My friend Denny has made it into The Urban Dictionary.
The first time I read Denny's stuff at his "Grouchy Old Cripple" site, I knew that I was going to start a website. I've now had the privilege of partying with Denny twice.
If you disagree with Denny's politics, you are free to comment and argue with him. A couple of rules, though....
You have to stay on-topic, and you have to address Denny's points. Otherwise, he edits your comments and you'll wind up telling 5 or 6 thousand people how much you enjoy eating boogers, or that you still wet the bed during thunderstorms, or worse.
His site, his rules.
So here's the Grouchy Old Cripple entry in the Urban Dictionary:
An ultra-partisan blog where posts that contain dissenting opinions are distorted by the administrator in order to buttress the shaky foundation on which his simplistic world view is founded. In this twisted microcosm, the humiliation of dissenters is achieved by distortion rather than by a display of superior logic or a greater mastery of the facts. The resultant dearth of posts with opposing viewpoints preserves the echo chamber that is essential for maintaining a thriving culture of ignorance. In this enclave of ill-informed demagogues, people with a shaky grasp of science and history take undeserved pleasure in congratulating themselves on being smarter than professionals who possess advanced degrees dealing with these subjects.
I'm guessing that whoever wrote this is working on a Masters in Sociology. Just a guess on my part.
Let's take this definition one sentence at a time, shall we?
An ultra-partisan blog....
Of course it's ultra-partisan. CNN is ultra-partisan. So is Fox. So is the Sunflower County Weekly Wiper. That's why they have an audience. That's why Denny has one of the top 100 Conservative Blogs.
It wasn't until the 1990's Republican Revolution that people started using the word "partisan" as an insult. Before then, the Dems pretty much controlled Congress. When the Democrats finally got some opposition, "Bi-partisanship", or "working together to screw the citizenry" became the new ideal.
....where posts that contain dissenting opinions are distorted by the administrator....
Not if you stay on point, and not if you know how to argue.
....in order to buttress the shaky foundation on which his simplistic world view is founded....
Denny, as best I can tell, is a right-leaning libertarian.
His opposition, the Statists, have us in 5 wars, 14 trillion in debt, with a school system that turns out illiterates, a Post Office that can't deliver Sports Illustrated, a Federal Reserve that is printing money to pay debts, and a desire to take over our healthcare system (since they've been so succesful at everything else).
And Denny's worldview is shaky and simplistic?
In this twisted microcosm....
Five or six thousand hits per day (for a one man operation) isn't a microcosm, dude. Get linked by Denny, and you get something called a Crippleanche.
....the humiliation of dissenters is achieved by distortion rather than by a display of superior logic or a greater mastery of the facts.
See everything written above.
....The resultant dearth of posts with opposing viewpoints preserves the echo chamber that is essential for maintaining a thriving culture of ignorance....
No, no, no. No. People post opposing viewpoints all the time. Some of them become legends. And they keep coming back. They're like kittens who keep hopping into a cage with the Pit Bulls.
In this enclave of ill-informed demagogues....
Bullshit. I've gone to Blogger Meetups with these ill-informed demagogues. (And BTW, you don't really call a blogger and his commenters "demagogues". A blogger would be the demagogue, and his followers would be "disciples" or "toadies" or something. But I'm quibbling about semantics here.) If you want to talk politics and history with well-informed people, hang out with Denny's friends.
....people with a shaky grasp of science and history take undeserved pleasure in congratulating themselves on being smarter than professionals who possess advanced degrees dealing with these subjects.
Oh for the love of God.
Ben Bernanke, who is screwing our economy eight ways from Sunday, has a Doctorate in Economics.
Timmy "The Tax Dodger" Geithner has a Masters in Political Science.
She Whose Name Is Not Spoken has a degree in Political Science.
Al Gore has a B.A. in Government.
The Teleprompter Jesus has a law degree, and at one point actually taught Constitutional Law. You either think that's funny, or you don't.
Those people could screw up a brass donkey. Whatever they learned in school is deeply and profoundly wrong.
Anyway, I read this definition and thought it was the funniest sprinkling of Smart Words over a thin layer of stupid that I've ever read. Especially to the people who know Denny.
One other thing..... I usually get together with Denny and his friends in Bandera TX for a Blogger Meetup every year. But our economic and political situation, because of professionals who possess advanced degrees dealing with these subjects, is so screwed up that a lot of us can't afford to go this year. We've had to cancel the event.
If our country could be run by this particular enclave of ill-informed demagogues, I don't think we'd be having these problems.
