Public Service Announcements: Don't Vote If You Are Uninformed And/Or An Idiot
Howard Stern, perversely, has done us all a favor. He has shone a
light on something we probably all knew but get beat out of us by the
forces of political correctness to the point that we forget. He has
revealed anew that many among us are not worthy of their citizenship.
Yes, you read that right. Not worthy. With rights come
responsibilities and the right to vote, to elect your leaders, to watch
over the government that secures your liberty is a precious gift that we
enjoy, even more so that many the world over lack such a gift. And
yet, far too numerous of our fellow citizens do not take that right
seriously.
This is not to say that everybody needs to be a political junkie. Surely politics is at best boring and at worst repulsive to normal human beings, but we have a responsibility to be minimally informed in order to make responsible decisions at the ballot box. Now, no one is saying that voters ought to know the inner mechanics of pay-as-you go pension systems such as Social Security and be well versed in realist vs. idealist schools of foreign policy thought, but, as the video makes clear, we aren't talking about that. These numb-nuts don't even know the basics. They can't even get the superficial facts right, they are light years away from the requisite level of understanding required to make a responsibly informed vote.
This point fits very well into the theme of the day, which is President Eye Candy's avowed belief, assiduously ignored by the media, in wealth/income redistribution. As one whose income/wealth is sought after to be redistributed, I must say this - to hell with the attacks surely to come my way - there is a world of difference between people who are otherwise worthy but down on their luck or somehow on the wrong side of the system through no fault of their own and people who have not even made one iota of effort toward being a responsibly informed citizen. Redistribution is an economically destructive policy but at least morally you can make an argument for redistribution in the case of the former. In the case of the later, the thought is repulsive. These people are idiots and/or they don't even show up. They don't even recognize the teams on the field, how can we really talk baseball? I won't suffer to hear demands from people for redistribution who can't even be bothered to read the paper and don't even know the parameters of civil society even though they are able. The tragedy of an able-bodied person who will not work is equal to the tragedy of a mentally competent person who will not inform themselves. In civic discourse I can countenance just about anything but abject apathy. If you don't even try, if you can't be bothered, don't ruin it for the rest of us, and certainly don't voice the notion that you deserve a portion of the fruits of my labor.
The redistributionists insist they embody compassion in our society. Poppycock. Rewarding and remunerating this level of non-citizenship is destructive, both to those individual souls and to the civic body as a whole. Howard Stern, in his crude and off-putting way, has reminded us that not every one of us is worthy of our citizenship and not every voice is worth hearing. Sad, but true.
This is not to say that everybody needs to be a political junkie. Surely politics is at best boring and at worst repulsive to normal human beings, but we have a responsibility to be minimally informed in order to make responsible decisions at the ballot box. Now, no one is saying that voters ought to know the inner mechanics of pay-as-you go pension systems such as Social Security and be well versed in realist vs. idealist schools of foreign policy thought, but, as the video makes clear, we aren't talking about that. These numb-nuts don't even know the basics. They can't even get the superficial facts right, they are light years away from the requisite level of understanding required to make a responsibly informed vote.
This point fits very well into the theme of the day, which is President Eye Candy's avowed belief, assiduously ignored by the media, in wealth/income redistribution. As one whose income/wealth is sought after to be redistributed, I must say this - to hell with the attacks surely to come my way - there is a world of difference between people who are otherwise worthy but down on their luck or somehow on the wrong side of the system through no fault of their own and people who have not even made one iota of effort toward being a responsibly informed citizen. Redistribution is an economically destructive policy but at least morally you can make an argument for redistribution in the case of the former. In the case of the later, the thought is repulsive. These people are idiots and/or they don't even show up. They don't even recognize the teams on the field, how can we really talk baseball? I won't suffer to hear demands from people for redistribution who can't even be bothered to read the paper and don't even know the parameters of civil society even though they are able. The tragedy of an able-bodied person who will not work is equal to the tragedy of a mentally competent person who will not inform themselves. In civic discourse I can countenance just about anything but abject apathy. If you don't even try, if you can't be bothered, don't ruin it for the rest of us, and certainly don't voice the notion that you deserve a portion of the fruits of my labor.
The redistributionists insist they embody compassion in our society. Poppycock. Rewarding and remunerating this level of non-citizenship is destructive, both to those individual souls and to the civic body as a whole. Howard Stern, in his crude and off-putting way, has reminded us that not every one of us is worthy of our citizenship and not every voice is worth hearing. Sad, but true.
posted by Donny Baseball at 2:45 PM
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