Intellectual trolling (in Off-topic)

Read this article.

How does this article make you feel?

For bonus points, see if you can point out the irony in my question.

If I was illiterate, or stupid, or just not as educated, I would not be able to understand the article you posted. Still, and it's quite a paradox, I feel like it speaks to me. It is describing a bit of how I, and a lot of people, think.

Yes! I'm intelligent enough to see that I am an easily manipulated idiot. YAY!

I got some lulz out of it. I'm far too debased to care about the "future" of teh America by now, I'm resigned to having a good laugh at its death throes...

I think it differs very much, how this article makes you feel, if you are american or not.

As a european i agree with the story on most parts.

I think americans will fell offended, as it is actually about them.

But is it true or not is the real question?

(Reminds me of a tv show that send a reporter into New York and half of the people asked did not know milk came out of a cow, but that can have been setup)

Fell - Feel

And the irony would be that most people that he talks about wouldn't be able to read his story.
Should have made one out of icons and pictures, so his trolling will only get read by the people who is does not apply to.

If that is not it, i still think it's pretty ironic.

....Since when is this news? Everybody knows that a big chunk of America is made up of morons who don't know how to read a book, let alone ever buy one, and that political campaigns are filled with subliminal messages and are riddled with propaganda and slogans.

I don't think the illiterate see the campaign as a campaign, but as one big blast of entertainment.
The one most entertaining wins...

About how the article makes me feel...right now, it doesn't make me feel anything. Partially because I'm too sleepy to let it touch me and partially because I don't care about it...

This article makes me feel... wait, did I read the word 'doom' in there? Gosh, somehow I felt like the entire world is falling apart and there is no future for any of us. TV will kill us all!

Technological determinism FTW. 8-)

You call them illiterate, I call them "my minions".
:)

Yeah, there wus sum big wordz in there but it sez I should feel doomed so I must.
On a serious note though, from the outside, looking in, as has been previously mentioned, this has been apparent to those on the outside for a while to one degree or another, so maybe I'm not doomed.
On the other hand, thanks to the decision of a couple of Americans (probably the intellectual type since they run AT&T) to break a contract everyone in the company I work for lost their jobs today, so I guess we are all doomed after all.

I am not really persuaded by that article. I can see how it would be persuadive with those big words and fancy sentences, but what makes an argument good is having good solid proven facts, by having good references, that leads to the conclusion. That article seems to jump from here to there a bit and appeals more to "I use big words so I am right", then trying to form a good solid structured argument.

In this day and age of visual information, there are still some who fall prey to "words", "letters", and "text."

I thought the writer falls under Poe's law and so I didn't really comment. The false dichotomy is just obvious here - either you read books and are 1337 or you're the brainless masses. Annoyingly close to conceivable and yet just separated from the reality by a thin thread... which will be gone in a generation.

just another person without data trying to predict the same thing the Mayans did, but in a Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious fashion:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elKG4yJi_aU&feature=related

I think I can speak for all of us when I say that I am super 1337.

only read the title

I didn't even read the title, but I did see that they're starting to sell Coexist hoodies! omg!

When it says political leaders don't need to be competent anymore - hasn't it been this way? If I remember my history correctly, presidents have been elected solely on image. ie, Harrison v. Van Buren. Harrison was portrayed as the common, simple man while Van Buren was seen as the sophisticated elite aristocrat. Who won the election? The man depicted as the simple, less educated candidate - Harrison.

Bonus point: the drive of the article is the manipulation of feelings based on the absence of intellect.

1 point for Revs.

So rather than speak to how I "felt" about it, I'll instead tell you what I "think". On most of the points made in the article, I'm afraid I have to agree based on observation. Which is why I refuse to watch any reality television show, for example, where they leave the outcome or voting up to the watcher. The average watcher has the intellect of a 6th grader and the outcome will inevitably be the winner with the greatest appeal to the those craving the most outrageous behavior as their escape from their own droll reality that they've created for themselves. All the while, the network is raking in the profits from their text messages.

