Thoughts about stupidity and 'angry dummies'
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"But the crowd at Miami Beach City Hall was not only against pesticides. When a representative from the British bio-tech company Oxitec told the commission that his company could reduce the local population of the culprit Aedes aegypti by more than 90 percent using genetically modified sterile male mosquitoes, it was as if he had suggested sacrificing small children. A swarm of sexually inadequate bugs sounded better to me than getting bombarded with pesticides, but this crowd was apparently wanting an organic, grass-fed, free-ranging, no GMO, chemical-free alternative.
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"Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez said, unhappily, that at the moment, spraying was the only realistic weapon that could stanch the Zika outbreak. She said, 'Someone has to be the grownup here.'
"The crowd, howling in derision, disagreed." —Zika spraying spawns an epidemic of conspiracy theories, by Fred Grimm, Miami Herald
"When Dr. Peggy Honein, chief of the birth defects branch of the CDC, informed the protesters Wednesday morning via teleconference that Zika can cause microcephaly, one shouted back, 'So can pesticides!' The link between pesticides and microcephaly has been debunked but a popular anti-vaccine website continues to promote the false association." —What’s Worse: The Zika Virus or the Anti-Zika Spray?, by Samantha Allen
"We’re creating a world of dummies. Angry dummies who feel they have the right, the authority and the need not only to comment on everything, but to make sure their voice is heard above the rest, and to drag down any opposing views through personal attacks, loud repetition and confrontation." —Anti-Intellectualism and the "Dumbing Down" of America, by Ray Williams
“I’m speaking with myself, number one, because I have a very good brain and I’ve said a lot of things.” —Donald Trump, when asked who he consults with on foreign policy matters.
“I think that [Hillary Clinton's] bodyguards should drop all weapons. I think they should disarm. Immediately. Let’s see what happens to her. Take their guns away, O.K. It’ll be very dangerous.”—Donald Trump speaking in Miami, Sept. 17, 2016
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