Every so often I think I've seen the ultimate in stupidity being mouthed (or, more accurately, typed) by the tinfoil hat types on the Internet. Then I'll make the mistake of looking at the comments following a news article or opinion piece at a site like CNN, the Washington Post, or MSN. Today's gems came from the comments opining about an article about the Supreme Court's ruling regarding the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), television broadcasts, and indecency. Basically, the court ruled that the FCC had treated broadcasters unfairly by not warning them in advance that fleeing nudity or spontaneous profanity during a live broadcast might be subject to hefty fines. There were a fair number of reasonably sane comments along the usual lines, e.g., if people think a program is obscene they can always change the channel. Then the comment string deteriorated in a really strange direction. . . .
Bottom line, as expressed by the mouth breathers: Why was the FCC involved? After all, it's
NOT a government agency.
Did these people sleep through civics classes? What type of cognitive impairment does it take to not understand that when an agency has a name like "Federal Communications Commission" the odds are it is indeed part of the federal government?
Then again, this is no doubt the same crowd that wants the government to keep its hands off their Social Security and worries about socialized medicine interfering with their Medicare. The stupid, it burns.
It is time to clean out the barn...
ReplyDeleteThose who will not cooperate and legislate in Washington need to be sent home.
November 6th.
Please vote!]
Sarge
Ok, in defense of mouth-breathers, Big businesses have been co-opting "Federal" for a while. Federal Express.
ReplyDeleteAnd Corproations have a huge vested interest in blurring the lines and making people unaware of the good the Federal Government has and is doing for them.
How ignorant? Hey, don't get me started, you know how I get.
ReplyDeleteRephrasing the question, when was the American public ever smart?
ReplyDeleteI know that it is difficult fr people to remember everything they might have been told in school - but it is indefensible that they won't make a little effort to educate themselves a bit before spouting off like that.
ReplyDeleteSaw a post someplace that said Obama and the Dems should be talking up the Public Good and how much is contributed to the success of the Private Good by the Public good and how necessary it is to keep it healthy. Instead they have swallowed the BS that only the Private Good does any good.
ReplyDeleteWe hear the same shit in Canada all the time too.
Re: private sector vs public. This is one area where the Republicans have done a wonderful job of controlling the language and the Democrats have failed abysmally. Reagan started referring to government as a problem back in the '80s. When you hear something over and over for 30+ years, it turns into a truth even if the basic premise is garbage.
ReplyDeleteWhen was the last time anyone really talked about business failures and the fact that something like 90% of all start-ups don't make it through their first year? Do we really want to model our government on creative destruction? No one asks those questions -- instead they just chant "privatization" like they're saying the Rosary.