primitives being useful idiots

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6781280

Oh my.

The primitives finally discovered a term decent and civilized people have known for years and decades and generations--but it's apparently new to the primitives.

MajorChode  (1000+ posts)        Thu Oct-15-09 11:18 AM
Original message
 
What it means exactly to be a "useful idiot"

I live in Texas, so naturally there's no shortage of freepers around here. Some of them I know through social gatherings, some of them I know through work, and I'm even friends with some of them.

One guy I work with (who is a freeper) loves the term "useful idiots". He was throwing it around one day regarding Democrats in general, and I challenged him to name just exactly to whom they were useful. This caught him off guard and he stammered a bit, and finally blurted out, well, the Democratic Party if nobody else. Wow. Really? The Democratic Party can round up millions of "useful idiots" presumably on their charisma alone? What a concept.

So I put a bit of thought into that, and I started thinking about which party has the most "useful idiots". The answer is pretty simple. All you have to do is follow the money. To whom does the defense industry look to when they have a completely useless multi-billion dollar program they need to push? Why the useful idiots on the right, of course. Then if you look at the industry group that consumes the next largest share of government money, the medical industry, to whom do they look to when they need useful idiots? And really you can simply expand that concept to most industry groups. When they need to round up the biggest group of useful idiots, which party do they always look toward?

So the next day I countered my freeper co-worker with this, and what was his answer? He said, well, I'd rather give that money to those industries than hand it out to lazy people on welfare. Really? Welfare consumes at most about 2% of the federal budget and 1% of state budgets, but you'd rather give 30-40% of the federal budget away to needless spending just so you might not have to give another 1 or 2 percent to poor people? Gee, I thought you "conservatives" were all about smaller government. I guess really you're more about irrational hate of poor people.

The really sad part is, this particular useful idiot is smarter than most of the other useful idiots I know.

Uh oh.  The choleric major primitive lied about a statistic.

AllentownJake  (1000+ posts)        Thu Oct-15-09 11:22 AM
Response to Original message
 
1. Some seem to have a sudden change of heart when they get downsized

Either that or they find a way to blame Mexicans.

MajorChode  (1000+ posts)        Thu Oct-15-09 11:26 AM
Response to Reply #1
 
5. Most of the freepers I know would stick to their idiocy even if they got canned

But one thing I love to ask is, "So are you going to cash your unemployment check if you get laid off?"

redqueen  (1000+ posts)        Thu Oct-15-09 11:28 AM
Response to Reply #5
 
7. Hell, they shouldn't even be applying for it.

Recursion (1000+ posts)      Thu Oct-15-09 11:22 AM
Response to Original message
 
2. I *think* (don't quote me on this) it's an old Royal Navy rating like, "able seaman". "useful idiot" was in the technical sense of "idiot", that is, someone who is mute. "Useful" meant he could hand, reef, and steer.

redqueen  (1000+ posts)        Thu Oct-15-09 11:28 AM
Response to Reply #2
 
8. It was supposedly coined by Lenin.

geek tragedy (1000+ posts)      Thu Oct-15-09 11:24 AM
Response to Original message
 
3. A useful idiot is someone who opposes an agenda but is so inept or misguided that they help advance that agenda.

See, e.g., Nader voters, who were the rightwing's useful idiots in 2000.

MajorChode  (1000+ posts)        Thu Oct-15-09 11:34 AM
Response to Reply #3
 
10. I don't know if I could include 3rd party supporters

While a great many of them might have been idiots, and they were indeed useful to the RW, I still wouldn't call them "useful idiots."

A useful idiot is someone who directly supports an agenda that's directly against their own best interests. For instance, someone who is on the side of the healthcare insurance industry for no other reason than because they see the opposition as on the side of the Democrats.

BOSSHOG  (1000+ posts)      Thu Oct-15-09 11:25 AM
Response to Original message
 
4. Millions of dollars to limbaugh, hannity and beck

they just loves their listeners.

Greyhound  (1000+ posts)        Thu Oct-15-09 11:27 AM
Response to Original message
 
6. Here's what I found;

Useful Idiot: Someone who carries out the agenda of another - unaware of the real effects of their activities. One who acts under the delusion that they're doing good, when in fact they are unwittingly aiding and abetting a conspiracy.

SOS (1000+ posts)        Thu Oct-15-09 11:38 AM
Response to Original message
 
12. People who side with the $125 million a year CEO of United Health Group against working people who have no access to a doctor are useful idiots.

Or primitives who side with super-rich Democrat liberals who don't really give a shit about the primitives or anybody else.

[delilahmused]

Another conversation that never took place. If it did, I doubt the stammering was because he didn't know the answer but that he didn't want to get into an argument with a leftist useful idiot...it's one of those "don't wrestle with a pig" lessons.

Cindie