Sometimes You Can't Combat The Stupid

No matter how hard you try, there's no way to combat the amount of stupid in this country. I say that after making a dumb mistake. I replied to a stupid person's comment on this week's YouTube video of President Obama's weekly address. I should have known better. But it was a sincere effort to supply information - unfortunately, there's no amount of facts and truth that can appease the hatred.

Here's what initially got me started (not going to bother acknowledging grammatical errors):

berserker1776: "this is starting to feel like a banana republic ..... Ive been chasing cave men in Iraq for 27 months, almost got blown up rightfully so, i mean if occupier where patroling I-5 in california id try to blow them up too. mr. president, you are nevergoing to get my vote, my familly voted for youand they are disgusted with you. thanks for your part in fast in furiouse that led to the death of us border agents, and thanks for working to take our guns at home .... im going to go read my bible sir"

I responded with a general comment:

Broadway Carl: Reading the comments here thus far, I'm actually appalled at some of the responses. You'd think everything was all fine and dandy on January 19, 2009 but all went to hell on January 20th, 2009. And maybe some of you truly believe that for one bizarre reason or another. But the complaints I'm reading? Come on now.

Iraq? Call me crazy but I thought that started about 8 or 9 years ago. Bank bailout? Yeah, I remember that summer... of 2008.

And you can thank President Obama for restructuring TARP so that the banks would actually pay that $700 BILLION back that Henry Paulson and George W. Bush initially gave away with no strings attached.

Some of you really need to take a step back and actually see what happened before being so quick to blame someone for WHATEVER REASON you might have.

Of course to me, "WHATEVER REASON" is thinly veiled racism. I have little doubt that these kinds of vitriolic rants would be half as angry if we had someone in the White House who wasn't categorized for the last three years as a terrorist loving, Kenyan born, Manchurian candidate, Socialist, Marxist, Communist Antichrist. Oh, and he's black too. He's not a "real American."

The problem in commenting on YouTube is the limited characters allowed and it seems you can no longer include links to back up your information or provide a longer explanation. But it wasn't long before berserker1776 responded. And now I'm getting email notifications from YouTube telling me stupid people responded to my comment.

berserker1776: after 3 years in office the man has accomplished zero of his promises. and after 3 years the wars are now his wars so even if a war is not a war like libya, we have robots to send in to drop love bombs. this president is acting like adolph hitler, he says he doesn't need congress to go to libya, well why have a us flag lets get a UN flag on all our uniforms this is mass insanity. we are not free, and we are loosing everything at home AMERICA WHEN WILL YOU CARE? WHEN YOU HOMELESS?

...Sigh... I opened up a can of stupid. But hey, with "1776" in his handle to show his patriotism, he can't be all bad.

My initial reaction was to respond, which is when I came across the "no links" errors, so I took a step back, calmed down and decided to forget the notion of replying. It's not worth the time to slam my head against a brick wall of idiocy when I'm never going to convince the wall anyway. But what I wanted to say was this:

I don't know what planet you live on, but on my planet January 20, 2009 through July 16, 2011 is actually 2½ years, not three years. And as far as accomplishing "zero of his promises" you might want to visit this site that is keeping tabs on promises kept, 148 and counting. As far the wars are concerned, he said he'd draw down in Iraq, and he has; he said he'd escalate in Afghanistan, and he has; he said he'd surge troops in order to complete the dismantling of Al-Qaeda and then bring them home, which he's doing; he said he'd capture or kill Obama bin Laden, and he has. Just add those to the "Promises Kept" column. As far as Libya is concerned, you can say it's debatable whether the President violated the War Powers Act, but saying he's acting like Hitler is just plain silly. I hope you were just as vocal when President Bush declared war on Iraq under false pretenses.
Also please point me in the directions of the sources you're using for your claims that Obama policies led to the death of border agents and that he's trying to take your guns away. Good luck with bible reading.

I did get a word of encouragement, however:

fonkymaster: Finally! A rational person has appeared! It's super effective!

But it wasn't long before others chimed in:

JUDALATION: so since the president does one good thing we should forget the REAL BIG BAD THINGS HE HAS DONE?He has KEPT Guantanimo, Kept drilling offshore, Kept the Patriot act, Kept tax cuts for Millionaires, kept soldiers in Iraq, Kept Dont ask dont tell, and passed weak regulations on banks, He has surrounded himself with wallstreet people in his cabinet. He is to the right of Bush on Immigration and has deported more illegals than bush. He is AGAINST GAY MARRAGE,He racked + debt than bush

AthenasConquest: This is Hilarious Obama spent more money than all presidents combined.Now he pretends to arrest the problem blatant spending he created.

Well, it's like a crack in the dyke of stupid. I just don't have enough fingers to plug the holes.

Should I go into the fact that Congress voted practically unanimously to defund the closing of Gitmo? That Obama extended the Bush tax cuts in order to also provide and extra 13 months of unemployment insurance and that the tax cut extension wasn't just for millionaires, but for everyone? That he repealed DADT? That enforcing immigration rules, including deportation, is what the government is supposed to do?; but if you look at the numbers, deportation has been on a steady incline for the last nine years. Should I go into the fact that while Obama is personally against gay marriage, that hasn't stopped him from being the most progressive president when it comes to gay rights that all other president combined?

Sometimes you just have to save your energy, pick your battles and shake your head as you walk away from the stupid. At least on YouTube.