How to talk to complete idiots

Mark Morford with today's 'must read':

There are three basic ways to talk to complete idiots.

The first is to assail them with facts, truths, scientific data, the commonsensical obviousness of it all. You do this in the very reasonable expectation that it will nudge them away from the ledge of their more ridiculous and paranoid misconceptions because, well, they're facts, after all, and who can dispute those?

Why, idiots can, that's who. It is exactly this sort of logical, levelheaded appeal to reason and mental acuity that's doomed to fail, simply because in the idiotosphere, facts are lies and truth is always dubious, whereas hysteria and alarmism resulting in mysterious undercarriage rashes are the only things to be relied upon.

And now we come to option three, easily the finest and most successful approach of all. Alas, it also remains the most difficult to pull off. No one is exactly sure why.

The absolute best way to speak to complete idiots is, of course, not to speak to them at all.

That is, you work around them, ignore them completely, disregard the rants and the spittle and the misspelled protest signs and the fervent prayers for apocalypse on Fox News. Complete refusal to take the fringe nutballs even the slightest bit seriously is the only way to make true progress.

This also happens to be the invaluable advice of one Frank Schaeffer, noted author and a former fundamentalist nutball himself, who made a simply superb appearance on Rachel Maddow's show recently, wherein he offered up one of the most articulate, fantastic takedowns of the fundamentalist idiot's mindset in recent history. It's a must-watch. Do it. Do it now.

Do it. Do it now.

Thanks to ObamaTheBlackFDR. Worth going to see.

You are not kowtowing to the least educated of your voting bloc, like the GOP is so desperately fond of doing. You are not trying to give the idiotosphere equal weight in the discussion. As Schaeffer says, "You cannot reorganize village life to suit the village idiot." (my em) By employing option three, you are doing the only humane thing left to do: you are letting the idiotosphere eat itself alive.

I wish Morford had written this last week before I yanked Mrs. G's niece's chain by commenting on her 'Palin 2012' bumper sticker. I told her Palin'd better get a running mate because when she quits the Presidency halfway through, Nancy Pelosi would be the next in line. Boy, did that start something!

Trying to talk sense to these yingyangs is like hitting a cripple who can't feel it. It's really easy but it doesn't do a damn bit of good so why bother?