Berkeley ‘instructor’: ‘Rural Americans’ are ‘bad people’

Discussion in 'Political Opinions & Beliefs' started by Space_Time, Nov 9, 2019.

  1. Belch

    Belch Well-Known Member

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    There's a lot more of that going on in the cities. Maybe that helps some, but it can also create sensory overload in others. I'm one of those who doesn't like the city because there are just too many people. I feel like the proverbial long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.

    Things tend to make more sense in the sticks. Leaves fall because the trees are getting ready for winter, the insect infestations change from spiders to lady bugs, tires are changed to snow tires, and I have to buy a cord of wood to make it through the winter.

    Leaves me more time to worry about stupid things like politicians.
     
  2. Giftedone

    Giftedone Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    No significant difference - rural kids are educated by the same dumb teachers as in cities - following the same mind altering curriculum. CNN, MSNBC and Fox do not put out special rural programming.

    In Rural Areas you have the same kind of group think that goes on in cities. What is nice about Rural is crime tends to be lower and people more friendly - This however does not make Rural folks more worldly - nor more informed.
     
  3. Belch

    Belch Well-Known Member

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    Certainly not more worldly, or more informed. I think both of those tend to hurt. I'm not a bloody Einstein, and even he couldn't figure out quantum mechanics. I like to think I'm smarter than your average bear, but I can barely figure out how to file my taxes.
     
  4. Pycckia

    Pycckia Well-Known Member

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    Much friendlier and more honest in my experience.
     
  5. Giftedone

    Giftedone Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Intelligence is not uniformly directed... Some are good at math and science, others are good with inventing stuff, others are gifted at language ( I have a science degree but am horrible at languages) some people have innate social skills - understand people these folks are able to rise politically - and often within large corporations (despite not being that capable). Some are good at art - the list goes on and on.

    Perhaps someone is out there that is intelligent at everything but I have not ever seen such a person.

    What I am referring to is not some great gift - of brilliance on behalf of average Joe - be he rural or city dweller. What I am referring to is basic knowledge that needed to be held by the majority in order to claim "functional democratic process"

    12 years of school and we manage not to teach the founding principles - what constitutes legitimate Gov't authority (and perhaps more importantly what is not legitimate Gov't authority) - essential liberty and how we come by this (hint - its not by the creator).

    Ask anyone - do you want totalitarianism or would you prefer limits to Gov't power - NO NO the people will yell - we don't want Totalitarianism. OK - good. Then ask "so what should Gov't authority/power be limited to" ? and what are the limits as per the Declaration of Independence -principles by which law and the Constitution is supposed to be interpreted. 95.6% of the time you will get a deer in headlights look.

    If someone does not know this - how will they know when Gov't is stepping across the line ? - and why through 12 years - does our school system not manage to teach this ? - it isn't "quantum physics".

    12 years of school and we fail to teach the basics of Philosophy - Logic, Logical Fallacy, what constitutes a valid argument, critical thinking.

    Without these basic tools - how is the average person supposed to wade through the cacophony of fallacy and bad argument raining down on them on a daily basis from Politicians and the MSM ?

    People used to have a better understanding of these basic principles - both rural and city dweller - listen to the speeches of past presidents
    Kennedy, Eisenhower and so on - the choir they were preaching to had a better understanding of these "basics" than folks today.

    Without the basic tools listed above - there is no such thing as a functional democratic process. This has been recognized for thousands of years - the ancient Greeks knew this.

    Take for example a referendum on Pot (congress will be voting on this issue shortly). What is the rational that people will use to cast their vote ? They will cast their vote for all kinds of reasons - for some "I don't like Pot" will be the reason - For others "God says - your body is a temple" might be the reason.

    This is a problem. The question of a referendum is not "Do you like Pot" .. nor is it "What does God think".

    The question of a referendum is "Do you have legitimate justification to use physical violence (law) to force another human not to engage in this activity"

    "I don't like it personally" is not legitimate justification - If you don't like alcohol - don't drink. A person not liking something (Alcohol, Porn, Meat, Sugar, abortion) is not legitimate justification to force others (though physical violence) not to engage in this activity.

    If you are not willing to hold a gun to the head of a pregnant woman - and tell her that if she has an abortion you will pull the trigger - then you have no business getting the State to do your dirty work.

    "God says so" is not a valid response to the question either - Prove what God thinks ? We don't make law in this nation on the basis of what God thinks ... society tried that - and it did not work out too well - and whose interpretation of "what God thinks" would we used were we to go back to "Divine right".

    Millions of innocent men, women, and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch toward uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one-half the world fools and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and error all over the earth.
    -- Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, 1781-82

    Thirteen governments [of the original states] thus founded on the natural authority of the people alone, without a pretence of miracle or mystery, and which are destined to spread over the northern part of that whole quarter of the globe, are a great point gained in favor of the rights of mankind.
    -- John Adams, "A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America" (1787-88 ) , from Adrienne Koch, ed, The American Enlightenment: The Shaping of the American Experiment and a Free Society (1965) p. 258

    As I understand the Christian religion, it was, and is, a revelation. But how has it happened that millions of fables, tales, legends, have been blended with both Jewish and Christian revelation that have made them the most bloody religion that ever existed?-- John Adams, letter to FA Van der Kamp, December 27, 1816

    When philosophic reason is clear and certain by intuition or necessary induction, no subsequent revelation supported by prophecies or miracles can supersede it.-- John Adams, from Rufus K Noyes, Views of Religion, quoted from from James A Haught, ed, 2000 Years of Disbelief
     
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  6. Natty Bumpo

    Natty Bumpo Well-Known Member

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    The thrust of this jamoke's tweet (reminiscent of Randy Newman's "Short People") is his opposition to universal health coverage.

    Under the reign of Trumpery, millions of Americans have lost their medical insurance, and rural areas have been especially hard hit by the closing of clinics. Trump is actually achieving the agenda that is (whether-tongue in-cheek or deeply inserted elsewhere) promoted in his deleted tweet.

    Of course the evil "city slicker" vs the unsophisticated "rube" is an enduring leitmotif that has pervaded the rise and fall of civilizations, harmless "joshing" for the most part.
     
  7. ECA

    ECA Well-Known Member

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    This instructors comments are JUST as ignorant as those who make ignorant sweeping generalizations about the people who live in big cities.
    To each his own. There are those who enjoy and prefer to live in a rural setting (myself included) just as there are those who enjoy and prefer to live in urban cities. Neither people are any better or worse because of what they prefer. It’s good we as humans have different thoughts, wants and needs. What a boring @55 life it would be if we all thought the same.
     
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  8. Durandal

    Durandal Well-Known Member Donor

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    No one is treating them like scum. On the contrary, they're being supported with federal handouts while complaining about government spending (except when Republicans are doing it). So silly.
     
  9. Thought Criminal

    Thought Criminal Well-Known Member Donor

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    Bullshit!

    They're being called Nazis, racists, white-supremacists, and dozens of other names.

    giphy.gif
     
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  10. Space_Time

    Space_Time Well-Known Member

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    Here's more:

     
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