the poor voted for Harris, and slight majorities of those with income levels above $100k voted for Harris.

A majority of middle-class voters chose Trump. The vast majority of these are people with decent homes, expensive trucks, and enough to eat. If these people are struggling financially, it's because they've bought things they don't need (dumb choices) or are struggling with college or medical debt (both issues that Biden and Harris were addressing).

They are the people with the most to lose as Trump dismantles all the government institutions that allowed people to become middle class and lead safe, healthy lives.

We will become a third world nation, with a handful of the very rich and a vast underclass that serves the rich.

Because Joe, Kamala, and Tim (yes, we are on a first-name basis at this point) ALL have MIDDLE CLASS for their middle names! If not in speeches and policies, just in overall vibe. Of the three of them, Kamala is the most educated/academically connected, but none of them grew up in wealth and they told the stories to prove it.

Too many Americans are just dumb.

About sports, movies, and television stars, or the Kardashians and they will drone on with all kinds of useless information. Their lazy ignorance will cost is all.

It's a certainty

Idiots believe they know better than any one else and are unable to learn from others.

is that employees don’t have time to read, reflect or interact with people who don’t think like them.

Even Reagan for that matter, would make it through a primary.
And Nixon would currently be a liberal having passed OSHA, Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Superfund, RCRA which regulates hazardous waste, and was the first to establish relations with China. Choir Boy by todays rabid standards

And maybe even a little ugly on the side

saying “MASS DEPORTATIONS NOW,” there’s no way that those people voting for him don’t get off in pure fascism and hurting other people.

This is what tons of people listen to. They get a super-slanted version of the news. They didn’t hear any of the negative news about Trump. They only heard about how horrible Kamala was - tons of lies. Then they had disgusting ads talking about Kamala, trans people, etc.

They never heard the truth. Until we REALLY compete with all of these outlets, we will lose over and over again.

Rome - combination of reasons, of course my favorites is the lead pipes and
Corruption.

But here in America - I think that we no longer have an honest source for information. We have given our social media control over to the oligarchs. They have their own agenda - which is to make themselves richer and others poorer. Now having already accomplished that goal - it is the quest to own a nation.

I think White people are scared - lots of reasons;, loss of control or being in control; loss of the American pure mongrel blood line; a hidden fear that they are afraid that POC will do to them what they have done to them; and the baby boomers (who should have known better) have shown themselves to be like their parents.

An educational system - where they are now taught that everyone should get a prize regardless of how well you did or did not do. Teachers afraid to teach because parents (that know less) know better.

Americans want a ‘Leave it to Beaver’ world, where everything was simple and fixed within 30 minutes - plus children accepted their parents views as the word of God.

Someone earlier posted about the Draft - providing a situation where people discovered other people of different races, cultures, classes, etc.. We needed that (aside from the negative aspects of what that entails). But even on a battle field we discover that not all (enter own word) are better or equal in ability/skill/courage/decency/common sense/intelligence/ or leadership skills.

There was an article that said - the only way we will learn from this second Trump experience is that he has to hurt the nation real bad, painfully bad and then we’ll know. Sadly, I suspect that is true - maybe a second major depression, treason by the highest people in our government, loss of Social Security/Medicare, or economic collapse will be the eye opener we need. This might help our critical thinking skills.

Maybe, the loss of family over the meaning of ‘common decency’ and supporting ‘hate and ignorance wrapped in a flag’ will also be an eye opener.

Trump is saying that he will now send troops to help with the deportations - anyone that has been around troops with guns/bullets - can lead to all kinds of stupid things.

But, maybe what Trump is saying is that we as Americans have no common bonds that bind us together. And using that belief - like his other businesses he will using his genius, destroy America.

Putin’s happy.

Setting aside the word dumb, probably the word that best sums it up is complacency.

It's really more about emotional intelligence or lack thereof. It's tribalism. It's fear and scapegoating. And finally, it's money and power.

