How to talk to complete idiots Three basic options: Choose wisely, lest you go totally insane

[kpete]

How to talk to complete idiots
Three basic options. Choose wisely, lest you go totally insane

By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist



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.

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Remember, facts do not matter. The actual Obama plan itself does not matter. Fear of change, fear of the "Other," fear of the scary black socialist president, fear that yet another important shift is taking place that they cannot understand and which therefore makes them thrash around like a trapped animal? This is all that matters.

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Option two is to try to speak their language, dumb yourself down, engage on the idiot's level as you try to figure out how their minds work -- or more accurately, don't work -- so you can better empathize and find a shred of common ground and maybe, just maybe, inch the human experiment forward.

This is, as you already sense, a dangerous trap, pure intellectual quicksand. It almost never works, and just makes you feel gross and slimy. Nevertheless, plenty of shrewd political strategists believe that the best way for Obama and the Dems to get their message across regarding everything from health care reform to new environmental regulation, would be to steal a page from the Glenn Beck/Karl Rove/sociopath's playbook, and start getting stupid.

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Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2009/09/25/notes092509.DTL#ixzz0SKTpXcMr

[stray cat]

1. However, be cautious about labeling one a complete idiot

the idiot may be yourself or the other person may simply have a different opinion. Intellegence can not always be measured by whether one agrees with you.

[stuball111]

2. Rule #1.....

NEVER argue with and Idiot:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[hunter]

3. He includes a really cool link to the Gnostic Society...

"To the educated mind, it seems inconceivable that millions of people will choose rabid ignorance and childish fantasy over, say, a polar bear. Permafrost. Rocks. Nag Hammadi. But they will, and they do. Faced with this mountain of factual obviousness, the bewildered fundamentalist will merely leap back as if you just jabbed him with a flaming homosexual cattle prod..."

Mention anything Gnostic to a Fundamentalists and they will shun you. Even if they don't know what you are talking about at first they will bring word of it back to their nests where they will be thoroughly disinfected and directed in no uncertain terms to avoid further contact with you.