After reading some of these Yahoo posts, and being exposed to this level of stupidity...?

Question

...does it make you afraid for the future of this country?

To Ritch Williams: I rarely watch television, so your insult is wasted. And as for "welcoming me to the human race" your gratuitous patronizing is, again, wasted. I'm more than familiar with the human race - I'm commenting on the level of stupidity overflowing on this board.
Thanks for proving my point.

To Bluesman: Yours was a lucid and optimistic post. Thanks.

To scottanthonydavis: Yes. Yes. Yes.

To Jim D. : I hadn't thought of that, but you may actually be onto something there....that a college graduate of today is equal to a weak high school graduate of 30 years ago.....
Gee, thanks. I feel *much* better now.

To Beau: Well, yes...I see your point. I, too, am walking around in shock over our present-day dilemma.

Answer 1

No because when I read a lot of them I also realize that many are well thought out opinions by people who are very intelligent. Face it the stupid, ignorant and dense fall to the side in life as well as on here. Many people post thier own opinions despite governments attempt to mold us all into easily understood minorities. They read and research into topics giving us all much more information than we would find on our own about things we may not of thought about at all.

Dont give up on the human race because of the answers that are stupid - be thankful for the many good answers and polite conversation caused by disagreeing on a topic but respecting others rights to hold different views.

Answer 2

Why?

I mean, why say "the future of this country"?

People who haven't spent a lot of time reading the writings of just folk are usually shocked by what they see. (I first experienced this as a teaching assistant in college in the late 70's. About a third of the COLLEGE students couldn't produce an intelligible sentence on a bet.)

But you don't know whether we're more stupid (as a whole) now than, say, 50 years ago, do you?

Even 20 years ago, just folks rarely wrote in a public forum. What you read were the writings of professionals, who had editors to clean up any messes they produced.

You may also be assuming (falsely!) that the dumbest stuff is all from kids.

If you spend some time on this site -- especially if you spend time in a lot of different categories, not just the "hot button" ones, you'll also see a lot of intelligent, well-educated, insightful, sane people. (More often answering, than asking.)

Some of those are teenagers.

A couple of years ago I came across an article about a quiz that had been given Americans (poll-like -- that is, a big sample of people). I was amazed at how many things that nearly everyone knows today they got wrong.

Part of it is that people know DIFFERENT things today, than what was common knowledge then, but still, there were things I was really surprised at (some had to do with Shakespeare -- classical education, if you will).

Another thing to remember about this site is you're mostly seeing questions, and the people who post the most questions usually have some bug up their backsides, or are freaking out over something or other.

So, on the one hand, I am appalled at the low quality of reasoning, and the ignorance I see; on the other, I have reason to think it's not actually worse than before, but even a bit better.

Answer 3

I'm worried about the future of the world under socialist regimes.
I want to say to Sarge that Darwin was right.
Evolution is not always for the "best" the way you see it. People with no intelligence are happier because they don't have problems. They may have problems but not the intelligence to perceive them.
Socialist systems are the environment for backward evolution. Those who work to produce real wealth are measured and rewarded by their performance. Those working for the government, protected by socialist programs (unions) or not working at all, get rewarded for doing nothing or doing little. Their performance is not measured, they get the same no matter what and they can get more by just crying for it.
Under such system, what would be the winning strategy? Get smarter, more educated to work harder for money that's going to be taken from you? Or get stupider and get the money even if it's less?
If Hilary gets her 5K bond initiative passed, who's going to reproduce more? the intelligent, educated, hard working people who know how hard is to raise a child? or the sloppy, lazy, welfare supported bum who couldn't care less?

And, in the end, which one is going to be the predominant gene on the next generation? The intelligent, educated one or the uneducated dumb?

And I'm not talking about the future. Now is the future, we're the evolution of socialism.

