Are people in this country real that stupid?

[still_one]

There are more woman who can vote than men. Are they going to give up their rights to the rpugs?

The South has been hit tremendously hard by manufacturing jobs going overseas. Are they going to vote against their own interest as they have been doing?

A large majority of the population is older. Are they going to risk social security and medicare privitization to the rpugs?

There are 40 million people in this country who are uninsured. Are they happy with this situation?

Are the programmers and engineers happy that there jobs are being off-shored?

IF BUSH WINS ANOTHER TERM, THIS COUNTRY DESERVES EXACTLY WHAT IT GETS!

[Hav]

1. .

Good points..

[displacedtexan]

2. Stupid women vote to improve their husbands' wallets...

Hubby votes repuke because he believes he'll get rich someday if repuke policies are given enough time.
Wifey wants Hubby to get rich; therefore, she votes the way he wants her to vote.
They're both still waiting for the 'get rich' part.

[Citizen Daryl]

42. The South Park Strategy

"Hubby votes repuke because he believes he'll get rich someday if repuke policies are given enough time.
Wifey wants Hubby to get rich; therefore, she votes the way he wants her to vote.
They're both still waiting for the 'get rich' part.

1. Donate to Bush
2. Vote for Bush
3. ???
4. PROFIT!

(From the "Underpants Gnome's Guide to Profiting From A Republican Presidency", South Park Press.)

[newyawker99]

55. Hi Citizen Daryl

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Hippo_Tron]

62. LOL The underpants Gnomes...

I loved that episode. BTW Welcome to DU

[Andromeda]

47. You sure don't give women any credit for having a brain.

That may be true for some women but I would venture to say that women are more well-informed today than ever before and are quite capable of making an intelligent decision OF THEIR OWN.

[IconoclastIlene]

60. No way, women are suffering the pains of hell...

with jobs, money, taking care of house and kids......except for 1% of women at the top of the money honey, most women have had it with Bush, if they got any kind of brains at all. Of course, many are scared; scared their kids are gonna be drafted and scared that El Queda is gonna harm them, their families and loved ones.

They are worried about health care, what happens if their husband's job goes South, what happens when no one seems to give a damn when unemployment runs out. I went through this shit with the last Bush and my kid was 18 months old, my husband got laid off, I went back to work as a secretary, thank goodness I got all the benefits I needed to tide us over......every man that we knew, about 8 guys, in all, had gotten laid off and they had wives, dependents and so forth. Daddy Bush's presidency was a total failure and piece of garbage.


Like father, like son, 4 years and he's done.

[smiley_glad_hands]

3. Umm Yeah---Just look at the crap we Americans watch on TV

like Reality TV(oxymoron). The average american doesn't pay enough attention and has no desire to seek out the truth. Give them Fox and they'll be happy. So its up to people who do care to promote the truth and just hope that we can cut through the fat and noise of the modern media.

[boobooday]

4. They like a STRONG, STEADY LEADER

STRONG, STEADY. STRONG STEADY. We're are going strongly and steadily, just in the wrong direction.

As for the American people -- this is the person we've been allowing to run our country:



http://www.wgoeshome.com

[orwell]

5. Yes n/t

[Odallas]

6. Not stupid

Ignorant and lazy maybe.

[info being]

25. and gullible, and mean, and stupid

[Mairead]

7. Yes, enough of them are. Even the ones who knew better failed

to choose the best. When one candidate offers non-profit universal healthcare with a plan endorsed by thousands of physicians, a large political party, and a host of impartial activists who strongly endorse that candidate...yet people turn away from that candidate, then it's hard not to conclude that those people are stupid. Or in thrall.

[democratreformed]

9. Or, at least, that they don't have the same values

as those who do support that candidate.

[Mairead]

15. But the basenote is talking about people who DO have them.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

18. We're stupid because we didn't support Kucinich?

Thanks. It's nice to know your fellow Democrats have your respect.

:eyes:

[Mairead]

20. I don't know; what's motivating you to try to put me in the wrong?

Is it that you don't realise that I was responding to the basenote's questions, or that you don't care?

