can someone explain to me - why are there so many stupid people in this country?

[nutsnberries]

i've really had it with teh stoopid and teh crazeee (irl).

I can handle having disagreements with people about aspects of HCR, why they might not be in favor of the legislation that is likely to pass because of specific items.
But those that throw right-wing one-liners at me, those that can't rub two thoughts together to make a semi-intelligent point, are really, really, really starting to make me nauseaus. The content of the Clyburn to teabaggers article from HuffPo, the *Browning* teabagger sign... God, what is wrong with people?

I know, none of this is a news flash for anyone, but it can get so disheartening, and I've just had one of those days.

Pass the damn bill already so we can move on to something else!
Make more tangible differences for people.
Win the damn elections in 2010 and 2012.
Keep the bastards from control forever (or at least for a good long time).
Then, might we convert some of the people into thinking again?

[wtmusic]

1. Because they multiply faster.

We are doomed.

[nutsnberries]

3. ahhhk-- short and cynical! i almost smiled!

:|

[Sugarcoated]

31. My husband just said the same thing

but he was serious.

[wtmusic]

32. I'm serious too.

Also, intelligence was required for survival for millenia - no longer.

[Chal]

34. for duty and humanity

It is the duty of us intelligent people to breed. The world needs us.

BTW, this is Sugarcoated's husband in a rare posting.

[wtmusic]

36. That's what I tell my wife AND my girlfriend nt

[johnaries]

58. Yep. The movie "Idiotcracy" explains it quite well. nt.

[GoCubsGo]

89. All you need to know is in the first 5 minutes. n/t

[3324SS]

67. as they say in the song...

only stupid people are breeding....

Flagpole Sitta

i had visions, i was in them
i was looking into the mirror
to see a little bit clearer
rottenness and evil in me
fingertips have memories
mine can't forget the curves of your body
and when i feel a bit naughty
i run it up the flagpole and see who salutes
(but no one ever does)
i'm not sick but i'm not well
and i'm so hot cause i'm in hell
been around the world and found
that only stupid people are breeding
the cretins cloning and feeding
and i don't even own a tv
put me in the hospital for nerves
and then they had to commit me
you told them all i was crazy
they cut off my legs now i'm an amputee, god damn you
i'm not sick but i'm not well
and i'm so hot cause i'm in hell
i'm not sick but i'm not well
and it's a sin to live so well
i wanna publish zines
and rage against machines
i wanna pierce my tongue
it doesn't hurt, it feels fine
the trivial sublime
i'd like to turn off time
and kill my mind
you kill my mind
paranoia paranoia
everybody's coming to get me
just say you never met me
i'm going underground with the moles
hear the voices in my head
i swear to god it sounds like they're snoring
but if you're bored then you're boring
the agony and the irony, they're killing me
i'm not sick but i'm not well
and i'm so hot cause i'm in hell
i'm not sick but i'm not well
and it's a sin to live so well

[Last_Stand]

91. +1

[NRaleighLiberal]

2. Normal distribution. The masses under the middle of the bell curve.

It's all statistics! Average is...well, average. People who swallow everything they hear or read....don't critically think, and are vulnerable to fear tactics.

[Cleita]

5. You really don't believe that the bell curve is legitimate, do you?

:eyes:

[NRaleighLiberal]

10. I think that the vast majority of Americans are pretty average in

their intellect and aspirations. I think people who really engage their brain and strive hard for change and think progressively are at the fringe. Sorry but I really do - and what I've experienced in my 54 years of life so far don't indicate any need to think otherwise.

I think as a country we have the potential for much, much more. But for many and various reasons, it doesn't work out that way.

Yes, I am very, very cynical. The Nixon and Reagan years, the 8 horrendous Bush years, and my time in corporate culture give me a pretty dim view of most people. Way too much TV watching, way too much vulnerability to fear, advertising, and general sheeple behavior.

[rhett o rick]

51. If that's what you think, here's a challange. Ask around your friends, neighbors and people at

random and see how many know the first thing about what's happening in Washington the DC. Almost none of the people I work with meet or even a lot of family couldnt care less about Washington the DC.

