Do people have the ability to think for themselves?

5/29/26:

Posting has been light, so I am going to react to whatever people are clicking on, and if that sparks some reaction that I'd like to share.

Why the light posting? Two reasons. One is that I am learning new skillsets, which take up my time. Another is a change of perspective, I suspect. This happened during the trip to view the launch of Starship.

So, my thinking is changing again. I was getting more pessimistic back in 2013, now I am getting more optimistic. Therefore, people CAN think for themselves. The real question is WILL THEY?

10/25/13:

If you are of an optimist, you may say yes.  Otherwise, it is no.

Just answering the question with data from my own experience, I am starting to trend towards pessimism.  I thought that I had arrived when I was in college.  But many years later, Iearned otherwise.  Limbaugh once advised people to think for themselves.  I noted with disgust that I had not.  Why had I not really learned?  Natural laziness.  It is hard work to think, so I would rather not bother.

But it isn't just me.  The naural tendency is for people not to think for themselves, as Limbaugh implied.

So people hear a thing, and they accept it as true.  That is the case especially if it comes from an authority.  This gives authorities a powerful incentive to lie, and the proceed to do just that.

Now the prevailing wisdom is that the GOP shut down the government and almost cost us a catastrophic default.  I see that this little prevarication keeps getting repeated over and over again.  Yet, if you were to just observe that the GOP tried to fund everything but ObamaCare, how can you blame the GOP alone for the shut down?  It takes two to fight, and the Democrats were doing their share.  Even worse, if there had been a true default, this kind of thinking would give you the prevailing wisdom that it was because of the GOP.  This is absurd.

How can refusing credit cause a default?  If you were trying to pay your bills by applying for more credit, and were refused, would this be the cause of your subsequent default?  Of course not.  So, why should the government be any different when it fails to live within its means?  All the GOP did was to quarrel with the Democrats over one item in the budget, and somehow this quarrel causes a default?  That's like saying a refusal to buy an expensive item leading to a family quarrel caused a delay in raising their credit card limit.

The credit card being maxxed out did not cause the default in that hypothetical situation.  No, the failure to live within ones means did the trick.  How does that get to be the GOP's fault?  It wouldn't if people thought for themselves.  They hear that it was the GOP and then accept that as gospel.

Is it because the lies are coming from authorities?  Can people actually think this out for themselves?  I am getting more pessimistic all the time.

GOP: Reform or Die

5/28/26:

Somebody clicked on this one, amongst others. I decided to respond to this one.

Love him, or hate him; Trump is the closest thing to reform of the electoral politics of this country that I've seen. He's offering something truly different, and through it all, the country seems to resist. That is, much of the country seems to resist. You can count on the Democrats to resist, but what about the GOP? He has a lot better chance of winning than what they had, in my opinion.

Here is a public that seems to want change, and is getting it. But the public still isn't satisfied. I say give it some more time. With all the opposition to Trump, he really hasn't been able to get a program under way.

That's no excuse. It's just fact. If Trump wasn't really different, then why all of this opposition? Trump's mistake may be in changing TOO MUCH. People may need time to catch up. If he gets the chance, he will succeed, in my opinion. But will the people let him?

Nov 8, 2012:

The GOP has failed us.  Miserably.

Shape up or ship out!

Update:

I'll add that if their answer is to compromise and to become just like the Democrats that they should join the Democrats because that's what they are.

Buh, bye! John Cornyn

Media assembling at election night HQ for Sen. John Cornyn about 20 minutes before the polls close. pic.twitter.com/T1wl1BiBqE

— John C. Moritz (@JohnnieMo) May 26, 2026

For some reason, maybe it was the long trip this past week, made me think of this song...

Dare to be Stupid--- Weird Al

5/26/26:

What seems to be stupid may not be. Or is it?

Let's not add indecisiveness to the list...

5/10/26:

Once you get the idea, then go for it. Oh, boy. /eyeroll

9/27/24:



I'm just now discovering Weird Al. Why not before? Too white and nerdy.

Hmmm. You can't watch it here, go to the link provided.









Try this one. It might not get blocked. It was probably inspired by Weird Al anyway.











Or this one! Brings back memories, no?











And this one??? He dared to be stupid? Or witty? Or what?

Did a mulligan on this video on Rumble

Added a little something to it this time. It's a practice video as I learn a bit on how to use Clipchamp.

Made a audio track with Gemini Ai

They couldn't make a video using the video I supplied and adding an audio track to it. So it produced an audio track instead.

Here's a link they provided for to be shared. I can take what they provided, and try to add it to a video, but I'm not sure how to do that yet using ClipChamp.

AI produced still from my video.  But the rocket is on the wrong side of the river!

Is it me, or are people decidedly negative these days?

After scanning over most of the stores on my usual haunts on the web, it sure looks like people want to be negative about things.

Maybe people would rather be unhappy?

Massie got beat, but he gets a lot of media coverage. It would seem that the loser would disappear. But no...

It isn't just this Massie business. It's everything. If there's a negative take, people are taking it.

Would folks prefer the Democrats??? They haven't got anything to offer but bad news!