When people say they care deeply about X, Y, and Z, and then they turn their backs on the only person that's offering X, Y, and Z, then yes, I'd certainly say 'stupid' would be a good choice of term, since that's what we usually say about people who ignore cause-and-effect chains. But call it 'self-destructive' or 'immature' or 'hard-of-thinking', if you'd rather.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

21. I'm defending myself not attacking you.

You implied anyone who didn't support Kucinich is stupid. I find that to be a disrespectful and intolerant attitude. Now, you are saying explicitly that anyone who didn't support Kucinich is 'self-destructive' or 'immature' or 'hard-of-thinking'.

With rhetoric like that, it is no wonder that the Kucinich campaign failed to gather any significant support, despite the fact that some of his ideas make sense.



Furthermore, your followup question: "what's motivating you to..."

continues the insulting and disrespectful line of attack by attempting to impugn my motives. :puke:

[Mairead]

32. Do you understand that my response was made in the context of

the basenote questions?

[Feanorcurufinwe]

33. I'll do you a favor

and not question your comprehension of the subject matter at hand or the context of the discussion. I won't question your motives, or imply there is something wrong with you if you disagree with me.

Would you be willing to extend the same courtesy to me?

[Feanorcurufinwe]

34. I guess the answer is no.

:eyes:

[Mairead]

37. I wasn't online

But my response would only have been to repeat the question you seem to be trying to ignore: Do you understand that my response was made in the context of the basenote questions?

[Feanorcurufinwe]

43. So you confirm, the answer is no.

I've asked you to extend me the courtesy of not questioning my comprehension of the context of the discussion.

You are not willing to extend me that courtesy.

However, I don't feel any obligation to reward your rude behavior by responding to your insult disguised as a question.

[info being]

23. I totally agree with you

A country that ridicules someone like DK doesn't deserve DK.

[maisey03]

30. I agree.

"A country that ridicules someone like DK doesn't deserve DK."

I will welcome him back to Ohio with open arms! :) Even if this country isn't ready for him, I'm proud to have him representing my state.

[Andromeda]

49. Isn't that presumptuous of you?

I think that John Kerry has locked up the nomination because they DID know better and concluded that he was the best candidate and his values, for the most part, were more in line their own. Some people may not agree with everything Kerry has done but their standards are more realistic because an idealistically "pure leftist" candidate like Dennis, who polls at about 2% of the progressive electorate, could never beat George Bush.

[maisey03]

8. Sometimes I wonder.

I heard on the news today that most Americans still support the Iraq war. They were talking about other countries whose leaders weren't happy with Bush's policies. I cannot believe people in the US STILL think this war was a good idea! So many countries don't - why can't we open our eyes? This comment was made by a Kerry rep, and I totally agree: "Bush's go-it-alone foreign policies have not made America safer and left our soldiers in a shooting gallery in Iraq."

[Thrill]

10. As much I hate to say

People in the South are stupid. They can't vote for someone who doesn't talk like them. They see Bush's policies have killed their economy and sent tons of jobs overseas. Yet he talks like them so they will vote for him.

[Andromeda]

50. Uh, maybe you should rephrase that.

We have some people in this forum who are very sensitive about comments that label southerners as stupid.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

22. It's all about how the pollster asks the question.

As anyone who has experimented with the wording of poll questions on DU will realize, you can ask the same question in different ways and get very different results from the same respondents.

[Snivi Yllom]

11. yes they are real that stupid

[fishnfla]

12. No, they are stupider than you could possibly imagine

you might wanna fix the grammer in your title, BTW
unless you are being ironic, of course

[ACK]

13. You mean people that were stupid enough to vote for Gore?

Gore won the popular vote remember?

Do you mean those stupid Americans?

Defeatist negative noise.

How do we expect to combat the sorry noise of the Repuke talking heads when they slander liberalism if people here in the heart of liberal talking grounds stand about insulting the intelligence of the American people?

Are we going to keep living up to the propaganda of being arrogant?

We need to raise our populist voices come down from our pedastals and let people know why liberalism is good for the citizens of this country.

Or are we just going to hang our heads, mutter sheeple under our breaths and go home?

[lojasmo]

14. Um....YEAH

In the leadup to the war 70% of amurkins believed Sadam was behind 9/11 People in this country are indeed that stupid, and stupider.

[tobius]

16. your subject line was on purpose, right?

"There are more woman who can vote than men."

