Romney: "47% of voters think they are victims and are dependent on gov't"

[AdamSmith]

Interesting graphic:

This reminds me too of the research 4 years ago that showed the reddest states on average scored weakest in "family values" -- i.e, had the most children born out of wedlock, most single-parent families, highest welfare rates, etc. -- while the blue states were strongest.

Can a party premised nowadays on fundamentally mindfucking its constituents long endure?

[Guest EXPAT]

From SNL last night and now sent out by the Democratic party:

[Guest hitoallusa]

"I think Seth Meyers should read Think Slow and Fast... He is biased and irrational... He is comitting Sustem 1 error. If the US wants to recover its economic wealth and implement a functioning government then a stupid program like SNL should be camcelled so that it doesn't promote biased and iraational thinking."

- hitoallusa 2012

[MsGuy]

Hito, I recall Plato as proposing to banish poetry and music from his Utopia because they promoted irrational thought.

[JKane]

"I think Seth Meyers should read Think Slow and Fast... He is biased and irrational... He is comitting Sustem 1 error. If the US wants to recover its economic wealth and implement a functioning government then a stupid program like SNL should be camcelled so that it doesn't promote biased and iraational thinking."

- hitoallusa 2012

I think you should look up the definition of satire in a dictionary. Weekend update/political satire are about all that SNL is still good at!

[AdamSmith]

Hito, I recall Plato as proposing to banish poetry and music from his Utopia because they promoted irrational thought.

...They will get it straight one day at the Sorbonne.

We shall return at twilight from the lecture

Pleased that the irrational is rational,

Until flicked by feeling, in a gildered street,

I call you by name, my green, my fluent mundo.

You will have stopped revolving except in crystal.

-- from Stevens, 'Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction'

[AdamSmith]

"I think Seth Meyers should read Think Slow and Fast... He is biased and irrational... He is comitting Sustem 1 error. If the US wants to recover its economic wealth and implement a functioning government then a stupid program like SNL should be camcelled so that it doesn't promote biased and iraational thinking."

- hitoallusa 2012

Should we likewise ban publication of the essays of Jonathan Swift? They afford satirical principles at least as sharply applicable to current U.S. affairs as SNL and its topical ilk.

Or the fiction of Mark Twain, whose sly but piercing social criticisms remain only too relevant?

[Guest hitoallusa]

Well there was a time when Gladiators killing each other and feeding people to wild animals were acceptable and enjoyed by many people ... I don't think we don't allow those cruel acts in our society any more.. Music and art are not irrational in my opinion... I believe they represent part of ourselves and should be promoted.. If SNL is pure art or something close to it then I guess I am wrong and I should respect the freedom of expression. I strongly feel, however, in the future.. we will have another form of entertainment that can be both fun and positive... That can promote rationality and conversations rather than widen the schism that already too big to close and make people laugh away any chance for mutual understanding and negotiation. Yes we don't have Gladiators today in our media but we have something that has some negative effects on the progress of our society. In that sense I think SNL needs to change. Healthy satire I have no problem with but in my opinion what they are doing to excite people's senses to make more money is something not desirable.. Maybe in our new progressive society many years from now a show like this will not have a place as we came to condemn Murdoch... SNL will be considered lower form of entertainment that gives some physical pleasure but has no real value...

[AdamSmith]

Healthy satire I have no problem with but in my opinion what they are doing to excite people's senses to make more money is something not desirable.. Maybe in our new progressive society many years from now a show like this will not have a place as we came to condemn Murdoch... SNL will be considered lower form of entertainment that gives some physical pleasure but has no real value...

Satire as a genre has existed as long as written Western literature. (Maybe longer, but I distrust most scholarship about "oral traditions." Except the ones reported in the Buffet here!) Indeed, literary historians discern a strong strain of satire in the writings of the J author himself (herself?! -- Bloom), composer of the oldest threads in the Old Testament.

How would you differentiate "healthy" satire from the rest? Would, say, Swift's A Modest Proposal qualify?

[Guest hitoallusa]

How dare I argue with an English major from an Ivy league about a genre of satire... I call it healthy when it has positive effects on its readers or at least it gives its readers a new perspective on things... I am not sure what SNL is doing and it is neither healthy nor positive.. It's a very low form of mass entertainment designed to mislead people and ridicule the very audience it targets. Furthermore, I believe shows like SNL diverts people's focus on something superficial and shallow. But as I have said, I believe in the future shows like SNL will be replaced by something healthy and beneficial..

[AdamSmith]

How dare I argue with an English major from an Ivy league about a genre of satire...

Well, I wish you would.

You effuse this gaseous view of the New World, but without any least signpost of how to get from Here to There. I completely agree. So how?

[MsGuy]

I call it healthy when it has positive effects on its readers or at least it gives its readers a new perspective on things... I believe shows like SNL diverts people's focus on something superficial and shallow...in the future shows like SNL will be replaced by something healthy and beneficial..

Well, why didn't you say so in the first place, Hito? Good ole socialist realism, just the thing for what ails us!

[Guest hitoallusa]

Nah MsGUy it will be better than that.. We live in a society where lepers are accepted and treated... The cruel treatment we had against them in the past is long gone.. Slavery is abolished and people are respected and N word is not allowed...

Just a two century ago in China if a government official commits a crime then his whole family get punished and lose its social status... We have progressed enough not to do that. Why do I have to be mocked for yearning a better world and asking people to respect others? People did fight against slavery, discrimination and injustice and came to what we enjoy today... I hope it will get better and better and a new form of government and society replace the current ones... At least you guys believe in evolution and if that is the case then I think our society will transform into a new one. That's my point... Mock me if you like but a new society will come with different political system that respects people and also respected by people... Having that thought is a start, I believe...

[ihpguy]

Please just promise me that in this new society we won't all be required to wear Magic Panties. Much too difficult for my Brasilian boyfriends to enter through rear while sleeping at night for a surprise prostate massage.

[Guest hitoallusa]

That is so nice you have a hot Bf... Now where is mine? He must be hiding somewhere...

Please just promise me that in this new society we won't all be required to wear Magic Panties. Much too difficult for my Brasilian boyfriends to enter through rear while sleeping at night for a surprise prostate massage.

[ihpguy]

The Baixada Fluminense has a never-ending array that it keeps sending south to Centro and the southern regions. That doesn't count the sons and grandsons of the two million plus to the east in Niteroi, Sao Goncalo and elswewhere that are looking for an estrangeiro. Keep your fingers crossed, I might have found a keeper.