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Who are these idiots?

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    #1

    Who are these idiots?

    So, as you all have noticed surely, 99.9999% of the comments that get posted at the bottom of any news article on the web, including - or perhaps especially - the big famous newspapers, appear to be written by ignoramuses with the IQ of a ripe peach. It's not just conservatives either, although it is predominantly. A lot of the pro-lefty positions are written from positions of obvious ignorance of important facts like, for example, how a bill becomes a law, etc.

    Who are these people? Really? Do we know? Has anyone done any rigorous studies? Are they more or less representative of the overall population than the people that write actual letters to the editor?

    It's very disconcerting to read what gets posted on new sites, but I'd be less disconcerted if I knew that these really were just the lunatic fringe in their parents' basement and not a great big movement of idiocy about to sweep the planet.
    Tags: None
    #2
    Who are these idiots?

    Ha. you said "great big movement".

    I think that, based on recent public elections in the United States of America, that yes, the majority of the population is really fucking idiotic.

    Comment

      #3
      Who are these idiots?

      Typical US-centric-ism. It's the same over here...

      Comment

        #4
        Who are these idiots?

        I don't think they're representative of the population as a whole. Most of the time ignorance is wed to a consequent lack of assertiveness or strongly held opinions. People who aren't educated and more or less know it, and who therefore, very sensibly, don't bother trying to engage in the kind of debate found beneath news opinion articles. But there's a special kind of idiot who's gleaned just enough to reliably make an ass out of himself every time he enters a complex argument. I confidently posit that they're a small minority of the ignorant majority.

        Comment

          #5
          Who are these idiots?

          I think if you banned only the ones who post "Come on people!" or "Wake up people!" at the end of their illiterate ramblings, you'd cut comment postings by over 80%.

          Comment

            #6
            Who are these idiots?

            It's an even easier action to take than calling a talk radio station. Type some jibberish and there you go.

            I remember entering a soccer 'chat room' about 10-12 years ago for the first and only time. I was blown away with all the disgusting comments by those who felt some power by typing four-letter words over and over and over.

            Anonymous idiots are everywhere.

            Comment

              #7
              Who are these idiots?

              To paraphrase Marshall McLuhan "The medium is not the message, it's the gibberish, stupid."

              Comment

                #8
                Who are these idiots?

                I think if you banned only the ones who post "Come on people!" or "Wake up people!" at the end of their illiterate ramblings, you'd cut comment postings by over 80%.

                Or, in the case of ubercunts who end their idiotically bullish missives with 'Get real!', shot. One can just picture them at their PCs, pointing angrily at the screen as the last exclamation mark - there's always an exclamation mark at the end of 'get real' - is slammed on with indignant superiority. Of course, the reality these arseholes profess to live in - and demand we join - turns out to be a scabby little world that's best avoided like a plague.

                Comment

                  #9
                  Who are these idiots?

                  I'm not generally a fan of death squads, but I do believe that people who think the use of seventeen consecutive exclamation marks somehow drives home their facile point need to be pulled up in some way. AND DON'T GET ME STARTED ON CAPS-LOCK FREAKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                  Comment

                    #10
                    Who are these idiots?

                    However bad the comments are on news sites, the lowest form of life on the planet is found on YouTube comments.

                    It can be so repulsive and vile underneath, say, an old episode of Bananaman; I can't imagine how bad it must be if you do a search for Triumph Of The Will or something.

                    Comment

                      #11
                      Who are these idiots?

                      Gangster Octopus wrote:
                      Typical US-centric-ism. It's the same over here...
                      Our idiots have guns.

                      Comment

                        #12
                        Who are these idiots?

                        However bad the comments are on news sites, the lowest form of life on the planet is found on YouTube comments.

                        It can be so repulsive and vile underneath, say, an old episode of Bananaman; I can't imagine how bad it must be if you do a search for Triumph Of The Will or something.
                        I've stopped reading the comment section on youtube. It's not worth the effort of sifting though the depressing misogynistic and homophobic posts just to find one single enlightening or informative comment that actually relates to the video selected.

                        Comment

                          #13
                          Who are these idiots?

                          Reed of the Valley People wrote:
                          So, as you all have noticed surely, 99.9999% of the comments that get posted at the bottom of any news article on the web, including - or perhaps especially - the big famous newspapers, appear to be written by ignoramuses with the IQ of a ripe peach. It's not just conservatives either, although it is predominantly. A lot of the pro-lefty positions are written from positions of obvious ignorance of important facts like, for example, how a bill becomes a law, etc.

