Asshat Quote of the Day

Hello Mr. Krugman — I saw you speak at Northwestern a few years back when I was an undergrad.

I wanted to say, for someone who so strongly supported Clinton during the primaries, you’re coming off an awful lot like an Obama supporter now. Now, I know your primary support is for the economy. But I just had to comment. — Julie

That is a comment to a blog blurb that Paul Krugman wrote about Obama's appointments so far. It looks like Krugman thinks the picks are solid, and the grown-up's may be in charge again, after the cruel joke of the heinous Bush administration.

The comment I quoted is something that is very common in many different settings. You'll find it on sports blogs, on Youtube videos.. pretty much everywhere on-line where there is an opportunity for out-side readers/viewers to make their opinion known.

It makes me weep for the future of humanity that people can be that stupid, and is why I am convinced that scientists and engineers should rule the world.

Krugman's comments on Obama's picks mean nothing more than Krugman thinking Obama made good picks. It has nothing to do with being a "supporter" of anything. Still, Julie "had to comment" as if her comment meant anything, or even made any sense.

She could just have easily written; You sound like you support Barack Obama, however you didn't before. This means you are inconsistent and are unaware of the true danger of Obama. You should not write anything positive about Obama because you shouldn't support Obama. I don't mean to tell you what to do, but felt I needed to say that because you're going off track.

In her addled mind, it probably did make sense, but in real-world terms, it is nonsensical. I find that's where most people in the world live, in bizzaro world where unconnected things mean something... where one unrelated thing leads to another, or has a cause and effect where none truly exists.

I deal with a similar sort of thought process frequently at my job. People often try to problem solve by imagination rather than reality. The computer stopped working? Must be because sun spots were high that day, but instead somebody pulled the power cord from the out-let. Informed of the truth, they believe the technician is a supporter of Microsoft instead of Unix, which is concerning because the computer is off.

The challenge I face is trying to get them to understand the true nature of the event in question, without writing; Look, you're too stupid to understand what happened, so just shut the fuck up and I'll get it working again shortly.

The relevance to public policy is the most concerning, because there is an army.. hordes.. millions of people who view, what are essentially binary systems, as emotion.. as imagination.. peppered in a religious context.

They are fundamentally insane, and as is the definition of insanity, they really have no idea because it all makes perfect sense to them.

Or as PK might say; What does my liking Obama's picks so far have to do with being "an Obama supporter"? What does being an "Obama supporter" mean? And, what if I am?