Not Stupid.

[foxfire74.livejournal.com]

(Follow-up to the link to the "Going Rogue" NYT book review, cross-posted from my LJ.)

So far, I rather like what I've seen of Sarah Palin, though I have yet to do any serious research on her. (Beyond checking out her quotes at http://www.ontheissues.org, which I recommend.) And it doesn't entirely matter what I think of her, since it'd take a major miracle and/or gun to my head to make me vote Obama in 2012. And the thing is? I'm not stupid.

Really. I'm not. My husband likes Palin, and he's not stupid. The woman who leads my Bible study? Has an IQ a point above mine; she's not stupid either. My husband reads history voraciously. My friend reads theology and mystery. Me, I read everything.

Not stupid.

So I get irate when I read stuff like the link below, or more specifically the comments that were posted before somebody got smart and disabled them.

15 pages, 370+ comments, and I paid no attention to the ones that were only insulting to Palin herself, rather than the people who might conceivably vote for her. 15 comparisons to "Mein Kampf" and three Palin/Hitler comparisons (people, can't we find another dictator for a while? Please? "Hitler" /= "anybody you don't like", and it hurts me in my history-reading parts to see him continually resurface.)

There were a couple of relatively coolheaded comments like "They are a threat to the quality of my life and to the future welfare of the nation and the world. " (hyperbolic, melodramatic, but it didn't descend into pointless frothing at the mouth) and "a segment of the population that would like to see people who are no more intelligent than themselves in public office" (condescending, presumptive, but relatively restrained; at least it didn't call us out-and-out evil).

Then we get the fun stuff. This is just about people who LIKE Sarah Palin, not about Palin herself:

"Ignorant, small-minded people/dimwitted and proud of it"

"opportunistic, sloven, dismissive to the level of being punitive of others (especially those who disagree with her) and seemingly inarticulate/illiterate" (I'll get back to them on that whole "illiterate" thing once I finish figuring out how many bookshelves I need to buy for the new house.)

"ignorant and proud of it, unable to be reasoned with, and apparently believing that merely being American gives their views and opinions some special insight or righteousness."

"if her fans (clearly responding to the misogyny that Palin holds dear and tries to dress up as empowerment for women) are just incapable, as Fish is, of actually respecting her because she is a woman."

"uneducated, racist, intolerant White trash/Palin will send women's rights back to the Stone Age, just where all religion wants women to be!" (My not-stupid sense is tingling! Is there some irony in that whole "uneducated" concept here?)

"far Right Christian fundamentalist millennialism that's only Not frightening because it's nowhere near any nuclear "buttons" or other large-scale military power." (I grew up with far-right millenialist fundamentalists. One of them had NASA calling him on a yearly basis going "Um, so can you come do physics for us NOW?" Not stupid.)

"the required diminished intellectual capacity to take anything she says seriously"

"a jingoistic, simplistic and divisive crowd"

"provincialism, anti-intellectualism, bigotry, intolerance, and narrow-mindedness"

"know-little to know-nothing fans who might morph - again, under the worst of circumstances - from cheering morons to an extremely ugly lynch mob" (Thanks for that "worst of circumstances" exception! Guess you really must not despise us after all.)

The reason conservatives hold the "liberal elite" in contempt these days? Gee, I can't imagine.

Comments

[litlover12.livejournal.com]

Yelling, "Neener neener, YOU'RE STUPID!" is far easier than actually coming up with arguments. So apparently, everything they needed to know they learned in kindergarten.

[foxfire74.livejournal.com]

Heh. There was one in there I didn't quote about "I'm sure an average four-year-old would be able to express themselves better." I have an above-average four-year-old, and no, she can't. But unlike the idiots posted above, she CAN muster a logical argument (I was oddly proud of her when she read a moralistic little book about watching too much TV, proclaimed "Mama Bear's WRONG", and gave me three reasons why she COULD TOO watch all the TV she wanted.)

[litlover12.livejournal.com]

I like this child of yours! :-) Was it one of those preachy Berenstein (sp?) Bear books?

[foxfire74.livejournal.com]

Yup, that would be the enduring classic "The Berenstein Bears and Too Much TV". Because we have a deal that I will read her anything at the bookstore EXCEPT for Spongebob Squarepants.

I also caught her inventing Dr. Seuss fanfic a while back - sitting on the sofa with "The Cat in the Hat" across her lap, declaiming "...fish said 'I don't WANNA go into the pot! Push that cat out the door...!" About a page and a half worth, in perfect Seuss rhythm.

[mosinging1986.livejournal.com]

I was trying to find the post and could not, but during the election I was told that I am not a real woman because I like her and would vote for her. Oh, and that I shouldn't procreate. So special, that.

Coward didn't even leave a name. Even a fake one.

I have never seen one politician drive people so crazy! Not even President Bush created so extreme a reaction. And that's saying a lot!

[mosinging1986.livejournal.com]

Imagine my surprise!

[foxfire74.livejournal.com]

President Bush, for all the respect I have for him, had...erm, minimal charisma. Palin has charisma in spades, which makes her more of a threat IMO. If she can back up the charisma with a spine and some teeth, I'll be volunteering for her campaign come 2012.

[mosinging1986.livejournal.com]

She does seem to have that, but that's never been an issue for me. I put little stock in charisma. Anyone can be pretty and charming. It's what's inside and what they stand for that counts!

