Idiocracy
Have too many Americans become gullible, ill-informed idiots who have elevated feelings over facts and replaced critical thinking with a blind sense of trust for authority? I'm not trying to be insulting here; I'm just trying to figure out Rudy Giuliani's poll numbers.
Four years ago Tucker Carlson asked Britney Spears on CNN, "A lot of entertainers have come out against the war in Iraq. Have you?" And Britney, who was chewing gum throughout the entire interview, answered, "Honestly, I think we should just trust our president in every decision he makes and should just support that, you know, and be faithful in what happens."
It's this kind of head-in-the-sand, free rein granted to those believed to be in a position of moral authority that has led to warrantless wiretapping, torture, and a $6.1 million judgment for a Kentucky McDonald's employee named Louise Ogborn. In 2004, Louise was 18 and working at McDonald's when her assistant manager Donna called her into the back office, said a police officer on the phone had identified her as a thief, and then forced Louise, under the "cop's" orders, to strip naked, do nude jumping jacks, submit to a spanking and finally perform oral sex on Donna's 43-year-old exterminator fiancé. The whole ordeal, ordered by a prankster over the phone, lasted three hours. But you know what they say about fast-food work -- the time flies when you're busy.
A Kentucky jury listened to testimony, watched a videotape of the entire incident and awarded Louise $6.1 million dollars from the obviously culpable party in this matter -- the McDonald's Corporation. That's right, two adults pressure a third adult into stripping, a spanking and a blowjob based on the word of a stranger on the phone and the fault lies not with the gullible idiots who blindly obeyed some perceived voice of authority, but with the company that happens to have its name on the sign out front. McDonald's has a written policy in their training manual against any type of strip searches and even sent out a voicemail warning franchises about such phone hoaxes but the jury found that the company was liable because, after all, the perv on the phone did say he was a cop and what choice did Donna the assistant manager have but to, as Britney says, "just support that, you know, and be faithful in what happens"?
Bill Maher is the host of HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher" which airs every Friday at 11PM.
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I have been asking myself this same question for almost 8 years, as to how this country could have been so gullible as to elect this idiot. I look so forward to Friday nights and Real Time with BM.
I have to ask one question, though. I believe the girl in question (Louise) was only 16 at the time of this horrific ordeal. As someone who has worked with school children this age, I can see how the girl actually could have been that scared, immature and sexually inexperienced. I agree with you that McDonalds should NOT have been the party deemed responsible, though. I simply don't believe that the manager on duty or any of the people involved were that STUPID.
However, I have questioned for years if people read a newspaper anymore or listen to the news or research things on the internet, even.
Anyone with even a below average IQ could have figured out that George Bush had failed at every venture in his life and was not qualified to be president. I could go on and on.
Keep on making us question, Bill.
Yes, but Bush is anti-abortion, anti-stem cell research, doesn't trust science and tries to manipulate its findings and he has allowed our treasury to be raided to the tune of billions with his "faith based" initiatives, but the problem is he suffered brain damage when he was "born again".
That's enough for his base.
This issue goes much deeper. The girl in question, or any victim, would not have been able to get any lawyer without the *deep pocket* of - in this case - McDonald. No attorney would have taken her case, for the simple reason no money would be made, if there were NOT a *deep pocket*. The problem is the inability to get justice in the U.S., or to even get your case heard, unless you do the case yourself, without *adequate money* for the trial lawyer and then it depends on the judge whether or not he will let you bring your case. Anyone can go to the courthouse and file. In fact, anyone can also pass the bar exam without going to lawschool - of course, you DO have to know your stuff. As with insurance, healthcare or otherwise, the issue is always MONEY, and not what we think it is. Once money is made, on any type of case, won in court, we have *precedent*, and that is business. A paycheck to be had. How much of the award went to the victim and how much went to the trial lawyer? *Precedent* has an elasticity quality built-in. One precedent can easily be stretched and spun out to make a qualification for another case. I think Bill Maher is not having his thinking cap on if he thinks that this was an emotional issue. Of course, it was, and is, an emotional issue for the victim. It was all business for the trial lawyer, and a good business indeed, and for McDonald (preservation of goodwill, which is a business asset). No amount of emotion, empathy, or anything else, would have given a similar victim a chance to get her case in court. The motivation to bring a case to court is not emotion. In addition to money it may be a political motivation. Americans did not just recently become idiots, functioning in an idiocracy, they are not idiots, they can do nothing about this machine. The judicial system stinks and is dysfunctional, just like politics.
