This seems to be a trend lately, flipping a vehicle back on it's wheels while forgetting to set the brake or put it in gear. Is this proof we're getting dumber on average?

@A10anis
that was probably the most smug and condescending comment i have seen in awhile.

it has the appearance at first glance of being a thoughtful criticism of religion but in reality is just a childish swipe at people of a religious flavor.

intelligent people tend to avoid blanket statements and broad generalizations.

religion should be criticized,debated and discussed.
the underlying philosophies should be examined for their veracity and their ability for practical applications in a modern world.

but your commentary does none of the above.
you just used this video thread as an opportunity to call religious folk dumb.
well..dumber than you.

and you did it without ever watching the video.
yeah..thats classy.

This argument is certainly dumber by far. On this logic, we should never have invented vaccines or penicillin, after all, these medical advances, and countless others, means we are bereaved of thousands of opportunities to fuel our happiness with tragedy every day.. Trying to justify tragedy by Gods pragmatism is nonsensical on so many levels.

And yeah, there is more than one Christian denomination, and many of them contradict each other, I'm pretty sure Harris is aware of this fact. However, he is arguing against a common or at least widespread interpretation, and the logical consequences of such an interpretation. I believe this video is from a debate with William Lane Craig, who is a catholic, which may explain why it seems to be focused on classic catholic themes (Suffering of Jesus, threat of hell etc.) If you don't believe in hell, then obviously many of the arguments in this video does not apply. Fine. Many believe in hell, thus the arguments applies to those people.

About a week ago I opened my wallet at a bar or a bank or something, and I received a compliment for having a library card in my wallet. O.G. Huntington Beach and Westminster Library card holder representin'!

Before the internet, the common man was dumber than shit and my edge was that I read books at the library. In fact, it was NOT cool to know things about things.

Now I'm comparitively dumb because motherfuckers be like "3rd law of thermodynamics, pssshhh, I know EVERYTHING bout that." /ALTAVISTA

I mean, that's cool that people know things now --but, damn, having that edge was really nice.

And then I had the internet and no one did, and my edge was even huger. I made bank designing shitty ass webpages for shitty ass old people with shitty ass businesses. Now everyone gots it and the people with money laid down the pressure and it's a machine of controlled behavior and wallet squeezing. (I squeeze wallets for a living but it's more in sync with Winston Smith working for big bro.)

But I digress... Shhhhh, I'm on my iPhone -- nope, A BOOK.

Bring it back! Don't let Barnes & Nobles close dooooowwwwn. You may dis on the B&N, but that's part of the levee of popular opinion; how assholes of the future will monetize. If our corporate overlords and money trading thugs realize that books ain't selling, they won't hesitate to shut down a library. For the people. For the taxes. For God. You got a book. It's the bible now STFU.

Then we'll only have the internet and information will successfully be filtered down into an easily manipulated data stream -- which it is, but it's not fully there yet. We need to INTEGRATE FACEBOOK WITH EVERY ASPECT OF EXISTENCE.

Shut down all printing presses. When you pick up a book in the future it will turn to dust in your hands and then the CAVE PEOPLE WILL DEVOUR YOU.

Brains. Brains. Nom. Guts and gore. Your children will be eaten alive; torn to shreds, while blood flows out of their arteries into the machines of death.. Force fucked women of your sub-species impregnated by the semen of the dead in order to make more food. More foooooooooooooood -- YOUR PROGENY ARE FOOD.

And all because of the system which interrupts a motherfuck for reading a book.

I would find this cringe worthy if it were an isolated case. Sadly, it is all to common, and getting worse. The latest generation feel no need to gain even basic facts. Technology, with it's access to information, promised to make us more intelligent and knowledgeable, but it hasn't. The current logic is; "if ever I need to know, I will look it up." Dumb, and Dumber, comes to mind.

*dupeof=http://videosift.com/video/I-M-OK

In terms of cleverness, it reminds me very much of http://videosift.com/video/Everyone-in-this-room-is-now-dumber

Russel is dumber than a bag of hammers.

Funny for the first minute then it just hurts. I fear i'll become dumber if i watch the rest of it.

and @aaronfr
treating "like with like" is also the theoretical basis of immunization. I'm not sure your analogy applies...i think you're trying to score points on another front.

In fairness, I think Bill is joking with his prescription. His main point is the stupidity of Citizens United. The analogy that would apply is "fire with fire", but that just makes everyone dumber.

