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LeGarcon Blowout soon fellow Stalker from Skadovsk Since: Aug, 2013 Relationship Status: Gay for Big Boss
Blowout soon fellow Stalker
#104101: Oct 29th 2015 at 8:36:55 PM

All these Carson is an idiot jokes never really sat well with me.

The dude is ridiculously smart. He's an example of how toxic the culture is here in America.

Oh really when?
TheyCallMeTomu Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
#104102: Oct 29th 2015 at 8:38:11 PM

I'm not calling him stupid, I'm calling him crazy. There's a difference.

Protagonist506 from Oregon Since: Dec, 2013 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
#104103: Oct 29th 2015 at 8:42:57 PM

Carson may or may not be crazy, but he's certainly not stupid. He's a neurosurgeon.

Though, from what I've read, a lot of politicians are actually pretty smart.

Leviticus 19:34
Zendervai Since: Oct, 2009
#104104: Oct 29th 2015 at 8:43:56 PM

The thing is that Carson is a different kind of crazy than several of the other major Tea Party lunatics. Because they tend to be somewhat consistent. Ted Cruz repeatedly tries the exact same tactics over and over, for example.

Carson, on the other hand, doesn't have any sort of coherent plan or position. He even flip-flops on whether or not slavery was bad. Some gibberish about it leaving an "essential dignity" to the slaves.

TheyCallMeTomu Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
#104105: Oct 29th 2015 at 8:52:14 PM

Well, actually, whatever, I'mma call him stupid too.

Look, stupid isn't about whether or not you can get through medical school without cheating.

(Did Carson cheet on his exams? I don't know. I'm just asking questions here-Trump's new line of questioning? I dunno, I'm just asking questions here)

It's about whether or not you're capable of acknowledging batshit insanery for what it is. It's about having simple logical processes as part of your mode of thinking. Carson doesn't have that. I don't care if he has an internalized mental database of 92561626 different epidemelogical phenomena specializing in neuroscience. That's not what makes a person not-stupid.

"Stupid is as Stupid Does."

-Abraham Lincoln.

edited 29th Oct '15 8:52:33 PM by TheyCallMeTomu

AceofSpades Since: Apr, 2009 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
#104106: Oct 29th 2015 at 8:53:33 PM

Well, the thing is you can be very very smart in one area while being extremely lacking in knowledge or understanding in another area. Carson was probably a very competent neurosurgeon while he was doing that, but as a politician I find he's lacking in both understanding and perspective. He's also quite certainly pounding pretty much the same policies on taxation and healthcare as the rest of the Republicans. It's sad because as a medical professional I'd think he'd have some experience with how terribly the health care system is quite often.

[up][up]Which is a very odd thing to say about slavery seeing as he's black and no doubt has had to deal with the problems that seems to come with. Eeesh.

edited 29th Oct '15 8:54:57 PM by AceofSpades

TheyCallMeTomu Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
#104107: Oct 29th 2015 at 8:57:18 PM

Actually, a lot of the time, the actual clinical staff are fairly distanced from some of the issues like access and financing. I don't think Carson's case is unique.

ILoveDogs Since: May, 2010
#104108: Oct 29th 2015 at 9:00:44 PM

I've been in a bad mood all night because I've been thinking about how amazing Sanders is and how he has no chance of beating Hillary. Even if I don't think Hillary will drive the country into the ground (she won't), it's enough to fuck up my day thinking about.

AceofSpades Since: Apr, 2009 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
#104109: Oct 29th 2015 at 9:07:34 PM

You need to relax, man. In any case, he's gotten a lot more traction than anyone guessed at the start of this. So if nothing else, he's proved that quite a few people no longer think of socialism as some sort of dirty word or sin.

ILoveDogs Since: May, 2010
#104110: Oct 29th 2015 at 9:28:24 PM

You're right-I do need to relax, but I really have no idea how.

I'll try not to be such a miseryguts, but I also don't know how.

AceofSpades Since: Apr, 2009 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
#104111: Oct 29th 2015 at 9:45:30 PM

My advice is to try focusing on something else when something upsets you in this manner.

TheHandle United Earth from Stockholm Since: Jan, 2012 Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
United Earth
#104112: Oct 29th 2015 at 10:14:46 PM

Sanders was an unknown to a lot of POC and other folks outside of his home turf. This campaign has gotten his name out there, made it ring out. Next time, he'll have the cred needed to win. Assuming Hillary isn't going for another turn.

But, seriously, don't believe foregone conclusions or polls; they have a history of being dead wrong.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Mopman43 Since: Nov, 2013
#104113: Oct 29th 2015 at 10:17:56 PM

Only problem is, by four more years on, he's going to be 79, which I would think would make him the oldest man elected to president.

Aprilla Since: Aug, 2010
#104114: Oct 29th 2015 at 10:33:14 PM

The political process in the US and in many other places is very good at causing intelligent and industrious people to engage in unwise and intellectually counter-productive activities. I'm not excusing Carson, a pediatric neurosurgeon, or Cruz, a Harvard graduate. What I am saying is that the desire to take leadership positions in public office has a way of eroding one's critical thinking skills or giving one a false sense of wisdom.

