John Kerry peppered with dumb questions by GOP Congressman: "Are you serious?" - Polidicks

John Kerry actually sounds very progressive, what a bro

But is pwning an art or a science?

Yes. They believe Owens destroyed Ted with that "He thinks blacks are idiots" and said how the liberals took her words about had Hitler did not try to expand his vision across the world, it would have been fine. I would say Ted thought she was a opportunistic twat who more or less made one of the stupidest comments on defending nationalism. The sad part is a good amount of people praise her for "destroying the libs" on this. I think if one of the right-wing nutjobs called for killing every liberal or defended a dictator that killed millions of people saying that the dictator solved an excellent problem, those people will say that the nutjob is correct or say how we're taking it out of context. I know I am probably acting too paranoid or scared, but I think fascism in the United States is getting closer to being a reality.

I refuse to believe it's legitimate misunderstanding. It's semantic pedantry is what it is. Deliberately latching on to only the most literal, face value of words in order to have an argument about that because it's a lot easier to argue about semantics than it is to have an actual real conversation about whatever issue is at hand. It's a very deliberate bad faith argumentative tactic that we've seen on this very forum time and time again It's part of the Never Play Defense thing. It's the exact same spiel as "Well evolution is just a Theory!". It avoids ever having to defend a position of your own. It doesn't matter if you look like a fucking idiot to everyone who already knows good and god damn well what a Bachelor's degree is. It matters that you never have to defend your own position. Or even explain what your position is at all. It's posturing. As long as you're the one asking all the questions and your opponent is the one doing all the explaining, you're the one who looks like you're winning And god damn if people don't fall for it every goddamn time Please stop assuming the GOP are just a bunch of bumbling idiots. Making yourself look like a harmless idiot is literally the oldest trick in the book for manipulative sociopaths. They don't care about what it's doing for their image for the likes of you and me. They care about what it's doing to the state of discourse, the way it's affecting the way we talk about issues at all It reverberates down the chain, it makes it harder to dig their victims out of the hole they've kicked them down into. It's how they control the conversation on a national scale. It preemptively sets the tone of any debate you're going to have with their victims supporters

I reaaaaaally wouldn't be surprised if this dude was the some of some rich fuck who just paid their way through college and got him the degree, and then lied and cheated his way to getting "his" patents and his business. There's no way this dude could be this monumentally stupid unless he was intending to be with those kinds of credentials.

Damn, this is ridiculous. It always feels like these republicans try to ridicule a person with the most nonsensical arguments, pulled straight out of nowhere.

It's interesting, because the word meritocracy was invented in a dystopian political novel about how "merit-based" systems are basically just giving an advantage to those wealthy enough to get their children tutors and extra help if they need it, and thus pass the entrance exams to the most elite schools (which they still have in the UK, and at private schools around the world, I think), and pay for higher education. They're also more likely to be able to put off getting a job and focus completely on their studies, which many lower-income people are unable to do. Merit is basically another function of the socio-economic group one was born into, in many cases. Not only for education reasons but also reasons such as having a more stable home environment, which leads to better mental health, as well as generally having better nutrition and less exposure to toxins in higher-income areas and families. This obviously also effects how "smart" you become. Additionally, because merit is essentially in the eye of the beholder, often times a white male who acts "like a gentleman" (which literally means he acts like a member of the gentry, the landed class) will be seen as having more merit simply due to these factors. Meritocracy is a fucking lie, and it's funny that people now use the word that was invented to satirize our justification of hierarchies based on "merit" without realizing its origins, and often talk about it as a good thing.

As opposed to just paying to gain power like it is now?

Technocracy when? For the sake of the whole damn planet

What's the alternative, though? Hire people who demonstrably aren't as well-fit for the job? It sounds like your issue is with how merit is determined presently by certain people, not that we care about merit in general.

ya, jim jordan threw temper tantrums in public but apparently didn't have much to say behind closed doors. its scummy as fuck but as long as people reward people who have no decorum it will keep happening

I've felt this way since early 2016. That's around when I started having health problems, but god damn reality is not helping it.

https://youtu.be/LQCU36pkH7c

Are you being obtuse on purpose?

Meritocracy is circular logic: meritorious people get power, people in power determine what merit is

"For 200 million years before that, [the level of CO2 in the atmosphere was] greater than it is today" I mean is this motherfucker really going to compare the modern Earth to the fucking Jurassic period like we wouldn't have had bigger issues like Pangaea breaking up and running away from god damn stegosaurus.

"For 200 million years before that, [the level of CO2 in the atmosphere was] greater than it is today" Yeah, and y'know something? It was a hell of a lot different climate-wise then than it is now. Good luck growing grapes or wheat in that kind of climate, you dense shit.

Support free education

I had this nagging feeling in the back of my head that was saying "oh, hey, there was also an extinction event around that time too, wasn't there?" Turns out the answer is yes, yes there was. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/prehistoric-world/mass-extinction/

So that they have the opportunity to... Attain... Merit.

Merit decided by who? We live in a meritocracy right now. And it sucks

I don't like our current system at all But what system do you propose to put qualified or skilled or capable people into the right roles?

The thing is that capitalists love to defend capitalism as being "meritocratic" but if you actually look at how it works that idea is laughable. If a company is succeeding, the people at the top get to take all of the credit and all of the rewards despite the efforts of all of the people below them. If a company is failing, they're the last ones in line to have to "make sacrifices" and if worst comes to worst they can just bail out unscathed on a golden parachute, leaving the workers to face all the consequences. How exactly is it a "meritocracy" that the people at the top of the ladder get to reap all the rewards of success, but also face none of the consequences of failure?

They're all shit, we might aswell just not have anything and let shit run it's course and see how that turns out, because doing that makes about as much sense as how it's going right now.

You see the farmer load in the slug and all you do is whimper and put your head back down?

It's surprising to me that people still proudly back the Republicans and will proudly announce they're "wrecking the libtards" all while repub congress people can't even string together a coherent line of fucking questioning. Sounds to me like we should be calling the Republicans "Retardicans".