I Hate Your Politics...

[Jessica Blue]

Or rather this guy does....

If you've got nothing better to do, have a look at one man's opinions on the Political Party. There's just a few truths in this scathing and very negative commentary on American politics but I'm not sure I feel quite as cynical about peoples motivations as this.

I did like the Libertarian criticism though...[laughs]


http://www.scalzi.com/w020322.htm

[Reager]

Ha...very good.

Mike

[peptoabysmal]

LOL,

Funny stuff :roll:

[shuize]

That's funny enough to bring me back from my self imposed exile.

[Samus]

This was by far the funniest line:

Conservatives: Under the impression they own the copyright on Jesus and get testy when other political factions point out that technically Christ is in the public domain. The rest is, well, it's mindless drivel if you ask me. I have little use for someone that just wishes to complain about political ideology, which has little to do with political party these days. He doesn't even bother to suggest anything better. While there were a couple lines that made me chuckle, I wouldn't call it an accurate assessment of politics today.

I do have a sense of humor, so don't go tagging me as a liberal (as they have no sense of humor, according to the article). I just think this is kinda dumb. :)

[BillyTK]

I loved the article so much I'm putting a quote from it in my sig. But it does say a lot for how narrow the US political spectrum is...

[Tricky]

Originally posted by Commander Cool
The rest is, well, it's mindless drivel if you ask me. I have little use for someone that just wishes to complain about political ideology, which has little to do with political party these days. He doesn't even bother to suggest anything better. While there were a couple lines that made me chuckle, I wouldn't call it an accurate assessment of politics today.
LOL, perhaps you didn't read his reply to the critics. (http://www.scalzi.com/w020325a.htm) Looks like he pegged you.

The second complaint I saw, primarily on the Plastic and MetaFilter boards, was that the rant didn't say anything constructive about politics; it was just a litany of complaints. The idea here being that if you're going to bitch about something, then you should offer an alternative. Otherwise, I guess, you're just part of the problem.

I think this is a pretty stupid argument, myself. Not every piece of writing needs to be fair and balanced and nice and constructive and useful. Having everything fair and balanced and nice and constructive and useful is boring. People who demand everything is fair and balanced and nice and constructive and useful are boring. I wrote a rant; the purpose of a rant is to spew angrily for several paragraphs. We could have a sit-in here discussing the value of catharsis as a literary device, but since the idea of doing so fills me with an almost crushing sense of ennui, let's not.

[Upchurch]

:D

[Samus]

Originally posted by Tricky
LOL, perhaps you didn't read his reply to the critics. (http://www.scalzi.com/w020325a.htm) Looks like he pegged you. Well, guess he told me. At least he acknowledged that he's not produced anything useful.

I have nothing wrong with rants like his, except that they're typically tied to apathy, which is what I have a problem with. Don't like the system? Good, change it, don't just sit on your hands and gripe.

But I digress...I can see it for what it is: just a rant.

[Tricky]

Originally posted by Commander Cool
Well, guess he told me. At least he acknowledged that he's not produced anything useful.

I have nothing wrong with rants like his, except that they're typically tied to apathy, which is what I have a problem with. Don't like the system? Good, change it, don't just sit on your hands and gripe.

But I digress...I can see it for what it is: just a rant.
Yes, possibly this should have been in the Humor forum, but it parodies political groups or at least camps of thought, so it would be most appreciated here. But if you are looking for suggestsions, heck, just take what he says about the ideologies and try to improve it.

Liberals: Stop being so whiny.
Conservatives: Stop being so selfish.
Libertarians: Stop being so weird.

Oh, and about the apathy? From the same page I linked before:
The final complaint I want to comment on is the one that suggests that by venting about political affiliations, I was promoting the cause of political apathy -- although in the Plastic thread, there were people who saw this as a positive and a negative, so I suppose that "complaint" might not be the most accurate word where.

Whatever it is, it's incorrect. I don't see how bitching about conservatives, liberals and libertarians equates with being politically apathetic. That's like saying just because I think your car is a flaming piece of crap, I can't have a set of wheels of my own. Anyone who crawls through this site will determine pretty quickly that I do have political beliefs, and since I make it a point to vote every chance I get, I feel perfectly justified in commenting on any damn thing I feel like, when it comes to politics.

[Mr Manifesto]

Liberals are fractious! Once again, Nie's theory that the liberals are piling up against him have been debunked.

Mind you, he's clearly biased against conservatives. He spends 339 words in his rant against them, but only 294 against the liberals.

[Mr Manifesto]

Of course, libertairiaiairanas get the biggest hammering: 358! Mein Gott, what did they ever do to him?

[Tricky]

Originally posted by Mr Manifesto
Mind you, he's clearly biased against conservatives. He spends 339 words in his rant against them, but only 294 against the liberals.
Originally posted by Mr Manifesto
Of course, libertairiaiairanas get the biggest hammering: 358! Mein Gott, what did they ever do to him?
Maybe he had to use smaller words for them so they would understand it?:D

[Mr Manifesto]

Libertarians blog with a frequency that makes one wonder if they're actually employed somewhere or if they have loved ones that miss them.

Now, who does this remind me of? (hey, I'm kidding, put the gun down...)

[Doubt]

Originally posted by Commander Cool
Well, guess he told me. At least he acknowledged that he's not produced anything useful.

