Oh American darlings …

[blamebrampton]

I do feel for you. I have met so many smart, serious and intellectually curious citizens of the United States, and yet your political climate is so filled with people just like this one:

Suddenly the abject lunacy that surrounds health and science debates in your country has a whole new layer of horror attached. And thanks to Jeph Jacques of Questionable Content for the URL.

I'm off to see whether having a sore knee is a good enough excuse for wagging work now that hideous deadline has passed. A few laps of the hall ought to settle my conscience one way or the other.

Comments

[oldenuf2nb.livejournal.com]

You know, if it weren't that we were being forced to listen to morons just like this one day in and day out, this might be really funny. Unfortunately.... it isn't.

[meredyth-13.livejournal.com]

Oh, interwebs, you are full of the funneh!

There's no monopoly on ignorance, although this is a very specialised kind - where there is definitely knowledge, but somehow the vital bit is just missing. I think it's the righteous outrage implicit in the commentary that amused me most.

I have managed moments of amazing stupidity in my time, but fortunately I have (for the most part) managed to isolate them to private moments with trusted friends (and alcohol), and not blazoned them across the aether for the mockery of the masses.

:D

[shocolate.livejournal.com]

*bites off my own leg to escape from the planet*

[mockingbirdq.livejournal.com]

Oh my everlovin' God. Where was this woman during her high school science classes? Heck, even my five year old has played with prisms and will purposefully create rainbows using the water hose.

Just insane, that anyone is that ignorant. And damn frightening!

[libby-drew.livejournal.com]

*dies* Is that real? My kids are rofl right now. Maybe that was someone trying to be funny. One can hope, right?

[sesheta-66.livejournal.com]

It boggles the mind.

[timeasmymeasure.livejournal.com]

IT'S THE GAY!!!
ALL THE HOMOSEXUALS ARE CAUSING THE WATER TO SPOUT RAINBOWS!!

I don't even-what?
Sadly this is the state of general knowledge, and the politicians appeal to this base and raise them into a frenzy over issues they've no comprehension on.
*sigh*

[tsosh.livejournal.com]

*giggles*
This is a great examples of how conspiracy theories work - use big scientific words, speak with righteous indignation on behalf of all mankind, and blame the mysterious "them".

Have you seen this video? After that, nothing surprises me.

[empress-jae.livejournal.com]

i'm so embarrassed, and i haven't even watched it. *sigh*

[romaine24.livejournal.com]

Someday when we meet and have a drink or four I'll tell you about my first experience with fireflies when I was 22 and had moved from California to New Hampshire.

Thanks for sharing!!!

[samena.livejournal.com]

Seriously?! I'm assuming this woman has lived in California for a while, which is a state that uses a LOT of water for irrigation and all sorts of things, and yet she's NEVER seen an effect like this before? I knew about this stuff when I was a toddler (though not in scientific terms, of course). It's really odd.

[annafugazzi.livejournal.com]

So... what was responsible for the freaky rainbows???? Because we have got to get to the bottom of this!!1! Why doesn't anybody care any more what happens to our Constitutional Rights?!11!

Personally I think we really need to look at the socialist Homosexualists. This really sounds like the sort of thing they try to do while we are all distracted by the Global climate Hoax!!

Thanks for posting this! I'll spred the word!!!!!!

[wivern.livejournal.com]

I kinda like the idea of rainbow oozing out of the ground. *g*

Sometimes people scare me.

[shiv5468.livejournal.com]

You'd never get that over here.

The sun doesn't shine long enough for the pretty rainbows.

Why doesn't she assume it's a sign of god's covenant with her put into the sprinkler rather than a government plot. Has she no faith?

[treacle-tartlet.livejournal.com]

O.o
Is it just me, or does this loon sound a lot like Berta from Two And A Half Men?
Ah, now I can explain it all away. Berta made the video to freak out Jake.
*nods*
I feel much safer in the cocoon of my little fiction...

[hitsuzen-hime.livejournal.com]

In response to many posters questions 'Where was this woman during her science classes.'

Please bear in mind that in the US schools are largely locally funded, which is to say that if you live in a low income area you go to a school with probably enough money to teach reading at a middle school level, the historical curriculum required by state law (which could probably be adequately covered by fortune cookies) and maths to a level of basic algebra with perhaps some geometry thrown in.

Required education in the upper levels DOES NOT require any sciences beyond what is covered in the basic health and human nutrition courses.

Light refraction is typically covered in introductory Physics, which for many schools is not even offered as an elective course due to a lack of funding. Where would she have learned about light refraction? Unless it's covered as a side note on some American sitcom, it's highly unlikely that she would. Many students make it all the way through Uni in the US without having to sit for more than one quarter or semester of sciences and many choose Geology or Food Science and Human Nutrition as the 'soft option'.

My own mother spent four hours on the phone when CERN fired up the particle accelerator while I tried to convince her that Dark Matter is not in fact the devils work and the size of black hole created by dark matter is not going to exceed the mass of the planet and swallow us all up. And she's got a BA and a MA in Cultural Anthropology!

My best friend has three degrees in computer sciences and electrical engineering and he was never required to sit a single sciences class his entire education. He has taken them of course, but on his own. So you see, in America, natural sciences are left out in the cold in even the highest levels of the education system. As Brammers pointed out thats one of the reasons the debates on health and sciences get so scary in our country. Even the well educated folks are operating at a fourth grade level in that particular part of their education.

[camillily.livejournal.com]

*facepalm*

[rubyemerald-1.livejournal.com]

Be afraid. Be very afraid.