I mean, look at Hollywood. All pretty, all the time. Character and common sense? Not so much. O.o

[foxfire74.livejournal.com]

I don't put stock in charisma WRT whether somebody's a good person or a bad one, but in politics, where much depends on getting people to notice you, it does make a difference. It's not precisely prettiness, it's...pull, I guess, though I find it hard to define. Palin has it, Obama has it even if he squicks me badly, Reagan had it, W. didn't.

[jane-says.livejournal.com]

This is the exact reason I carry my Mensa and my National Federation of Republican Women cards next to each other.

[scarletwalk.livejournal.com]

Quite a few liberals I know told me that Sarah Palin wouldn't have made a good Vice President because of her "blue collar" lifestyle.

That was said to me over a year ago, and it STILL blows my mind away.

So, her "blue collar" lifestyle wouldn't have worked? Because the Ivy Leaguers have done so well for the country thus far? Give me a break.

[foxfire74.livejournal.com]

Hey, they're all about protecting the little people, not actually listening to them.

[lazypadawan.livejournal.com]

It's stuff like this that makes me despise "liberalism." For all of its pretenses about caring about the regular guy, it's really cover for people who feel they are intellectually and morally superior to the regular guy.

[acadecalli.livejournal.com]

This reminds me of the time a "friend" of mine told me I was unintelligent and immoral because I was conservative. At least he told me that to my face. Behind my back, he talks about how the world would be a better place if they just killed off all conservatives.

And somehow WE are the intolerant ones? Living on a college campus, just me, I tolerate a whole lot.

[lafinjack.livejournal.com]

IQ doesn't really relate to intelligence all that much.

And do you get irate when you see comments with a similar level of idiocy that come from non-liberal perspectives?

[foxfire74.livejournal.com]

Yes, but I see far fewer of them. I lurk both on Free Republic and Democratic Underground (when I can stand it and my virus protection is up-to-date). The particularly hateful speech I see on the right tends to be much, much farther toward the fringe, not accepted to the extent that it is on the left.

An example (warning: Very Bad Words ahead): I've seen the term "Republic*nts" used more than a few times. I searched for "n*ggercrat* as the first equally-offensive term I could think of. I found the first here on Livejournal, where everybody was telling the poster how cute and witty it was, and the second on a Storm Front forum. There's a bit of a difference there.

[fionavere.livejournal.com]

IQ doesn't really relate to intelligence all that much.

I wonder what you based this particular statement on. It just seems a little... plucked out of thin air. Do you know that the "I" in "IQ" stands for "Intelligence"?

[merig00.livejournal.com]

I've seen very stupid people with Mensa membership

[fionavere.livejournal.com]

Um, so? That doesn't exactly make the statement "IQ doesn't really relate to intelligence all that much." true. (and I do realize you aren't the one who originally made the statement, but you did reply in what seems to be defense of that statement.)

We all know people who meet supposed requirements for being "smart" who seem not so smart in other ways. That doesn't mean that the "Intelligence quotient" doesn't relate to intelligence. That's just a nonsensical statement.

[lafinjack.livejournal.com]

IQ is basically how fast you think. I had a 166 IQ in high school, but I was by no means "smart". You can have a low IQ and still be intelligent.

[fionavere.livejournal.com]

You can have a low IQ and still be intelligent.

I'm not disputing that, as there are several different definitions for and types of intelligence. Not to mention "intelligence" and "smartness" is entirely relative.

All I'm saying is saying that IQ doesn't relate to it all that much is nonsensical. They are related. IQ stands for "intelligence quotient".

[karester.livejournal.com]

What I always find interesting, is how these people are supposed to be the most "tolerant" people, are the most intolerant when it comes to Republicans/Conservatives/anyone who doesn't agree with them.

I've heard some people say that Palin fans are what's wrong with America; Palin fans are of low intelligence, and that Palin herself hates all women... really I could go on and on.

[sekhmetsat.livejournal.com]

this is why i no longer self-describe as liberal. I had no opinion of Sarah until people started attacking her unreasonably. Then, after I found out more about her, I really liked her. She acts on her principles. Even now, on her book tour, she hasn't fobbed off her kids on a nanny, SHE takes care of them. I truly truly hold her in the highest esteem for that.

[fionavere.livejournal.com]

Liberals will always tell us who they fear the most. They hate Palin because they know she could beat the pants off anyone their side has to offer.

[valerie-valerah.livejournal.com]

Calling Sarah Palin stupid seems to be a knee-jerk reaction, and I mostly blame the MSM for that. I know a few people who automatically think she's an idiot just because of what they've seen of her in the media. They don't bother to actually look at what she has written or listened to what she has to say. They just take SNL's interpretation of her as truth.

[merig00.livejournal.com]

and at the same time this is very sad - http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-december-8-2009/gretchen-carlson-dumbs-down

[jenny-wildcat.livejournal.com]

I was at Sarah Palin`s book tour today. A representative of the local liberal goober media was there too and you could tell the guy was trying to paint all the people there as moronic doofs. But I had plenty of intelligent conversation with people in line.

Liberals are scared to death of Palin. That`s why they say this crap about her and her supporters. (and that fact makes it all worth it ^_^)