Sunday, February 15, 2009

Ignorance

I go to my bar in my town (yes, I own it all), and at my bar in my town are my friends. Friends I've become acquainted with over the years since I escaped the overly taxed city for the superior suburbs.

Now as the majority of my friends work at my bar, they are a bit younger than me. Typically in their mid to late 20's, I commonly am the butt end of age jokes and am frequently challenged to drinking contests at after bars. However, because I am older and actually bought my house in my town and don't live with my folks or have a heavy subsidy, it is by default that naturally I'm about the only conservative in the group and this has not gone unnoticed.

Alikening me to Alex P. Keaton, my younger friends joshingly picked on me and mocked me for always bringing a laptop into the bar, writing my book at the bar, doing taxes, not getting hammered every night, not buying a fancy car, etc. etc. But above all else, I'm the only one that didn't vote for Obama.

So it happened one night I'm sitting there, a couple of the guys are at the bar, talking to Tim the bartender and the news is on. The news of course is on the dire state of the economy, the failed bailout and failing stimulus package. Rob, a trust fund kid with a heart of gold, but the economic knowledge of a brick turns to me and says, "See what you're president did?"

All of them agreed with Rob, it was George Bush's fault and conservatives fault that this economic crisis happened. It was under GW's watch this occurred and ergo must be his fault.

And it is here that I get so enraged at the egregious level of ignorance in this country that all I can do is futilely look up into the sky, for what is my rage going to do? There is nothing I can do.

So allow me to explain a couple things here so that if you are younger, or perhaps you have to deal with such ignorance, you are well informed about exactly how this economic crisis came about and where to place your blame.

George Bush and the Republicans are not to blame for this economy.

And contrary to what you might think I don't blame the Democrats, Barney Frank or the CRA either (they are if anything partially to blame, but the numbers just don't show that the CRA was the main factor in this housing crash).

It is the (are you ready?)....

AMERICAN PEOPLE WHO ARE TO BLAME

I know for small or younger, undeveloped minds they like things in neat, orderly, simple to understand packages, but the problems of this $14 trillion (soon to be $12 trillion) economy were, for once, not caused by the government. It is the American people and their spoiled-rotteness that are to blame. To believe that they are entitled to spend like the federal government and live beyond their means is what got us into trouble. To borrow more than you are ever capable or working off, and on the order of trillions of dollars is what got us into trouble. It is the simple fact that a critical mass of people simply did not pay back their loans like the promised and that is why we're in the trouble we're in now.

Now I don't know how people get to the conclusion that it was the "Republicans" fault or the "democrats" fault, but for God's sake, if the economy is that important to you and the future of the nation is that important to you, and that you hated George Bush so much that you volunteered your time to the Obama campaign, could you at least get off your fat, intellectually lazy ass and, I don't know, STUDY THE FREAKING SH!T?! Like instead of just going with your feelings and not bothering to expend one calorie of energy on thought or research, maybe think about it a bit and read up on it? I don't know, maybe even (gasp) LOOK UP SOME STATISTICS!???

And it is here where I have the problem with ignorance. It's not assailable. It's not changeable. It's not within my power, no matter how superiorly informed and educated I may be about the topic, to change these peoples minds or to get them to think. Ignorance is this amazingly destructive and destroying disease that is immune any logic or sanity. And pound away all you want at a skull that is ignorant, you're not getting through. That skull has decided what the reality of the situation is and no amount of "facts" or "reality" will change it. You're just a "meanie republican." You're just "oh, that crazy ole economist who brings his laptop into the bar." Never mind you wrote the damn book on the topic, never mind you predicted this was coming, never mind you worked in the industry and have the experience and knowledge to explain it all in detail, no, you're that "nerdy Alex P. Keaton." It would be like me explaining to them how to be a bartender when I've never tended a bar in my life. It's the same having a 24 year old waiter, who never went to college, filed for bankruptcy explain economics to me. It's amazing how ignorance impairs.

Alas, as I've said before, there's nothing one can do aside from two things to fight ignorance. One is simply not to fight it. Just let their ignorance lead them down a path not founded in reality and they'll soon have a rude awakening as to why they're still a bartender or a waitress at 50 (this is not to wish ill will upon my friends, but rather to ensure they have a more productive life than that by warning them not to take that path) or worse they'll live in a socialist nation. The other is to bet them. I personally like this approach because it immediate forces the ignorant to think because now you've demanded they risk money on their beliefs or philosophies. They actually stand to lose something and can no longer treat things like economics, politics or whatever as an indifferent hobby. They have to (I don't know) treat it like a great and important responsibility as if they were a citizen in a democracy?

