The Unbearable Dumbness of American As*holery

[handmade34]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/05/06/1382840/-The-unbearable-dumbness-of-American-as-holery?detail=email

We've been way too tolerant.

America should be ashamed of producing so many stupid people. Virtually every one of whom has or had the potential to shine, and it was just never realized because we as a society are neglectful, especially of the poor and working classes. We do not have universal education any more than we have universal health care. In many cases, the poor just have a pipeline to prison.

There are aspects of our society, such as the failure to provide high quality education and social support to all, that encourage a culture of dumbassery. Think Confederate flag. Think prophet cartoons. Think sheer ignorance and cultural insensitivity


We need to import some fucking shame from somewhere

[AuntPatsy]

1. Absolutely agree

[handmade34]

2. best lines...

Sometimes life is about more than what you have a right to do, but what you should or shouldn't do within the context of civilized society – which I submit, we should be aiming for. Civilization seems a worthy goal at this point.

guess people sometimes disagree about what a "Civilized Society" means

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

3. Shame, my favorite word right now. ALL cons ALL wall street need to be shamed.

The greed, the hate, the intolerance is overwhelming.

[upaloopa]

4. To import some shame we need to bring poverty

and injustice out into the open. Shine a light on how people are forced to live.
We tried that in 1964 but the war got in the way.

[elzenmahn]

9. Check out Chris Hedges' book "Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt"...

...he and Joe Sacco lay out some of the most egregious examples of third-world conditions here in the US of A.

[upaloopa]

11. I will

[daleanime]

5. Hell yes.....

[Martin Eden]

6. "the potential to shine"

I agree that perhaps the greatest shame in our society is a culture and economic system in which so many millions of children fall so far short of reaching their potential as human beings.

[Augiedog]

7. And...

When we spot dumbassholery, as you symbolized by deleting an "s" and replacing it with an asterisk, I suggest in future annotations, notations and just in general we establish the asterisk as DU code. Meaning that when commenting on some iteration of dumassery the asterisk be placed ante and post the dumbasses name, thus avoiding the all to common explanation needed to attend commentary that accuses the dumbass of dumbassedness. We, at the same time, get the positive consequence that *FAUX* news heads will not connect the asterisks, so to speak, as punctuation is a Muslim plot to enforce Sharia law ya'll.

[PatrickforO]

8. We've had decades being swamped with corporate propaganda calling for rugged individualism.

This is because the capitalist overlords do not want a populace capable of critical thinking or one that believes one person can make a difference. They would rather have us be ignorant and uneducated so that we are compliant consumers.

Our 'ass-holery' has allowed capitalists like the Koch brothers to empower the lowest and most ignorant common denominator of our people as a powerful political party with roots in local governments, school boards and now in majority positions in the US Congress. What we have to ask is why? Whose interest is it in to have us this way?

The military-industrial-security complex, big oil and the multi-national corporations have a huge financial interest in keeping us this way because then they can suck out every little tiny bit of additional profit from us. Now we have the TPP coming along that certainly isn't going to do the American people any good at all.

Sadly, this cannot last. California is running out of water because of a mega-drought caused by a huge warm water pocket off the US Pacific coast that is also killing coral reefs and most of the coastal marine life. Florida is facing 'saltwater intrusion' into its freshwater tables. Pacific islands are alarmed as they see the ocean level rising. There are earthquakes in Oklahoma caused by fracking, and everyone is getting more severe weather.

While all this is happening, the capitalists have us all just where they want us; believing that our votes don't really matter, and too lazy anyway to dig into issues deeply enough to see what is actually going on. Our schools have been watered down, privatized, voucherized, and Christianized so much that the new generation reflects this lowest common denominator, and college is increasingly out of reach financially, with an ever-growing class of non-tenured professors who barely make enough to live and are in fear that what they say in the classroom will cause them to be terminated. People work very hard for very little, and home ownership is going down with corporate capitalists buying up foreclosed homes to use as rentals.

Pensions are out of the question, and the overlords are now saying we don't have enough money to fund Social Security anymore. Better privatize that!

What is really needed, before this earth casts off our species like the cancer it is, is for us to dismantle this 'rugged individualist' capitalism that has victimized us since 1980 when Reagan crawled into the White House like a plague bacillus, and even before. Instead, we need to change our mindset away from elevating the needs and wants of individuals and holding out the pipe-dream that each of us has the chance to 'get rich.' Rather than that, we need to begin elevating the common need and running our society so that everyone has economic and social justice; everyone has enough. We need to ensure that we treat the earth in such a way as to ensure our grandchildren and their grandchildren inherit an earth that can still support them, is still beautiful and live lives that are more than a hardscrabble struggle to make ends meet.

Capitalism sucks. Profoundly.

[handmade34]

10. let me

give you a hug for that response

[PatrickforO]

12. Thanks!