I have low hopes for Generation-Me

[furtech]

I wish there was an "ignorance" ap that prevented me from seeing posts from nitwits. I think it could be popular.

What people know/don't-know continues to boggle me. This is from a post on the fursuit-LJ community:

"... seeing as the US has a trade embargo against Cuba."

"Wow, seriously?"

Someone wanted to know how to ship a costume to Cuba . The scary thing is that the replier above is -not- the shipper who asked the question, but someone else who didn't know about the Cuban-US situation. A third (not)helpful person describes in detail how they ship to Germany and knows this will work shipping to Cuba because they've shipped to Germany twice.

This reminds me of a BBS conversation where a poster stated that the Arab-Israeli conflict was stoopid and they should just sit down and agree not to fight. When it was pointed out that this had been going on for some time, they replied in amazement, "What, like 50 years?!?" Oy.

Comments

[merrycalliope.livejournal.com]

Wow. Just...wow. Ouch.

[slave-to-anime.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, an app like that would probably do the only sane thing, and cut oneself off from the internet. The only way to be sure.

That said, this is rather low on the totem pole of things people are ignorant about that I worry about. Not knowing about the trade embargo between the US and Cuba does require ignoring some history lessons, but it's not completely common knowledge. I don't even know if the situation with Cuba is taught much in schools to begin with, and it requires some actual insight into world affairs that maybe some people don't actually study.

Really, I'm more concerned about people who don't know the types of things that, say, a person taking a citizenship test for the US would be expected to know. While it seems kind of silly that people wouldn't know about the trade embargo with countries like Cuba, it worries me much less than the people who don't understand, for example, the concept of the Bill of Rights or the protections in the First Amendment.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, an app like that would probably do the only sane thing, and cut oneself off from the internet. The only way to be sure.

So...I hadn't considered that it might be a hardware ap-- pulling the plug (or maybe software-- not paying my cable bill). But yeah-- you're probably right.

I'm a news/history geek, though, so maybe I'm being unfair.

[dustmeat.livejournal.com]

Kids today.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

...always on my lawn, drinking their sody-pop. Durn kids.

[fenris-lorsrai.livejournal.com]

The "oy!" made me snicker.


Subverting the embargo is really easy, if expensive. A lot of Cuban cigars are wrapped with tobacco from Connecticut... which is exported to an intermediary, then shipped to Cuba. Cuba then ships back to intermediary and they sell through there and restamp them as product of X and send them to the States. The channels for that are really well set up. All it does at this point is line pockets of intermediaries.

It's probably one of the most poorly enforced embargoes out there. I would be so happy if we just stopped kidding ourselves that its working.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

True-- and it would be SO easy! All Castro's brother has to do is make -some- friendly gesture or say something nice and we'd be ALL over ourselves to make nice. That's a huge market that American companies are drooling over and the tourist industry is chomping at the bit for.

Still, I smile in my head when I think of wrapping a fursuit up in American tobacco leaves to get it through to Cuba...


PS-- and IMO Cuban cigars are nasty-strong things.

[gilmorelion.livejournal.com]

This kind of thing is the reason I don't watch the "Jay-Walking" segments on Leno. It just makes my head hurt.

[chuck-melville.livejournal.com]

Oh, I used to love watching the Jay-Walking segments! My favorite was the one who tried to explain to Jay why you couldn't circumnavigate the globe, and, with the visual aid of an actual Rand-McNally globe, proceeded with an explanation that was as absurd as it was hilarious. (Apparently, he was of the belief that some of the illusionary markings, such as the Equator, were actual physical boundaries.) What was worse, was the girl who was with him when the question was originally posed suddenly understood what he was talking about and agreed with him, which only dumbfounded Leno all the more.

I wish I could find a Youtube of that particular sequence.

[kvogel.livejournal.com]

While visiting JC, she went to the Bank for biz, and there was a CCN feed in the lobby. One of the bank clerks suddenly starts in reaction, gosh wow, how long has the oil spill in the Gulf been going on and what's to be done? The easily read caption under the footage of spewing oil said Day 49.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Sad that this probably isn't an isolated case, either...

[thornwolf.livejournal.com]

Hey um...this post isn't filtered or even friends only. Just FYI! D:

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I noticed that a few minutes after I posted. I R Dum.

But it wasn't that critical or personal, just cranky-old-man stuff. I did take the note off, though! (And thanks for pointing it out-- if I was talking about embarrassing stuff, I'd be all-over it).

[vulpesrex.livejournal.com]

In a country where more people care about how the last episode of "Dancing with the Stars" or "America's Next Superstar" went, but who don't watch network news programs ("The Mainstream Media is Liberal-Biased") or read newspapers - and that last is so bad, many major metropolitan newspapers are shutting their doors - and EVERTHING presented visually is done at the frantic pace calculated to match the attention span of people raised on MTV music videos - well, you shouldn't be surprised.

The way that we teach history is a crime; it wasn't all that great when I was a kid, in the '60's (I graduated from High School in the Bay Area in 1974). If it isn't happening NOW, people are just not interested in it; there is a stunning lack of any intellectual curiosity in the populace today. It was perhaps one of the most glaring faults in our last president, that he just wasn't curious about things...Thankfully he had Staff for that, but too much of that staff had a bias, and were not the least bit bashful about inserting it.

...Just don't ask anyone to find Havana (or Habana) on a map...

[furtech.livejournal.com]

stunning lack of any intellectual curiosity

That pretty much nails it-- good description!

And yes, I'm filthy-tired of all the "Reality" (not) shows and celebrity coverage. Even the news shows are more about showbiz and celebs than just plain old news. They decry the lack of science education, but I'm just as appalled at the lace of current event-awareness.

[fatkraken.livejournal.com]

"they should just sit down and agree not to fight"

Seems like a good idea to me :P

In seriousness though, while it's frustrating when people are ignorant of world affairs or anything going on outside their little bubble of existence, you can either despair or take it as a chance to educate them. Often it's not their fault directly, they've been let down by the education system, or the media, or they simply didn't have an upbringing where curiosity was encouraged and nurtured


Also, if it helps, Spreebok is British, not American. Still not the best excuse, but the embargo is not routinely taught in schools here before the subjects split off, so the only way younger people tend to know about it is if there's a documentary or a segment on an international news program

[furtech.livejournal.com]

That would be my main peeve with online stuff: in Real Life, I'd see how old the person was and notice the accent, etc. There's no way of knowing who (in all senses of that word) you're talking to. But yes, Spreebok has a good reason not to know.

To me, a lot of the frustration stems from the current state of the American media: news programs are filled with more stories about idiot celebrities and reality shows than actual news stories. Accomplishment is less celebrated than foolish self-promotion.

[jonnywoof.livejournal.com]

"... seeing as the US has a trade embargo against Cuba."

"Wow, seriously?"

Ermm....maybe a victim of California's public school system? *rimshot*