Regardless, the moral of the story is you can't get excited or angered over people's ignorance. It isn't worth the blood pressure. Nothing you can say or do is going to undo years of brainwashing by the public schools and the media's highlighting of Barack Obama's pecks. 23 year old female psychology majors will always pick Obama's pecks over your chart that correlates government spending as a percent of GDP vs. RGDP growth, no matter how right your chart may be.

So capitalists, conservatives, libertarians and other varied sorts of free marketers, just sit back and relax and let the liberals have their day. There's nothing you can do about it, and about the best thing to do would be for us to just quit so that when this all comes crashing down and results in a collapsed, desperate nation we can show the masses our clean hands and say, "See, we told you so and we have nothing to do with it."

In the meantime, if anybody blames Bush or the Republicans for this debacle, just show them the video below;



But, don't say I didn't warn you about the knee jerk reaction "Well that comes from Fox News, so that's biased and doesn't mean anything."

15 comments:

Unknown said...

My friend, absolutely. I worked for an old Chinese guy once, and he had a saying that applies to what you mention - trying to use facts with idiots.

"Do not try to teach pigs to sing. Not only will you be frustrated, but the pig will become very angry".

Daniel D said...

Not to the point but look at my situation: I would love to get your book but I'm in Europe so the shipping costs will pretty much double the price for the printed version. I think I am one of the three Kindle requesters on Amazon.
How about you making available an electronic version and me paying something like $12 through paypal?
This might sound like a Nigerian scam but it's not. Of course, you cannot trust me not to put your book on torrent. I have heard about ebook publishers but I don't have any in mind right now.
Nevertheless, I keep reading your blog. Thank you for the efforts.

Anonymous said...

Capt'n, two things:

First, I have a "friend" that is so proud that he voted for Obama, and change, and ponies, and unicorns and rainbows. Recently, he discovered that one of the section 8 living, scumbag, deadbeats that works where we do, and I use the word "work" very loosely (you know the type, waits by the time clock for 5 minutes waiting for his "shift" to end), got more back in a tax refund via the Earned Income Tax Credit than he paid in taxes total. Hmmm. Sucks when reality hits. "But, the Republicans were in power the last 12 years..." Yup, and every time they tried to do something about it, the Democrats screamed bloody murder!

Second, Maxine Waters said, "Many economists say that the stimulus should have spent more than $1 trillion..." Do you know any such economists? If you do, are they, by chance, employed by the federal government?

Unknown said...

Where is your bar and what does this kid look like! Must see movie scene for any bar owner:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2PXb7xKhcI

Anonymous said...

I, like you am an atheist and fiscal conservative. I am also supportive of GHEY marriage and adoption, and also support aborting welfare brats. However, after voting for Bush twice, and he consequently doubled the debt in 8 years on a war that was questionable at best, I decided to give those lefties a shot and voted for Obama. He couldn't possibly spend as much as the Republicans and Bush.


Wow was I wrong. I guess I'll have to go back to begrudgingly voting Republican.

Anonymous said...

While I have never had any luck their mind, I have occasionally had luck getting stoner lefty morons to shut up by out-crazying them. Just blame anything on a vast conspiracy. By the Black Panthers.

Katrina? All lefties know that (a) Bush hates white people, and (b) White people can control the weather. But, do they know that Katrina was actually a Black Panther conspiracy to turn New Orleans into a "chocolate" city? All makes sense now, doesn't it?

The housing crash? Totally Black Panthers. As everybody knows, the Black Panthers HATE hispanics, and they were tired of all these hispanics coming into the US, stealing their jobs and buying up their homes and hitting on their daughters, so what did they do? Organized their banks (oh yeah, the Black Panthers own 80% of the banks) and ACORN to trick people into buying houses they couldn't afford, thereby crashing the economy, lowering the need for unpaid workers, and running all those darn mexican laborers right out of town!