Put more briefly, there's a big difference between being well-educated and being wise. I can totally see a neurosurgeon sounding and acting completely inane, and it's shouldn't be surprising at all if you think about how certain psychological processes (i.e. logical fallacies and cognitive fallacies) work. Additionally, there's sometimes a difference between being smart and being well-trained, and guys like Carson can probably operate on your brain stem pretty easily if nothing else because it's just rote memorization and not so much non-linear, adaptive thinking. Neurosurgery is hard. So is collecting trash every morning.

We also happen to live in a society where success is presumed to automatically correlate with intelligence. I don't think I need to explain the problem with this reasoning.

edited 29th Oct '15 10:39:57 PM by Aprilla

probablyinsane Since: Oct, 2011 Relationship Status: I LOVE THIS DOCTOR!
#104115: Oct 29th 2015 at 10:49:10 PM

I don't mind if Hillary or Bernie win, but please don't let the Republicans win.

Unfortunately, oddschecker currently has Trump over Sanders so I would prefer Clinton get the nominee cause she's a (vastly) safer bet against Trump.

Atm, it's:
Clinton
Rubio
Trump
Sanders

(wtf happened to Bush)

Plants are aliens, and fungi are nanomachines.
AceofSpades Since: Apr, 2009 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
#104116: Oct 29th 2015 at 11:01:15 PM

Bush has failed spectacularly to impress. I think he was doing sort of okay before, but then Trump put his hand in and sucked up all the attention.

PotatoesRock Since: Oct, 2012
#104117: Oct 29th 2015 at 11:04:33 PM

I'm not calling him stupid, I'm calling him crazy. There's a difference.
I'd call him Reagan, because he's a wolf, that like Ronald Reagan, that knows how to be reasonable and calm sounding, like the lambs. (i.e. the average voter)

(wtf happened to Bush)
He got fucked by staying out of modern GOP politics for nearly 7 years, and thus remains cryogenicly frozen in his brother's era of "Compassionate Conservatism". The party's voters on the whole have moved towards something much nastier, much more reactionary, much more insidious and frankly crazy.

edited 29th Oct '15 11:07:44 PM by PotatoesRock

probablyinsane Since: Oct, 2011 Relationship Status: I LOVE THIS DOCTOR!
#104118: Oct 29th 2015 at 11:42:09 PM

[up] Sometimes, I have to remind myself that my favorite American president was Republican. That would be Abraham Lincoln.

Plants are aliens, and fungi are nanomachines.
Artificius from about a foot and a half away from a monitor. Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Norwegian Wood
#104119: Oct 29th 2015 at 11:45:08 PM

[up]x4 I think at least a couple of things happened to Bush. The moderates abandoned him after the incident in May when a college student publicly accused his brother (and him, by extension) of the creation of ISIS. He has been on the defensive on this front ever since, using special pleading to excuse his brother in apparent filial piety whenever asked some variation of "would you pursue a similar foreign policy as your brother?"

An Atlantic article on that: http://tinyurl.com/o76c2e8

The other is what PotatoesRock noted.

edited 29th Oct '15 11:48:13 PM by Artificius

"I have no fear, for fear is the little death that kills me over and over. Without fear, I die but once."
Ramidel Since: Jan, 2001
#104120: Oct 30th 2015 at 4:05:53 AM

[up][up]*passes out "I Like Ike" buttons*

Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#104121: Oct 30th 2015 at 4:23:18 AM

Jeb! has hitched his wagon to his brother, and even in their most self-deluded moments, Republicans have a hard time thinking of George W. Bush's presidency with happiness.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Ogodei Fuck you, Fascist sympathizers from The front lines Since: Jan, 2011
Fuck you, Fascist sympathizers
#104122: Oct 30th 2015 at 6:23:07 AM

I think it's much simpler. Jeb! either simply doesn't want it, or he really is this bad at campaigning.

One alleged "insider" said of Jeb! that he takes a while to get into the swing of things. He lost his first bid for governor, and learned his mistakes.

So he could pull a Romney and come back swinging in 2020. If he isn't too old by then.

Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#104123: Oct 30th 2015 at 6:26:41 AM

Or it could be that the Bush family has no business running a country and is in politics as a social status symbol to reinforce their wealth and business influence. All three members that we've seen so far have been ineffective, stupid, corrupt, or a combination of the three.

edited 30th Oct '15 6:27:12 AM by Fighteer

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Aszur A nice butterfly from Pagliacci's Since: Apr, 2014 Relationship Status: Don't hug me; I'm scared
A nice butterfly
#104125: Oct 30th 2015 at 7:54:06 AM

Euo, myself and Aprilla have mentioned it already and I will do it again

Carson being a Neurosurgeon is absolutely no qualification that makes you capable of economical, societal and political success. Would you go to a PhD in Arts for an open heart surgery?

The guy can chop up kid's brains real good (I would dare to say his line of work is particularly less risky than others, with the exceedingly high level of neuroplasticity in children's brains. But that is off topic) and you know what, good for him. But that does not mean he is a succesful economist.

It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes

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