THIS WEEK - For Elitists Only
[NOTE TO PHARYNGULISTAS: We take pride in our "cussing," although we'd never use such a cutesy, low-brow term for "saying 'fuck.'" You might like some of the other words we use, too, as well as the way we string them together to form thought-provoking ideas. If you're not an elitist, though, you may not be able to follow the conversation. Be warned.]
Ex pulls teeth (especially with SI) to get the entire Herd to agree that we are elitists. After brow-beaten SI gives in, we discuss what, exactly, an elitist is. Is it all about greater intellect and finer taste? And what's the difference between elitism and snobbishness? As atheists, are we automatically unholier than thou? Evo says, "if you believe in supernatural causations...I'm superior". And the members of our snooty Herd all agree on that one. Someone forgets to kill the sound during our first break, and we find out which one of us is the most elitist. (0:00)
How do we manifest our elitism in our non-Internet lives? Evo is a smarty-pants. SI is more cagey, except maybe with his wife! Ex thinks he's smarter than the average bear — and more valuable. Why is it a bad thing in our culture to be better at something? Would most Americans rather vote for a person who is a reflection of them rather than someone who is clearly "better" than they are? Once again, the mic runs during our break, and listeners are treated to a short Philly Rant™. (15:13)
Ex wants to know what there is in our elitism that makes us angry at various things in society. Not surprisingly, we're mostly pissed off at the anti-intellectual culture of the United States. Our engineer decided that our arrogance is too delicious to resist, so we have yet another candid break. Evo claims that more damage was done to our society by Bush's response to 9/11 than by the attacks. (33:02)
Ex, always fascinated by whether like-types can spot each other, asks if we can automatically recognize other elitists. We give the answer to Another Goddamned Puzzle from last week and announce the winners of our AGP Secret Decoder Ring. There were two — neither of whom was named Venjanz. Find out why poor Yunshui may not be happy about that. Poll results revealed — and yet ANOTHER reason you may not want Evo singing in your neighborhood. Is it elitist to mention a few items in the news? We think not. (48:57)
Opening Music [00:00]: excerpt from "Another Goddamned Draft"
Bridge Music [14:00]: excerpt from "Crouching Christian Hidden Atheist"
Bridge Music [32:25]: excerpt from "Middle Earth"
Bridge Music [47:15]: excerpt from "The Atheist's Hymn"
Closing Music [1:10:34]: excerpt from "As Jazzy as I Get"
(All music: copyright 2008 by Rachel Murie)
This Week's Goddamned Links
Low-brow Quiz: What Kind of an Elitist Are You?
U.S. Political "Elitism" Yesterday and Today
A Typical Elite Type
You Think You're So Smart, SI?
P.Z. Myers on Christian Crackers
The Washington Times on Donohue vs. Myers
Atheist Revolution on Atheist Nexus
Puzzling Listeners
InTheSkyGirl
Yunshui
Give this post a thumbs up
I dig this post
Vote up on The Atheist Spot
Reddit
del.icio.us
20 comments:
I enjoyed this one a lot hehe.
Yup, I failed the puzzle, 39 was my answer.
It was pretty funny though, because both Ex and OG emailed me right in the middle of when I was trying to solve it saying they were almost done recording... oh well. Maybe I will get the next one.
You are right about OG being the most elite of the group. For example, here in Johnson County, we don't have the "ice cream man," we have the lobster man.
The lobster man comes around every evening playing Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 over the Land Rover's mounted loud speakers, and the children gather to buy rock tails w/butter-on-a-stick and Crème brûlée popsicles.
She did stress out last week though, cuz there was a car made before 2003 in the parking lot. It was promptly towed, and the resident who owned it evicted, so it all worked out.
Dammit, Venjanz!
At least I have an excuse to link to one of my poems...
Venjanz, you forget that I'm a recent import, you damn New Yorker.
New York? Well that explains a lot then.
In New York City, where I come from, we don't consider a person a true Noo Yawker unless he or she grew up in one of the five boroughs. I'm guessing that Venjanz came from someplace upstate, like Utica or Troy or Syracuse or one of those other phony-Classical redneck burgs.
My pops was from Rochester.
