Friday, January 13, 2012

Fox News' John Stossel: Young people are stupid and shouldn't vote

"I’m not saying we should have a test or something. But this endless cheerleading — let’s go to the rock concerts and register the kids. And the kids aren’t paying attention. And it’s important in a democracy, it’s important to vote. And these are important issues. The people who participate ought to be the ones who pay attention…I’m just saying we shouldn’t have these “Get Out The Vote” campaigns and make these statements: “Everyone has to vote. It’s your patriotic duty!” Well if you’re not paying attention, I think it’s your patriotic duty not to vote."




He was essentially arguing that if you're misinformed about issues and if you have no idea what you're voting for, then you should just stay home. And I wouldn't necessarily disagree with him. But then he exclusively targets "the kids," as if people in their 20s who fight and die and go to war are children. This is just unbelievable. When there are seven separate polls showing that Fox News viewers -- baby boomers -- are the most misinformed demographic in the country, he says it's "the kids" who don't know what the hell is going on. There are some real dumbshits in my age group, but fuck this ageist dickbag for presuming that they only preside in a single generation. "The kids" aren't the ones who got us into fucking Iraq. They're not the ones who fall for Cold War propaganda and Southern Strategy anti-black, anti-Muslim racist bullshit. They're the ones who support equal rights for gay people. They're're the ones who are at least open to socialism (or as I like to call it, democracy). Young people are the ones who spearheaded the Arab Spring. I'm really not trying to turn this into a circle jerk, but some of the most intelligent and informed people I've ever met in my life have been people my own age.

There are historical records going all the way back to ancient Rome, where people bag on "the young people" as hopelessly lost and stupid; so this kind of thinking is really human nature (they're not exactly like me in every way, what's happening to this world!?). The real truth of the matter is that nobody ever really "grows up," and the people who pretend to, like John Stossel, just want to be bullies and pick on others because they're "bigger" than them. God damn moron. I'll end this with a Joe Rogan quote.

Remember back when you were a kid, and you thought there were actually people that knew what this thing we call “life” was really all about? Remember when you thought there really were “grown ups?” Then, all of a sudden one day you become a “grown up” yourself and the terrifying revelation occurs to you that there really are no “grown ups,” just kids that got old and had kids of their own, and no one really knows what the fuck is going on.

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