I'm sick to hell of politically correct attitudes that we have to respect the ignorant and stupid opinions of those who disagree with reality.
I do NOT respect opinions that are based on hate, racism, or sexism.
I do NOT respect opinions that ignore scientific or historic fact.
I do NOT respect opinions that are based on lies, rhetoric, or propaganda.
I do NOT respect opinions that are based on greed, false equivalence, or religious doctrine.
I do NOT respect opinions that are based on ignorance and stupidity.
"We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid." - Benjamin Franklin
There is no place that these nonsense opinions are illustrated better than the twenty four hour news coverage where show after show has the same five stories with different representatives of opposing sides (no matter how misinformed a side might be) sitting around arguing. I am over it!
If we stopped pretending that unreasoned opinions are legitimate to the conversation, we would not be arguing about whether or not climate change was real, but rather, how to make the greatest impact on climate change in the shortest amount of time. We have to stop arguing with troglodytes about the existence or non-existence of problems in the world and focus on solutions that will lead humanity to progress.
Media outlets must stop wasting everyone's time by creating false, sensationalized ‘debates’ by giving a voice to the louts of our nation. Stop giving the redneck, moronic, climate change denier, and the idiotic, bible beating, creationist a seat at the discussion table with scientists and historians. Stop interviewing the racist homophobes down the street and giving them the same legitimacy as the human rights activist. It is not good television and it is vastly destructive to the country and the world. Stop giving ignorance an equal voice!
We could be moving past the false arguments (or at least not stagnating to this degree) if media would quit making the ignorant and the haters relevant. Not to say that we should ignore that they exist, but we should not give them the spotlight to spread their dimness. Just laugh them off. They are not qualified to be leading discussion, policy, or public opinion. We need standards in media coverage.
A healthy exchange of ideas, perspectives, and opinions is important, but every single ridiculous, poorly thought out, baseless, uneducated, ignorant opinion does not need to be represented in the mainstream media's conversation. This isn't a left or a right issues. It is an all encompassing issue and there needs to be some sort of litmus test that weeds out the quack ideas. Right now the standards are based on what will bring a program attention even if it is for an insanely stupid guest. Again, bad for the country, bad for the world.
The job of news organizations is to report what's going on in the world, which means you may have to actually do some work and educate the American public on a little bit of history so they can understand why certain things are occurring. We should not be arguing irrelevant points to appease the dumber-than-shit, Sarah Palinesque, illiterates in the United States!
“You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. No one is entitled to be ignorant.” - Harlan Ellison