If You Tolerate Stupidity, You Are Virtuous.

[3 AE]

http://news.yahoo.com/kerry-defends-liberties-says-americans-stupid-141450112.html

I have no words to describe our future. :cray:

[SteyrAUG]

Secretary of State John Kerry offered a defense of freedom of speech, religion and thought in the United States on Tuesday telling German students that in America "you have a right to be stupid if you want to be."


So basically he was explaining to the students how he and Obama got elected in the first place. They probably truly didn't understand how it happened.

[a0cake]

Are you intentionally misrepresenting his words, or what? I don't know why people always do this; they make heroic efforts to misconstrue every single thing someone says simply because they don't like that person.

The Westboro Bapist Church and the KKK, for example, are stupid. Stupidity is their most salient and abundant property. They have a right to propagandize and attempt to spread their ideas. In other words, they have the right to be stupid. Tolerating this right of theirs to stupidity, protected by the first amendment, is exactly what Kerry was talking about here. They have a right to be stupid, and yes, respecting that right is a virtue. It doesn't mean we respect their stupidity itself, and in fact we should counter it publicly and loudly, but we do respect their right to advertise that stupidity in accordance with the 1A.

What is there to really disagree about here?

[Waylander]

While I agree that his overall defense of freedom of speech, religion, and political affiliation is something that should be respected and worth fighting for, his almost tongue-in-cheek way of saying it comes across as patronizing. Without reading too much into it, he seems to be saying it with an air of superiority.

He insinuates (to laughter no less) that there is stupidity in certain American speech, religions, and politics and I would mostly agree. But I would say that I wouldn't agree with the majority of what he thinks is stupid nor would he agree with me. It seems nothing more than a sarcastic way of putting down a certain portion of Americans while almost apologizing to another nation for our tolerance. Nothing new here.

[SteyrAUG]

Are you intentionally misrepresenting his words, or what? I don't know why people always do this; they make heroic efforts to misconstrue every single thing someone says simply because they don't like that person.

The Westboro Bapist Church and the KKK, for example, are stupid. Stupidity is their most salient and abundant property. They have a right to propagandize and attempt to spread their ideas. In other words, they have the right to be stupid. Tolerating this right of theirs to stupidity, protected by the first amendment, is exactly what Kerry was talking about here. They have a right to be stupid, and yes, respecting that right is a virtue. It doesn't mean we respect their stupidity itself, and in fact we should counter it publicly and loudly, but we do respect their right to advertise that stupidity in accordance with the 1A.

What is there to really disagree about here?

Leave us alone, we're pantsing John Kerry.

:jester:

Seriously, I think we all know idiots are a price of freedom, but I don't think I'd call it a virtue to tolerate them. Impressive self control perhaps, but not really virtuous.

What I'd rather have explained is how a treasonous, hippie ****tard who once threw his military decorations over the fence at the US Capitol could one day become Secretary of State.

[Doc Safari]

What I'd rather have explained is how a treasonous, hippie ****tard who once threw his military decorations over the fence at the US Capitol could one day become Secretary of State.

I'm sorry you weren't paying attention, but this was covered in the same chapter that explained how a (suspected) gay, (suspected) illegal alien, (suspected) communist, community organizer could become President.

[30 cal slut]

Too long.

Didn't read.

(Flipping through my Netflix remote) ... :sarcastic:

[TAZ]

Leave us alone, we're pantsing John Kerry.

:jester:

Seriously, I think we all know idiots are a price of freedom, but I don't think I'd call it a virtue to tolerate them. Impressive self control perhaps, but not really virtuous.

What I'd rather have explained is how a treasonous, hippie ****tard who once threw his military decorations over the fence at the US Capitol could one day become Secretary of State.

Cause we are tolerant to stupid people.

While I agree that his most likely point wasn't to claim Americans are stupid but rather that our tolerance of different views actually makes us stronger; his delivery is arrogant and condescending. Which is par for the course for today's elected official.

[Moose-Knuckle]

I'm sorry you weren't paying attention, but this was covered in the same chapter that explained how a (suspected) gay, (suspected) illegal alien, (suspected) communist, community organizer could become President.

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a144/AKS-74/3rpqih_zps91aee595.jpg

[Dienekes]

Stupidity and evil have the same consequences. To brag about being tolerant of either marks you as unfit to live among men.

[a0cake]

Stupidity and evil have the same consequences. To brag about being tolerant of either marks you as unfit to live among men.

If someone says or does something stupid, that needs to be pointed out and corrected. I'd consider that something like a duty. So in that sense I exercise a sort of intolerance with respect to stupidity. But what I don't do is try to eliminate the ability of someone to act stupidly in the first place. People do have a right to be stupid. So in that sense the 1A and basic moral philosophy should convince us that tolerating someone's right to stupidity is something of a moral virtue, while tolerating the exercise of that stupidity without criticizing it would not be. This is why we don't tell the Westboro Baptist Church or the KKK that they can't exercise their right to free-speech, but nowhere implicit in the right to free-speech is the right not to be criticized for the way in which you exercise it. Do you see the distinction I'm making here and in my first reply?

[skydivr]

It's a damn shame we now seen to celebrate mediocrity, or even worse outright dumbassery, over hard work and achievement. If you are a self-made person, you are derided, hated and made fun of....Nothing more than simple jealousy.

[brushy bill]

Stupidity and evil have the same consequences. To brag about being tolerant of either marks you as unfit to live among men.

Amen.

[Belmont31R]

I view these types of statements through the lens the people saying this stuff view America, and the world, and much like Obama's America bash/apology tour is viewed by the left as regaining our standing in the world that Bush ruined Kerry's statements are another round of America bashing. Nothing more nothing less.


The mistake people make who dismiss this type of statement make is assuming the person making the statement is a red blooded American patriot who loves the Constitution, small government, and really thinks America is on a hill higher than any other. No...these people view America with disdain, and Kerry has called American soldiers war criminals in numerous different conflicts. He has a view of America being a nation littered with war crimes, and it's soldiers as war criminals. He has had this view since the Vietnam War, and helped the North Vietnamese in ways he should have been tried and convicted of treason. That was 50 years ago, and he at the same ole game of subverting our country and trying to knock us down a few pegs to better match the suffering in the rest of the world because, after all, the suffering in the rest of the world is our fault.