[xiamiam]

65. tv and the media sets the standard for stupid and a depraved culture

sad and scary..schools don't even teach history and now Texas is rewriting their textbooks to slant history..outright lies are parroted on so called news channels..and accepted.

discernment and critical thinking are rare as people seem to want to join a mob which supports their misconceptions

the greatest disappointment I experienced during the Bush years was the awareness that I live in a country with a bunch of idiots. I had always expected more...had believed that people were capable of adding 2+ 2 and coming up with the same answer. I'm not over it yet..just so darned hard to believe that we have the same access to info yet some refuse to tax their beautiful minds.

[eShirl]

11. *a* bell curve.. not "The Bell Curve." n/t

[slampoet]

72. If you don't have enough learning to notice a person is using a math reference and not a book title

how do you expect to not be part of the problem?

[sammytko]

75. thank you!

[Name removed]

76. Deleted message

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

[SidDithers]

80. mathtard? really? That's how you want to reply?...nt

Sid

[beam me up scottie]

101. Thanks for catching that!

m-a-t-h-t-a-r-d

Got it!

I'll hang it in the Hall of Hypocrisy.

:hi:

[TransitJohn]

81. It's not his fault you don't know what a bell curve is. n/t

n/t

[Codeine]

83. Mathtard?

Only one person in this conversation has demonstrated a lack of sixth-grade math skills. ;)

[Cleita]

85. Picking on an elderly woman again because she can't remember her sixth

grade math? Actually mathtard was coined by our own tahitinut, a mathmatician, about his fellow mathematicians. He hardly is one, but he was speaking more about how rude his profession could be towards people not as knowledgeable in math as him or his peer group. It's not a real word anyway.

[hfojvt]

93. an elderly woman?

I thought this used to be in your sig line

[Cleita]

94. Well, Avatars are youthful forever.

The fighting spirit lives on even if the body is shriveling as I speak.

[hfojvt]

92. given the title of this OP, I find this reply to be interesting

The OP was "why are there so many stupid people in this country?"

Some people, it seems, have the belief that "everybody should know X" where X can be "a bell curve function" or "the names of three supreme court justices" or any number of things a person has learned from reading a few books or taking some college courses. For example, I once asked on an "Intro to Business" test what the definition of OSHA was. My students sorta got mad, claiming that OSHA was not discussed in that section of the book they were being tested on. To an extent they were right, as OSHA was only mentioned in passing. However, I thought that question was a "gimme" that almost everybody would get it right because anybody who reads a newspaper or watches the news will hear about OSHA. Yet most of my class didn't know it.

This, however, seems to be part of the "liberal superiority complex" is that they will write somebody off as "stupid" for not knowing something that they themselves know, as if they, themselves, are not ignorant of many subjects. Which is why they see stupid people - all the time. Because they are always on guard for ignorance and errors so they can say "aha" and do their "I am superior to thee" dance.

But it probably should be "mathdork" instead of "mathtard".

"The normal distribution is often used to describe, at least approximately, any variable that tends to cluster around the mean. For example, the heights of adult males in the United States are roughly normally distributed, with a mean of about 70 inches (1.8 m). Most men have a height close to the mean, though a small number of outliers have a height significantly above or below the mean. A histogram of male heights will appear similar to a bell curve, with the correspondence becoming closer if more data are used."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_distribution#Standard_deviation_and_confidence_intervals

[Cleita]

95. Thank you for an informative, civil and polite reply.

One can correct, teach and inform without being rude. Yes, I like mathdork. I will use that from now on.

[pitohui]

105. the bell curve, as applied to races, is silly, the bell curve as applied to the HUMAN race is legitc

like it or not, the majority of people you meet are just not all that sharp -- a great many average working good-hearted americans need to hire help to fill an IRS FORM 1040EZ

if you've ever had to assist in filling out the form, all you can assume about the person you're assisting is, that whatever else they may be in life, they are certainly not very intelligent if they struggle w. this simple task

not everyone gets that portion of the brain that can understand math, logic, etc. it just isn't there

[nutsnberries]

6. it doesn't feel like a bell curve to me right now.

i feel like critical thinkers are way outnumbered, but it could be the sampling i've had lately.

[NRaleighLiberal]

14. The critical thinkers are indeed outnumbered. And always have been, I am afraid.

[depakid]

29. Less so in some places than in others

I'm afraid that America in general and specific areas of the nation in particular don't encourage or promote critical thinking or educational achievement.

The anti-intellectual undercurrent is very strong- and is reinforced daily by the nature of the American corporate media.

