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.

Comments

[Superfelo]

Idiocracy......Is not that the idea to educate us poorly, to stop us from reasoning clearly,
to frighten us into not thinking? Or as Ralph Waldo Emerson says in "Self-Reliance":Paraphrasis:
"Men and women are timid and apologetic; they are no longer upright; they dare not say
"I think" " I am" but quote some saint or sage.
Society is everywhere a conspiracy against the
manhood and womanhood of every one of its members. Whoso would be a man or a woman must be a nonconformist. Nothing is sacred but the integrity of your own mind."
We all need to go back and read "Self-Reliance"
by Emerson; and the words of Walt Whitman as a reminder of what we may lose for living like sheeps:
Walt Whitman has become more relevant than ever

because our leaders leave a lot to be desired.

They have a right name for the political organizations that are in the running as political institutions: "Parties"-that is the correct name they are having a party on us.

Look who is running the country; look who the Speaker of the House is; and then look at the rest: gutless, inmoral, spineless, no character weasels. I am very offended and they are worrying about offending their supporters? No wonder we are in the mess we are in. Here is what Walt Whitman said; in light of the leaders we have and we have become like sheep:

To the States:



"To the states or anyone of them, or any city of the States. Resist much, obey little,

Once unquestioning obedience, once fully enslaved, Once fully enslaved, no nation,

state, city of this earth, ever afterward

resumes its liberty."



Resist much;obey little.



Pass It On!

[transendentilist]

Wow, Superfelo, it seems you are a fellow Emerson fan. I have been reading Emerson for the last 15 or 16 years now. What a brilliant mind, and so far reaching.
For anybody that is wondering where christianity went wrong in America, Emerson's address to the graduating class at Harvard Divinity School is a must read.

"Whoso would be a man, must also be a nonconformist." Ralph Waldo Emerson

[mr. d.]

Dumbing down of America. The Republicans wait breathlessly for the coming of Fred Thompson, elect Jesse "the body" Ventura, Jim Bunning, Arnold Schwartzenwhatever and worship at the altar of Ronnie (tear down that wall) Reagan. Perhaps it was best said by one of the NASCAR drivers, I can't remember his name, when asked why he would vote for W in 2004. I'm not an issues man. George Bush looks you in the eye when he talks and has a solid handshake. He's my man.

[Qbear]

Dumbing down of America...one Tucker at a time

[LostInTheStars]

This lawsuit is not a liberal/conservative issue. From what I have read here, I think the jury was wrong. I am a liberal Democrat and a harsh critic of the way big corporations put profit over human kindness and compassion. I have always been a champion of the little guy, and I always will be. Nevertheless, I once served on a jury where the little guy, who had become permanently disabled, was suing a large corporation. I voted in favor of the big corporation, because I could see no way that the injury was their fault.

[erikr17]

To be fair(let me caveat this by saying I agree with 99.9% of what Bill says), this isn't really what the Kentucky case was about and articles such as this give undo power to the freako right.

How? Well, many states have created an atmosphere in which juries refuse to award money.

I, for instance, am stuck temporarily in Alabama. I also have a kidney transplant. A few months back, during a ROUTINE hernia operation, my kidney was killed. In any blue state, that hospital/surgery staff would have KNOWN that a kidney recipient needs to have certain "numbers" more closely monitored during an operation. Not hard. Not work intensive.

Thankfully - after a week - my kidney function returned to normal. This was far from a guarantee.

The mistake was made due to the hospital's ignorance of transplant procedures; they failed to look up whether I required special treatment, medicine, etc...

In the future, someone is going to lose their kidney because they don't care enough to pick up a book!

Unfortunately, the criminal code offers no remedy. The ONLY remedy is a suit.

My brother, a doctor in NYC (I actually have his kidney right now), urged me to sue to force the hospital to change. HOWEVER, no lawyer would take the case; because I couldn't "limp" into a court room no jury would award me a penny.

This hospital is going to keep getting away with this until someone is killed or maimed.

The McDonald's case was never about the woman's violation per se, it was about McDonald's unwillingness to simply post a memo, make a phone call, whatever, to inform employees of the scam, where they knew it would happen again, that its employees were targeted, etc...

I agree that these women were morons! Still, the facts of this case are SLIGHTLY more complex than mentioned above AND the suit was more about McDonald's arrogance than anything else.

