2009 promises to be the Year of the Moron

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

In the Chinese tradition, 2009 is the Year of the Ox. In the American tradition, 2009 will be the Year of the Moron, I predict.

It's a safe prediction. At some point in the not-too-distant past, stupidity in America reached what the writer Malcolm Gladwell called a "tipping point" in his book of the same name. A tipping point is "that one dramatic moment when everything can change all at once." And the United States has passed the tipping point into stupidity.

If you doubt that, then I invite you to ponder the spectacle of Rod Blagojevich. The Illinois governor not only looks like Moe of the Three Stooges, he governs like him as well. The self-proclaimed greatest newspaper in the world reported six months ago that the governor was under investigation by the most tenacious prosecutor in America, Patrick Fitzgerald. But Blagojevich must not read the Chicago Tribune. He proceeded to use a wiretapped phone to try and make a deal for a U.S. Senate seat.

Democrats didn't use to be that dumb. There's a way to do this sort of thing. Earl Long of Louisiana laid it out way back when: "Don't write anything you can phone. Don't phone anything you can talk. Don't talk anything you can whisper. Don't whisper anything you can smile. Don't smile anything you can nod. Don't nod anything you can wink."

The Long clan had quite a reputation for political skills. So did the Kennedy clan -- until Caroline decided to seek a Senate seat from New York. Asked by the New York Times why she wanted to serve in the Senate, Caroline gave a spoken example of the phenomenon of familial decay that geneticists call "regression to the mean."

"I have really a wonderful life, and but, I feel like, you know, it's, you know, it's not really complete if there are things you could be doing that would benefit others and you're not taking, you know, the time and making the effort to do that," Kennedy said.

Kennedy's comments were so dumb that she knocked Sarah Palin out of the headlines. This came at a fortuitous moment for the Republicans. They had picked Palin for the 2008 vice-presidential nomination on the theory that the former mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, could be sold to the American people as an exemplar of small town values.

Many critics of small towns say the residents gossip too much. In Wasilla, they don't seem to gossip enough. No one bothered to tell Sarah that her teenage daughter was hooking up with the son of a woman who was recently charged with being the local OxyContin connection. The news of the birth of Palin's illegitimate grandson followed closely after the news of the arrest of the baby's other grandmom on charges of pushing "hillbilly heroin."

No worries, though. In this golden age of goofiness, Palin is still considered by many Republicans to be the front-runner for the 2012 presidential nomination.

When asked about that recently, the Wasilla valley girl channeled Joan of Arc:

"I'm like, OK, God, if there is an open door for me somewhere, this is what I always pray, I'm like, don't let me miss the open door," said Palin. "And if there is an open door in '12 or four years later, and if it is something that is going to be good for my family, for my state, for my nation, an opportunity for me, then I'll plow through that door."

Palin is something of a genius of stupidity. She has based her whole appeal on the rather obvious fact that she is not smart and that therefore she is perfectly positioned to represent people who are not smart. Kennedy, meanwhile, was actually expected to be intelligent, so her vapidity may work against her.

But the future belongs to morons. President Bush had a major role of course, but I put a lot of blame on the internet. The application of democracy to communications accelerated the descent into dumbness.

In those golden days before the net, the average idiot had no way to express himself easily. Putting pen to paper or using a typewriter was too much of an intellectual exercise. But anyone can send an e-mail or comment on a blog. And anyone does, if my experience is any indication. Many of these people inform me that they are staunch conservatives, though they lack even the most basic skills in the areas of spelling, capitalization, punctuation, grammar and syntax.

Worse, they consider any criticism of these shortcomings to be hitting below the belt. They see the Internet not as an outlet for civilized expression but as an organizing tool for the unintelligent. They're right, of course, and the effort is bipartisan.

http://blog.nj.com/njv_paul_mulshine/2009/...s_to_be_th.html

[Chica Yeyé 41]

"I'm like, OK, God, if there is an open door for me somewhere, this is what I always pray, I'm like, don't let me miss the open door," said Palin. "And if there is an open door in '12 or four years later, and if it is something that is going to be good for my family, for my state, for my nation, an opportunity for me, then I'll plow through that door."

OMG That sounds like one of those "Praise the Lord Almighty I got my visa" posts

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

I thought the last 2 paragraphs were the best.

They almost shamed me into stopping posting ####### on OT.

Almost.... but with stupidity comes shamelessness.

[Chica Yeyé 41]

I thought the last 2 paragraphs were the best.

They almost shamed me into stopping posting ####### on OT.

Almost.... but with stupidity comes shamelessness.

And that stops you since when??? 2009???

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

It doesn't.

[chri'stina 190]

I thought the last 2 paragraphs were the best.

They almost shamed me into stopping posting ####### on OT.

Almost.... but with stupidity comes shamelessness.

Darn...

[peejay 327]

Many of these people inform me that they are staunch conservatives, though they lack even the most basic skills in the areas of spelling, capitalization, punctuation, grammar and syntax.

Oh, jeez. Is this idiot for real?

[mawilson 2,133]

Palin is something of a genius of stupidity. She has based her whole appeal on the rather obvious fact that she is not smart and that therefore she is perfectly positioned to represent people who are not smart.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Many of these people inform me that they are staunch conservatives, though they lack even the most basic skills in the areas of spelling, capitalization, punctuation, grammar and syntax.

Oh, jeez. Is this idiot for real?

He is for real. He's written columns for the Star Ledger (a local paper here) for as long as I remember.

http://blog.nj.com/njv_paul_mulshine/

[Ban Hammer 13,346]

I thought the last 2 paragraphs were the best.

They almost shamed me into stopping posting ####### on OT.

Almost.... but with stupidity comes shamelessness.

have you no shame?