Party of Ideas Watch

Lack of Humor Watch...

Lack of Humor Watch

The joke, such as it is, is simple enough to get, Al. The joke is merely asinine. The sentiment conveyed by the joke translates to "Boy oh boy, do I hate professors and think they're useless!", which is both stupid and foolish for all the reasons Matt outlines. If you'd like to try to defend the absurd proposition that the US doesn't particularly need academics, I'd welcome the spectacle.

Lack of Humor Watch...

If this is a comment on the fine people at the NRO who post such drivel, I might change my rating on your comment to one much higher.

Actually, Ash, I live in my Mom's basement.   Kind of odd for a middle-aged white guy who's never been married to be living with his parents, but I don't have any friends and I've never ever kissed a girl, and I'm just such a sad, pathetic loser that I have to come here and troll just to wallpaper over my own inumerable inadequacies.

It's all I really have to do.  Other than eat Cheeze-doodles, that is.  I eat lots of freakin' Cheeze-doodles.

And if you want to know why they'd even joke about such a thing go read Professor Gitlin's post on the TPM front page, or just the first and last sentence.

Part of the process of higher intellect is to question and criticize, and the Right doesn't like either of those to happen.

Exactly right.  They would want a nation of sheep to follow the leader off a cliff if that's where the leader goes, just like the 450 sheep that followed the first off a cliff in Turkey recently.  The sheep are the perfect metaphor for those cult-like Bush supporters who believe he can do no wrong.  The Right would want many more like them.

And btw this is why they talk about the "humorless left".

And this is why they talk about the 'humorless left.'

I thought it was because we didn't laugh at gay jokes?

I don't see how the joke is "promoting ignorance" however lame it may be.

One might argue that an uninitiated person reading that post would be compelled to learn what the heck he was talking about right?

I read NR (as, obviously, does Matt) and I don't feel that it makes me more ignorant. I feel it helps me understand conservative views.

I find it quite interesting as I also find Mother Jones to be interesting. I don't take either to be the end all and be all. I just enjoy reading opinions from the left and right and I don't despise people due to their political slant.

So "promoting ignorance" makes me wonder what your point is, or what I'm missing.

I have a Vet for my beagle Sassy, a graduate of LSU 25 years ago. He's great, by far the best Vet we've ever had. He spends about an hour with me (I'm not exaggerating at all, maybe more than an hour on average) every time I go up there and he always has a Michael Jackson joke. Last time it was:

"How are Michael Jackson and McDonald's alike? 45 year old meat between 10 year old buns."

Time before that it was:

"What's the difference between Michael Jackson and acne? Acne usually doesn't come on your face until you're 13 or so."

Was he promoting ignorance? I suppose one could argue that but I wouldn't.

I read NR (as, obviously, does Matt) and I don't feel that it makes me more ignorant. I feel it helps me understand conservative views.

Nothing wrong with reading NR.  I would never advocate against reading anything you choose to read.  I would say that reading the opposition is a good thing, and could make you smarter.

About the joke, maybe it's me, but I just don't get it.

Actually it is about a failure to see the humor. Although I suspect that Matt knows it was posted in jest.

Believing that you made a joke is not the same as making a joke. It also requires some wit. Matt already pointed out one reason why the joke doesn't work. The other one that comes to mind is that computer scientists and physicists are usually liberal or moderate. A computer scientist like David Gelernter is noteworthy because he is one of the rare conservatives, and even he's a bit idiosyncratic in his interests.

Personally, I'd love to have more foreign born technical professionals becoming voting American citizens. I imagine their voting patterns would be a lot like Santa Clara county here in the Bay Area.
 

Well, I know that I couldn't agree more with Miller.  We ought to take the whole high-education system and ship it to France.  Just think, every American who wanted to get an college degree would have to study abroad.  No doubt the U.S. economy would take off while France would slip into Third-World status after that move.  With brilliant out-of-the-box wonkery like Miller's we're in great hands.

Libertine- It is just the Right lashing out at everything they feel is liberal...the MSM, academia etc.

 I'll add to this idea that they desire to foster old fashion racism and exhibit a pyschosis of the masses-collective paranoia. Hindu professionals that I have talked to just speak about the economic advantages for moving here. The right is fighting a losing battle-define everything from within the box.

Example of humor: Making a post about a stupid, unfunny idea from NR and entitling it "Party of Ideas Watch" is funny and cutting.

The analogue to the original article would have been for MY to write, "Oh yeah?? Well I think they should deport William Buckley!" which, one would hope, everyone would realize is not funny.