Potty training time for pundit

October 21, 2004 10:33 AM

Don't they teach these kids anything in school ? History ? Punctuation ?And what's that smell ? - Conservative Adam Yoshida steps in it, inadvertently calls for reversal of 1965 Civil Rights bill, arguing for the disenfranchisement of 20% of the voting public through the reinstitution of poll tests (outlawed in 1965). Plus, his punctuation is awful ! : " we should consider maintaining (or even increasing) their benefits while, at the exact same time, making it harder for them to vote (I recommend modern and simple literacy tests for this purpose.

From my extensive time spent examining present and future members of our underclass, I'mquite convinced that a series of simple language and math questions would be enough to discourage them from voting). "
posted by troutfishing (23 comments total)

This might be a good time to consider how a future President Giuliani or President Schwarzenegger.

It's an incomplete sentence AND an unconstitutional proposal, all in one!
posted by MrMoonPie at 10:43 AM on October 21, 2004

You tell 'em.

Isn't there, like, some right wing Christian obedience school institute for the defense of the English language we could send this guy to for retraining ?
posted by troutfishing at 10:56 AM on October 21, 2004

" I'mquite convinced that a series of simple language and math questions would be enough to discourage them from voting" - not to belabour the obvious overmuch, but doesn't this insight date back to......oh, the post Reconstruction, pre-Jim Crow American South ?
posted by troutfishing at 10:58 AM on October 21, 2004

Adam Yoshida is, to be kind, one of the stately old bag ladies on the internet. From blogs to the *.history.what-if newsgroups, his cranky blatherings from the wilds of British Columbia (if that's where he still is) remind us that on the internet, you really, really have to try to convince people you're a looney.
posted by paddbear at 11:14 AM on October 21, 2004

I wonder if this is the same Adam Yoshida I've known and loved all these years on USENET...
posted by alumshubby at 11:16 AM on October 21, 2004

News flash! College student somewhere and usenet crank extraordinaire has dumb ideas, is bad at spelling.

In other news, Serdar Argic still wants to remind you about massacres in Turkey, and Gene Ray is still all about the Cubes.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 11:19 AM on October 21, 2004

Crazy person on internet posts nonsense, wow, I'm shocked.
posted by kavasa at 11:22 AM on October 21, 2004

whoa, paddbear beat me to the Post button...
posted by alumshubby at 11:23 AM on October 21, 2004

Actually, what fascinates me is that "Insight" is so hard up for commentary. I'd love to know what their site traffic is.
posted by troutfishing at 11:31 AM on October 21, 2004

They're not fooling me.

This is just another pen name for Ann Coulter!

The only difference is Insight can't afford an editor to clean up the grammatical errors.

I'd love to know what their site traffic is.

That would be a true insight and is not allowed.
posted by nofundy at 11:35 AM on October 21, 2004

Plus, his punctuation is awful

Pot, kettle...
posted by rushmc at 11:52 AM on October 21, 2004

that's some seriously good insight into "conservative" "thinking."
posted by mrgrimm at 12:11 PM on October 21, 2004

You know, I'd really think a serious conservative would understand that his base was the toothless, inbred crowd at the infield of a dirt track stock car race and wouldn't suggest something like this.
posted by Pollomacho at 12:38 PM on October 21, 2004

I'm fully behind this idea -- my brutal antarctic copper smelting operations require additional labor, and frankly some of the guards need replacing as well.

You'd be amazed how fast you can burn through staff when it comes to hardcore cruelty. Some of these so-called tough guys break down faster than the people they're beating.
posted by aramaic at 12:39 PM on October 21, 2004

You know, at first I thought it was a Swiftian satire, and then I realized he was serious. It was better as satire.
posted by dejah420 at 1:21 PM on October 21, 2004

Righty lunatics spew this kinda anti-Constitutional crap all the time. Look at this "brilliant" Neal Bortz plan, that the rich should get more votes than us unwashed plebs. This stuff is not hard to find, or to ridicule. If you're interested in making fun of the thoughtless brain diarrhea of the righty fringe (and those who mindlessly lick up that spew), then there are several blogs you should follow, the best (imho) being World O'Crap. See also, TBogg, The Dark Window, Sadly, No!, and, of course, Jesus' General.

As to the barely human thing known as Adam Yoshida, he's just trying to earn cred in the lastest craze sweeping the neo-conman apologist community. Retardo, at elementropy, calls this line of idiotic non-reason "The Case For [Something Awful]".

Sorry, trout, I like you and all, but this was pretty lame for a post to MeFi. For this kinda stuff, you really really need to get a blog, dude.
posted by Wulfgar! at 2:08 PM on October 21, 2004

For that matter, how would we know ? Can't politics and satire be one and the same ?
posted by troutfishing at 2:10 PM on October 21, 2004

The best thing about this proposal is that this guy would be the very first person disenfranchised.
posted by ilsa at 2:42 PM on October 21, 2004

Your punctuation is awful, too, so perhaps it might be best to leave that particular bit out of the argument.

Anyhow, I love net kooks, but chiefly for the derision they attract. Unfortunately, this guy isn't doing a particularly good job of kookery. This particular line of ill-conceived reasoning has been spouted from that political quarter in the past, though it's somewhat rarer that it gets published in the prestigious... um... some web site I've never heard of.
posted by majick at 3:01 PM on October 21, 2004

The best thing about this proposal is that this guy would be the very first person disenfranchised

Seeing as how he's chock full of Canucky goodness, he was never enfranchised in the US to start with.

What happens to someone in BC to make them turn out this way? Did his dad run off with a dope-smoking snowboarder? Was he molested by a sasquatch?

The thing I wonder about is the permanence of all this. I can imagine being a teenaged shithead with very absolute and stupid opinions, and growing out of it. But this dude's ranting will be out there for the googling forever. Will it make it harder to grow out of into a mature embarrassment at the thought of your younger self if that younger self drops by for an occasional visit?
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 3:53 PM on October 21, 2004

ROU_Xenophobe - well, this is a redemption culture, so :

"Well, you said _____"

"Sure, but that was last month. Last week, I found God."
posted by troutfishing at 9:51 PM on October 21, 2004

The buried lede: To this end, we must also consider the separation of middle-class entitlements from underclass entitlements. When both the underclass and the middle-class are dependent on universal programs such as Social Security and Medicare, they're likely to vote (to some degree) as though they share common interests). Means-testing all government programs and offering private alternatives is the long-term solution to this problem.

Concepts such as the "Ownership Society" are designed with this in mind.

Every once in a while, a stupider member of the team accidentally speaks the truth.

(Actually, it reminds me of the lovely and funny Juli, from college, one of the first "real" Republicans I ever met. We argued about the supervision of the South under the Voting Rights Act, and I asked her if she felt that voting was a privilege rather than a right. She deadpanned, Actually, Dan, I believe only people who own property should vote. It was months before I figured out she was kidding.)
posted by dhartung at 11:06 PM on October 21, 2004

Dan - that was my impression too.
posted by troutfishing at 8:44 PM on October 23, 2004