I must have missed the announcement of general and widespread insanity.

[Warren Stupidity]

This is the only explanation for the events that have unfolded this summer, culminating in a media frenzy over the President of the United States giving a televised speech to students across the republic on the subject of the importance of staying in school and getting an education. I thought yesterday's finger amputation by biting at a public demonstration was an anomaly, as were the incidents of gun toting and obviously insane people at public events, but it seems instead that as a society we have simply gone bonkers. Totally nuts. So was there an announcement? Is it something in the air or water? Is this a public health emergency? What can I do to keep my family safe?

[scheming daemons]

1. It's even infected DU....

...lots of insanity here lately.

[MUAD_DIB]

17. Just lately?

[Maru Kitteh]

18. The bashing of poor and "different" people, Blaming women if their children are assulted in public

There's a lot of Freeper flavored crazy here lately.

[redqueen]

19. Indeed. (nt)

[MUAD_DIB]

21. There's enough of teh crazy at DU without those things you just mentioned.

[Buzz Clik]

2. Teh Stupid is stronger than all of us. Be afraid.

[Davis_X_Machina]

6. Get your "Schiller was right" bumper-stickers ready.

Mit der Dummheit kämpfen die Götter selbst vergebens. -- Against stupidity the gods themselves struggle in vain.

[sarge43]

Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.

It's not often we see a whole society start howling at the moon.

[phantom power]

3. I think that's the problem. Nobody is safe. And they all feel it.

The free-floating rage, that seems un-attached to reality, is a symptom of the concrete fear that IS attached to reality: 16% unemployment, unaffordable health care, mortgages in foreclosure, etc.

[shireen]

15. +1

great analysis! :hi:

[Maru Kitteh]

4. I missed it too. Silly me. I was probably visiting the sick that day.

I guess I should have been paying more attenshun to the sochalizt communist prezident threatning our nayshun. We are beun enslaved by a black dictater.

[Sal Minella]

5. *** waits patiently for sunspots to come back *** . . . n/t

[Ozymanithrax]

7. It is called the "Big Lie."

Say it often enough and it will be believed.

[RagAss]

Staged like a Pro Wrestling Event. We've become such a media driven country...

....that even fear is no longer spontaneous.

[Junkdrawer]

11. Yep. 70% of the public wanted single payer, so they invented an extreme...

non-existent position and now claim that forcing individuals to buy private insurance is the sensible compromise.

[CrispyQ]

8. The Loony States of America

My husband has CNN on right now & the stupid is simply boggling. I blame the fucking media as much as anyone, putting a microphone in front of every damn nut job out there, giving them a bigger voice than they actually have.

on edit: One guy just said something like he didn't want the US to become a fascist communist country. Do they even listen to themselves or are they really that stupid? Personally, I'm kind of curious how a fascist, communist state would be accomplished! :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy:

[RagAss]

14. LOL....well they can accomplish anything...since they hijacked God..they own reality now !

[datasuspect]

9. i think Hunter S. Thompson and Abbie Hoffman were eerily prescient

Idiocracy will not take 500 years to occur. it already happened in the past 30 years.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

10. Cannot answer your questions now. Landru, he will hear.

Apologies for the obscure Star Trek reference but this stuff did remind me of the 'Crazy Festival' from an early episode-- Return of the Archons.

[gratuitous]

12. Gotta look hard for the humor

But you know what's just so high-larry-us about this? The popular media looking at this train wreck of a mad freak show and wondering how it all happened. Did you know the New York Times recently editorialized against all the fibbing Dick Cheney and the Bush administration did? And how it's even detrimental to the country? Naturally, there was no mention whatsoever about the Times' own aiding and abetting this, from Judith Miller to Elisabeth Bumiller's weekly wet kiss of a valentine for the Bush presidency.

Somehow we've let all these barking mad people dominate the discourse, and the major media are totally mystified about how such a thing happened. Now, if you'll excuse us, it's time for another round table with John McCain, Newt Gingrich, Dick Armey and James Inhofe.

[redqueen]

20. Too true... they deserve most of the blame, IMO. (nt)

[Xenotime]

13. It was find until the GOP started causing all these problems.

[damntexdem]

16. But I thought it was featured repeatedly in presidential proclamations from 2001-2008.

In any case, I'm pretty sure that we were all urged to engage in general and widespread insanity during the Bush years. The recent occurrences are the results, I am sure, of a natural lag in response on the parts of those who are particularly slow.

;-)