Yeah, darn people actually know the definition of fascism because the news they watch doesn't simply throw it at anyone who disagrees with them.

Have you seen the things people say at Tea Party rallies? Or, Republicans say in Congress? They're a lot dumber than the people interviewed here.

I got yelled at by a black person for saying something like this. He was right though: I'm just a stupid American white boy. My grandpappy was dumb, my daddy been dumb and so I am done dumber than dumb. Ignorant actually.

But I don't worship no GOD, so at least I got that goin for me. Hell. I got that going for me.

But if there is no hell then it don't matter anyhow We're all biological machines without a destiny, just flapping our various flaps; the constant filibuster on happiness.

I don't know if I just got smarter or dumber by watching this.

I think a little of both.

The story: Shamalan wrote the screenplay after his kids liked the cartoon. However, he decided to make a helluva lot of cuts to the movie to make it more cinematic. He completely neglected a TON of things that made the original great, especially the comedy.

The also tried to change race/element rolls, so instead of traditional Chinese, the firebenders were Indian, which also pissed a lot of people off, because one thing he could have done RIGHT was cast Dante Basco (Rufio, from hook, and the original voice actor of prince zuko) as his respective character.

The names were also mucked up, (Ahh-ng instead of Aang, Soakah instead of Sock-ah) and the overall tone of the movie was god, freaking awful.

It was a double whammy, he made the storyline of a kids cartoon even dumber than it already was (sorry people who love the show, but it is a kids show, they're not meant to make total sense.) and in doing so alienated any parents that went to see the movie with their kids.

And because he changed the storyline so much, he caused fans of the show to hate the movie because of its.. well, bad-ness.

Overall, I end with a quote.

By @artician

"Who keeps giving this guy money?"

"Make the United States safer". Oh, ffs. Anyone else immediately think of Ben Franklin when you hear this bullshit line? I'll trade a 9/11 and a Boston bombing every decade for the governement staying the hell out of my phone and my computer. (Omg, am I starting to sound like goptea'er?). This crap that Obama spewed the other night, roughly "you can't have both 100% security and 100% privacy", is the ol' statue-of-liberty play. He's implying that these programs provide 100% security. You can dismiss everything he says after that because his premise is FALSE. You can dismiss everything he said before that as well, but that's another rant.

And Mika, you can't demand a "yes or no" answer when you just don't want to hear the explanation. There is a very good reason why you weren't paid as much as Joe, and you should thank your lucky stars they still let you read the intros. And stop with the huffing and tsk'ing and eyerolls. You're starting to look and sound llike one of those shrill FOX "analysts".

Willie, what a dumb question. Of course there is a difference between state secrets that do not inpinge on our freedoms and rights of privacy and those that do, you knob. Some would even say the ultimate purpose of maintaining state secrets is to assist in protecting the very American freedoms and rights that are being grossly abused by these programs. The difference between Manning and Snowden is that Manning exposed warcrimes and other abuses being committed on brown people, and Snowden exposed an invasive, Orwellian-level spying and data-mining infrastructure being used on Americans by our own government. So yeah, a little different. So what? Both heroes. And it infuriates me when our government goes after them and tries to paint them as treasonists. They have committed no crimes against America because the government is not America. It's straight-up self-preservation, and has nothing to do with protecting the citizens of this country and the tenets on which this country was founded. What Manning and Snowden did, however, does.

There was once a time when democracies around the world, whether imminent, new, or struggling, could look to the US for inspiration. Now, we could learn much today from a country like Turkey. They get it. It took a few whacks with police batons, and lots and lots of tear-gas, but they get it now. They get beat down, and get smarter and angrier. We just get dumber and dumber no matter what this government says or does.

“The IQ and the life expectancy of the average American recently passed each other in opposite directions.”
― George Carlin

“Go back to bed, America. Your government has figured out how it all transpired. Go back to bed, America. Your government is in control again. Here. Here's American Gladiators. Watch this, shut up. Go back to bed, America. Here is American Gladiators. Here is 56 channels of it! Watch these pituitary retards bang their fucking skulls together and congratulate you on living in the land of freedom. Here you go, America! You are free to do what we tell you! You are free to do what we tell you!”
― Bill Hicks

I laughed when I watched the vid, but I feel quite sorry for the guy having seen the pics of his burns. He made a couple of reasonably small mistakes early on, like not thinking about the fire risk and having the jerry can of fuel there, and got hurt when it all spun out of control.

Plenty of idiots have done much dumber things and got away with it.