Nonsense that the Learned Believed
 

I remember reading about a speech that someone gave to a hall full of scholars. His speech was riddled with terms and words that were not common, some were made up. If you analysized it you would be hard pressed to get anything out of it. It was a farce and he did this to make a point. It was met with fantastic reviews, the scholars raved about it.

Has anyone ever heard of this?

Care to share any examples of this?

Good story. Years ago I read about a writer named Alexa Jones who'd submitted a short story to a contest sponsored by a femininst journal. Ms. Jones won the award with "her penetrating and sympathetic insights into the female heart." But it turned out Alexa was Alex. A man had won the woman-only contest. The outraged feminists -- the same who'd judged him the winner -- snatched his prize away. But he proved his point -- good writing is good writing.

Congressional bs

True story:

There's a guy here at work who seems intent on proving his intellecutal prowess by flattering everyone with big words. Being the 'dumb bunny' that I am, I often question the meaning of those words. He gives me that 'you're a dumb bunny' look and then proceeds to spell the word and give a definition.

Upon returning to my desk, I log on to webster.com only to find in many cases his word doesn't exsist, or that he is using said word in the wrong context. Often his word is a noun that is embellished with prefixes and suffixes that make no sense. So, who's the dumb bunny now?! :eek:
(He will still argue that his word is correct. :rolleyes: )

I am a big fan of the keep it simple method of vocabulary: the word "USE" is more than adequate and doesn't need to be replaced with the word: "UTILIZE."

Have a splendiferous day,
-Z-man.

If I hear the term proactive one more time, I'm going to puke.

nonsense
 

If you want to find many good examples of nonsense that the "learned scholars" believe, take a close look at the radical environmental movement.Talk about a bunch of of unsupported BS that has no basis in true science. These guys love to hear themselves spout new "facts" about the state of the world.Frequently these chaps like to remind the rest of us just how learned they are. There is one that frequents these boards, often dropping not so subtle hints about his degrees and other paper accomplishments.

I don't mind using big words and hearing them when they are more precise than the common word.

The buzzword around here that took me forever to understand is the word "metric". It can mean either a measurement, or the method by which something is measured. Because it has two very similar and related, yet different meanings it is less precise than using the word "measurement" or the term "how to measure". For example, if someone asks me "Do you have those metrics?", they might be asking if I have some data, or if I have decided how to go about sampling the data. I never use the term.

Hope that's not me. I have taken to using "perhaps" in place of "maybe" because it sounds better. I am also slowly moving away from "okay" toward "very well." Again, these sound better. I do not use high-fallutin' words much, but I do occasionally because of the specific meaning I am after. Unfortunately, I have a fairly big vocabulary. Again, I will only use a $100 word if I need to because of its specific meaning.

And yeah, I have my pet peeves. For some reason, I hate the word "problematic." Also, when you use the word "patronize," I expect the pronunciation to be different, depending on which of the two main meanings you are applying.

And finally, I think perhaps some of you should look hard at your disdain for educated people. Sure, some educators without real world experience are out of touch. And yeah, most of them disagree with your politics and so you are inclined to deprecate them a bit. But if you are going to publicly discuss your generalization that they are somehow mentally challenged, or underinformed or whatever, then first I suggest you consider how your message will be received. Folks who think just like you, and who listen to Rush Limbaugh and watch Fox News might not see a problem or an irony. And of course you could care less about what lefties think. But there are middle-of-the-road folks out there. Lots of them. And when they hear you declare the most educated people in the world to be a bunch of idiots........well..........

It's an interesting position. This assertion that higher education people, and news media professional, don't know anything. Hmmmmm..... Parts of your audience are going to take this information and use it to make some assumptions about you.

Would that be a reactive puke or a proactive puke? :D

re-active.
I may however, proactively puke as I contemplate hearing this STUPID sentence..."We are proactively researching the cause of the server failures..."
WTF? IT ALREADY FAILED, YOU CONSULTANT MORON!!!
Happy Friday!
SmileWavy

I don't know if that was aimed at me, but I have no disdain for educated people. I have disdain for people who chose to ignore truth and use their titles as license to advance their agendas when their agendas are not supported by facts. I have disdain for people who hear or read stuff in media and take it for truth because somebody appears to know what they are talking about. Footnotes in media would be a great improvement. I'm not sure if you know what my politics are since they vary by the subject.:p

Just listen to Deepak Chopra or Donald Rumsfeld if you want to hear nonsense.