"Have too many Americans become gullible, ill-informed idiots who have elevated feelings over facts and replaced critical thinking with a blind sense of trust for authority?"
Yes.
The examples are endless.
Humans are stupid, greedy and dangerous.
Absolutely, and those in power wield that tool quite effectively, how else do you control a country of sheep, their collective "baaaaaa" ringing across the land. As a subject in a recent documentary said essentially a thinking population is a potentially dangerous one, and difficult to control. We surely can't have such a controversial concept at work in the greatest show on Earth land of the free and home of the brave; things could get out hand in a country where the government feared the people as opposed to the other way around.
An apt analogy. In BU$HCO's case, what would be an appropriate punishment for raping a civilization?
Bill, you elitist, I know what you're thinking. You're looking at America's international educational ranking, which is falling like an elevator with a broken cable. Then at the obesity epidemic, which makes Americans immediately recognizable in any foreign airport. And then at our astonishing religiosity, which predisposes people to accept fairy tales uncritically as revealed truth. And you're going, we're a nation of idiots. Not so fast. Those McDonald's "managers" were operating, I bet the jury found, within the course and scope of their employment. Where else did their authority to order another employee to strip and submit come from? And if McDonald's is so negligent in hiring that they put people on the payroll who unquestioningly follow the detailed instructions of a stranger on the phone, when those instructions sure don't sound like standard police work (where were the Miranda rights, huh?) then doesn't McD deserve just what it got?
It was only one manager and it was a woman. She called her boyfriend to the restaurant and he assaulted the girl. The most outrageous thing about the jury award is tha they awarded the manager over $1 million!
No- there was a 51 year old manager and a 40 year old assistant manager who were both present during this idiocy.
Prediction: By the time the right wing is finished spinning this story on Fox News and other such media, Ms. Ogborn's lawsuit will be portrayed as the ultimate in frivolous litigation. They're that good at twisting the facts.
This idea was the subject of an underrated Mike Judge film from 2006 called Idiocracy. http://www
I believe its where we're headed.
Good point there Bill. Americans have become nothing more then sheep. Someone in "authority" says do something, and you better do it. Look at the reaction of the kid being tasered in Florida. The guy was on the ground with 4 officers on top of him and they tasered him. Yet the authoritians among us said he got what he deserved, because he didn't follow police instructions.
I am a huge fan of yours Bill but I have more faith "in my people". They do catch on ... eventually. Seems like yesterday when Bush had an approval rating of 72-73%! In November 2006 NOT ONE sitting Democrat lost his/her seat in the house, which is beyond amazing!
Moderate Republicans have woken up to the fact that their party has been hijacked by neocons and religious zealots! There is a reason why there isn't a clear front-runner amongst the Repugnants! Those who still believe in Bush are the same percentage who believe that Jesus is coming back this year and there shall be "rapture"! The Fascist Noise Channel has its ratings tumbling. The desperation is showing amongst the right wing propagandists who are now attacking 12 year olds and our soldiers!
As for Guiliani, the rumblings of truth against him have begun in New York. Just wait till the primaries are literally on the horizon and all the dirt on him will start manifesting itself in attack ads ...
Have faith Bill, have faith ...
To answer your question on gullible Americans willing to trust feelings over critical judgment-why, yes, they have and they do!
I, for the first time in my life, have begun to worry about being one American who doesn't trust the feelings of fear the government has worked so hard to instill and follow blindly-I worry about being "disappeared". it's just a matter of time...
Perhaps an Afterworld moment will come along and solve everything.
Bill Maher... defending McDonald's
Dear Bill,
Bush and Rush say I shouldn't listen to the Liberals out there. They tell me that people like you speek too freely and should be zoned. Are they correct?
Your not suppose to question that, better report to your nearest reprogramming center.
Dear Max you must be a phony ditto head. A real ditto head would never ask a Liberal -- you should know the truth already
I would trust rather authority than western media, who is a bunch of pathological, ignorant, poor/no educated liars.
If I were you, I wouldn't trust anyone.
Brings new meaning to the expression "phoning it in".
Of course your question is rhetorical. And of course the answer is yes. Even after the Bush administration lies lead us into the Iraq debacle, fools still listen to him and repeat his nonsensical and dishonest bullshit. Ditto for Limbaugh and his ilk.
I'm just glad that Tucker took her advise.
Yes.
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