Go “Short” On America
By Mitch Berg
A chunk of the next generation thinks a president siccing the IRS on his opponents is juuuuuust fine:
Remember; they’re college kids. “Tomorrow’s leaders”.
We’re so screwed.
14 Responses to “Go “Short” On America”
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May 30th, 2013 at 12:55 pm
It’s been going on a while. I was once accosted by a coworker after I’d made fun of President Clinton’s abduction of Elian Gonzales, and he–the son of a lawyer no less–argued that Cuban-Americans were so obnoxious, it was necessary to send a Cuban who wanted out back to Cuba.
He was otherwise a pretty darned good engineer, but I still fail to follow his logic there.
May 30th, 2013 at 1:26 pm
If any of those young, useful idiots were my kids, their college fund would be drying up instead of paying for them to be subjected yo more liberal propaganda.
May 30th, 2013 at 2:09 pm
Yes, we see plenty of examples of the intellect displayed by the “Tomorrows Leaders” and the obvious result of their educations when Leno does his “Jay Walking” segments.
May 30th, 2013 at 3:39 pm
You’re far too pessimistic about the future, Mitch. While a good fraction of the youth signing that petition feel that way, a similar fraction of today’s progressives also feel the same way. The young are just more shameless about admitting it — see the difference in Facebook posts, for example.
May 30th, 2013 at 5:22 pm
This stuff makes for amusing TV, but there are lots of things to be far more incensed about. As the “ban dihydrogen monoxide” caper of a few years back demonstrated, you can get some people – especially self-styled “progressives” to sign anything.
May 30th, 2013 at 6:54 pm
Bosshoss429, I respectfully feel obligated to address part of your statement.
You are very likely “paying for them to be subjected to more liberal propaganda” just as much than their parents and their college fund is paying for it.
You must have forgotten that President Obama promised every kid who wants one a college education. He never mentioned anything about parents.
May 30th, 2013 at 8:20 pm
In the near future . . .
A ‘college degree’ consists of a certificate that affirms that you believe in global warming, multi-culturalism, and diversity, as defined by the federal government. This degree cost $100k and the federal government will ‘loan’ you the money to pay for it.
The government will then insist that a ‘college degree’ be required for every job that pays more than minimum wage.
Most of these jobs will pay minimum wage + just enough to pay the interest on the ‘student loan’ that payed for the degree. Liberals will flock to these ‘middle-class jobs’. Because they convey micro-status, they will be a notch above the minimum wage earners. These managers with a ‘college degree’ will ‘manage’ the minimum wage earners, i.e., sign their time cards. This will allow them to harass the minimum wage workers while they feel powerful.
Said one ‘manager’ of a crew that cleans bus stations:
“The degree was worth it. I can’t imagine taking orders from one of the idiots that works for me. Two of them are church-goers. Might even believe in creationism, though they’ll never admit it. Not if they don’t want to clean the restrooms every day.”
May 30th, 2013 at 10:17 pm
Actually Terry, that near future arrived a while ago.
The college degree that we got and thought put us a step above the rest of the job applicants has now become the high school diploma it used to trump.
Many jobs, such as law enforcement in Minnesota which formerly required a high school diploma, went to a required AA. Right now, most agencies require applicants to have a bachelors degree. Few accept applicants with less.
While the job is certainly worthwhile, its duties and compensation haven’t risen to such a requirement. Administrators now require a four year degree because they can get it, not because it is necessary. Some people will even argue that such an artificially high requirement is counterproductive. I’m sure that this is the same in many other occupations.
May 31st, 2013 at 3:25 am
Here is part of the problem:
The scientific method is a totally counterintuitive thing because it begins by saying: You can’t trust your memory or your senses. You have to measure things empirically and write them down because otherwise everything you remember and everything you know is colored by your biases and experiences and hopes and aspirations. And essentially your brain lies to you all the time.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/what-my-father-taught-me-cory-doctorow-15526233?click=pm_news
That’s Cory Doctorow, SF writer and hero of the techno-libertarian left. If you want to know the difference between Left libertarians and Right Libertarians, google the disputes between R-libertarian Jerry Pournelle and L-libertarian Cory Doctorow.