[paulsby]

62. thanks for another great example of DU american exceptionalism

i've pointed it out before. it seems every day there are several new threads with it as a theme, and god knows how many posts.

one can never fail at DU with a "why are americans so dumb" thread, or a "why europe is better" thread, or a "we are the worst terrorists in the whole world thread" etc.

comparing the USA favorably to any other country (Especially a european one or canada) will lead to cries of "nationalism" etc.

it's a ridiculous double standard...

speaking of people who think critically ...

or not

[Paladin]

84. Paulsby, Your Right-Wing Apologetics Shtick Got Old A Long Time Ago.

You have zero standing to accuse anybody in this forum of a double standard. Eye mote, meet beam.....

[paulsby]

100. your ad hominem attacks are boring

you don;'t agree with my (correct) analysis, so therefore it's "right wing"

ooooooh. snap.

the fact is this. post after post, thread after thread routinely compare the USA disfavorably with other countries. even stating we are the worst in any # of respects

those are not criticized but lauded and agreed with in a circle jerk of america bashing

the opposite, that the USA is SUPERIOR to another nation, let alone all nations in ANY respect gets instant histrionic cries of "nationalist" etc.

if my understanding is "right wing" than so was JFK's.

i'll stand with him, thanks very much

[deaniac21]

4. They just don't understand how well thought out the bill and this

process have been.....sheesh!

[d_r]

7. 300 million people

there are going to be some really dumb ones.

[RagAss]

45. Amen. The sad truth.

[dustbunnie]

107. That's an excellent visual. ;-)

I think it has always been so, although the circumstances always appear far worse to the people living in their own time. If we look back at history - every period, decade, whatever measure one prefers, is highlighted by the existence of the ignorant and the imbecilic. This will never change.

[pinto]

8. Folks aren't stupid. I think they're scared. Fear's become a political process to bypass discussion,

Or at least sidetrack discussion. It's probably always been so to some extent, yet the shouting matches that fill in for political discourse in our media today seem to have given fear top billing. Or at least a second slot after celebrity infidelity news.

[nutsnberries]

28. do you know how many people don't want Obama to cram something

down their throats? do you? I've heard that expression soooo many times.

When I hear that, I don't know if I should laugh, cry, or RUN!!!

[customerserviceguy]

9. Well, for starters

not everybody who disagrees with everything you say is automatically stupid. Approach them as though they are, and you lose any possibility of communicating effectively with them.

This whole process of getting to the bill that will be voted on tomorrow was an extremely messy thing to see. Many here are against it, for solid reasons. We're not stupid, either.

[nutsnberries]

18. i come here for refuge. I said I like when people want to have honest discussion...

it's the right-wing one-liners that bother me.

[customerserviceguy]

77. I, too, respect honest discussion

But it's all too often around here that someone who cannot answer a criticism with logical reasoning simply says, "GOP talking points".

[treestar]

12. They bring attention to themselves

So hopefully they are fewer than they appear. The M$M gives them attention.

Stupid people don't read, so it's easy for the likes of Rush to get them to take his crap seriously. Maybe there were weaknesses in the educational system, too strict and made reading unpleasant to them as children, so they dropped it when they didn't have to do it.

[MajorChode]

13. It's becoming in Vogue to be stupid these days in certain circles

Ignorance was once something to be ridiculed, so dum-asses were ashamed to take to the streets. Now you can't exclude those on the far left side of the bell curve from having their say in the media because of the fear of being accused of having a bias against dipshits. So it's not as if there are more cretins today than there ever has been, it's just that the idiots are no longer being marginalized politically as they should be. So the rube mentality is now mainstream and isn't going away anytime soon, I fear.

[NRaleighLiberal]

16. One of the most regrettable of the *Bush legacies.

[nutsnberries]

20. I've never felt threatened like I have lately trying to talk with Tea Party-ers

The whole intimidating *up in your face* thing really disturbs me.

[MajorChode]

71. It's kinda funny if you think about it

At least in a sad kind of way. Look at the idiots who have actually managed to rise to the punditry or to elected positions. Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, Lou Dobbs, Glenn Beck, Dick Cheney, George Bush, just to name a few. It should be no surprise the morans would feel empowered. I mean if a couple of drunks can make it to the White House, why shouldn't they feel like their opinions matter? At long last those on the far left side of the bell curve are finally getting the representation they have always wanted.

