How Much More Stupid Can It Get?

There are days when I have to remind myself that I am living in the 21st Century and not the late 1800s. Some of the commentary and opinion, the beliefs and prejudices that get thrown about are so out of touch with today’s reality that I wonder if the Internet and the iPhone are part of a technological conspiracy to warp us back in time to a bygone era.

This week, for example, Missouri Rep Todd Aikin mused about ‘legitimate’ rape on national television. It wasn’t just his attempt to characterize rape as legitimate and illegitimate that was so bizarre; it was his assertion that the female body can actually prevent pregnancy in cases of legitimate rape. Apparently Mr. Aikin is of the opinion that a woman’s body not only can differentiate between the two but will actually make a judgment call as to whether or not to allow the pregnancy to proceed.

Is it possible, in this day and age, to get more stupid than this?

Well….actually yes it is.

Julian Assange delivering his self-aggrandizement
speech at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London
photo by the Daily news

Julian Assange is a hero. Imagine that! A man who is wanted for questioning in the sexual assault of two women in Sweden is being lionized by the clueless because he made his living exposing state secrets of various nations that undermined their national security and actually put people’s lives in danger. Some actually camped out in front of the Ecuadorian Embassy overnight waiting to catch a glimpse of a man who lacks the courage and the character to face his accusers and defend his actions.

Many of these bright lights are the same as those who literally swooned over accused serial killer Luka Magnotta. Mr. Magnotta is accused of killing his Asian lover and then hacking his body into pieces and mailing some of the pieces to various recipients including the Conservative Party of Canada. Mr. Magnotta hadn’t been caught before fan web sites had been set up in his honour.

Hope for what? That you won't
be his next victim?

Others look in romantic awe at groups like Anonymous famous for their efforts to damage computer networks, steal credit card information, post anti-Semitic hate messages and threaten governments, corporations and pretty much anyone that annoys them. In the real world, Anonymous would be classified as bullies, common thieves, vandals and racists. Online, they become heroes for many who have the depth of character of a glass of water and the life-experience of fruit flies.

In Holland, Michigan a 13 year-old boy had his hot dog stand shut down by the city for violation of city licensing ordinances. The son of a family going through a tough time, this young boy had the strength of character to get out there and try and do something to help. He saved up enough money to buy the hot dog stand and negotiated a deal with the owner of a sporting goods store to operate his hot dog cart in the store’s parking lot. The manager even agreed to pay him a commission for any additional traffic he supplied to the store.

Local area restaurateurs complained and the city shut him down resulting in the family losing their home. Now the family is separated. He and his mother now live in a homeless shelter, while his father, who is on prescription medication, must live elsewhere because the homeless shelter doesn’t allow drugs. It’s always good to see bureaucracy and stupidity overwhelm decency and common sense. 

In Canada, the land of beavers and dreamers in two official languages, the election in Quebec continues to fight battles that haven’t existed for decades. Pauline Marois, leader of the PQ a separatist party, continues to hammer away at how evil it is to be a part of Canada. She bangs her drum on this repeatedly despite the fact that Quebec receives 25% of its annual budget from the federal government in transfer payments (and the province still has an annual deficit and absurd level of debt). 

The Sugar Plum Fairy with promises of
rainbows and marshmallow clouds

She is the consummate snake oil sales person, a tawdry sugar plum fairy offering up a vision of an independent Quebec that will be all candy apple trees and sugar-coated mountains without having a clue how the new nation will actually pay for the social programs that Canada’s largesse has provided. She is on the record as saying that she will tell the electorate how she will pay for everything....after the election, which kind of defeats the idea of an election doesn't it?

You would have thought with all the issues facing Quebec and the modern world, we would have been beyond fighting the battles of the past by now but apparently not. Some people are so afraid of the future; they can only find security in taking refuge in refighting the battles of the past.

Not content with screwing up yet another election, many Canadians this week elevated stupidity to silliness when the Bank of Canada unveiled its new $100 dollar bill. On the back of the bill was a picture of an Asian female lab tech or scientist looking into a microscope. It was intended to be an example of Canada's role in global science and technology but you'd think that it was anything but from the outcry and criticism. It's unbelievable that something so trivial could occupy the minds of so many but it did and to the point that the Governor of The Bank actually apologized for the picture. That's like apologizing for putting the picture of an elk on the twenty-five cent coin. How much sillier can it get?