And the pun of the week award goes to...

No Bill. I was not pointing my remarks at anyone, least of all you. But there are folks here who assert that all the media organizations in the world are lying liberal communes and that only Fox News is objective. They go on to say that Billy-Bob with a fifth grade education and hatred of gays and commies understands how the world works far better than any university professor. And is a better Christian, too. They seem to honestly believe that universities, pretty much all of them, are so intent on indoctrination that they fail to educate and do more harm than good. Sometimes, this place is Through the Looking Glass.

I'm just warning them....again.....that the world thinks of media professionals as "informed," and it thinks of college professors as "educated." This concept seems complex for some.

I wish they would snatch my prize.....

Me thinks you give too much credit to a label. With each passing year I am reminded more that there is an almost equal ratio of idiots in all professions/persuasions.

Supe your stereo typing conservatives....

They go on to say that Billy-Bob with a fifth grade education and hatred of gays and commies understands how the world works far better than any university professor.

Your use of "billy-bob" shows your elitest attitude, also by assuming that they hate gays you show your own disdain for the truth. I would say that middle-america knows a hell of a lot more about how 'the world works' than the majority of professors. How many professors have ever had a real job? Not very many. They get tenure, and sit in their comfortable towers feeling as if they are better than everyone else. It's the elitest attitude they have, and you have, that says the most about them.

Nope, can't question them. Their degree costed more money and took more time. They must be smarter and better than everyone else. How dare us little peons think for ourselves.

Re: Nonsense that the Learned Believed
 

I've done Bad, Bad things on tyhis Board.....

Scott Adams, the author of "Dilbert" pretended to be a consultant a few years back to prove a point.

He was brought in to help a company come up with their new mission statement. His goal? To make it as complicated and meaningless as possible to demonstrate how many lemmings there are in management positions. The final result was incredibly complicated and meaningless. Lots of the latest buzzwords. And it got complete "buy-in" from the lemmings that helped create it. They sat around the table feeling like they accomplished something great until Mr. Adams revealed himself, and asked them to explain the new mission statement.

Hey, Supe?

Quite a while ago there was a thread about tires being mounted and balanced where you really ripped anybody who works in a tire store. You really showed an elitist attitude. Anybody who mounts tires for a living is obviously a moron type of thing.

Do you know Greg Fordahl's background?

I have to agree with that.

Perhaps we're dealing in semantics. Lots of conservatives do not assert that all professors are idiots. Only some do. Stereotype? Maybe, maybe not. Generalization, no.

Here is an illustration.

Hey Supe spoken like a true LIBERAL......

Ohhh wasn't the Enlightenment a wonderfull thing....

There are tire store guys who know how to balance tires and align vehicles. And there are those who do not. The second group outnumbers the first group, in my humble opinion. Lots of guys know how to run a tire balance machine. Only a few seem to know how to balance a tire. I got some tires/wheels balanced on my pickup once, using a fancy computer balance machine. But they were still not balanced, particularly in the rear. So, I took the truck to Bernie's in Olympia (those guys are now retired, unfortunately). Bernie balanced the rears without even removing them from the vehicle. The tools he used were a floor jack, a pair of wheel weight pliers, and his experience. It was fun to watch.

No, I do not know Greg's background. Everything I know about Greg relates to his professional performance over the last several years.

And for those of you who think I feel elitist, a couple of things: We all have our beliefs, including me. You wonder why I don't agree with you, and I wonder why you don't agree with me. I am trying to understand this "elitist" notion of liberals, and your comments help. And I also notice the disparaging remarks I hear about people who have beliefs like mine. So, if you think I am elitist, but you guys are somehow not, then please show me how your beliefs encompass mine, but mine not yours. It looks to me like some of the conservatives here look down their noses at folks like me. And then call me "elitist." And if you're just not getting any of this, then blow me.

Did they hurt your feelings Supe?

Tabs..

I don't think it is a case of hurt feelings as much as it is an unbalance in the cosmos. It appears that the winner in a BB "dustup" is the one who insults the other fustest and fastest!!