[RichM]

17. Ignorance is deliberately inculcated in our population, because it makes

social control easier. The more enlightened the population, the harder they are to cheat, fool, exploit, and control. Predictably, therefore, our ruling class wants public education & mass culture geared towards ignorance, shallowness, & triviality. It's in their interest - and these people are highly conscious of what is and is not in their interest.

So, yes. The people in this country are by and large that stupid. It's not genetic - it's cultural.

[info being]

24. Yup, its by design

People like you and I are "blips" in the system.

[Layman]

58. Cultural is not separable from the political or technical

Never before in the history of propaganda have societal manipulators had such an powerful array of tools to inoculate people's minds. The citizens of the U.S.A. are living in a well-crafted world of posters, magazines, newspapers, radios, televisions, movies, advertisements, sweepstakes, drawings, sports teams, Olympic games, giveaways and game shows done in such hi-tech sophistication and volume that it leaves one dazed yet panting for more. If Goebbels and Hitler were alive today and civilians, they'd be ad copywriters or publicists working either on Madison Avenue or in Hollywood or spin doctors for some quasi-nazi senator or president, producing slick slop along with all the other petite bourgeoisie yuppies selling out their alleged souls.

Americans, after all, are just your bascic homo sapien, no stupidier than your average bi-ped nor lacking in the ability to create cultural. Everybody should give them a little respect. Americans are vitims too. Victims of the most powerful massive mindcontrol system ever invented. God forgive them Lord for they know not what they do in the name of America.

[Zinfandel]

19. Pretty fucking stupid dude...it was planned years ago to "dumb down"

America...sheep are better for the corporations and the churches and the military.

[messiah]

26. Yes

that's why no one should compare this forum with the gerneral population.

[JVS]

27. You need to be able to prove to them that voting Democratic will help

As far as programmers are concerned, did not Democratic candidate Wesley Clark say something along the lines of, 'let them send those jobs to India, we'll do something else'? I am not sure of the exact phrasing, but there was something along those lines.

Did the Democratic party not fail to deliver healthcare between 1992 and 1994 despite having control of the White House and congress?

As far as the South is concerned, nobody seemed to mind when former Democratic strongholds like Pennsylvania were taking on the chin over the last 20 years. PA is now a swing state. Were they wrong to stop being loyal to a party that left them to dry?

[AngryAmish]

28. Short answer is yes

Long answer is yes.

[THUNDER HANDS]

29. you mean "really" that stupid

right?

:D

[ArkDem]

31. Yes, they real are

.

[Exgeneral]

35. I'm sad to say, yes, they are

most people still think Saddam had something to do with 9-11
They also seem to REALLY like Fox news.

[ACK]

36. Arrogant crap.

When we continue to live up the stereotypes of the arrogant liberal do you really blame them?

Do you blame then for buying into the bullshit they have been fed for years? We certainly have not been smart enough to figure out how to effectively beat the Republican bullshit media machine.

They were smart enough to vote for Gore in 2000.

They were smart enough to reject the DLC clones repuke-lite line in the interim elections (which hurt us but do you really blame them?).

When no one seems to care enough to take the message of progressive politics and liberal ideas to the people.

When it becomes easier to give up and call them names and insult their intelligence instead of explaining why liberal politics is good for them and their country, then how can you blame them?

Clinton may not be the high water mark for progressive policies but at least he understood how to talk to the people and draw a difference with his policies and the policies of the Repukes.

Until we stop insulting the people and start telling them why it is in their self-interests (and it is of course) to vote for progressive candidates, we can all sit whacking off in online forums and looking down at our feet and wondering why they are so stupid.

Oh yeah, and wondering why we keep losing elections.

[CWebster]

38. Well you would think so

But what happens is people are directed to compartmentalize reality, and the truthtellers are marginalized as quacks-- Kucinich or Dean, while the "neo-progressives"(read: centrists -watch this term emerge to compete with neo-cons) study trends of manufactured consensus,

[Name removed]

39. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[DeepModem Mom]

40. I think they show common sense when our press does its job...

and gets the truth to them. A responsible press, that reaches the mass of people, is essential to democracy, and, aside from some print press, and independent and online media, we lack that.

[ScreamingMeemie]

41. I'd agree if you had said some. But you didn't, so I won't. Married

to a smart CNC machinist here. There are several of us. But, just a note here, it's not only those jobs that are being sent off shore. Your job could be next. :hi:

[Woodstock]

44. Do women want to give up contraception?

It's heading that way under Bush. Stupid people.