The first time I read Denny's stuff at his "Grouchy Old Cripple" site, I knew that I was going to start a website. I've now had the privilege of partying with Denny twice.
If you disagree with Denny's politics, you are free to comment and argue with him. A couple of rules, though....
You have to stay on-topic, and you have to address Denny's points. Otherwise, he edits your comments and you'll wind up telling 5 or 6 thousand people how much you enjoy eating boogers, or that you still wet the bed during thunderstorms, or worse.
His site, his rules.
So here's the Grouchy Old Cripple entry in the Urban Dictionary:
An ultra-partisan blog where posts that contain dissenting opinions are distorted by the administrator in order to buttress the shaky foundation on which his simplistic world view is founded. In this twisted microcosm, the humiliation of dissenters is achieved by distortion rather than by a display of superior logic or a greater mastery of the facts. The resultant dearth of posts with opposing viewpoints preserves the echo chamber that is essential for maintaining a thriving culture of ignorance. In this enclave of ill-informed demagogues, people with a shaky grasp of science and history take undeserved pleasure in congratulating themselves on being smarter than professionals who possess advanced degrees dealing with these subjects.
I'm guessing that whoever wrote this is working on a Masters in Sociology. Just a guess on my part.
Let's take this definition one sentence at a time, shall we?
An ultra-partisan blog....
Of course it's ultra-partisan. CNN is ultra-partisan. So is Fox. So is the Sunflower County Weekly Wiper. That's why they have an audience. That's why Denny has one of the top 100 Conservative Blogs.
It wasn't until the 1990's Republican Revolution that people started using the word "partisan" as an insult. Before then, the Dems pretty much controlled Congress. When the Democrats finally got some opposition, "Bi-partisanship", or "working together to screw the citizenry" became the new ideal.
....where posts that contain dissenting opinions are distorted by the administrator....
Not if you stay on point, and not if you know how to argue.
....in order to buttress the shaky foundation on which his simplistic world view is founded....
Denny, as best I can tell, is a right-leaning libertarian.
His opposition, the Statists, have us in 5 wars, 14 trillion in debt, with a school system that turns out illiterates, a Post Office that can't deliver Sports Illustrated, a Federal Reserve that is printing money to pay debts, and a desire to take over our healthcare system (since they've been so succesful at everything else).
And Denny's worldview is shaky and simplistic?
In this twisted microcosm....
Five or six thousand hits per day (for a one man operation) isn't a microcosm, dude. Get linked by Denny, and you get something called a Crippleanche.
....the humiliation of dissenters is achieved by distortion rather than by a display of superior logic or a greater mastery of the facts.
See everything written above.
....The resultant dearth of posts with opposing viewpoints preserves the echo chamber that is essential for maintaining a thriving culture of ignorance....
No, no, no. No. People post opposing viewpoints all the time. Some of them become legends. And they keep coming back. They're like kittens who keep hopping into a cage with the Pit Bulls.
In this enclave of ill-informed demagogues....
Bullshit. I've gone to Blogger Meetups with these ill-informed demagogues. (And BTW, you don't really call a blogger and his commenters "demagogues". A blogger would be the demagogue, and his followers would be "disciples" or "toadies" or something. But I'm quibbling about semantics here.) If you want to talk politics and history with well-informed people, hang out with Denny's friends.
....people with a shaky grasp of science and history take undeserved pleasure in congratulating themselves on being smarter than professionals who possess advanced degrees dealing with these subjects.
Oh for the love of God.
Ben Bernanke, who is screwing our economy eight ways from Sunday, has a Doctorate in Economics.
Timmy "The Tax Dodger" Geithner has a Masters in Political Science.
She Whose Name Is Not Spoken has a degree in Political Science.
Al Gore has a B.A. in Government.
The Teleprompter Jesus has a law degree, and at one point actually taught Constitutional Law. You either think that's funny, or you don't.
Those people could screw up a brass donkey. Whatever they learned in school is deeply and profoundly wrong.
Anyway, I read this definition and thought it was the funniest sprinkling of Smart Words over a thin layer of stupid that I've ever read. Especially to the people who know Denny.
One other thing..... I usually get together with Denny and his friends in Bandera TX for a Blogger Meetup every year. But our economic and political situation, because of professionals who possess advanced degrees dealing with these subjects, is so screwed up that a lot of us can't afford to go this year. We've had to cancel the event.
If our country could be run by this particular enclave of ill-informed demagogues, I don't think we'd be having these problems.