Apparently quite a bit more as it turns out.

Two men - same lack of vision

The Presidential race in the United States continues to degenerate into an ugly orgy of exaggerated accusations and obscene spending. The Democrats are cutting $700 billion from Medicare to shore up the seriously underfunded Obamacare Program while the Republicans will take $700 billion from Medicare to start a new voucher system and reduce the deficit. Both parties are claiming it is only the other party that is actually slashing Medicare spending. If they took all the money being squandered on this ugly campaign, they could fund both easily without cutting a nickle.

It doesn’t matter which side of the political river you stand on, elections are supposed to  provide a frank discussion and debate on how to move forward to address the issues we face. It’s impossible, however, to conduct any kind of informed conversation on anything when the information being put out is so distorted and recklessly exaggerated. Whatever elections are about these days, they have nothing to do with the problems faced by our nations.

"You look very fetching in that uniform.
Would you like to have dinner
after this is done?"

If I was American, I would simplify my decision about which ticket to support in the presidential election with this simple premise. If the President was killed, which vice-president would I want to take over the reins of the country: Joe Biden or Paul Ryan? There is just no way I could justify in my mind supporting any ticket that resulted in the possibility of a cartoon character actually running the world’s most powerful country. The thought of Joe Biden running any country, let alone the United States is so bizarre that it would scare the hell out of me to think of the country being run by someone who is the intellectual equal to Bert from Sesame Street.

President Joe...err....
I mean Bert?

One of the stupidest comments of the week, surpassed in my mind only by that of Todd Aikin, was President Obama musing on the fact that the First Lady doesn’t get paid. Considering that she doesn’t actually work for the government, it’s a bit of a challenge to understand why she should especially considering that the perks that come from sleeping with the President are quite significant. 

She lives in a pretty grand style. She lives in a very large house for free, has access to an incredibly nice vacation resort at Camp David, has a cook and other servants to take care of the household chores, an extensive vacation and travel budget and access to a private jet. It’s hard to work up much sympathy for her lack of salary but nonetheless, there is the leader of the free world musing about his wife’s hardship.

When the President of the United States starts whining about his wife not getting a salary, I think it’s pretty much indicative that the entitlement attitude has spun completely out of control.

Then there is the tax the rich crowd. The mythology is that wealth is a bad thing because it is based solely on greed which deprives the rest of society from its entitlements. The fact is that in Canada, more than 8 million people paid no income tax last year. That's approximately 45% of all those earning taxable income. In the United States, fewer than 100 million paid taxes on a population of more than 350 million. Not all of those people were either dirt poor or filthy rich. Most were middle class families.  The truth about high income earners and taxation is exemplified in my province of Quebec where the wealthy earn 50% of the total provincial income but pay 70% of the total income tax. They also contribute more to charity abd donate more to hospitals and universities but screw it. Let's nail the bastards.

I support a system where everyone pays their fair share but clinging to the illusion that all of our problems will be solved if we tax the rich even more is delusional.

The mantra of tax the wealthy is just another way of demonizing those who have succeeded by those who can’t be bothered trying. It’s just another way to dress up envy and socialized greed as righteousness.

We face serious issues in our societies today but the discussions being bandied about are adolescent, prejudiced and often just downright stupid. We haven’t moved forward in decades and are now slipping backwards A smart people would recognize that, take their heads out of their asses and start to do something about it besides buying into the same old smoke and mirrors being offered by politicians and others who haven’t got a clue.

But perhaps I’m being unkind. Perhaps there is some benefit to moving backwards.

People in the 1800s were fairly resilient and responsible. They had to be or they died. They didn’t have the technology and ‘sophistication’ we have today but they did have something we seemed to have lost, they had common sense. Perhaps we should consider returning, if only briefly, to a period where common sense triumphed over stupidity and see if we can’t learn something from it.

God knows we aren’t learning much from the technology all around us today. Even our smart phones are smarter than we are.

© 2012 Maggie's Bear

all rights reserved

The content of this article is the sole property of Maggie's Bear but a link to it may be shared by those who think it may be of interest to others