CDR: The Dark Horse of Intellect Rides Again

[David Marshall]

I'm copying this to the list because, aside from making fun of this
idiot, I might as well post a short comment on the pathetic, sorry
state of the Internet and society in general. This is necessary
because we seem to have so many newbies on the list, as evidenced by
the recent rambling about list filtering (_again_), and the latest
anonymous remailer spiel. 

(Disclaimer: This is American-centric since America seems to be where
the majority of the junk comes from.)

I really don't know who to blame. Is it the American public education
system which would rather teach students about Earth Day than about
English or mathematics, and which would likely give "Dark Horse" an
"A" for his drek? Is it the fault of popular entertainment and its
stultifying effects? Is it the declining popularity of reading? Is it
the canned, biased, and frankly lie-filled mainstream news?  Perhaps 
it's better to blame the idiots themselves, since clearly it's
possible to educate oneself. Perhaps its everyone's fault, though I'm
not quite ready to accept responsibility for the proliferation of this
brand of stupidity. 

I used to think that the Internet got the brunt of it, until I
realized that I was just so used to it in meatspace that I tended to
ignore it. It isn't really about grammar, because some people speak
English as a second (or higher) language. It's more about *very*
sloppy thinking. A mild example of it is "Dark Horse" telling me to
give him a "simple answer : yes or no" and then asking me a question
to which he clearly wants more than a simple "yes" or "no." (Note that
I'm not counting as sloppy thinking the problems which are inherent in
most languages, such as the answer to "Is it day or night?" being
"yes" in all cases.)

The American news media, in particular, tends to habitually get things
wrong. In fact, when the news media reports on something I know about,
the majority of the time they get it wrong. An example most of us can
relate to is the horrible state of computer-related and
Internet-related reporting. Of course, the natural conclusion to be
drawn from this is that whenever the media reports on something I
*don't* know much about, it's just as full of logical holes, lies,
distortions, hype, and mistakes. Perhaps a worse effect is that people
who realize this tend to think that virtually everything the media 
says is wrong by default.

Perhaps it's all a lost cause when people in a college class can see
how George W. Bush might be Plato's Democrat, but not how Al Gore
might just as easily be Plato's tyrant. ("I'm for the people, not the
powerful," for example.) The first assertion was praised by the
students. The second apparently required more mental wattage than the
students were capable of putting out. Both were made by students.

Perhaps one of the Four (or however many there are now) Horsemen
should be the Horseman of Stupidity. Another should be the Horseman of
Apathy. 

A copy of the latest contribution of "Dark Horse" follows:

"Dark Horse" <saynaaa at hotmail.com> writes:

> Hello Stranger !
> 
> are you making fool of me ?

No. I'd say that you're doing a fine job making a fool out of
yourself. 

> 
> actually I did not find any simple answer to my questions !!

Ah, of course. I can see how that is necessary for so simple a man. 

> 
> do you speak English ?;)

Judging by your grammar, I apparently speak it much better than you
do. 

>  
> 
> Now again I ask my questions and I hope you will anwer me with
> 
> a simple answer : yes  or no
> 
>  
> 
> 1- is there any way to have access to a webpage like : www.sanjesh.org

Yes.

(If I'm allowed to say how, the answer is: "Yes, use a web browser, or
do it manually using telnet if that's your thing. Duh.")

> 
> 2- can I find somebody's email password in internet .. if yes , how ?

Yes.

Sniff it, get it via social engineering, trojan their
machine... Please, quit chewing on your duodenum.

> 
>  
> 
> waiting for your Simple answers !

I'm waiting for a complete sentence.