Quit Treating Us Like We're Stupid

Today's arrogant putz award goes to Amanda Ripley.  Ms. Ripley has written an article in Time about the failed bailout of Wall Street that is so condescending that it clearly reveals the disdain that those who have, feel for those who don't.  The title wasn't too bad, but by the end of the first paragraph you know whose side she's on.  And it isn't the American people.  She thinks we are too stupid to comprehend how the economy is failing.

The American people have known that the economy was in jeopardy for more than a year.  It's only the politicians, pundits, and the rich who haven't noticed and are waking up to the reality that the bottom is about to fall out of the bucket.  Ever since hunger was revised to be known as food insecurity the economy has been failing and changing the name of the bail out to something else won't fool us.  We are not unaware that the economy is in trouble, otherwise we wouldn't be deciding between buying food for the family or gas for the car.

Ms. Ripley's plan to convince the American people that they are being rained on instead of being pissed on is laughable from the beginning.

Find a face: Human beings are not moved by numbers or by vague predictions of certain doom. They are moved by stories. "It's simple," says Mileti. "You get one family in America. You go to their house. And you paint a picture of what their life is like one year from now. You describe a kid who can't go to college, the house that can't be sold, the inability of anyone to use a credit card. They need to get a camera crew and go to Omaha and find a family."

Hello?  That's been happening for years to the underclasses and only now is it is hitting what is left of middle America.  For the last four years some of us have been ranting, raving and writing about the inequalities between what the President has told us and the reality of our daily lives.

Be Specific: People need to know what will happen if they do nothing — or if they do something.
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"People don't perceive risk," says Mileti. "People actually perceive that they are safe." To override that bias, you have to talk to people in a language their brains understand.

We understand quite well, which is why people actually got off their butts and complained 100 to 1 to their Congressmen. We know that the economy is crashing and we don't want those who benefited from it on the way up, benefit again on the way down.

It is time for everyone to quit blowing smoke up our asses and treat us like the good taxpaying Americans we are. We are not children, we are not mentally challenged and we are not the enemy. You are going to have to accept the fact that we no longer trust anything the government or the press has to say. You brought it on yourself and it isn't our job to bail you out.

Can you understand that?

BBB