Isn’t Sarah Palin the right age to have seen a lot of M*A*S*H? The final episode of M*A*S*H is still the highest rated primetime telecast of all time. Maybe she didn’t watch the show while it was on, but I know I learned everything I needed to know about why there are two Koreas from watching that show. And I was a little kid. You know, the Communist North invaded the South, and we intervened to roll the North back. The Chinese intervened on the other side leading to a stalemate, an armistice, and a demilitarized zone along the 38th parallel.
I don’t know how someone as dense as Sarah Palin ever convinced people to vote for her for anything.
It’s the winks and the starbursts. Nothing else matters to her supporters.
AG
Had to share this – made me LOL:
RT @TUSK81: Has Sarah Palin quit Fox News yet?
…and then she leaves (but doesn’t quit!) for new horizons to help her country.
I kinda suspect Fox went for the glamor without fully contemplating the consequences.
Fox is going to find that they need to keep her words scripted, or her extemporaneous comments on a tight leash. Otherwise, if she’s in an situation where she has to speak impromptu, it’s gonna be her usual verbal diaherra. That’s too much Palin for anyone. And being on a leash isn’t something she wants.
My guess is that both parties will get tired of the situation, and she’ll be encouraged to leave.
She debuted tonight:
The Balto Sun reviewer expected red hot ratings for Palin and Fox. At first, but then she’ll get stale. We’ll see.
Isn’t Alaska the meth capitol of the world? Your talking about a lot of stoned people who could give a damn.
OK, that explains the Alaskans, but how do you explain the rest of her fans?
Contact high?
But the final episode of MASH was a two hour show! Remember the attention span we’re dealing with here…
And you know what’s really embarassing? This woman has a university degree!
Maybe not so embarrassing unless you come from the same university.
No way did she watch MASH. See, Alan Alda is a liberal and tainted the whole program. Automatic boycott.
Or so it was explained to me by my sister in law, referring to West Wing and Martin Sheen.
It’s just plain ignorance; her supporters don’t even know her positions on the issues. Hell, Palin doesn’t even know; during the campaign they asked her about foreign policy, and what she described would be the Obama doctrine, not what McCain had said.
It’s an American Phenomenon, and I’m not sure what has contributed to it the most. Is it News Corporation? Is it the right’s anti-science views? Our reverence to celebrity? Hatred of intelligence? Perhaps it’s fear and not hatred. I know my mother gets intimidated if I know more than she does on a range of subjects, but then again, my parents are young Earth creationists.
I’m rambling, but I would love it if we found the answer as to why anti-intellectualism is praised in America, and despised everywhere else. The most popular kids in India and China are the smartest, not the most athletic and good-looking.
It’s a Narcissistic self-indulgence emotional empathy thing. She’s like me. I’m smart. She doesn’t make me feel stupid. I can identify with her because she believes what I believe – or at least I think she does. Therefore she is one of US. To vote for her is to vote for yourself against the smart-assed elites who run the world. If she can do it, so can I. And I don’t even need an education or get out of the Couch to do it. All I have to do is watch Fox and I’m an expert. It’s about me, stupid. Only morons care about anyone else.
Yeah I get that, but why is this such a dangerous trend in America? I don’t see it anywhere else in the world; especially not in South Asia and Japan.
I know this could be taken up in the wrong way, and there is much about the USA I admire, but what we are seeing here is the development of a Master race mentality: “we are the greatest people in the world and we can do no wrong”
We had it at the height of the British empire, the Japanese empire, the Nazi empire, French insouciance, Apartheid and even Zionism. It means that even if you are lazy, stupid, and conceited, you are considered better that those of the inferior race – be they blacks, Arabs, Jews, colonials or Irish.
It is a great pity that this is happening even to America – given that it started out as a rebellion against this sort of thing. I suppose history has a habit of turning full circle.
That thesis does make a lot of sense, and it’s why I stated in a previous thread to TarHeel that I am deeply worried about who takes hold of the populist movement in America. I just saw a piece on Al Jazeera about Nazi and Nazi-sympathizers, and the rising right-wing. Here it is if anyone’s interested:
http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/peopleandpower/2010/01/201015124739316797.html
Democracy Now! Just ran a piece on it as well:
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/11/white_power_usa_the_rise_of
I’m not saying that we’re going to have a full-out Nazi-purge on our hands, but their mixing with the tea-baggers and disgruntled people who hate bankers and the rich could take hold. Seemingly rational and normal people could easily be swayed, as Milgram demonstrated ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment ).
Religion. You don’t need to know anything but memorized verses from the New Testament. Perfect opponents to the jihadis, both are convinced God is on their side and they have the one true Old-Time Religion.
“I don’t know how someone as dense as Sarah Palin ever convinced people to vote for her for anything.”
They were able to keep her pretty under wraps. Imagine if she woulda had a microphone in her face 24/7 from the time she was named as VP candidate.
The few times she did talk unscripted were complete, utter disasters.
People like Palin vote for her based on the Roman Hrushka principle:
Idiots are entitled to a little representation and a little chance. We can’t have all Washingtons, Jeffersons, Lincolns, and Roosevelts.
It’s the same logic that made George W. Bush popular enough to steal 2000.
Incredibly at the time MASH and Black Sheep Squadron were on, many young people thought they were about Vietnam!
Like I keep asking, didn’t we elect Shrub to the presidency twice? Remember those questions he was asked during the primary, like do you know where this country or that country is, the leader, etc? Republicans do not appreciate smart people. If you can bake bread you can be a president.
The more dumb Palin presents herself as being the more her electability increases. Republicans and a lot of middle road people, apparently, like a dumbed down president they can relate to. The only person confused about this is George Will.
And another thing. Palin is an ex beauty queen with a great ass. That automatically gets her the bar vote. You do the numbers. She’s a threat to Obama, no doubt, in this age of American decline.
AG
After the Baker coup in 2000 & the deeply suspect Ohio vote in 2004, I have difficulty finding any significance in the Bush wins with regard to the actual nature of the electorate.
It’s probably easier to accept the fact that we’re just a dumb country than it is to accept the fact that our political processes are so easily twisted.
btw, very few of us vote. So there’s even further doubt as to what the mainstream successes of Bush or Palin indicate.
A handful of insane, noisy people are given stature on televison & most of think what we see on televison is Us, so we think the noisy insane are Us, too.
Then, when the owners of TV Real get what they want politically (because they always do), our identification with TV Real compels us to believe that our own desires have been realized.
Of course, because we’re the noisy insane a Bush or Palin success seems not only comprehensible, but correct.
It’s like we’re trapped in the screen & can’t get out.
This is what happens when actual community is decimated over many decades by corporate interests & replaced by media. For a clear vision of Us there’s nowhere else to look.
I’m not sure what you’re confused about. America is a country chock-full of idiots, and she’s a perfectly typical example of such.
Consider who the electorate is, and all questions such as yours are immediately answered. That also answers the prescriptive question of how best to avoid such a farce in the future.