The Stupidest Thing I’ve Read This Week (07/04/12)

Third place: Someone from the milblog community said this on Twitter:

Yeah, no. Two drastically different situations there,  separated by the difference in geographical position, technology, media coverage, room for expansion, openness to new ideas, experience with democracy, religious issues, neighbours etc.

You can look into the past to find historical precedent and examples. But such activities should come with the very simple rule, that past experience can never prove the future. Yesterday, I discussed what the Bruce Campaign can teach us about the key points for invasion and intervention, but I did not mean that such an example can be used to support or criticise every individual example of the last few years or beyond.

Such a blindingly negative example as this Tweeter uses, made with some of the furthest reaches of historical hindsight, does the debate on Libya no favours or justice.

America might have succeeded, but that does not invalidate arguments against the Libyan intervention, in the rationale behind western democracies, the risk, the way it was carried out, or the lack of responsibility for what has followed. What shall we say to black Africans that NTC forces herd into cages? That it’s ok, in 90 years Libya will be a thriving democracy? That’s not good enough. You think intervening in Libya to put this new government in power was a step in the right direction, fine. But do not point to a country over 200 years in the past as some kind of trump card in your favour.

And man oh man, the French intervened to help America in that conflict, and it wrecked their economy and relations with neighbours, one of the main causes of the establishment that helped the USA collapsing in bloody revolution. As an example of good coming from intervention, it’s certainly a double edged sword, no?

Second place goes to this piece of nonsense from Time and author Joel Stein, who claims that “adults” shouldn’t be caught dead reading “Young Adult” books. He namedrops the likes of Harry Potter and The Hunger Games in that regard, and his entire tone in condescending beyond belief, as he admits he hasn’t even read The Hunger Games (which I would hardly describe as being childish in its subject matter)

“Young Adult” is a designation that publications like Time are responsible for, that pigeon-hole books into an age bracket. At the end of the day, if a book is good, it’s worth reading, whether you are an “adult” or not. If you turn your nose up at books of that nature because you think you’re outside the age bracket, I pity you. You’re cutting yourself off from a wide variety of very good literature, literature that is more than a match for some of the dross that populates “adult” genres.

And the annoying, holier-than-thou smirk that is seen throughout the text is enough to make me want to slap Mr Stein, and maybe beat him over the head with whatever Tolstoy novel he’s reading at the time.

The winner this week needs some quick clarification. “Stupid” for this particular entry is not meant in an insulting way, merely as a word to express my own astonishment, slack-jawed-ness, and general ridiculousness of the target. That is not to say that the target is bad or that those that enjoy the target are bad. Just that, it is pretty stupid. Enjoyable, somewhat funny but still stupid.

I mean, how else can you describe the sight of Han Solo and Lando Calrissian having a “Galactic Dance-Off” on Cloud City, while a blaring Star Wars themed cover version of “Ridin Solo” by Jason Derulo dubbed “I’m Han Solo” blares out? It’s Kinect Star Wars and the insanity is palpable. Enjoy.