The only L-libertarian I know of who has regularly commented at SITD was the late Joel Rosenberg (who is missed). I think that even Joel would have told Doctorow that he was full of crap.
Anyhow, the problem with Doctorow’s position is that it assumes that there is a truth out there, and it’s name is science. If we can just listen to science, we’ll be able to discard our flawed, human understanding of the universe and a golden age will follow.
I know that some people – including Doctorow himself – would say that I am misrepresenting what he believes, but I do not think that is true. I remember that during the 2004 election, Doctorow published on his BoingBoing site the crazed rants of co-editor Mark Frauenfelder concerning flying squads of EVIL REPUBLICANS IN BLACK VANS WEARING DARK GLASSES suppressing the democrat vote in Urban Ohio. If you’re a nerd, you may know Frauenfelder as the current editor of Make magazine.
The greatest threat to civilized debate in the U.S. is not Sarah Palin, Pat Robertson or Wayne LaPierre, it’s the people like Doctorow who believe their ideology is science.
And you can’t argue with science.
May 31st, 2013 at 6:19 am
Scientists and engineers are experts in what you know. MBAs are experts in who you know. Every business needs some of each, and some need more of the one than the other. Even CERN needs both. Generally the who-you-know people end up in charge, as climbing greasy poles of political influence comes naturally to them. The problem comes when the who-you-know egotists come to believe that the core of their business is who-you-know, and that what-you-know is something you can purchase as you need it. Very few businesses can survive on a core competency made up only of relationships.
May 31st, 2013 at 11:02 am
Emery, that was incredibly dumb. While MBAs do indeed get their work done through other people, like all managers, their actual knowledge is primarily of the nuts and bolts of how a business runs.
Agreed with others who point out, by the way, that a misplaced faith in science is a huge threat–as anyone who lived under the rule of Lenin, Stalin, Kruschev, Brezhnev, Andropov, Chenenko, Mao, Kim, Pol Pot, Ho Chi Minh, or Castro knows very well. And it appears that the U.S. academy is equating their political views with science right now, just like the villain’s gallery from Communism.
May 31st, 2013 at 12:30 pm
I only have an issue with Doctorow’s love of science when he applies it to politics. Politics is about values, and values defy scientific analysis. There may be good values and bad values, but there are not right and wrong values.
The temptation is to say that your values are based on science, while the values of other people are based on irrational beliefs.
Yet, somehow, the values of the rationalist always seem to be a self-serving as any other person’s values.
May 31st, 2013 at 5:49 pm
@bubbasan
MBAs can really be insufferable when they start waxing rhapsodic about how wonderful MBAs are, captains of industry, sailing the seas of commerce. The most successful of them have generally climbed to the top in a brutal, take-no-prisoners way. They are to be admired as Genghis Khan is admired, killer of millions, destroyer of civilizations. They love their blood sport, and I’d rather have a good one than a bad one on my team, but I find them hard to take in person.
From a PhD
June 1st, 2013 at 9:20 am
I suspect that the MBAs being discussed in this thread are the established, hard-earned type, probably obtained years ago. If you read some of the pop-up ads you get, or various billboards around town, you can get an MBA in the comfort of your own home, in 18 months, at the time of your choosing.
That probably leads to a great deal of frustration to those who got theirs the old fashioned way and keep getting less and less credit for it. Just about any junior assistant mid level lower-level management intern trainee has one now, earning it by virtually drawing the deer on the matchbook as their entrance exam.
“Distance learning” was the best thing to happen to higher education since the now nearly extinct employer tuition reimbursement programs.
Education: It’s not just for the intelligent anymore. Get your degree and set yourself free …