People. I don’t care if the IQ thing was handed down to you by god or by whatever your source of ultimate truth is. It’s self-congratulatory bullshit. How many of you who are crowing about it think that IQ means a damn thing? You would be the real idiots in the crowd. Don’t be dicks, people. Please.
[for total clarity, I’m talking about the “average state IQ v which presidential candidate won a majority” thing.]
You know I never actually think about taking those IQ thing cause I know Im better than that… he he he he ( am I passed ) common sense does still exists right?
are you talking about that IQ and kerry/bush state chart?
I’ve taken 2 IQ tests, and I think one score was half of the other one. 😛 It’s not exactly precise.
Oooops my bad… lol
And what is the truth, Stephen? Who are the mighty who are not idiots? Anything that points to a single factor as “the one” is equally wrong, and that goes for those who say religious extremism is the cause of all this, too. The IQ thing, as with many other things (such as the slave-state thing and every map that’s got red, blue and purple littered all over it) regarding this election is a joke. Of course it’s self-congratulatory. But for a lot of people–yourself included, I believe–this election was a major loss, and in order to get back up and fight motivation is required, self-congratulatory though it may be.
Is it better to leave? To pretend the problem is not yours? Fact is, there are many problems that go well past this election that are not only ours here in the good old USA but have been made the problems of everyone else on this fair planet.
My complaint about this is the _highly alienating_ insult to bush voters. You can’t win in a democracy without at least a plurality. And insulting the majority, even if you’re right, and even if it is blatantly obvious later that they made an error is unlikely to win allies.
That, and the hypocrisy of people who rip on IQ, using it as a tool to rip on others.
The fundamental thing about jokes to my mind is that they are a juxtaposition of the expected and the unexpected, the true, and the untrue. Rarely is something “just” a joke. Particularly on emotionally sensitive topics.
I can see jesusland v the united states of canada, and the slave state bit as jokes. And they do have meaning and significance beyond the immediate I have trouble seeing the actual breakdown maps as jokes, though. I do see them as tools for greater understanding and resolution of unhappiness.
Tools of greater understanding and resolution of unhappiness? How? And how can you get much more emotionally sensitive than mocking someone’s most cherished and deeply held religious convictions? Or slavery, for that matter.
My point is, you can find negative shit everywhere. So answer my original question. I’ll rephrase it. Who’s doing the right thing? Who *is* winning allies for the future? What can be done?
purpose of humor
I think my grammar at the end left much to be desired, and may have confused the meaning I intended to convey. I was saying that the breakdown maps didn’t strike me as a joke, and I want to understand what you meant by that. But they do strike me, like a joke, as a way of understanding, and coming to terms with the unpleasant-ness of Kerry’s loss.
To my mind, humor is in no small part a coping mechanism to help deal with gaps in our models of reality. And, as such, jokes are often there for the painful gaps left by disappointed hopes, sudden loss, nearly overwhelming fears, etc. They aren’t solutions, and they don’t make the pain go away, but they do help with the coping. Humor is important.
Jokes also provide explanations for the incomprehensible. “Why would anyone vote for W?” “They must be really dumb” “How dumb are they” “They’re so dumb…” I bet a fair number of Kerry voters really do think the Bush voters are mentally deficient. Probably because we can’t bridge the values gap.
Telling people they’re dumb won’t win any converts. That also plays into framing liberals as out of touch, head in the clouds, intellectual, ineffectual elitists. Without social skills. Geeks don’t win elections … yet.
If the “we lost because you’re stupid” idea takes root, instead of “we lost because we don’t appeal to the mainstream”…. we’d best prepare for many more years of election failure.
exactly
I think you’re reading too much into something that can be summed up as “we lost so we’re going to vent about it for a couple of days”. (and then get forwarded around for the next 2 months)
grieving is fine. Enouraging a pattern of thought which alienates the majority is not so cool.
Again, I think you’re reading too much into it. The IQ/State thing making the rounds was last week’s news, forgotten already.
in any case, you are giving the maps and the iq break downs far too much credit. they do not alienate people. bush voters simply continue saying that we are the west/northeast liberal elite, which they view as an insult as much as we view it as a compliment. they also find our secular humanist ways to be sinful, so calling them jesusland is probably just as much of a compliment to them as it would be an insult to us.
no one is trying to bridge any gaps and unite the country. all anyone is really trying to do is win converts to their side. we’ll continue to call them ignorant morons and they’ll continue to call us hell-bound sodomites until one side clearly gets a majority. if you’re arguing that we should be bigger people and reach out to them we would only be diluting our values to appeal to them. the same applies in reverse. i don’t think either side would be up for it. i am certainly unwilling to compromise on gay-marriage, a woman’s right to choose, affirmative action, health care, civil liberties, welfare, etc. are you?
responded in new entry =)
http://www.livejournal.com/users/cheerfulchaotic/260532.html