That was pretty funny, Venjanz. Does OG toss a fit when she has to work on a laptop with less than a 500 gig hard drive? Do tell us more!
I don't get how anyone can work on a monitor smaller than 30". And I don't want to hear about dual monitors. That's ghetto.
"Work" on a 30" monitor? I've never even seen one.
Not my area of elitism, I suppose.
Nor mine. My largest TV is 27"
You know you're going to have to get a converter box for that thing in February SI. Welcome to the digital age
Syracuse-good guess (unless you have been talking to OG, or reading some archived posts of mine), Ex. And you are right; there are more red-necks there than there are here in KC. Upstate NY is on par with West Texas.
Evo, she has a 500gb USB thumb drive for Gods sake.
Philly, I agree with duel monitors being ghetto. Most middle class apartments here come complete with a hard-wired JumboTron build into one of the walls, and I wont open a spreadsheet on anything less now.
Gotta go y'all, the right-wing slave auction is about to start. Peace.
Months ago, when my pastor took me out to lunch (after I quit the choir), he finished his visit by giving his testimony, looking around the restaurant and saying, rather smugly, "Most people just don't get it." Since I was still deep in the atheist closet at the time, I stifled a guffaw and simply smiled at him.
If I were having a similar conversation with him now, I'd say something like, "You realize that non-Christians feel the same way about Christians, don't you?" I'd wait for his answer and see where the conversation went from there.
What's with the link to the deranged, right-wing Washington Times? How can you possibly call yourselves elitists after bringing attention to that rag? Please don't tell me any of you actually read that sewage!
Re: elected officials - I don't want to elect people who simply think they are better than I am; I want to elect people who actually are better than me. I want elected officials who know the issues in more depth than I do; I want elected officials who can analyze situations more skillfully than I can, and who have the sense to hire staffs who can do the same.
I agree with Philly about what it means to support our troops. I oppose the Iraq occupation with all my being and have done so right from the start. But I still believe in our civic responsibility to see that they receive medical care, educational opportunities and so on.
"Support Our Troops" is one of the slogans that raises my blood pressure in an instant. I want to upchuck every time I see one of those stupid ribbons on the ass of someone's vehicle.
I'm a blue collar elitist. My work may be considered white collar but I've grown up blue collar, worked mostly blue collar jobs, live in a blue collar are, and have friends who are almost all blue collar workers. Blue collar people, imo, are very pro-military and susceptible to that "support our troops" propaganda, but also they should be very susceptible to issues raised about poor pay for those in the military (especially the enlisted), poor health care and benefits, failures to adequately take care of the disabled vets, pensions and the GI Bill. These are essentially labor issues of the most extreme. These issues, however, either don't get media play or politicians don't speak out about them.
I would think it would be far easier and far more of a successful strategy for a politician to harp on these issues and appear as a true patriot and supporter of our troops then to perpetually lie and falsely cloak yourself in the flag. Furthermore, doing this should expose those false patriots as being just that. This would play well across the country, imo, and would also dispel any talk of one being weak, unAmerican, or anti-military.
Chappy, if any of us (don't remember who exactly you were responding to) didn't make it clear: yes, we would like to elect leaders who actually are better than us - not just think they are. And by "better than us", I simply mean that they know more and are more effective at legislating their ideas than I would be. I don't want to elect some joker who sells herself as being great because she is a blogger "just like Evo".
I don't want to elect some joker who sells herself as being great because she is a blogger "just like Evo".
Does that mean you won't be voting for the Exterminator-Chaplain ticket?
I'm an elitist when it comes to a few things. For one, I consider myself an elitist when it comes to health issues. When I see people who are grossly overweight, I have a certain amount of disgust and disdain. My first reaction is: Why don't these people eat less and move more? Why are they so damn lazy?
Next is my morality compared to people who are religious. A good example is: Pro-lifers who never mention one word against war. Is this common? In my everyday life, I come across people who are so very concerned about a few cells over people already born and who are suffering and dying. All based on their Christian morality. Yes I consider myself an elitist in that respect - compared to those fucks.
I agree with you mostly, but the healthier the food in America, the more expensive it is. What poor people eat is junk, mostly because that's what they can afford. That junk contributes to them being fat, from the high fat and sugar content to the low nutritional value, which compels you to eat more and more.
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