To think that it is merely the smart vs the dumb is naive.

.....Polly decided that she knew enough to be going on with. ‘The enemy wasn't men, or women, or the old, or even the dead. It was bleedin' stupid people, who came in all varieties. And no one had the right to be stupid.'

maybe they might spark some answers about who came out to vote and why (not that they gave me any comfort ).

GOD & COUNTRY (2024)
A look at the implications of Christian nationalism and how it distorts not only out constitutional republic, but Christianity itself...

BAD FAITH (2024)
...The current day assault on democracy began with the White Supremacy Movement in the 1960's...that became cloaked as a religious movement.

BRAINWASHED (2023)
...How do entire countries fall victim to dictators

I watched them on prime...you might find them else where. They opened my eyes a bit.

BTW - Long time follower since 2000. I just logged back in because of this madness (last post was Nov. 2007).

to see if I like it. May try the others too. I need to understand what the hell is going on.

Me too! I binged these last night trying to understand why people would vote against their own self interests.

I highly recommend the other two - they capture the 'brainwashing' of Christian Nationalism. I was appalled to find out the history of how it all got started especially how and why the Orange Idiot got appointed! Its all a Big Grift!

because hypocrisy assumes knowledge of the contradictions in one's stance. My guess is that they are more misinformed than hypocritical.

run by a frail woman in her 80s named Dean, and buy a hard copy of the New York Times. Then I usually take it to one of the coffee shops in town, where I pore over the editorial pages and the front-section news stories, over coffee and a pastry or bagel. I don't consider this to be arduous or "hard work"--it's something I look forward to. (The writing of Peter Baker is a marvel.) I know there are many others who come into that news agency to buy their morning paper. But in the coffee shops, where townspeople mingle, I've never seen one morning paper reader--not one. Instead, they're on their phones. In the 1800s, newspapers were relatively rare, but citizens in the taverns passed them around like currency, arguing over their contents. Democracy dies in darkness? Maybe it also dies in the glow of a screen carrying social media.

By definition. The other half doesn't vote in enough numbers to override the below average half.

And there it is.

Too many American voters are voluntarily, or "self-inflictedly", uneducated about politics. It's not that they didn't go to school, necessarily, but they just don't take the effort to think critically about what they see on TV or social media. If they hear something they like, or it comes from a source they've decided they like, they fall for it hook, line, and sinker. Critical thinking is based on knowledge and logic, but too many voters don't think, they feel. Feeling is largely a matter of responding to your own lifelong inclinations, not processing new facts. Making important choices demands more consideration of the long-term consequences, intentional and unintentional, than most voters -- and especially eligible nonvoters -- are willing to make.

W ran on a "C student you'd like to have a beer with" platform. He actually lost, but close enough for the Supreme Court to steal it for him.

We've gone further downhill since then. W seems like a brilliant leader compared to Trump.

I still can't believe anybody voted for Trump. Just look at him!

Yeah, there are too many of those.

their reasons for voting for him and against Kamala are pure dumb stupid shit.

It's not about intellect or education. It's about poor judgment, intellectual laziness, and dumb choices.

If the business just says "stupid customers," the business will fail. The business needs to look at what it is offering and the effectiveness of its own messaging to reach out beyond its existing customer base.

That's a Republican lie. Our government is us, we the people. Our democracy can't survive if people make voting decisions like they buy a pack of gum.

Democracy requires work on the part of citizens. Democracy requires intellectual effort, good judgment, becoming informed. These are requirements of the citizens, not of some "business" that is "selling" things.

Otherwise, the carnival barker telling lies will win every time.

Last edited Tue Nov 19, 2024, 02:38 AM - Edit history (1)

for thinking that the electoral process would weed out candidates like you-know-who.

For one thing, when the Constitution was ratified, only land-owning white men were allowed to vote.

Jefferson and others worried that didn't go far enough. He worried that dumb people wouldn't make wise decisions.

Shamefully ...willfully ...flat out stupid