How Many Are Too Many?

Autoprax

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Trump does a good job of creating the Other.

These people are feeling the pressures of modern life in a country in decline.

They are not stupid, they are mad and scared.

Then there are rich people who will support trump for the tax breaks and the conservative judges who will protect their resources.
 
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Ifallalot

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Dec 17, 2008
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OK, I read the article and see that Clever Soy is using the classical definition of idiot

This is simply another attack on individualism which is what nearly every division in this country boils down to

Hell yes I care more about myself than anything else
 
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enframed

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Apr 11, 2006
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Ah I see, he's using the literal definition of idiot. How quaint.

I don't think it's a good article.

Calling people idiots when that word has colloquial meaning different from the literal is not going to do anything but p|ss people off.

Plus, I don't think that 73 million people are idiots even in the Greek sense. Many actually believe in this idea called "America."
It is not quaint to look at a word's etymology. It gives a deeper understanding of a concept through the lens of history.

I think many of the 73 million are confused and even more egocentric than anything else. There are many examples here.
My problem isn't with the exercise of etymology, it's the way he's doing it; he's being "clever" about it, and it's annoying, and IMHO, reads like a bad college newspaper op-ed piece.

The Greeks didn't have Christianity, they had any number of Gods who were said to interact with humans on the reg. Very different background to religion today in America. When you take into account that most of the 73 million spoken of in the article are Christians, it complicates things even more. Christians believe God is good and all powerful, &c, and belief in "him" will save you. Greeks were afraid that any god might rape, seduce, steal, take your eyesight; the Greeks thought gods should mostly be avoided whenever possible.

73 million people aren't idiots in the Greek sense. If they were, they'd want universal healthcare, a UBI, &c, because those things should be in anyone's self-interest, because they preserve one's life. But they don't. Why not? Because they believe in this thing called America; they have been sold on the idea that "freedom" (whatever that means) is more important, and they also believe that freedom means amassing money, and/or vice versa. You can say that's idiotic (I would) but it's not idiotic in the Greek sense. It doesn't work because they aren't actually for "freedom" (most probably couldn't even describe what it means, right or left, and probably would not agree on its definition either), they are for an idea they can't define, which would make them idiots in the Latin sense (the one we use today), not the Greek sense.
 

Autoprax

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OK, I read the article and see that Clever Soy is using the classical definition of idiot

This is simply another attack on individualism which is what nearly every division in this country boils down to

Hell yes I care more about myself than anything else
Individualism is good and bad. So is collectivism.

It's about balance.

A really good screen guiding your behavior in a society is to ask yourself, What would happen if everyone did this?

This is an adult question.

The child will not want to ask it and will often not like the answer.
 

Woke AF

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Jul 29, 2009
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My problem isn't with the exercise of etymology, it's the way he's doing it; he's being "clever" about it, and it's annoying, and IMHO, reads like a bad college newspaper op-ed piece.

The Greeks didn't have Christianity, they had any number of Gods who were said to interact with humans on the reg. Very different background to religion today in America. When you take into account that most of the 73 million spoken of in the article are Christians, it complicates things even more. Christians believe God is good and all powerful, &c, and belief in "him" will save you. Greeks were afraid that any god might rape, seduce, steal, take your eyesight; the Greeks thought gods should mostly be avoided whenever possible.

73 million people aren't idiots in the Greek sense. If they were, they'd want universal healthcare, a UBI, &c, because those things should be in anyone's self-interest, because they preserve one's life. But they don't. Why not? Because they believe in this thing called America; they have been sold on the idea that "freedom" (whatever that means) is more important, and they also believe that freedom means amassing money, and/or vice versa. You can say that's idiotic (I would) but it's not idiotic in the Greek sense. It doesn't work because they aren't actually for "freedom" (most probably couldn't even describe what it means, right or left, and probably would not agree on its definition either), they are for an idea they can't define, which would make them idiots in the Latin sense (the one we use today), not the Greek sense.
It does read and a little cutesy but I don’t mind. I like that he is using idiot not in the modern sense.

I guess you could assume the idiots he talks about are Christian but are they Christian in the true sense? They aren’t if they are doing and not doing how he defines them.

I think the idea of the American dream is interpreted as self centered libertarianism which is the point of the article.
 

enframed

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"The failure of our institutions to generate an honest appreciation of intelligence as a cultural value has left us looking stupid."
There is a cult that worships the idea "America."

Intellectually s
mart people join cults all the time. But people who join cults are emotionally challenged in some fundamental way, even if it's just for that time, wrong place, wrong time (or, wrong place, right time, whatever). They were "ripe for the picking" as it were.

This is why I don't think the idiot article makes sense. America has been hoodwinked for 250 years. It's waking up.