I'm sorry Sarge. As sad as it is, you're wrong and Darwin was right. We've created a system where the winning strategy is to slack and the predominant trait passed from generation to generation is laziness.
It's time to change...

No more socialism, get rid of welfare and social protection, no universal health care. Smaller government and total freedom.
Under libertarianism, the slacks are left behind. Even if they reproduce, their children die if they can't support them. In a competitive environment, the educated, the intelligent, the trained and the hard working prevails while the bump fails.
In that system, the winning strategy is to push forward, to get together and do more, to take care of resources because they're expensive, to plan for the future.
It's a system that rewards the hard working man and abandons the lazy one.
In the end, a natural environment with natural selection, evolution towards "better".

Answer 4

Blue,

I actually believe that people are mostly not as dumb as they sometimes sound, in here.

I believe that they are intellectually lazy and write without actually thinking about the subject. Of course, I have had problems with my idealism since high school and may be giving my fellow citizen too much credit. lol
I do have some concern about our future; I am of the firm opinion that the average college graduate today is the weak equivalent of a high school graduate 30 years ago.

Answer 5

No. The sort of nonsense you read here is inherent in a democracy with free speech rights.

The type of fear you express has been expressed for a couple hundred years by those who think we need kings, dictators, or oligarchies. Yet, the world's democracies for the most part have been more successful than other forms of government in most areas (Kuwait might be an exception in terms of per capita income). The irrational folks on either side tend to balance each other out and reason tends to win in the long run.

I suggest using this forum to promote enlightenment on the issues you think are important, rather than joining in on the bashing that goes on by bashing the bashers. Some of us will consider your thoughts on issues without calling you names. Those who will consider ideas are the ones who are likely to swing an election one way or the other, while the name callers will just cancel each other out to the extent that they even vote.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nonlethalalternatives/

Answer 6

While on a superficial but nonetheless meaningful level I can agree with the reality that stupidity/ignorance all laced with beligerence and arrogance polutes not only our cyberspace experience but our "real world" reality ,perhaps you need to step back and consider the alternatives but most important,the consequences.

Any alternative would involve some sort of and some leval of censorship/control .If this is not in and of itself problematic,such controls/limits would be imposed by the few upon the many (usually called a dictatorship) by a cabal of elitists who assume that they know what is good for the rest of us.

I consider boards like this as I do our democracy.It can be bloody messy as hell sometimes,aggravationg and slow moving and often full of hypocricy/double standards and stupidity but it is the best paradym created by humans to organize and govern themselves.

Like in the real world ,I merely avoid ignoramuses,provocateurs,rabble rousers,loud mouths etc on these boards for often in the thousands of spewings on a board like this,one inevitably finds a gem that profoundly causes one to re-think,re-evaluate and grow.


Like having rules that forbid guests from deficating on the kitchen table instead of in the toilet, we must have some "rules and regulations" but must be constantly vigilant to ensure that these rules and regulations do not stifle the debates/discussions and head buttings that have collectively over time brought us from the Dark Ages to where we are today eventhough some may argue that we have declined as a civilization since those times.

Answer 7

I don't judge the country as a whole by what I see here. Most of what you read is hate inspired trash written by trolls looking to antagonize someone that will respond in kind. Fortunately there are just enough intelligent questions and answers to make an occasional visit interesting. There are many better categories on Yahoo Q&A than Politics.

Answer 8

Actually, I am impressed with the answers/responses to THIS question.

It seems that the more polarizing the question (left or right...doesn't matter) the more polarizing the answer.

Anytime someone asks a question that is just a lightening rod for extreme answers, they aren't disappointed. When someone asks a thoughtful question, they, for the most part, get some great answers.

This question sort of makes fun of ALL of us and we (again, for the most part) respond on a higher, more civil, level.

Answer 9

Yes, and world events tell me that other nations are getting in position to take over after the fall. But as long as we can blame Clinton for everything there is no need to take a look at any of our current policies or goals.

Answer 10

The world