How to talk to complete idiots, Mark Morford

[madokie]

Three basic options. Choose wisely, lest you go totally insane


There are three basic ways to talk to complete idiots.

The first is to assail them with facts, truths, scientific data, the commonsensical obviousness of it all. You do this in the very reasonable expectation that it will nudge them away from the ledge of their more ridiculous and paranoid misconceptions because, well, they're facts, after all, and who can dispute those?

Why, idiots can, that's who. It is exactly this sort of logical, levelheaded appeal to reason and mental acuity that's doomed to fail, simply because in the idiotosphere, facts are lies and truth is always dubious, whereas hysteria and alarmism resulting in mysterious undercarriage rashes are the only things to be relied upon.

Examples? Endless. You may, for instance, attempt to explain evolution to an extreme fundamentalist Christian. You may offer up carbon dating, the fossil record, glaciers, any one of 10,000 irrefutable proofs. You may even dare to talk about the Bible as the clever, completely manufactured, man-made piece of heavily politicized, massively edited, literary myth-making it so very much is, using all sorts of sound academic evidence and historical record. ...

(click here to read the rest)

(Full URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2009/09/25/notes092509.DTL&nl=fix)

[stuball111]

1. Beautiful!

I like it when he says:"You cannot reorganize village life to suit the village idiot." By employing option three, you are doing the only humane thing left to do: you are letting the idiotosphere eat itself alive."

My Union BA once told me when I asked him about how to deal with idiots in the workplace when I was job steward "See rule number one" What's that, I asked.. "Rule #1 is: Never argue with an idiot" he said.

[geckosfeet]

6. That was actually a quote from Frank Schaeffer in his recent interview with Rachel Maddow.

The village idiot part is anyway.

Maddow/Schaeffer interview

If you haven't seen it, it is as Morford says a must see.

[stuball111]

8. Yes, I got that.. and did see it. Frank Schaeffer is great...

Wish more of his old tribe would see the light

[malaise]

2. I love Morford

Nice read

[WeDidIt]

3. Brilliant piece

Highly recommended.

[MajorChode]

4. There is no arguing with fundamentalists...

but they are fun to wind up and watch the nuttery.

[Nay]

5. Wonderful. I have to get Schaeffer's book.

[elocs]

7. Most complete idiots are actually incomplete idiots

because they are capable of becoming more idiotic.

[stuball111]

9. I like the advice he gave on ignoring them.... best advice going.

[Habibi]

11. I am *so* stealing that!

[KG]

10. nothing left but to mock them. loudly and publicly.

[Stevenmarc]

16. Mock them, no, you need to marginalize them, take the squeak out of their wheel

Unless you diminish their voice and make it insignificant this country will continue going nowhere fast

[izquierdista]

12. Required reading

I know Barney Frank has taken this advice to heart, saying he did not want to debate a dining room table. Now if we could get other Democrats (are you listening Max?) to follow it.

[OneGrassRoot]

13. Check this out...

First, thanks for the original OP! I linked to the Frank Schaeffer-Rachel Baddow interview, and saw the first comment below the YouTube video:


"Well I seem to be going against Mr. Schaeffer's sage advice here, but let me put it this way, Kipling97. If your beloved Father gave you a beautiful, flawless, shiny new car and you drove it into the ground without ever lifting a finger to maintain it, do you really think it would last as long as a well-maintained car? Do you think your Father would be pleased with your disrespect of the gift? Use the brain God gave you,not the tiny crumb religion Left Behind."


Use the brain God gave you, not the tiny crumb religion Left Behind.

That's one of the more brilliant lines I've seen to use with the fundies!!!

:)

[T Wolf]

14. Talking is a waste of time with those idiots. Either ignore or eliminate - whichever works for YOU.

[nc4bo]

15. Excellent read. K&R nt