So, the commentary I'm about to make is a little unfair, because its about one crazy person who made a crazy comment, creating a gorgeous little straw man for me to scream at. But I can do whatever I want, because I'm blogging, and bloggers are assholes who say whatever they want. Mostly because the internet is so saturated with their asinine commentary that no one gives a shit.
Holding bloggers up to any kind of standard is like screaming in a four year old's face that Santa isn't real: all that will happen is that they'll cry and get all upset because you've shattered their world. Then they'll find someone who will convince them Santa is real after all, and your energy is wasted. It's not worth the tears. Unless I do it, cause then I get to have fun.
However, being the nerd I am, I'd like to stay as factual as possible. So if any of the two or three people actually reading this catch some glaring factual error, please, let me know.
So here's the topic. The following is from an episode of This American Life, a fantastic radio show run out of the Chicago NPR affiliate. This particular episode is about Obama, and how people think he's going to do as President (you can listen to it for free on the website). Believe it or not, this exchange is between two people who work in finance. As the subtle name changes of one of the characters indicates, he seems to lose his mind in about 30 seconds.
Fairly Rational: We're going to have government owning a substantial portion of major industries? Is that an outcome of this?
Other guy: What's gonna happen in its place is gonna go back to more of the way I would imagine the WWII generation lived - living within your means, being able to put 30-40% down on a house, buying a home only when you can afford a home
A little off base: That's in and of itself a scary thought, because that whole generation was one week away from being out on the street - there was no safety net, there was no savings, uh, are we going back to that?
Other guy: But is it a safe method also where middle america is living on their credit cards and their home equity? And so, I think that everyone will be reconditioned form the highest earners to the lowest earners to be able to live within their means.
Batshit Crazy: It's a scary thought that the government is going to try to condition us. That in and of itself is socialistic Orwellian type of of speak, that's scaring me now. I'm scared that they're gonna condition me to wanna drive a hybrid, they're gonna condition me to use organic toilet paper.
Let me start by saying that I named "Other guy" as I did, because his commentary is unremarkable. It makes sense, and so there's really nothing to say about it other than it provides a great contrast to Batshit Crazy.
Starting with our friend while he's still Fairly Rational, what is he even talking about? Given that the question was about the feelings of an Obama presidency, he seems to be indicating that it was Obama's idea to collapse the economy by instituting rampant deregulation, and then rescue it all in a diabolical plan to have the government overtake private idustry (the Porn idustry wants in too, by the way). I think it's fair to say that throwing money at various failing American industries was not in the orignal fine print of "Yes we can." This is a legacy of the outgoing administration - and an unfortunate one at that.
I defy anyone to find one person that is PUMPED about the heaps of money we're throwing at private industries, whether they support the various bailouts or not. However, I also defy anyone to come up with another viable solution that doesn't involve a) China owning more of us than they already do, or b) Even more job loss than the country (and the world) is already experiencing. Granted, I'm not a whiz with economics, but remember: I'm blogging, so I can say whatever the fuck I want.
Next, he starts to wander a little off base. There's not much to say about this, other than that our friend is confused. When other guy refers to the WWII generation, I think of the post WWII era (perhaps wrongly), when I don't really think people were a week away from being on the street. I think he means the depression? I don't know. He's losing me. Also, I'd rather people be a week away from being on the street, than have actually lost their house and be on the street, which is more the tone of the current crisis.
Now we're at my favourite* part. First of all, he's not even paying attention to what our innocuous other guy is saying. He's never said the government is going to condition anything, he's implying that a shitty economy, combined with the lasting scare of a bad recession, is going to force people to live within their means. Batshit Crazy seems to think the government is setting up some kind of Pavlovian lab where they give you coke while you're driving a hybrid, so that you become addicted to hybrids. I'm not a doctor§, but this is dumb.
Second of all, what kind of narcissistic asshole are you that you think the government gives a shit what you wipe your ass with? No one cares about your toilet paper. Where did you even come up with that example? Wipe your ass with a radioactive hamster for all I (or the government) care (PETA migh have some kind of objection). The fact that this guy actually thinks there might be a House Committee on Citizen Asswiping should be a clinical symptom of paranoid schizophrenia.
Lastly, why do these evil things he seems to think the government are behind happen to be environmentally friendly (watch this and you'll see it's quite the opposite)? What kind of asshole thinks to himself, "Well, if this isn't polluting something, somewhere, somehow, it's probably Orwellian Socialism." You can be a money-grubbing, small government, environmentally friendly idiot. In fact, if you were smart, there's a lot of money to be made on things like hybrid cars and organic toilet paper.
In closing, although this guy is clearly exceptionally dumb, there is something about him that represents a whole slew of dumb, spoon-fed, "small government" Republicans**. What they seem to ignore is that government has grown under Bush; and where it hasn't, particularly in terms of financial regulation, it has fucked us big time and forced us into expanding government further. Many of them also feel ok with assuming that Obama has planned the financial crisis all along, and they seem to have found enough information to convince them that things like organic toilet paper are the first signs of a government conspiracy.
Anything to stop them crying in their Mommy's skirts, and get them back to thinking Santa is real.
*Yes, I spell British, but I am American. I have my reasons. Get used to it.