Oh yeah, they pretend it was all marches and fists in the air and house parties, but it's alot deeper than that. If you want to see, look for any business that has something that looks like a fist or a hand, or anything black, or a hat, or a cat, in their logo. You'll see just how deep they are. Like Wells Fargo. Their logo is a stage coach (stage HAND, get it!) with FIVE horses (FIVE fingers on a hand, or in a FIST).

Anyway, after 15 minutes of that, they usually just back away and refuse to ever, EVER, bring up politics with me again.

Which is nice.

CapitalBabs said...

Best post you have written in quite some time. I wish this was common knowledge... hell, I wish common knowledge was common knowledge.

Anonymous said...

Captain, I have gray hair from this phenomenon. My area is physical therapy. Now you know how your PT feels when their patients argue with them about why they hurt and why they won't do the exercises.

They don't want to know why. They don't want to know what they have to do. They don't want to do exercises.

They want YOU to make it stop. Right now. If you don't make it stop you are deliberately screwing them and they'll sue, by God.

Doctors have a similar problem with patients trying to cure cancer or whatever by taking vitamins.

You can't talk to such people. All you can do is stand out of the way and let the fuckers hit the wall. Again and again and again. Until, at some point after they've hit the wall 500 times, they come to you and beg you to tell them why it hurts and how they can make it stop.

Even then, sometimes you have to make them -pay- before they listen. Charging huge, obscene money seems to command people's attention.

Anonymous said...

Excellent Cappy.

We up here in Canada are as involved with the USA as any America. 80% of our trade and economy is tied to the USA. We should be allowed to vote in your elections, but then that would only give Obama more votes. We are already the socialist paradise you are heading for and it's ugly.

Mambo Bananapatch said...

Fine post, my friend, really great post, but..."alikening?"

Anonymous said...

I hit the lottery and then my ARM adjusted....bummer dude!

Anonymous said...

You say the Democrats are not really to blame but then you provide a video that shows that had it not been for Democrats, the practise of lending money to Americans who can not afford to pay a mortgage would have been stopped years ago.

It is as if Democrats had installed champagne fountains in front of every building where alcoholic anonymous have meetings and then you'd blame alcoholic anonymous members for getting drunk on the free champagne that Democrats are providing and are swearing is not turning anyone into alcoholics.

The Democrats were like drug pushers and they knew they were pushing drugs to people who have a weakness ( people with bad credit history have a weakness just as alcoholics or drug addicts have )

Without the Democrats pushing their drug, there would not be so many drug addicts, and there would be no crisis.

Yes the Americans who could not afford mortgages are to blame as well but the Democrats are to blame more than anyone else for this mess.

I'll go futher and say that this crisis was in fact planned by some on the left( while some democrats were simply usefull idiots ).

It would be too long to go into details but if you know about the Cloward Piven strategy, then you know what I mean.

For example take universal health care; the more liberals make the economy weak... the more they create people who can not afford health care... and then the more they can justify imposing universal health care on the people...

And then the more people benefit from free health care
that Democrats provide them with...
the more you turn people into Democrat voters.

Circle complete.

Democrats stay in power for a long time, they create more people who depend on governement, they get to make governement bigger, and get to push the USA more into socialism...

I'm no expert, but I'm certainly not ignorant.

Read about Cloward Piven, read about where Obama has spent his younger years, read aout Bill Ayers, read about ACORN, and so on and so forth, and you will see all the dots connect.

Not only are Democrats the one most to blame for this crisis but they most likely wanted it to happen.

Just look at what Democrats have put in the so-called stimulus package and tell me they are not using this crisis to their advantage.

It was planned. the crisis was planned by the left I am 99% sure of that.

Anonymous said...

The thing is that liberals are short-sighted. Some thing happens, it must be because something happend right before it. It doesn't take years for something to happen, it's happens right away.

Say someone has a heart attack after drinking water. Why, that must mean that water cause heart attacks! Forget the lack of exercise and the unhealthy diet! EVERYONE MUST STOP DRINKING WATER OR THEY'LL GET HEART ATTACKS. Blah.




Why are logic classes only found in universities? They belong in high school, because logic goes a long ways...

Anonymous said...

Captain

My old chemistry prof used to greet each class of newbies with these words: "You're either ignorant or stupid. Ignorance we can change. Stupidity we can never change."

Anonymous said...

I can't see any way to remedy this except a long slow campaign of child indoctrination.