In short, I simply think that, until corporations aren't "people", there is NO way to force them to behave in a decent manner outside of a suit.

[lippp]

Sorry, your defense of plaintiff is weak. McDonalds, as I understand, never condoned or encouraged such behavior. And I'm sorry, what person would believe a police officer, over the phone no less, would order what was described above. The people involved were responsible, not McConalds.

[Trittydi]

"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."

This is EXACTLY what is wrong with America.
*

[abmabardy]

I give you that most Americans are undereducated, uninformed, apathetic, American-Idol-driven, and stupid.

So what's the solution? Educate them? Get them to read books? Reason with them? Please, spare me.

The solution is to establish (i.e. fund) a 24/7 TV station to counter-brainwash them, to distract them, and to periodically get them to vote for people who support progressive values even if they don't have a clue what that means.

Pretty much what the neocons have been doing very effectively for twenty years, except that the values would change from greed, intolerance, dishonesty, and meeting the needs of the upper 1% only, to fairness, tolerance, honesty, and meeting the needs of the middle class.

And yes, the ends do justify the means.

[dogman44]

Revolution is not a dirty word. Yet I never see
it uttered on these blogs. One more war, class
war!

[splashy]

Yes, the authoritarians have too much power in the US because of the rightists who have taken over much of our media and corporations.

We need more liberal voices, that question things that the "authorities" say.

[abmabardy]

There is plenty of progressive money out there, yet we still have no progressive TV network. Why not?

Like it or not, TV is how the masses are informed (and controlled).

[Dianora]

I agree with you in principle; on the other hand, McDonald's is the entity with the deep pockets, here. I'm not going to blame an 18 year old girl for being psychologically intimidated and brutalized by her older superior. And it's not like she was going to be able to extract any monetary compensation from an assistant manager at a McDonald's.

[pfc1]

There are two types of ignorance:
Those that don't know about something
Those that don't want to know about something.

[Trittydi]

These are "ignorance" and "willful ignorance"
*

[SILVANUS]

Too many Americans are
LAZY
FAT
INTOLERANT
ANTI INTELLECTUAL
XENOPHOBIC
VIDEO-FRIED
ENTERTAINMENT JUNKIES
AVERSE OR INCAPABLE OF CRITICAL THINKING

Thank bullshit like Big Dog Daddy and the beer-swilling hellyeah crowd and the crack thug aesthethic killing us on both sides. Thank thugs like Rat Robertson.

I figured out 25 years ago that TV is hypnosis and lies, and never owned one. I left Hollywood when I realized that Cornell-Vassar beancounters controlling the industry were just coke snorting pig narcissists who could give a shit about "cinema". You still live in that craphole - you know the drill.

America will figure it out when it's painful enough, Bill -- of course, they will burn some "witches" first, or will try.

Entertainment=Entrainment=Fascism.

[qofdisks]

FAT is unrelated to willful ignorance or occupation with inconsequential s. It is health condition unrelated to intelligence, compassion and even wisdom. Being fat says nothing of a person's loyalty lovingness and nurturing.
You are the one that displays your ignorance by inserting Fat in that list.

[splashy]

Very true.

[TimtheDemocrat]

Genius

[ohmetoo]

A Reuters article of interest!

Rice pledges support to Russian activists

Sorry not ment to hijack this thread, I just wanted to share this and ask where Huffpo will be sharing this article.

[rras]

Bill, my good man you forgot one important fact. This wasn't the first time this happened, in fact it's been going on for over three years all over the country.
Don't you ask yourself if the corporation could have prevented this from happening.

[Doug]

Yes, and the answer is no. No, they couldn't prevent this from happening. Because if this moron got the call at home, she would have done the same thing....because she is an idiot.

[Trittydi]

Yes - she's completely an idiot. And McDonald's hired her anyway and put her in charge. I run into remarkably stupid people every day. Corporations DO hire them.

Where are they coming from? In part - from our educational system. Repiglican Dumbing Down America has been successful.

Corporate America allows government to get away with this - they can and should demand more from our government in STATE run schools. This privatization of the schools is crap.