§ Yet.
** There are also Republicans without these admirable qualities; our innocuous Other Guy was also a Republican who didn't particularly support Obama, for example.
Holding bloggers up to any kind of standard is like screaming in a four year old's face that Santa isn't real: all that will happen is that they'll cry and get all upset because you've shattered their world. Then they'll find someone who will convince them Santa is real after all, and your energy is wasted. It's not worth the tears. Unless I do it, cause then I get to have fun.
However, being the nerd I am, I'd like to stay as factual as possible. So if any of the two or three people actually reading this catch some glaring factual error, please, let me know.
So here's the topic. The following is from an episode of This American Life, a fantastic radio show run out of the Chicago NPR affiliate. This particular episode is about Obama, and how people think he's going to do as President (you can listen to it for free on the website). Believe it or not, this exchange is between two people who work in finance. As the subtle name changes of one of the characters indicates, he seems to lose his mind in about 30 seconds.
Fairly Rational: We're going to have government owning a substantial portion of major industries? Is that an outcome of this?
Other guy: What's gonna happen in its place is gonna go back to more of the way I would imagine the WWII generation lived - living within your means, being able to put 30-40% down on a house, buying a home only when you can afford a home
A little off base: That's in and of itself a scary thought, because that whole generation was one week away from being out on the street - there was no safety net, there was no savings, uh, are we going back to that?
Other guy: But is it a safe method also where middle america is living on their credit cards and their home equity? And so, I think that everyone will be reconditioned form the highest earners to the lowest earners to be able to live within their means.
Batshit Crazy: It's a scary thought that the government is going to try to condition us. That in and of itself is socialistic Orwellian type of of speak, that's scaring me now. I'm scared that they're gonna condition me to wanna drive a hybrid, they're gonna condition me to use organic toilet paper.
Let me start by saying that I named "Other guy" as I did, because his commentary is unremarkable. It makes sense, and so there's really nothing to say about it other than it provides a great contrast to Batshit Crazy.
Starting with our friend while he's still Fairly Rational, what is he even talking about? Given that the question was about the feelings of an Obama presidency, he seems to be indicating that it was Obama's idea to collapse the economy by instituting rampant deregulation, and then rescue it all in a diabolical plan to have the government overtake private idustry (the Porn idustry wants in too, by the way). I think it's fair to say that throwing money at various failing American industries was not in the orignal fine print of "Yes we can." This is a legacy of the outgoing administration - and an unfortunate one at that.
I defy anyone to find one person that is PUMPED about the heaps of money we're throwing at private industries, whether they support the various bailouts or not. However, I also defy anyone to come up with another viable solution that doesn't involve a) China owning more of us than they already do, or b) Even more job loss than the country (and the world) is already experiencing. Granted, I'm not a whiz with economics, but remember: I'm blogging, so I can say whatever the fuck I want.
Next, he starts to wander a little off base. There's not much to say about this, other than that our friend is confused. When other guy refers to the WWII generation, I think of the post WWII era (perhaps wrongly), when I don't really think people were a week away from being on the street. I think he means the depression? I don't know. He's losing me. Also, I'd rather people be a week away from being on the street, than have actually lost their house and be on the street, which is more the tone of the current crisis.
Now we're at my favourite* part. First of all, he's not even paying attention to what our innocuous other guy is saying. He's never said the government is going to condition anything, he's implying that a shitty economy, combined with the lasting scare of a bad recession, is going to force people to live within their means. Batshit Crazy seems to think the government is setting up some kind of Pavlovian lab where they give you coke while you're driving a hybrid, so that you become addicted to hybrids. I'm not a doctor§, but this is dumb.
Second of all, what kind of narcissistic asshole are you that you think the government gives a shit what you wipe your ass with? No one cares about your toilet paper. Where did you even come up with that example? Wipe your ass with a radioactive hamster for all I (or the government) care (PETA migh have some kind of objection). The fact that this guy actually thinks there might be a House Committee on Citizen Asswiping should be a clinical symptom of paranoid schizophrenia.
Lastly, why do these evil things he seems to think the government are behind happen to be environmentally friendly (watch this and you'll see it's quite the opposite)? What kind of asshole thinks to himself, "Well, if this isn't polluting something, somewhere, somehow, it's probably Orwellian Socialism." You can be a money-grubbing, small government, environmentally friendly idiot. In fact, if you were smart, there's a lot of money to be made on things like hybrid cars and organic toilet paper.
In closing, although this guy is clearly exceptionally dumb, there is something about him that represents a whole slew of dumb, spoon-fed, "small government" Republicans**. What they seem to ignore is that government has grown under Bush; and where it hasn't, particularly in terms of financial regulation, it has fucked us big time and forced us into expanding government further. Many of them also feel ok with assuming that Obama has planned the financial crisis all along, and they seem to have found enough information to convince them that things like organic toilet paper are the first signs of a government conspiracy.
Anything to stop them crying in their Mommy's skirts, and get them back to thinking Santa is real.
*Yes, I spell British, but I am American. I have my reasons. Get used to it.
§ Yet.
** There are also Republicans without these admirable qualities; our innocuous Other Guy was also a Republican who didn't particularly support Obama, for example.
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