[stuntcat]

27. totally

totally.

[Raksha]

103. I think you nailed it...

after all, I would NEVER want to be accused of having a bias against dipshits! Even though I do.

[mrcheerful]

15. Lets see con attacks on public education for years, Texas deciding for the rest of the country what

should be in our children's text books based on their white christian beliefs, home schooling with folks who want to push their agenda onto their children, Charter schools which are often run by religion. Then lately the attempts to take over higher education or make their own like Falwell did. When children are only learning to take tests instead of being encouraged to think problems through you get adults who believe what they are told is the truth.

[BlooInBloo]

17. Because people *like* being stupid.

[MindandSoul]

19. Have you look at our level of education for the last 25 years???

And. . .most American are raised to believe that America is the center of the universe and knows better on EVERYTHING!

So. . .why would most American want to "improve" or engage in "soul searching?"

[teacher gal]

21. HUH?

Just kidding. And I think you're right.

[nutsnberries]

23. I've had one Tea Party-er rail against our poor education AND still think

that America is Number One! "The Good Ol' U S of A" he says. Nobody does anything better than us...

[MindandSoul]

40. Please, don't get me wrong! I think America still has an amazing potential

To be number one, and I love this Country. . .this is why I think it is imperious that we recognize that WE NEED HELP! That we don't know everything, and that we could learn from others, and pick and choose what works abroad and pick and choose what we want to try here!

For exemple, why has there not been a SERIOUS (not a "let's go travel and have fun!" group!) education group designated to go abroad in the top 6 or 10 countries who have achieve the greatest educational levels to OBSERVE and STUDY what they do that is different from us, and what they do that is similar among them!

It might save us a lot of "experimentation" into a new education system that might take years before revealing that. . .it's still not working!

I believe the answer is simple!!! We are so arrogant that we can't accept that ANY other country could have answers that we don't have!

[nutsnberries]

42. oh, I know...

it's when there's no room for consideration of anything being good outside of our borders, that I go crazy.

i love this country too! :patriot:

[WillyT]

22. Religion, Television, Parenting, Ronald Reagan...

What was the question???

:evilgrin:

[teacher gal]

24. HUH? n/t

[nutsnberries]

26. why are shiny objects so.... shiny?

idk :)

[Lydia Leftcoast]

25. I once read in a history of China that the country began to decline when it became smug

During its glory days, it traded with the world and took in ideas from India, Southeast Asia, and everywhere else.

But at some point, the Chinese decided that they were the most advanced people in the world (largely true at the time) and that no one else had anything to teach them. That's when they began to fall behind the rest of the world so that little European countries and even Japan could kick them around in the 19th century.

[HeresyLives]

33. Yeah, and it only took a couple of dumb emperors to do it.

In 1500 China had the biggest GDP in the world, but then they got a couple of dumb emperors who figured China was the ultimate civilization and everyone else was a barbarian.

THEY BURNED THE FLEET.

Pulled up the drawbridge, and stayed inside their own world.

And entered 500 years of increasing hell, that culminated in Mao.

[Oregone]

30. America isn't a melting pot. Its a pressure cooker

It produces stupid and/or extreme

[nutsnberries]

39. THAR SHE BLOWS !!!

:+

[kestrel91316]

35. God must LOOOVVVVE stupid people - she made so damned many of them.....

[nadinbrzezinski]

37. Distrusting them experts and them with book a-learning

is an ol' Murican Tradition...

And by the way I am with you.

But I suspect I will go to my grave and nut'ing changes. "fter all just listen to the member of the Texas School board, declaring proudly that we don't need to listen to them experts.

That son )daughter) summarizes in one sentence the attitude of Most Americans, and sadly this goes back a FEW CENTURIES. Yes that will change, but either after a long time or something really bad and dramatic happening. Perhaps global weather change will do it... but most likely I will eat them famous last words.

Oh and by the way, I am with you on having had it.

[nutsnberries]

41. you know that they falsified the documents on global warming, right?

that's what i've been told by my i-may-be-a-libertarian-may-be-a-teabagger once-upon-a-time friend. and the falsified autism/vaccines documents is the proof.