You'll always have idiots. But better schools and less television would be a good start to changing that.
*

[JackG]

The spillover from right-wing radio that totally dominates the airwaves has greatly aided the dumbing down of America. How many dittoheads in conversations with normal people repeat Rush's bullshit as facts ? Then the normal people (who don't have the time to research the truth) in future conversations repeat this bullshit as factual information.
Rush's latest is that the godless liberals have turned "global warming" into their religion.
I think that Rush has reached the point where he is throwing such outrageous nonsense at his audience to see if they can possibly be as gullible as they keep proving to be.

[Doug]

The same could be said about all media outlets.

[MaryMullins]

Many of us have been saying that for over 15 years.

We also predicted that is Bush was President a war would soon follow. WE predicted many things but people called us 'liberals' or commies or some bullshit.

They are clueless because most of these idiots have never been outside of their county much less COUNTRY. And then they spew things they know nothing about except whats pumped into their empty heads by the CIA controlled US media.

[Doug]

Wow. I cannot agree more.

[REDMILWAUKEE]

if only we taught our children to be critical thinkers like we teach them to be religious. i'm not unfairly picking on god, but, in this country, our addiction to religion has created a culture where we value rejecting reason, logic and science, and rather embrace faith, ignorance, and authority, and as a result, scary and disgusting things happen. um, maybe satan is to blame?

[hawkseye]

Teachers DO try to teach critical thinking, but most average students are not up to the abstract thinking required for it until they are about juniors in high school. At that point, many avoid taking such classes.
Keep in mind, most students do not read above 6th to 8th grade levels because their abilities are limited.
Just because a person is not mentally retarded doesn't mean he/she is up to analysis of complex issues. About ten percent of the population is able to function as we wish all citizens would. The rest respond to cynical manipulation of symbols---as commercial TV has taught them to do. Only when they perceive they have been hurt, do they change course.

[tomsfork]

No money in teaching others to think, lots of money in religion. So long as the pursuit of money, rather than the pursuit of happiness, dominates our society, things will never change.

[richardsoares]

You point out a problem using 'idiot' examples, but as usual, Mr. Maher, you don't go far enough in defining it or you fail (as usual) to point toward a solution.
Yes, Ms. Spears is an example of a young entertainer, busy making the money, and not wanting to wade into politics-she gains nothing by taking a position. Your use of her as an example is timely and mean...though her comment is well used to illustrate
the need for 'thinking' Americans.

I assert that there are many thinking and feeling Americans in this country.
Leadership is needed to take this government back, give it a hell of a remodeling, make it a By the People, For the People proposition as it was intended. Not a welfare state, something with vision...education? international example as a model nation? Changing the face of transportation? Intellectual debates and real provocative ideas from the leaders and educators of this country.

How do we start a new direction? We must starve the bureaucracy of the Federal Corporation of America. Economic resistance, just like Ghandi did it.

As to the McDonald's boondoggle. You completely missed the point. The verdict is a signal to giant corporations who have a history of avoiding even obvious liability, that citizens are fed the fuck up....Corporations don't get to hide behind OJ anymore. It's scalpin season and the people of juries everywhere are going to fuck every corporation they can. It's the fuckin they get for the fuckin they got!
[please excuse the French]

[avergejoe]

Your on to something richard.
And bill's own industry has most to do with the dumbing down and emoting up of America.
Methinks he should point the finger to himself, as shown with his recent 'emotional' response to criticism of isreal, and to his associates; as anyone who has seen a tv show can attest.
Very few encourage thought of ANY kind, let alone critical, in between the incessant sermons by corporations in the form of commercial.

To paraphase the words of Iraq Study Group (remember them?) -
"Good decisions (policy) are (is) difficult to make when information is systematically presented (collected) in a way that minimizes its discrepancy with media (policy) goals..."

[richardsoares]

"The Show must go on!' has taken on a new and ominous meaning. we're all part of the stage and the audience at the same time and it seems to be unstoppable....fawning and maudlin now....we linger in the death of ourselves....unable to do more than change the channel or camera view....lost to ourselves in many ways. How can we die? 'The Show will always go on.'

Still, there are those holding to edges of truth and they are moving out of the American 'Cinehorror' mockery of truth. Quietly slipping away.

[provgrays]

Bill,

There's ignorance and there's willful ignorance. Too many Americans are willfully ignorant and free people cannot remain free with that particular trait.