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how to talk to complete idiots, 3 suggestions

Started by Triple Zero, September 26, 2009, 09:10:15 PM

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Triple Zero

didnt know where to post this, came across the link via twitter: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2009/09/25/notes092509.DTL

read especially the third suggestion
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e-prime disclaimer: let it seem fairly unclear I understand the apparent subjectivity of the above statements. maybe.

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Mesozoic Mister Nigel

That was rather fabulous.

But it's so hard not to talk to them!
"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."


Dysnomia

but it's so tempting to want to crush their souls....
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The Johnny

"Moving past the village idiot" seems a bit of a simplistic answer to THAT big of a problem.

But stereotyping republicans as mere cultists and democrats as sane/smart people is a bit naive. I could argue its more of a greedy group of fuckers and a bunch of utopian bleeding-heart pseudo-intellectuals. (of course this is simplifying too)
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-B.F. Skinner

Prelate Diogenes Shandor

I find that, collectively, the Democrats and the Republicans embody all of the salient traits of the American Founding Fathers. The Democrats promote freedom and societal advancement, and the Republicans are rich white guys who are always bitching about their taxes being too high :D
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrTGgpWmdZQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVWd7nPjJH8


It is an unfortunate fact that every man who seeks to disseminate knowledge must contend not only against ignorance itself, but against false instruction as well. No sooner do we deem ourselves free from a particularly gross superstition, than we are confronted by some enemy to learning who would plunge us back into the darkness -H.P.Lovecraft


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Iason Ouabache

Seems to be an extension of Rule 14: Do not argue with trolls -it means they win. Most of the idiots are loudmouthed attention whores with zero critical thinking skills. Ignore them and they will go away... or they will get louder and more annoying and start marching in the streets with pitchforks and teabags on their heads.  :x
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Golden Applesauce

Quote from: Prelate Diogenes Shandor on September 27, 2009, 03:27:51 AM
I find that, collectively, the Democrats and the Republicans embody all of the salient traits of the American Founding Fathers. The Democrats are rich white guys who don't bitch about their taxes being too high, and the Republicans are rich white guys who are always bitching about their taxes being too high :D

Fix'd for accuracy.
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Cain

The problem with ignoring them IRL is that they don't go off to another site (country) after they get bored of being ignored, they will stick around regardless, and continue to be idiots.  And will likely become more insistent, if history teaches us anything.

On one hand, you don't want to legitimate their claims by taking every piece of meth-inspired paranoia seriously and if it was in fact an allegation made by responsible people who should be listened to.  On the other hand, they're going to continue as idiots unless some sort of adequate response is found, and probably go deeper into their idiocy.

Peer pressure may not work, especially when a plurality agree with them.  And education likely isn't the key, since they can withdraw into the alternate, fantasy world of Movement "journalism" by only reading what World Net Daily or RedState thinks they need to know (you can throw as many facts at them as you like, if they think you are part of the human smuggling Communist terrorist sex slave ring of ACORN, they're going to dismiss you as a liar and fraud from the outset).

I may have an answer, but its part of a larger piece I'm working on, so obviously I don't want to say anything just yet.

Captain Utopia

Sounds intriguing Cain! I'm two years into a project which bears a passing resemblance to this concept:

Quote from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Characteristica_universalis"It is true that I once planned a new method of calculation proper to subjects having nothing in common with mathematics, and if this manner of Logic were put into practice, all reasoning, even analogical ones, would be carried out in a mathematical way. Then modest intellects could, with diligence and good will, not accompany but at least follow greater ones. For one could always say "let us calculate" and judge properly, insofar as reason and the data can furnish us the means to do so. But I do not know whether I will ever be able to execute such a project, one requiring more than one hand, and it would even seem that humanity is not yet sufficiently mature to pretend to the advantages to which this method could lead."

But "good will" is a critical requirement. When your opponent is already reaching their objectives by being irrational, you cannot motivate them to be more rational while it is not in their interests to do so.

There is little to no penalty for being selectively irrational.

Cain

Exactly.  From a purely utilitarian point of view, acting crazy doesn't really impose harsh penalties within the US (and increasingly, European) political systems.  Sure, the GOP went into overdrive in the last election, and still lost, but it took Katrina, Iraq and the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression to actually cast doubt on their chances of victory.  It was a close run thing, at a time when they should have been utterly discredited.

And bringing out the nutters to flood the town halls has proven very effective at intimidating others to give their opinions and thus leading the terms of debate.  Acting crazy when it comes to foreign policy is actually seen as being manly and responsible, no matter how many failures it brings about. 

In a two party system in particular, you can go as crazy as you like, because eventually the other party will screw up, people will get sick of their corruptness and unjustified sense of entitlement of their positions, something will go wrong and they will be thrown in.  And in the meantime, well, the media knows what sells, and badmouthing the government on the basis of personality politics (as opposed to real issues) is both safe, and yet exciting enough to bring in advertisers.

Jenne

...wow, I got real-depressed, real-fast, realizing this article described talking to my parents.  Every damned point he brought up.  And it's not like they're stupid, they're just mired in their own heads...firmly entrenched in what they think they know.   Stubborn beyond all possible belief in anything outside of what they really do believe.  Whatever evidence to the contrary.  The old "a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest" is what you come up against (that's a quote from Simon & Garfunkel).  And it's head-bashing-brickwallingly frustrating, too.

I have given up on my mother.  My father, he's another kettle of fish.  We'll see when he gets out how far he's actually come out of his mental prison of "no fine lines."  I have a feeling he's towing a certain line in the field of denial so he can get by.  I can't blame the man for that--prison would create MANY voices in my own damned head.

But the great amount of force and predominance they still have in my life, my brothers' lives and so then by extrapolation our kids' and spouses' lives means that coming to some sort of middle ground vis a vis evolution...the GOP...Jebus...has to be found if we're ever to have a peaceful Xmas celebration when my dad gets out.

Jenne

...or we'll just all sit around getting drunk like we used to. :|

Triple Zero

i'm sorry if this article made you depressed, Jenne. it's probably a good kind, like scratching an itch, but i'm sorry cause it's so much easier to inflict that on someone else ..

where are all these idiots? I mean apparently the PVV is battling to become the largest party over here, yet I don't know a single fuckhead that will admit they'd vote for mr Wilders (hell, at least I met one or two Pim Fortuyn voters back in the day). I mean, he wanted to tax hijaabs (which is so retarded if only for the reason of practicality)
Ex-Soviet Bloc Sexual Attack Swede of Tomorrow™
e-prime disclaimer: let it seem fairly unclear I understand the apparent subjectivity of the above statements. maybe.

INFORMATION SO POWERFUL, YOU ACTUALLY NEED LESS.

Jenne

Oh it's not your fault my parents have their heads up their asses.  It's just sad to realize this will probably always be the case.  But it's not like I'm alone in that respect.  Heh.

Dalek

#14
I really get pissed of by people who are like " What, you believe in that evolution bulshit!? There's no evidence on that. It's just a theory". Yeah, no evidence my ass. Well here's something interensting for you - the bible isn't even based on theories. It's just an old book.

My parents are hardcore christians, who think that if something bad happens to anyone it's because of them not believing in god, so I have given up on telling them, that I don't believe the bible bullshit.

But the thing that pisses me of the most is that they include that bullshit in school. In the "Psychology and Logic" textbook, there are 4 pages explaining that atheists are an ignorant minority refusing to accept the "scientific proof" of the existence of god and then 4 more pages of miracles "prooving" god exists. And thats the school book all high schools textbook use, because it's the official approved of teh government school book.