Friday, December 02, 2011

"Maroons!"

It was Bug's Bunny's favorite epithet -- "What a maroon!" -- and Cyril Kornbluth based a series of short science-fiction stories on the notion that people were getting dumber and dumber, over 50 years before Idiocracy showed up at the video store.

Conversely, the Flynn Effect appears to show people are getting more clever, presumably including the guy who just stopped in front of you in the middle of the block without signalling, then turned left, across the path of an oncoming tractor-trailer rig, barely missing being T-boned.

That driver's not the only evidence favoring Kornbluth; the sad case of silver/white save-the-polar-bears-Coke™ cans has the venerable Co-cola company backing down: without the red can, consumers weren't even sure what that stuff was or how it tasted.

Then there's Sabra's take on the media panic over the gun club that's doing their own version of "photos with Santa," which rates a quote. Pop quiz time!
You see a picture of a family and Santa Claus. All the adults are armed, and a machine gun is in the foreground. Are these people:
A) playing an elaborate practical joke
B) probably rednecks
C) shooting hobbyists
D) in need of psychological evaluation

Answer D? Congratulations, you're a fucking idiot
.
What she said. I might've been more mealy-mouthed but she hits square on the mark.

(Somewhat relatedly, a computer-tech bleg: there's all manner of laptop woes at Trailer Park Paradise. Looks like a 25-cent part might fix one of them -- if she could find the part. Maybe you could help? Rants as good as hers aren't all that easy to get, you know.)

10 comments:

Jim said...

You sent me to Wik with the "idiocracy" reference, and I found:

"...this future society emphasizes anti-intellectualism, popularity, sexual attraction, and hedonism."

+Future+ society? My behind.

The Jack said...

Weer'd Found a fun quote for the outcry.

http://www.weerdworld.com/2011/quote-of-the-day-25/

"Somewhere there’s a right-winger fuming over a Gay Pride Calendar. Who cares if a gun club wants to celebrate a Second Amendment Christmas ? It’s just speech."

Clearly these moral guardians are just worried about the Holosexual Agenda. ;p

They want to corrupt America’s youth by showing that their “lifestyle” is normal and not preverse.

Bubblehead Les. said...

Funny how the Media doesn't panic when they take Vid of Highly Religious Middle Easterners firing AK's into the air while dancing around, yet they have a Hissy when a Kid sits on Santa's Lap while there's a Party at the Gun Club, a Private Organization Peacefully Assembling.

Of course, I love the Hypocrisy of the Liberals' Favorite Holiday Movie, "A Christmas Story", where the main plot line is Ralphie Wants A Gun.

Anonymous said...

I was grousing about movies - especially superhero movies - on another blog. My point was that directors and writers assume that the audience is so damned dumb that they can't figure out who the good guys and the bad guys are without clear visual cues: good guys are handsome and boyish in bright costumes; bad guys are older, ugly and menacing in black. Etc.

Well, given the apparent confusion over a friggin' Coke can, I guess those who assume that the average person is a total idiot have a point.

Idiocracy, indeed.

og said...

If you walked up to every person you met and shouted "Congratulations! You're a fucking idiot" you would probably be correct at least 90% of the time.

Earl said...

Once long ago a paratrooper filled a Coke can with cold milk and set it on the table, his buddy grabbed it and went for the big gulps - and spit it up quickly. Not that it wasn't great milk, it just wasn't what he expected in a Coke can.

wv unfer (unfair, isn't it always?)

fast richard said...

Minutes after reading this post, I bought a can of Coke from a vending machine. Had I not had a heads up, I might not have looked closely enough to recognize the white can as Coke. I wonder if I've seen those cans before without knowing what they were?

I had heard of Idiocracy, but have not seen it. I wonder if it is available from redbox?

Rob K said...

I thought that Diet Coke tasted funny. Diet Coke is always a white can, and regular is always red. Go to the office fridge, grab white can... Yup, the white can fooled me. I've been drinking regular coke for the past few days without realizing it.

Well, darn. That'll teach me to be more observant. Changing the color of the cans is sorta like changing the colors of traffic signs, though with less risk.

Dave H said...

“No one in this world has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.”
- H.L. Mencken

Anonymous said...

I answered the computer problem over on TPP, but if you have a back-channel way of getting the message to her you might use it.

San Antonio used to be a great place to go hunting for random electronic parts, but I haven't lived there for years and am just a bit too far away to run down there and help out.

Regards,
Ric