:banghead:

[nadinbrzezinski]

46. :f course, them egg heads will do that

oh never mind that we've getting pretty strange weather patterns, and not 'ust here in these good ol' United States... (don't get me started on Mexico City and wearing shorts this time of year... yes it is that hot... and don't remember that when growing up)

Unfortunately we have a population that is proud of it's willful ignorance. Finished readying Jacoby a few months back and it did put me in a very bad mood. Don't expect no change in my lifetime to be honest. And that is the truth.

By the way Idiocracy was not a movie, but a documentary, I fear.

[Naturalist111]

38. Because it's

easier being stupid?

[TygrBright]

43. Perhaps because we have sat back and watched for forty years as our public education system has been

....systematically starved to the point of nonfunctionality?

speculatively,
Bright

[Cleita]

44. I just turned seventy.

I spent the first twenty years of my life living between two countries, here and Chile. I often wondered in those years why North Americans were so ignorant about what happened beyond their borders other than when we were at war with specific nations. I am an American from birth but of mixed parentage. Nothing about my original assessment has changed my thinking to this day. Even with the fact that Americans are better traveled than they were back then, they still are provincial in their thinking. I can't call it really stupid as much as I can call it thinking that is so insular that it will reject truth and facts in favor of a popular myth.

[nadinbrzezinski]

49. And that is the other half of the answer

Our wonderful provincialism...

But lord knows both of us have been talking about it for years now.

:hi:

[hfojvt]

96. one think about Chile though

is that you are always a short drive away from Argentina or Bolivia.

Two more things are that it is only about as big as Alaska and also that there are only 17 million people. With a much bigger area and so many more people, there is a lot more going on inside our borders than there is inside Chile. Why should a story in Botswana be more important than a story in Georgia to a person living in Illinois?

[LeftyMom]

47. Half of all people are below average.

And average isn't precisely impressive either.

[upi402]

48. statistically speaking;

50% of all statistics are made up!

[rhett o rick]

50. The corporate media has been brainwashing them for decades. And the conservatives have gotten their

hooks into education. Stoopid people are easier to rule.

[guitar man]

52. Religious fundamentalism

Taught from the cradle to "take it on faith". Never question, no critical thinking allowed. It permeates into every corner of their lives, their politics, their social skills, and so on and so forth. Ron White is 100% correct when he says "you can't fix stupid".

[nutsnberries]

59. that may be true for a good portion, but honestly,

I can't think of a single one of the people from my life that regurgitates the talking points that has any religion in their lives at all.

...and maybe that's another version of the problem. Please don't misunderstand me, I'm not saying they need religion, but maybe they lack something very basic that could ignite their own thoughts.

[NotThisTime]

68. Big portion of people in that boat

[Hestia]

53. Because someone with a microphone sticks it in stupid's face, saying that they are

"speaking for average American's" - perpetuating the myth that everyone in this country is stupid

[global1]

54. Repug Administrations, Repug Think Tanks, Repug Talking Points........

MSM that wants to continually stir the pot, Fox News........ need I go on?

[Cid_B]

55. I think it has something to do with the fact...

.. that there are some *cough cough* who consider themselves to be the moral and intellectual superiors to the majority of the population.

[HeresyLives]

56. Maybe they are.

[Cid_B]

60. Someone might be..

.. bit presumptuous to assume its you though...

[HeresyLives]

61. Bit presumptuous to assume it's not.

[Skittles]

57. I don't know, but it is embarassing

and there are plenty of stupid DUers, by the way

[ProgressOnTheMove]

63. You've nailed it the best education will be a generation of Democratic rule. Compassion making a ...

comeback.

[AsahinaKimi]

64. When the " teh Stoopid and teh crazee bring guns" to the party

There were no reports of tea baggers carrying weapons this time. I do worry though, that the next time, there might be some jerk who decides to take his ideals to the next violent level. I do think violent confrontation maybe next. Its one thing to be against something and to protest it, but when they start bringing guns to the party with the intent on killing people who they think is ruining our government, then something has to be done about it.

Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Fox News is on a mission to whip these people into a frothing frenzy. They have a right to free speech in this country, but sometimes they cross the line and the FCC has, so far done nothing about it.

I am not exactly sure what the answer is. But Hate Speech in this country will lead to Hateful actions. If something doesn't fall into place soon, we will soon see a terrible event. One that is likely to make martyrs out of the wrong people.

