A Brief Commentary from Doug Draper, Niagara At Large
Posted January 20th, 2016
I’m one Canadian who has always taken exception whenever I here one of my fellow citizens make the sweeping statement that “Americans are stupid.”
As I’ve mentioned several times in commentaries posted on Niagara At Large, many of my close friends are Americans and they are far from “stupid” when it comes to what is happening in and to their country.
Yet even I must admit that it is hard to remember that America has its share of smart people when you see cable news replays of U.S. Tea Party star Sarah Palin, spewing words (when she was not making a mash of them) like a mentally challenged out-paitent on crack,
Then along comes the following front-page of the New York Daily News, published this January 20th, to restore some of your faith that there may be enough people in America to keep Donald Trump out of White House where he would have his fingers near the missle button while he is inflicting his angry, hate-filled demagoguery on the people of his country, on his neighbours in Canada and on the rest of the world.
By the way, if anyone really wants to get into the down and dirty business of doing a per capita comparison of how many stupid people there are in the U.S. versus Canada, one could begin by remembering that in Canada’s last federal election – held two months ago this mid-January, almost 32 per cent of the 17.5 million Canadians who bothered to go to the polls voted for the Stephen Harper Conservatives.
But to be fair, what or who is “stupid” is often in the eyes of the beholder. So on that score, there are still a lot of Harper supporters out there who believe many Canadians – a full 39.5 per cent of those who cast a ballot – just got cranky for change during the election and “stupidly” went out voted for Justin Trudeau and his Liberals.
Then there was the stupid campaign that federal NDP leader Tom Mulcair ran. I’m still trying to wrap my mind around that one.
So let’s not get smug and think that America has a lock on stupid people.
Does Canada have its share of people that say and do stupid things? As Sarah Palin would say; “You Betcha!”
NOW IT IS YOUR TURN. Niagara At Large encourages you to share your views on this post. A reminder that we only post comments by individuals who share their first and last name with them.
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Stupidity knows no particular nationality. There are plenty of us in Canada who fit the description and I fear the number is growing. A Labatt’s (or Timmy’s) and a hockey game is the epitome of culture for some. Who needs to watch the news or to read a paper? Are we much better?
My opinion differs in one way in that the main problem I see with SOME Americans, and I emphasize SOME, is their notion of “exceptionalism”, not stupidity. Trump and Palin are prime examples. USA, USA, USA! We’re number one! That does not even suggest stupidity to me but, sadly, arrogance and a lack of interest in the rest of the world, a world in which they have great financial, cultural and military influence. Some Americans, again I say some, assume that they are the centre of the known universe and envy of the planet without considering that people in so many other places love their lands, history and culture just as much and have as many or even more reasons to be proud. Others find that attitude supremely insulting. A recent survey indicates that 65%+ of Americans have never left their country (most of those have only been to Canada or Mexico) and about 30% have never left their own state yet they try to impose themselves on the rest of the world with so little knowledge of it. That cannot have a good outcome. Again, Trump and Palin represent that paradigm very well.
I wouldn’t say stupidity is the problem but ignorance (an entirely different thing) and ethnocentricity. People like Trump and Palin “Trumpet” such ignorance as a badge of honour. Most Americans I know are welcoming, generous, caring and far from stupid. Unfortunately it is the big mouths and bullies who make a splash.
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Doug I do agree with most of what you have written in this column and Yes! In most cases it must be assumed that the term “stupid” refers to the jargon and hype that the news mediums constantly push down people’s throat. But then again as Mel Hurtig so eloquently states in his documentaries the News mediums in Canada are almost if not all totally controlled by multi national corporations and they in general could not care less about the welfare of the Canadian Citizens, just the bottom line on their corporate “profit and loss statement”
It is scary to realize that Donald Trump with grass root support might just become the “master of America” and literally give the NRA and their supporting Arms Manufacturers the green light to assist in murder and mayhem by flooding the streets further with guns unabated by any control.
Even Republican President Eisenhower had, during his stint as President warned America about the arms merchants but it seems his Republican successors ran into the arms of the NRA and the Tea Party Goons.
We, Canadians, had our “Harper” for the better part of a decade, In my opinion a dictator, and supported by the same type of supporters one sees and hears at rallies for Trump, Cruz, and others…..Harper filled too many boards and CEO positions with his appointees, people who supported him with monetary donations and were willing to sell their souls to the evil of dictatorship[ government. Most of these appointees like the CEO and Boards of the NEB, the CBC, the POST OFFICE are installed until the year 2020 or even later.
I always stated that it would take decades if not centuries to clean up the messes perpetuated by the so called Conservative Government led by Harper…… I am eighty years of Age how many years do you have……. to wait for this crap to be finally ended ask your Father, Mother and grand parents if they voted for this agenda of dictatorial hatred????
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I am not sure of American stupidity, but there is at least an equal amount of Canadian stupidity — given that we continue to have 30% of the voters who support Harper’s brand of “conservatism”, right or wrong and unquestionably. Even many of these same people want to see Kevin O’Leary lead their party. People like O’Leary, Trump, Palin, others … have no clue about policy issues or about governing a pluralistic society and the people who support them think these people would somehow see the world through a lens of something else other than their multi-million dollar “me me me” perspective that just drips with the usual narcissism that many people – both American and Canadian — dislike intensely in their leaders.
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