Favorites as bookmarks? Polioutragefilter! October 31, 2010 9:38 AM   Subscribe

Brain.. hurting.. in a recent(!?) political outrage filter, some brilliant individual made a wonderfully astute comment where he/she/it postulated that reforming government and all it entailed was a wildly complex set of problems, and the issue with the standard tea party(?) mindset was simply wiping it all away and that isn't a reasonable way to fix it. Can't. Find. It. Can you point me to it?
posted by cavalier to MetaFilter-Related at 9:38 AM (7 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite

Usually I'm game for a 'Where's This Thread?' thread, but this is in no way an appealing search. Good luck, and sorry dude.
posted by carsonb at 9:44 AM on October 31, 2010


Have you looked amongst deleted threads? There have been a lot of political ones lately.
posted by tomboko at 9:45 AM on October 31, 2010


This one?

This all has me thinking about systems again.

I believe that its almost impossible to change a human system (like a school board or a country) from the inside ....

posted by nangar at 10:34 AM on October 31, 2010 [1 favorite]


No... aghghg... it seemed so obvious, why didn't I favorite it!

There was this eloquent bit about providing seemingly obvious/simple answers for problems that required much more effort than that, and how people were naturally drawn to simple, which is why the promotion for the party worked -- this whole bit of how people were naturally drawn to easy, obvious answers (i.e., shut down the govt), when it took much more work.

Someone else saw that! Come to me! I have candy corn!!
posted by cavalier at 5:26 PM on October 31, 2010


I have an urge for broccoli now. Strange...
posted by Splunge at 5:43 PM on October 31, 2010


I don't have the answer, but there's a saying I often quote which I first came across when Pauline Hanson proposed to solve Australia's problems by printing more money: "There are simple solutions out there to most of the world's problems. The trouble is, they're stupid.".
posted by AmbroseChapel at 7:53 PM on October 31, 2010 [1 favorite]


Maybe it's this great comment by bitmage, which I just came across again. Selectively quoted:

Compare on immigration:

"This is a deep issue. We've got industries that depend on undocumented labor, many hardworking immigrants who are vulnerable to exploitation, children who have been born here and are seeking education, legal immigrants who have followed the procedures and resent others skipping them, a diminishing of the rule of law in Mexico due to rising drug trafficking and violence, and the need to come up with an equitable solution for all parties..."

"WE'RE GOING TO BUILD A FENCE AND KEEP 'EM OUT!!"

One of these is simple, easy to understand, and wrong. All the problems facing the US are like this - waning global influence, terrorism, outsourcing, the rise of BRIC, peak oil, global warming, it goes on and on.
posted by box at 10:00 AM on November 9, 2010


« Older Post or comment about a beloved judge?   |   Chrontendo directory Newer »

You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments