Are people really getting dumber

[hph04a]

Heard a guy at a local chop shop talking about putting a beer can holder at the top of his suicide shifter. The worst part about this is that he was serious and the guys there helped him mock up a temp to see how it looked. Not only does that have to be the stupidest thing I think you could possibly do, doesn't that just make the name "suicide shifter" so much truer? Any thoughts...
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"If money can fix it, its not that big a problem"

[dohcdelsol93]

well, I like beer probably just as much as anyone else. However since I purchased a bike almost a month ago my drinking has greatly been reduced from about a 6 pack a week to maybe 2-3 beers a week. I just don't think drinking and riding is a great idea.

A little mistake in a car you can just pull over and call a buddy to meet you and drive you home.

A little mistake on a bike and you will be calling your buddy to pick you up from the hospital.

People are definatly getting dumber. Want proof??? Tila Tequla show, American Idol, Find Paris Hilton a New Friend.

I can keep going.
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I'm not retarted but if retards had their own island I'd be their leader

www.postgamepub.com

[cyranodb]

In a word...yes, yes they are. People are getting dumber and I can sometimes feel my own brain turning to tapioca. I need to get out on the bike.
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Judge me by my size do you? And well you should not, for my ally is the Force. - Yoda - Empire Strike Back.

[miscusi]

AS I get to know more and more people, I find the world is full of idiots. and the most dangerous part is, that most of them dont "Look" any different from normal folk... so you never know till you get to know someone sometimes.. ugh.
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[Duke]

No; I'm an old man,

and I can emphatically tell you that people are _not_ getting dumber.

The problem, I'm afraid, is the safety nazis.

See,

with seatbelts, guardrails, anti-swinging from the rollbar in the back of the pick-up truck, "no swimming" signs, etc---

with the increased emphasis on making sure that every single gourd-head to ever do anything can not only do it, but can survive doing it--

well the problem is simply that those concerned about "the public welfare" have more or less stopped the truly stupid ones from dying off the way they used to.


Once upon a time, you could find dozens of obituaries with similar sorts of tales:

"Well, we wuz all standin' thar on the dock, right by thet gas pump they got out yonder, when Bubba getted this look about him... Directly, he starts ta gigglin', and looks over ta Earl and says "Hey Earl! Hol' muh beer a minute...""

Today, however, Bubba's usually going to make it back to Earl, grab his beer, down it in anger, and mutter "What kinda dern fool builds a dumpster outta Nerf, anyway?"

And frankly, it's a good question!

Why would you want to ensure that the sort of person who would put a beer holder on a suicide shifter would live to show other people how to do it?


When the truly stupid don't die off,

we run into a numbers problem:

There are, let's say, three groups:

Normal people

Stupid people

_Really_ stupid people


Normal people- we all know what those are.

What qualifies a stupid person?

Well, that's a definition by action: We all know what a _really_ stupid person is. a Stupid person is any person who looks at the general trends of the _really_ stupid and thinks "someone should intervene, and ensure that those people live a very long, happy, reproductive life."


The numbers problem:

I don't care who you are, you know that in your heart, you believe that you've met way more stupid people than you have 'normal' people. Amusingly enough, the more arrogant you are, the more really stupid people you've met (hmmmm... ).

So let's look at math:

Lets say that there are ten morons for ever normal person.

So for every normal couple, there are ten really stupid couples.

So let's say that in all the world, there are ten normal couples (twenty people) and one hundred really stupid couples (two hundred people).

So each couple has two kids.

Now there are forty normals, and four hundred stupids.

Right off, you can see that spiral.

But then figure that really, really, really stupid people aren't concerned about things like being able to afford children, or raise them properly, of even what their future will be.

So they have, say, six kids.

Now there are forty normals, and eight hundred others.

This was kept more in check through random accidents and such in previous generations,

but the safety nazis have done all they can to ensure moron life expectancy is very similar to that of everyone else, meaning that, well--

they've got all the power, all the vote, and all the world.

Just shiver quietly.
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Duke
"Skills must be Learned"
------ Herb Christian

[Jordan]

@ Duke

[MillenniumRebel]

what he said ...

individually - people are no dumber than they always have been

collectively - there are more and more of them everyday
and the world is rapidly approaching critical mass overload - IMHO
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[dohcdelsol93]

[luckydog]

I call the fellow with the beer can suicide shifter one of Darwin's people. The sooner he gets out of the gene pool, the better.

[Not A Hog]

I so agree with Duke.

The fact that nobody is held responsible for their behavior anymore, always excuses, poor upbringing, mental issues etc. Where I used to work a little girl got her finger squashed in the hinge part of a door. The mother was with her. The Father wanted our insurance to pay for it. I had to explain to him what NEGLIGENCE was.

The old "Nobody told me that if I smoke by the gas it could blow up" "nobody told me that leaving the third story window open around a child is dangerous"

The difference between stupid and ignorant is, if you're ignorant, you know no better, stupid is you that you do know better but do it anyway.
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Lynn

[MillenniumRebel]

[DaPeach]

the entire idea is ridiculous...I've got can holders on my John Deere & they don't work worth a squat. What makes this brilliant dood think it's gonna work any better on his shifter? It really is a dumb idea
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[Duke]

[MillenniumRebel]

[Duke]

Sorry, MR--

I can't think who it was right off the top of my head, but it wasn't John Anderson. It was Joe Diffie.
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Duke
"Skills must be Learned"
------ Herb Christian

[MillenniumRebel]

so - go quibble with the source website - thats why I provided you a link to it ...

do note that it's not my site - and as such, not my responsibility




BTW - you are aware that sometimes the same song is performed by more than one singer ?

http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/j/john_anderson/john_deer_green.html

http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/j/joe_diffie/john_deere_green.html

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=John+Deer+Green+Lyrics&btnG=Google+Search
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[Duke]

Yes.

In fact,

the group that recorded it-- can't remember there name at all.

I know Joe Diffie participated in the writing and pitching of it, and some other group blew it up on the charts.

But John Anderson has never recorded it.
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Duke
"Skills must be Learned"
------ Herb Christian

[MillenniumRebel]

then you got a lot of sites on that google hit list ...

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=John+Anderson+John+Deer+Green

... that you should go and have them correct their information






PS - some even have it on a recording (not that I can actually verify tho - considering)

http://www.allthelyrics.com/song/1059917/

http://www.imeem.com/preciousangels/music/6oHQIt2h/john_anderson_john_deer_green/
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[Not A Hog]

Picture #7. what in God's green earth is that monster?

Picture #11, I can see my dad doing that, he used to collect those old one lungers. Those JDs in particular were valuable, 'specially with that ignitor.
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Lynn

[hph04a]

I've already started checking the abilene obituaries waiting to see something on it, though I'm sure it'll be headline news here if something happens...All his friends will mourn,

"We never thought drinking and riding would harm no-one. We'z just havin sum fun. Next thing ya knowd Jim Bob yelled "hey y'all, watch this (famous last words of a redneck), and then we sawd him standin on his seat with a straw drinkin and shiftin." It was great till that d***ed bridge moved on him and he plowed through the gas station. We's all really stunned for a minute, but dang was that fireball purty" Sure is a sad day. He was a great man."

...or at least somethin like that. I'm gonna have to agree that we gotta find a way to regulate safety so that idiots die more often. We'll loose a few good people in the process to accident by the idiots, but I think the cost/reward ratio is high enough to justify it. Or maybe we should just have separate roads for smart people so that stupid people can kill each other off on their own. I cant wait for a Miss America contestant to say "screw world piece, we just need to get rid of all the stupid people."
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"If money can fix it, its not that big a problem"