Shocker: Voters Are Stupid

Dick Polman has a blog post today that is absolutely hilarious and you must read it. Apparently, some dude did a focus group with 12 voters who didn’t follow politics much and wondered why the primary wasn’t over yet.

And, of course, they all think Obama is a Muslim, even though his Christian pastor’s comments about how America throws a ton of black people in prison for fun were all over the news a month or so ago. Let’s just quote the best parts:

For instance, here’s Dorita, opining about Obama: “I’m a little concerned. I don’t know enough about his Muslim background and their beliefs and how he views everything. I’m a little concerned. I need to check his background.”

Here’s Josh on Obama: “He’s representing a minority in more than one case. He is African American and he is Muslim. And in light of that…it does feel like we’re being judged or pounded down on because we want to carry a gun or we want to wear the American flag pin.”

Here’s Melinda, clearly the GOP’s dream voter: “I just really feel like he’s…not a people pleaser as in the Americans, but the other people who don’t necessarily need to be pleased, the other, the enemies if you will, I don’t know. I’m just not real positive on that.”

The comments then explode with people who love to read blogs they hate (for reasons I can’t understand, but whatever) attacking Polman for making fun of people who think Obama is a Muslim.

But, uh, this isn’t really surprising. Let’s generalize for a moment: Most people don’t really seem to care much about the truth; they care more about what they want to believe. If you want to believe Barack Obama is a Muslim, then you can probably find evidence that Obama is an evil Muslim who’s going to destroy America — whether it’s in a chain email or a Daniel Pipes column.

And if you need any evidence that people are stupid, then there are nearly 8,000 posts on this website that seem to confirm that. And then there’s me, who has written nearly a billion words on this stupidity, sometimes coming off rather stupid myself. In a word: Duh.

Equal time for the willfully ignorant [American Debate]

Wilson Goode: You’re Full Of Crap

Hey, is this the new “brothers and sisters are running the city”? Let’s hope not. But I do really enjoy Wilson Goode Jr’s recent comments, where he just comes out and says he wants this construction project to hire black people. Geeze, if only all politicians made it this simple:

Convention Center officials originally promised to set aside at least one-quarter of the construction work for minority and female-owned companies. Councilman Wilson Goode last week described that as “crap.” Now, the Convention Center is promising to work toward 50 percent minority and female participation. Goode said that’s realistic only if the Center is willing to hire minority firms from other parts of the country:

“If you don’t do it on this, the largest public works project in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, then you’re still full of crap.” Goode wants a certain percentage set aside specifically for African-American contractors.

See? Simple as that.

Hiring Plans for Pa. Convention Ctr. Expansion Still in Limbo [KYW 1060]