                          Who are these people? Really? Do we know? Has anyone done any rigorous studies? Are they more or less representative of the overall population than the people that write actual letters to the editor?

                          It's very disconcerting to read what gets posted on new sites, but I'd be less disconcerted if I knew that these really were just the lunatic fringe in their parents' basement and not a great big movement of idiocy about to sweep the planet.
                          Here you go; a useful starting point.

                          www.ifyoulikeitsomuchwhydontyougolivethere.com

                          But it is usually much more fun to try and mine HYS for yourself.

                          http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/default.stm

                          Comment

                            #14
                            Who are these idiots?

                            Matej wrote:
                            Gangster Octopus wrote:
                            Typical US-centric-ism. It's the same over here...
                            Our idiots have guns.
                            And a $1 trillion/yr military budget.

                            Comment

                              #15
                              Who are these idiots?

                              Aw, why do you have to insult peaches like that? But I do agree about the stupidity of 99% of Internet discussion. Even a pretty useful site like the IMDB should have never allowed public comments--the boards are moronic, and even the reviews are mainly just recaps. I don't even really like Daily Kos these days.

                              Comment

                                #16
                                Who are these idiots?

                                A lot of liberals are just as dumb. Really. Maybe I like the policy they ultimately support, but their logic is often just as poor as their right-wing counterparts.

                                This week brought out a lot of that. Lots of idiots blaming Obama for congress' inability to legislate a single-payer health plan.

                                With friends like that, we don't need enemies.

                                Comment

                                  #17
                                  Who are these idiots?

                                  I hope I'm not being self-absorbed here, but things like this still irritate me more than they should. Particularly when they cite your book as their reference.

                                  Comment

                                    #18
                                    Who are these idiots?

                                    The reader comments on this article are strange, regardless of what you think of the subject.

                                    Half the people are outraged that a man was shot dead by police for hawking CDs on the street, and the other half are telling those people to read the article before posting.

                                    Knee-jerking at its finest.

                                    Comment

                                      #19
                                      Who are these idiots?

                                      We've got your book in our Oxfam bookshop, TEV. We're fairly upmarket so we're delighted to have you.

                                      Some comments are wind-ups. See mailwatch, for example. These are usually easy to spot by being coherent, if wrong. The completely rubbish ones though, I assume they are genuine.

                                      Talking of Reed's point of complete ignorance about how bills pass, there's a British equivalent where people write that whichever right wing lown has just written the article should "run for Prime Minister". However, that's become such a standing joke that most people who say it are probably joking.

                                      Comment

                                        #20
                                        Who are these idiots?

                                        The Exploding Vole wrote:
                                        I hope I'm not being self-absorbed here, but things like this still irritate me more than they should. Particularly when they cite your book as their reference.
                                        Hah. What a crock of shit. American love games with non-stop action? Oh yeah...like baseball and football, where it's five minutes of fucking around before each 9 seconds of play.

                                        Comment

                                          #21
                                          Who are these idiots?

                                          The Exploding Vole wrote:
                                          I hope I'm not being self-absorbed here, but things like this still irritate me more than they should. Particularly when they cite your book as their reference.
                                          Dave Beekman? Was a human actually responsible for writing that, or was it the product of some automated bot?

                                          Comment

                                            #22
                                            Who are these idiots?

                                            I once wrote a news story on secularism and Islam clashing in Germany and the article was used as 'evidence' of a coming wave of Jihad which must be stopped by a neo-Nazi American blogger.

                                            Comment

                                              #23
                                              Who are these idiots?

                                              That can't have been nice.

                                              After that I'm not sure about posting something frivolous, but whoever mentioned youtube was right.

                                              I've just found a comment on Angelo by The Brotherhood of Man: "this was my favourite group in my younger days.still great"

                                              Comment

                                                #24
                                                Who are these idiots?

                                                "American love games with non-stop action? Oh yeah...like baseball and football, where it's five minutes of fucking around before each 9 seconds of play"

                                                Even Basketball is like that. I watched the last 2 and half mins of a Lakers Miami game recently, foolishly thinking that it would be over in 2 and a half mins. In actual time in took about 25 mins.

                                                Comment

                                                  #25
                                                  Who are these idiots?

                                                  Try to read comments on global warming related articles, if you want to be confronted with the spectacular stupidity of, well, a lot of people...

                                                  Comment

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