Where I disagree is where the writer speaks of the majority, minority, right wing, left wing, etc, or pigeon holes people into typical pre-biased stereotypes. It's the people who defy those stereotypes who are the hope for the future, if they will actually exercise their voice and strive to make a difference. And with the state of our culture (here in the US), our finances, our politics, the inept government we've come out of AND are heading into, and the fall of capitalist consumerism ideology - I do believe we are at the crux of change . . . or the brink of disaster. I'm not sure who coined the phrase, but "evil prevails when good men [people] do nothing" is as prophetic a statement within the context and culture we live in as I can think of. The future is still wide open with possibility.

Who reads the printed word these days anyway?
Internet FTW :P

Probably because its just me and I tend to live life in a somewhat consistent state of mind where nothing really matters as much anymore or some mess, but I feel unchanged. Its not that much of a surprise.

But in that sense of illogical thought... I guess it makes me feel smarter? No idea

Forget Red vs. Blue? Forget Red vs. Blue?!?
(I'm a very deep thinker.)

At first I thought this was talking about the internet show red vs. blue. The thought of which was going to just make me close my browser and watch an episode, but since it wasnt and I decided to read all of it. I'll give you all my opinion :P

I think, people are generally stunted intellectually/emotionally. Take a co-worker of mine as an example. he has four kids. him and his wife each have one part-time job that gets less than 20hrs/wk each. He barely finished high school, thinks reading is 'pointless' and continues to make terrible life decisions (gets his cable and water shut off, pays the cable bill, convinces the water company to turn it back on because he has kids). but on top of that, he has literally like 92 hours a week to do anything in the world to improve his situation. I would kill for that much time on my hands... I didnt really factor in taking care of two of the kids, but even if 1/2 of that time is taken up, its still a large enough time to do alot of things...

A funny thing to watch is the reality tv shows. Not for the content, but how it is the content is portrayed. Simply put, it is terribly biased. Then the public makes a decision on that bias alone because it is the only way portrayed... Kind of sounds familiar :\

A simple response will carry the weight of complexity...

"Lowest common denominator"

Think about it...

I mostly watch the History Channel and National Geographic or Discovery Science myself (not much use for anything else except a Red Wing game)and I have noticed the intellectual aspect has dropped considerably.Even Court T.V. which I used to watch on occasion has been turned into "Reality T.V." which is a farce of "paranormal ghost chasing" on many of it's programs now.At least it still has Cops which can be entertaining.I like to read but it is true I haven't picked up a good book in a long while.But that is probably due to other "studies" on the internet(where it can be difficult to dig up any real truth but information can still be gleaned).I noticed what the writer in the article was talking about back in 85' when I took my GED.They wouldn't let me take it till then though I would have if I could in 82'.The rule at the time was it could not be "administered" until age 18.When I did take it I scored in the 90 percentile rank after just reading on my own without a day of high school attendance.That year only 72% of high school graduates passed the GED.I would have loved to go to college but never had the money and grants for high school dropouts are few and far between if your not a minority.

My take on the whole situation is that we are heading into a great deal of trouble in the next 20 years because there are a lot of people believing that an answer will come "from somewhere" but are a combination of too stupid or too greedy for that something to happen.
Case in point is nuclear power technology.We have had it for close to 40 years now and in the U.S. we have about 20 nuclear plants cause no one wants one "in their backyard".No new ones have been built in over 30 years yet even today we have many power plants that run on fossile fuel.15 years or so ago car companies after seeing a slight increase in sales of S.U.V. type vehicles started making more and pushing the ad campaigns for them and instead of making a realistic attempt at higher mileage cars they made the big and very profitable suv's.Electric cars have been produced which although expensive(50k for bare bones model).They are capable of 0-60mph in 8 seconds acceleration and a top speed of 300mph with a range of about 500 miles on a charge.

Holy cow age floors on edumaction sheets of paper? Like if you're not of majority that you're "scmeducated" to high school level is impossible?

Headsigh. +1 Patroneus.