Yes and no. It's interesting being called names, and then having "elitist" thrown in as one of them. I'm going to chalk this up in two ways. One, I'm pointing out how silly folks can look calling educators and news professionals idiots. And that may have struck a nerve. And of course, that's handled just like any substantive argument.....attack the messenger.

But also, perhaps the missing link most of you are not seeing is that I have always been juiced by college campuses. To me, they are electrically charged with new ideas, intimate tracking and understanding of political stuff, and a good view of where we're going as a nation. Ideas are hatched there, and then society picks them up over time. And finally, I have often, very often considered teaching college. And I'm thinking of that more lately.

Okay, so that ties me to a post in the middle of the village square. I expect all sorts of rough treatment, knowing how smart and respectful and moral some of you guys behave in our conversations. So, show me once again your value systems and your lofty intellects.

Oh boy, another political thread.

On subject, the "language" of Ebonics comes to mind.

Ebonics should be banned.

rjp

A nonstandard form of American English spoken by some Black people in the United States? Ebonics, right?

Supe, have you ever been targetted by a group of professors? Have you ever been the only one in a class or lecture hall that would challenge the professor? I highly doubt it.

No, but one of my degrees is in philosophy and it was rather amusing to see this kind of story unfold. Not that you fit this description, but invariably there was one yayhoo in class whose goal was to show everyone how smart he was, and if he could make the professor look silly at the same time, that was a bonus. It was highly entertaining. Like a bullfight, on the the kid did not end up playing the part of the matador.

Perhaps you squared off with a professor on ideology grounds, and perhaps the professor did not respond appropriately. Unfortunate if that was the case. As has been said here, there are jerks in all walks of life.

Nope. Spoken by Hip Hop (WTF is that?) fans and rampant shopping mall addicts.

Stupid $hit I tell you.

rjp

A couple examples, supe.

my first day of an english class the professorette said "the more educated you become, the more liberal you become." You can imagine how a statement like that would throw red flags all over the place, so I asked her to clarify, which she couldn't do.

A few weeks into a poli sci class, the professor brought in a palestinian to tell us about how horrible it is living with Israeli occupation. Sob stories, slides, and the such. I just asked when we were going to hear from an Israeli and it was over. I was on the list.

Was I looking for a bullfight, or is it just that I was looking for a little bit of balance and the profs felt like I was attacking them?

You would agree that on a fundamental level, learning institutions should be completely fair, and allow all opinions and questions, right?

Everyone agrees on that. And academics do too, until some renegade professor at the institution starts raising issues that don't jibe with the academic mainstream (liberal) thought. Students? They can be batted aside like flies, dismissed outright. Their education is not complete.

My wife is a college professor. Economics PhD with highest honors from a top-5 school. I have seen first hand how this works. She is moderate/right leaning, and automatically classified as a "stupid redneck, beer-can thrower, yadda yadda yadda" until it's learned that she's an academic. Then it's a blank stare and "how could you possibly think that? Aren't you...you know, educated?

On the campus, this elitism is so entrenched that the desire to air all views is deemed achieved when the views and opinions of 95% of the faculty have been communicated.

And naturally, to us moderate/right-leaners, that view of fairness is just wrong. Note that I didn't say that view is stupid, unlike...well, you know.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, the transcendentalist author, once gave a speech, where after which, a farmer walked out and said "I don't know what he said, but he sure said it good!" If any of you have ever read any Emerson (which I recommend) you'll understand.

I don't know about you guys, but I'm always proactive with my paradigms. Oh yeah, and we pioneered the use of proactive paradigms a long time ago...

Reminds me of a Simpson's episode...

I can't decide whether what you said Nostaus is clever or just another hackneyed response from you....

Why do I feel such a need to respond to you Nostaus, is it that we need to help our slower brothers along? That needs some pondering by me....and why is it that I need to remind you that your so slow? Hmmmm

Hey Supe...Geezus anything that isn't in the mainstream whether Liberal or Conservative is perjoritivily viewed and is subject to burning at the stake of social conformity....In other words I have been called every name in the book, so stop your whining like a baby and suck it up and be a MAN.

In other words don't become reactive...or don't get mad get even....
:D

What is so ironic it is not the Liberals who what to excoricate me...it is the conservtives as evidenced by PWD72S stance towards me.....