Re: "The Assault on Reason"


"Susan" <se.hough@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1187642348.848716.77730@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On Aug 20, 8:26 am, "bobby fishhead" <bo...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"Susan" <se.ho...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

news:1187622452.232449.301540@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

it's the economy, stupid. Which is to say, the disappearance of the
good life, upward mobility, etc, for the American middle class, not to
mention the working poor, which leaves people threatened and worried
and eager for scapegoats and easy answers.

ROCHESTER, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Overall, Americans are definitely
satisfied with the life they lead. Almost all (94%) say they are
satisfied,
with over half of U.S. adults (56%) saying they are very satisfied with
the
life they lead and 38 percent somewhat satisfied. Just six percent are
not
satisfied with the life they lead. This level of satisfaction is up
slightly
from earlier this decade: in 2005, nine out of ten were satisfied and

Don't let facts get in the way of your supposition though.

There are facts, and then there are surveys.

If you had polled people in post-WWI Germany, do you suppose they
would have told you that they were happily buying into an
extermination campaign because their livelihood (and pride) was under
siege?

Wow, that's the worst and most awfulest analogy ever, and for so many
reasons. Still I'll play along, as I have a soft spot for the incredibly
fucking stupid. So:

In the first place, if I asked people in post WWI Germany whether they were
happy they would have just looked at me quizzically, because I don't speak
German. Oh sure, the odd phrase from Maxmillian Schell movies -- mach
schnell and schweinkopf and ich bin hier und du bist mein sofa -- and the
smattering I picked up when I lived in Switzerland (Wieviel kostet ein
Kantejob in den Vereinigte Staaten Dollar? How much is a rim job in US
dollars?) but nothing on the order of polling indigenous speakers regarding
whether they though baking Jews like pop tarts was a good idea because of
their wounded pride. So right there we're off on the wrong foot.

Second, even if we could overcome these podiatrical difficulties, whether or
not people in Germany were happy during the Weimar -- and the evidence is
contradictory; on the one hand, the years immediately following the war saw
the introduction of innumerable social changes, including wide reaching
labor reform and the institution national health insurance, while on the
other the country'd just lost a devastating war to the French no less and
were about to suffer though the untold horrors of dramas by Bertolt
Brecht -- has nothing to do with whether the Harris poll I cited has a 100
percent margin of error, as you seem to be claiming here.

Third, since you are so keen on facts, please produce one demonstrating that
the "good life" is "disappearing" for the US middle class, the richest
middle class in the history of the fucking universe. Also, produce a fact
demonstrating that these disappearing peoples are threatened and worried. I
don't truck with commoners much myself, but I often am forced to drive
through their neighborhoods on the way to the liquor store, and they all
seem pretty okay to me, what with their nice lawns and two SUVs in every
garage and their children and dogs and lovely bougainvillea gardens.
Evidence that they are threatened and worried is nearly invisible; that is,
there don't seem to be any bomb shelters in the backyards; there's a paucity
of armed mobs roaming the streets wielding pitch forks; few witches are
being burned at the stake; and so forth. Rather, the people I see seem quite
content, walking around Lowes shopping for shrubbery, queued up in line
awaiting the latest rib tickler from the comedic genius Adam Sandler,
ordering double quater pounders with cheese. Of course, I don't live
anywhere near they fever swamps, so perhaps your neighbors are behaving a
little differently.

And of course, my evidence is anecdotal; perhaps the rapidly dwindling
middle class are spending their last few meager dollars on draperies at Bed
Bath and Beyond in eager anticipation of the concentration camps Bush and
those suspiciously jewish sounding advisors of his are building in the
desert. No doubt you have at your fingertips "facts" to prove this
hypothesis. I look forward to reading them, as I am always happy to improve
myself, there being so much work yet to be accomplished.










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