Wednesday, June 25, 2008

The soft bigotry of low expectations

"John McCain is aware of the Internet." -- McCain aide Mark Soohoo.

Wow. That's reassuring. Sort of. Sort of in the way that a doctor who tells you, "I'm aware of brain surgery" might be. I mean, all that's necessary for someone to be in charge of your surgery is that he be aware of brain surgery, not that he has actually done any brain surgery, right? John McCain doesn't even have a computer, has never used email, doesn't "do" the Internet at all... but he's aware of it. So that certainly qualifies him to be in charge of a nation whose future is high technology... err... how?

Come on now. My *mother* uses the Internet, and she's only a few years younger than Grampa McSimpson. Grampa ain't even got a computer? Gah! Out of touch, all the way, yessiree, that's Grampa John McSimson.

-- Badtux the Snarky Penguin

5 comments:

  1. When I first began writing on the net so many years ago, the first dear friend I made was a man who was 81 years old. He knew more about computers at that time than I did. Hasn't McCain ever been curious enough about computers to want to learn how to use one? What does that say about him?

    Maybe one of Senator Obama's little girls could teach him how to use one.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Not that I'm defending McCain, but I don't think it's all that unusual for people his age, or close to it, not to know how to use a computer, or feel the need to learn.

    For example, a 60-something "blogger" named Lawrence Velvel. He writes his entries out in longhand, his secretary types them out and e-mails them to an assistant, and the assistant posts them under Velvel's name. He explains in one of his books that he's a member of the last generation of American males who never learned how to type. I guess McCain is another one. In a very limited way, I can relate -- I'm just now getting comfortable with using enough of the features of that MacBook you sold me two months ago, and I'm barely half McCain's age.

    So I'll give him a pass on this score. I have plenty of other reasons to not want McCain to be the next president, one of which is the fact that he's at least half-insane...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Two words: My mother.
    Two words: My stepfather.

    Both are pretty much McCain's age. They certainly aren't computer wizzes or anything, but they have absolutely no problem sending and reading emails, browsing the photos downloaded onto their computer from their digital camera, etc.

    And neither is college educated. Neither is very technologically literate or anything, they retired from low-level health care positions, not technology. But they have no problem with the technology (or at least no problem not solvable by picking up the phone and calling my brother or I :-). Sure, their typing is hunt-and-peck. But they're old and they're not in a hurry!

    Then there's my great-aunt Irene. She is 80-something years old. No problem

    Let's face it. Being an old person today in the era of $500 laptop computers from Wal-Mart who doesn't own a computer and has never sent an EMAIL means either a) you're dirt poor, or b) you simply lack the intellectual curiousity to buy one of the things and use it. And McCain isn't poor :-).

    - Badtux the Geeky Penguin

    ReplyDelete
  4. Let's face it. Being an old person today in the era of $500 laptop computers from Wal-Mart who doesn't own a computer and has never sent an EMAIL means either a) you're dirt poor, or b) you simply lack the intellectual curiousity to buy one of the things and use it. And McCain isn't poor :-).

    Plus, HE has an entire staff funded by the taxpayers that can show him how to use the damned thing! He doesn't need to be a whiz, but he should at least be able to handle a web browser, e-mail, and maybe some basic office apps.

    Of course, maybe he just fears this type of experience as detailed in an actual memo from Bill Gates some years back. It's nice to see that the head honcho at Microsoft got hosed by his own sloppy products.

    ReplyDelete

Ground rules: Comments that consist solely of insults, fact-free talking points, are off-topic, or simply spam the same argument over and over will be deleted. The penguin is the only one allowed to be an ass here. All viewpoints, however, are welcomed, even if I disagree vehemently with you.

WARNING: You are entitled to create your own arguments, but you are NOT entitled to create your own facts. If you spew scientific denialism, or insist that the sky is purple, or otherwise insist that your made-up universe of pink unicorns and cotton candy trees is "real", well -- expect the banhammer.

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.