Elitist?

Was at a little local Dem potluck last nite. For the most part it wasn't the usual Dem circular firing squad, but there was some really basic discussion about issues.

I brought up the Stupidity issue. We can educate all we want, and the ignorant can learn, but we can't do much about the Stupidity in this country. People have been told by several sources - even by Bush - that Saddam had nothing to do with 9-11, but they persist in believing that Saddam caused 9-11. That's not ignorance... that's Stupidity.

Another person at the potluck said that sounded elitist.

I responded by saying that true elitism is claiming a lock on morality... elitism is knowing you are going to the Happy Hunting Ground while everybody around you goes to The Bad Place... elitism is claiming your medieval philosophy trumps modern science, elitism is claiming that you are the only Patriot - anyone else is a traitor ... etc. We've allowed the right to frame the debate entirely. It is they who are elitist.

My position is that there is no compromise possible, no negotiation possible, with people who will not stray from dogma. In the bargaining, we're the only side that can be expected to move.

Any thoughts about progressives/liberals as eletists?

Elite is a font with 12 characters per inch, nothing else.

Seriously, one dictionary describes elite as a powerful minority. I guess we are elitist if the stupid are in the majority, which in this country they are.

the fact of the matter is that it is a provable fact that stupidity exists, and "stupid" only exists in the context of humans.

Is it elitist to suggest that you acknowledge that some stupid people can vote? It's also the truth.

Now let's address WHY people are stupid, congenital stupidity aside. Getting and evaluating information is a huge effort to do proactively. Many of us go about our busy daily lives expecting to be spoon fed information with which to make a decision, and in many cases it's the first bit of information that sticks.

That is why republican smear campaigns are so effective -- that is why cheney campaigning in every red state and requiring unpublished exclusives with podunk AM talk show hosts was so effective. Are the kind of people who only have room in their head for one view of one issue stupid? You bet. I don't care how they got there.

I also don't care if that makes me an elitist. I'll go one further. If I were running for office, I would demand alignment. You can either vote for me, or you can vote for stupid. We need to stop fucking around and use the same rules of engagement that the republicans have been using against us, and we need to do it better.

It would certainly make Swift Boat Fuckwads think twice about running an ad like that if we ran an ad showing president bush (a re-enactment of course) running off the road drunk, tossing a bag of cocaine out the window, and getting his lazy good for nothing ass arrested, and then pretending to forget about it.

Yeah I'm an elitist. So what.

Daring to disagree with our God-mandated Emperor Dubya and his minions!

I don't feel BETTER than those I view as dumb, but recognize I am "better off" than they are. I DO, however, feel I am better than the hateful people that are running this country as well as those that follow these leaders. I feel they are the lowest common denominator. Base, sub-human almost. Scratching and clawing like animals to take all they can get. I AM certainly better than that. If that makes me elitist, well, I am an elitist.:hi:

"We've allowed the right to frame the debate entirely. It is they who are elitist."

I have always felt that rightwingers are the smug and arrogant ones. Their idea of "Heaven" is an example. The fundies especially, refer to non-born-agains as the "unsaved" which smacks of elitism to me.

call me a proud liberal elitist.