[Vinca]

66. I think "teh stoopid and teh crazee" have been put on steroids

by right wing talk radio and Faux News. They sneer at education (although they don't know the definition of the word "sneer")and take pride in being dimwitted, gun-toting idiots. There have always been ignorant people around . . . maybe it's the of a shock seeing them all in one place.

[NotThisTime]

69. As a whole many people don't value education and that's why it remains underfunded. Parents don't

expect enough of their schools, schools don't expect enough from the students, parents aren't involved with the students, there seems to be no accountability anywhere

[sendero]

70. Several reasons..

.... not the least of which is the country is fed a steady diet of idiocy via the "main stream media" 24/7.

Most just don't have the intelligence to see what a load of self-serving bullshit it all is.

[The Midway Rebel]

73. Because we have a low murder rate.

Places with high muder rates have a higher proportion of folks with high IQ's.

It takes a lot of intelligence to survive in a violent society.

The American suburbs, where any idiot can breed without evolutionary consequence, will be the death of us all.

[jdp349]

74. Because in America we have true freedom

freedom from thought that is. It is acceptable an in sometimes encouraged to believe the nonsensical.

[northernlights]

78. fire all the teachers

it's their fault we're stoopid. :shrug:

[TransitJohn]

79. It's not just this country.

It's our species. I hate coming off so elitist and pompous, but there's a low percentage of humans who are actual conscious beings.

[ccinamon]

82. Medical Science

The problem with medical science, is it keeps stupid people alive.....natural selection used to take care of the stupid...now we fix them up and send them out to do more stupid shit.

[treestar]

102. Interesting thought, but then medical condition and intelligence aren't

related, so medical science would have kept many smart people alive, too.

[laughingliberal]

86. "Pass the damn bill already so we can move on to something else! "

And all those improvements we've been told can be made after it passes?

As for your original question the reason there are so many stupid people in this country is because corporations took over our sources of information and Reagan began the dismantling of public education which continues to this day.

[Motown_Johnny]

87. lead paint?

[bighughdiehl]

88. The Texas textbook thing and this thread....

made me think of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Cz4vcQKWfA&feature=related

[omega minimo]

90. R-O-N-A-L-D R-E-A-G-A-N

[L0oniX]

97. uhm ...because their tv was super glued to Fux???

[Xenotime]

98. They are mainly found in the middle of the US...

Where they are not as sophisticated as they are on the coasts. They are just very much out of touch with reality.

[readmoreoften]

99. Use of 24 news networks and church networks to spread disinformation.

Total information control in rural areas.

[pitohui]

104. the human mind is very limited, half of the people have IQs less than 100

it isn't just this country, if we assume that an IQ of 100 is "average," well, just talk to some of those 100 IQs for awhile -- they are, quite frankly, idiots

most people ARE stupid, because the average normal IQ that we've inherited is simply not good enough for this complex society, altho i'm sure it was fine for caveperson days

they say the human mind developed speech and complex thought to deal w the complexities of interpersonal relationships in the human village -- that is, gossip -- and MOST people's brains simply don't have any other capacity than that -- they can handle gossip, getting along (or not) with other people, making judgments abt who they meet who seems trustworthy or not but they don't have any intellectual ability to do math, science, make correct judgments when they're being deceived by the more intelligent or more technologically advanced, esp. thru the media and advertising...

timothy leary was right, we need intelligence improvement, LSD didn't prove to be a very helpful way to get there for any but a tiny minority of brains but we sure need SOMETHING

MOST people are stupid, not just most people in THIS country

MOST peoplem everywhere, are just very very limited even when they're good and well meaning

[Initech]

106. Easy recipe: Television + AM Radio + religious fundamentalism

[pitohui]

108. people were stupid before teevee, p. t. barnum pre-dated teevee

people are stupid because we only had to evolve to a certain point and once we got there, our technological advances created by the relatively few geniuses around, have out-paced our intellectual capacity

we're trying to manage a world that is, truly, too big for most of us

the lizard brain is trying to run the asylum

to blame human stupidity on teevee makes as much sense as blaming human stupidity on the circus -- the spectacle was created to profit off the human stupidity that already existed, fox teevee mines for gold among the stupid because there was gold in those hills, fox didn't PUT the gold in the hills

[Initech]

109. I'm seriously not denying that stupidity is a recent thing.

The idiots have always been around, that's for damn sure. But TV is responsible for the teabaggers, that is a fact.