The most breathtakingly stupid/ironic thing I've heard in ages

[antelope_writes]

Okay.  Put aside your religious beliefs, political beliefs, questions of morality, the lot, and put on your thinking caps.

While listening to NPR this morning, I heard the following (paraphrased, because my memory isn't perfect):

“I don't care if the country goes broke, so long as we don't have abortion or gays getting married. If we have a moral

Comments

[used_songs]

I have heard people opine similarly ... but I tend to think they don't really mean it. The whole "let God take care of it" attitude tends to break down pretty quickly when they want/need something.

And as to why ANYBODY (excepting friends and family) would care about my marital status ... I have never understood that one.

[antelope_writes]

There was a story about that, God taking care of it, that made the rounds after Katrina.

A man was in his house and a big hurricane was coming. The police came and knocked on his door, saying, "Sir, you need to leave. There's a killer storm coming. We have a bus that will take you to safety

[shane_mayhem]

What amazes me is that you were able to make a coherent, sensible post about a statement like that, which would have had me just foaming in rage and threatening to eradicate said man's state of residence....;)

I'm way, WAY too tired of fuckin' stupid people.

[antelope_writes]

I was stunned speechless after I heard this. Completely speechless, which for me is a rare state of existence indeed.

What this really says to me are two things: one, that this particular person makes his decisions based on emotion and not on reasoned arguments, and two, that he has a fundamental lack of understanding of just what government does.

[dracova]

I'd like to second your sentiment.

Also I'd like to add that you have a rather appropriate name, ha.

[speccygeekgrrl]

B-b-but if they stop to think about it, they might suffer from head-splodey when they realize what MORONS they are!

See God get you out of that one, douchebag.

(I am totally making a post on similar topics. I didn't hear that guy on NPR, but man there are a TON of these freaks.)

[kenazfiction]

And yet, the states in the middle of the country are just TEEMING with those people. I say this as someone who grew up in one of those states and who is, sadly, related to more than a couple of those people. No amount of logic or reason can get around the maniacal glow of their Righteousness.

[antelope_writes]

So are states in the edges of the country. I put that in there mostly in case people listening to it at npr online would recognize the story it's in.

It's not so much the religious aspect that boggles my mind, but the inability or unwillingness to apply reason to his decisions. Fear and greed are easy to manipulate--and betcha this man has been manipulated into making voting decisions that go 100% against his personal and financial best interests based because somebody has played to his sense of fear (terrorists! gays! gun control!) and greed (welfare! tax and spend!).

[antelope_writes]

This goes beyond that, I think. It's a fundamental lack of comprehension about what the government does, and what it's for. I bet that most of these people, if asked, would say that government itself isn't a solution to problems, government is the problem. That attitude goes back to the Reagan era at least, possibly as far back as FDR and the New Deal.

I had an extremely interesting and illuminating conversation with a guy on a train last year in December, a guy who thought like that. I told him my opinion, which was that the government does things that the private sector cannot or should not do, and gave lots of examples (like the ones listed above). He was stunned speechless, and told me later that he'd never, ever thought of it like that before, and said he'd have to completely rethink how he saw things. Some times all it takes is somebody getting them to sit down and think things through without ever saying "ZOMG YOU'RE WRONG!"