[tobius]

51. bush plans to take away contraception?

OMG! I had no idea, please this is something kerry needs to take head on! </sarcasm>

[Donna Zen]

56. Yes_contraception is at risk

Many forms of contraception would be classified as abortion. IUDs, spermicides etc. Also, overturning Roe v Wade would put a damper on research regarding new forms of contraception because of obvious limitations.

This is not sarcasm; this is what is at stake.

_______________Original question:

The right has carefully framed the questions and perceptions debated in America. We receive outright lies constantly. Each day perhaps only five so-called "news" items hit the airwaves with the spin pre-attached. Can we really blame a population that is seriously under-informed at best, and misinformed intentionally at worst?

When my computer crashed, I limped by for several weeks and had to depend on the US media for information. Even though I knew I was being lied to, it was difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff without online sources. While the American public cannot be totally excused for their seemingly mindless behavior, the corporate media has no excuse at all.

[thinkingwoman]

45. yup

and my in-laws are some of the dumbest. They used to get all their news from Rush and we've been working on them for 4 straight years.

Guess where they get their news now? Hannity. I kid you not.

They won't vote for Kerry 'cause they say he LIES. It's truly maddening. The only comfort I can take is that they are going to vote repuke in Indiana which will go repuke ANYWAY.

jeez, yes, people ARE that stupid.

[Andromeda]

46. A lot of people in this country are dumb as doorknobs.

Some are just ignorant because they don't pay any attention to politics, they don't read the paper and they don't watch the political talking heads on cable. They may watch the local news stations that touch on the daily headlines but lose interest when they go into depth about presidential politics.

What to do with these people? Pray, and hope they come out of their slumber in time to do the right thing and vote for John Kerry.

[tinanator]

48. only if they trust the election process, stupider still if they

see ridiculous results and blame the voters. Even worse if they see an election overturned right in front of their eyes and allow nothing to be done about it, discover massive fraud potential in current and past elections and pretend it isnt part of the problem, blaming "stupid voters" for unacceptable results.

[trayfoot]

52. not stupid, but lazy!

I am from the south, and I understand what has been said about southerners for a long time. I don't think this is a problem peculiar to the South. I believe that people, today, are intellectually lazy. They want quick, easy answers for complex, long-range problems. They can ride in their vehicles and listen to Rush or some other right wing nutcase and think they are being enlightened to speak about issues and policies. This eliminates the need for them to (God Forbid!) READ anything. I also think the problem has to do with stimuli overload - so much is out there, and people can't seem to process all the images and contradictory messages. It is sad to see that many voters are selling their own futures down the tube by continuing to buy into this "myth" that the conservatives are the "moral party"! In the south, this is a biggy! We can only hope that many will feel "pinched enough" to wake up and start paying attention!

[John_H]

53. These are not serious issues. I'm voting third party.

[Zorra]

54. Duh, like....umm

what was the question again?

[mzmolly]

57. Yes, yes they are. Remember the only thing that matters now is

that we "stop them gays from havin a right to marray damnit!"

Let the mass distraction begin!

[AlinPA]

59. Its all God, Guns and Gays (and Flags)

As I said in another post, the media and Rove have been successful in defining Kerry.

[CBHagman]

61. Yes, my dear, many are indeed that stupid.

I went through the same conversations again and again with South Carolina friends who lambasted their congressman for being a nincompoop and then voted for him again and again because they feared change. For example, a pro-union Democrat ran against their GOP congressman, and they were too nervous about the pro-labor stance to switch their vote. The GOP congressman literally died in office.

So people do pick up foolish habits. It's easy to make people feel that any change in the status quo is a threat to their way of life. It was that way with health care debacle in the 1990s, and it could be that way with Bush, though heaven forbid that should happen.

For example, I recently heard a woman say that if there were another terrorist attack on U.S. soil, Bush would surely be reelected. But that doesn't pass the logic test, because he's prancing around telling everyone that the world is a safer and more peaceful place. If two attacks happen on his watch, why should he be regarded as a superior leader?

God forbid that there should be another terrorist attack, and God forbid that the U.S. population should be deceived as to what Bush really is.