I have nothing wrong with rants like his, except that they're typically tied to apathy, which is what I have a problem with. Don't like the system? Good, change it, don't just sit on your hands and gripe.

But I digress...I can see it for what it is: just a rant.

I saw three sacred cows slain. That is useful. The author pointed out that many people would not like what he said about their political ideology. Such an article can cause a person to think about their own bias towards a particular point of view.

But you are right. We should come up with an alternative ideology that address the weaknesses of the established ones. But of course that will just end up with a 4th ideology which is just as flawed as the existing ones.

[Tricky]

Originally posted by Mr Manifesto
Libertarians blog with a frequency that makes one wonder if they're actually employed somewhere or if they have loved ones that miss them.

Now, who does this remind me of? (hey, I'm kidding, put the gun down...)
What, you mean this?

[Malachi151]

I don't think that was very funny ;)

[KelvinG]

If someone is offended by that rant, then they are obviously clinging way to tightly to their political "ideology."

It's very funny to those who can step back and realize that pigeonholing yourself as a "liberal, conservative, or libertarian" likely means you are also deluding yourself.

There is no single "correct" ideology. You might sway in one direction, but I'm going to guess that everyone draws their views from many different angles.

So, if that article pissed you off, you probably deserved it!

[kourama]

He's got an archive there and mentions a topic near and dear to all of our hearts:

http://www.scalzi.com/w020218.htm

I thought his political stuff was funny, of course, I've never met a libertarian in real life, so that part isn't as funny. Although I did exchange semi-emotional words with Shanek on one occasion...what the heck was that about....I forget.

[Occasional Chemist]

Originally posted by kourama
He's got an archive there and mentions a topic near and dear to all of our hearts:

http://www.scalzi.com/w020218.htm


From that link:


"Intelligent Design" is Creationism without balls.


I think we can all, politics aside, agree on that one.

[kourama]

Originally posted by Occasional Chemist


From that link:



I think we can all, politics aside, agree on that one.

Yep. His style is a bit rough, but there's a bit of subtlety there. Balls are your vulnerability, right? If ID explicitly mentioned god(s), then it wouldn't stand a chance at infecting the curriculum.

Of course, I could be reading more into it than is actually there...

[Samus]

Originally posted by KelvinG
If someone is offended by that rant, then they are obviously clinging way to tightly to their political "ideology."
---
So, if that article pissed you off, you probably deserved it! I should clarify that I was in no way offended by the article. While I acknowledge the humor, I don't see it as being all that, um, relevant. Note that the one line I quoted from that article was from the "conservatives" section, which is what I would normally identify myself as.

Tricky, glad to know he's not apathetic towards politics, so it is just a playful rant. At least he's fair and balanced, he makes fun of everyone.

[Tricky]

Originally posted by Commander Cool
Tricky, glad to know he's not apathetic towards politics, so it is just a playful rant. At least he's fair and balanced, he makes fun of everyone.
And I normally identify myself as a liberal, but that is just for general classification. I'm conservative on a number of issues. However, I think most folks here realize that the boundary between a supporter and a fanatic is the ability to laugh at yourself. I thought the "liberal" section was hilarious.

[Thanz]

Re: The "Intelligent Design" rant.

I thought that this was a well written piece, until the last sentence that I feel strangely compelled to nitpick. I totally agree that Intelligent Design should not be taught in a science class, but I disagree that it should not be taught at all. It should be taught - in its proper place.

It is primarily a philisophical argument for the existence of God, and should be taught as such. It is an argument that I kinda like, even. As an arguement for the existence of God, it makes the assumption that the World exists and that it is very complex. It then uses the world to make an arguemtn for God. It says nothing about the world itself. As a "science" argument, it takes the assumption about the world, then assumes the existence of God to explain the assumption about the world. As such, it takes the argument one step too far.

But, I digress. It should be taught alongside other attempted "proofs" of the existence of God.

[gnome]

I am usually on the liberal side of things, and I thought what he said about them was (tragically) often true -- and I laughed my a$$ off...
:roll:

[Leroy]

That is a site worth saving! :D

[heath]

Originally posted by kourama
He's got an archive there and mentions a topic near and dear to all of our hearts:

http://www.scalzi.com/w020218.htm




"Intelligent Design" posits the existence of a designer but offers no proof that such a designer exists, except to say that life is obviously too complex not to have had a designer. This is exactly like going to a magic show and proclaiming that since you can't figure out how the magician pulls the rabbit out of the hat, it must therefore really be magic. It's not fact, it's merely intellectual laziness._


:D

Good site find. Straight into my bookmarks

[kourama]

Heath,

in your sig, that bit about hydrogen sounds like a mangled quote from Douglas Adams. Check "The Salmon of Doubt" which is a collection of stuff found on his harddrive after he died. It inlcudes a snippet from a speech he gave where he said something like:

"Hydrogen, given enough time, will begin to wonder where it came from"

[heath]

Originally posted by kourama
Heath,

in your sig, that bit about hydrogen sounds like a mangled quote from Douglas Adams. Check "The Salmon of Doubt" which is a collection of stuff found on his harddrive after he died. It inlcudes a snippet from a speech he gave where he said something like:

"Hydrogen, given enough time, will begin to wonder where it came from"

I'll check it out, thanks.

My first exposure to it was on a toilet wall in a university physics department. :D