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Originally posted by thisguyrighthere
reply to post by sirhumperdink
Maybe.
I work with the public and IT and I was once very excited about how access to all the information in the world in real-time would reshape society.
Then I realized that 90% of those people will just update Facebook and look for porn.
The majority has always been clueless and is currently clueless and still will be, as far as I can tell, remarkably clueless in the future. A terminal open to the world is only as useful as the user wants it to be. Most just want Facebook and porn.
Even in my small town where any news is huge news and gets plastered over the TV and all the papers for weeks at a time I still encounter a frighteningly high number of people who have no clue that anything ever happened.
Give them facts and figures and their eyes gloss over. Give them a catchy name like "Patriot Act" and they mindlessly support it on nothing more substantial than it sounding like a good thing.
I seriously doubt that will ever change.
Originally posted by sirhumperdink
the reason it looks so bad is because of the ease of access to information ...so those that actively seek it will acquire exponentially more than those who find it in passing
Originally posted by thisguyrighthere
Originally posted by sirhumperdink
the reason it looks so bad is because of the ease of access to information ...so those that actively seek it will acquire exponentially more than those who find it in passing
So how do we foster an intrinsic desire for knowledge among the majority to encourage more to seek it out?
Seems people are either interested or they are not. I used to think anyone could be made interested once a topic affected them personally but have since been proven wrong on that assumption having seen plenty of people suffer directly from policies enacted only to continue remaining ignorant.
Originally posted by Erongaricuaro
Originally posted by nixie_nox
Because conservatives are only concerned about themselves and their cronies, while liberals are more concerned about others, and that translates to attitudes on the roads.
I may be inclined to give that some validity. Maybe it is the connection I was seeking. Red-staters do rather like their brewskis and one more for the road perhaps.
Originally posted by louczar
reply to post by Erongaricuaro
As one poster pointed out, "red states" are typically more rural than blue.
Ever been driving the speed limit and have a family of deer run out onto the road in front of you? Not much to be done about that, and the deer definitely don't care about your politics.
Ever hit a patch of black ice in the middle of nowhere and go careening off the road into a ditch or down a steep embankment into a river? Not much to be done about that, and that ice doesn't give a hoot about your politics either.
Ever been driving during a really nasty storm, and all you want to do is get home, and you are just hoping there isn't a tornado nearby or that the hail pounding your windshield doesn't shatter it?
Point being, there are lots of reasons besides politics that figure into the results of such a "study", and equating causality to correlation is not a valid way of interpreting the results, either.
Say, has anyone done a study on the proportion of population using welfare services, comparing blue vs. red states? We are inferring from the results of this fatal driving accident study that red state people are reckless, ignorant, dangerous and stupid people, so why not consider the study I propose and let it imply what it will?
Originally posted by louczar
reply to post by Erongaricuaro
So do you think the rural populations of the blue states you just cited all vote democratic just because the majority of the state votes that way? Do you really believe that the rural populations of those blue states with similar inclement weather compose the majority of the voting power of these states? I believe it is the metro areas that account for the majority of democratic voting in those states, and my guess about this matter is just as good as yours.