INDOCTRINATING IDIOCY – PART TWO

Paul has some serious personality problems and attacked someone from another generation (with no evidence or reason whatsoever) by claiming I thought I was better than him even as he claimed he was better than me. His supporters and Bradley did the same. Worse, they all just confirmed for a lot of others that people of Y-generation are idle, bigoted, self-centred and stupid when the reality is Paul and his mates represent a sad little minority of intellectually stunted people who know no generational boundaries. Well done. Bravo. *slow hand clap*


Not to be outdone, another two contenders for half-wit of the week arrived on the scene. Justin, a real champ depicting himself as someone fighting for peace, love, equality and respect for the LGBTI community posted a variant of the standard ‘Blah blah’ response of idiots with nothing of value to contribute. Not as impressive as our poor, “struggling” and “oppressed” little Y-gen, Paul, who lives in Sydney, studies Engineering at UNSW, and jet-sets around the world.

Bradley managed to do a little better. Like Paul and Justin, and all the trolls that ‘liked’ Paul’s comment, there were pictures of himself all over his profile pages too, but mostly of big guns and motorcycles, like he was obsessed with, and desperate to over-compensate for, a personal short-coming. Despite the belief they are suffering worse than anybody else, these Y-gens are able to ponce about on flash looking motorcycles, travel the world, and live in expensive places. If only the rest of us were so lucky to ‘struggle’ like that. Clearly Bradley is someone who can’t survive on his own and feels safer as part of a pack of lads trying hard to be men. 

Bradley was a latecomer, but no less unhinged than Paul. In fact, he didn’t even bother to read what Paul wrote, or did so but didn’t bother to ‘like’ the comment. But just like Paul, our hero Bradley cast reality into the wind and attacked things he quoted from what had been written but which, once again, did not actually appear in any form. It occurred to me that maybe they were reading something else and commenting on my post by accident, but then how would such perfections of the human species make a mistake?

This idiot also seemed to assume I was a Baby Boomer and wrote “get over yourself”. Again, this was advice from which Bradley himself could really benefit. A few weeks ago there was a post from Anonymous designed to demonstrate how we need to think about things before making assumptions, leaping to conclusions, and refusing to back down when we make mistakes. It was a simple algebra (math) problem using symbols instead of letters to represent number values. The reader was required to determine what each symbol defined. It led to a huge flame war as people argued their solution was right and others were wrong.


Some said the answer was 15, others 16, 17, 50 or even 70. One guy said diabetes and a waste of money. Another insisted it was marketing by McDonalds but failed to provide evidence to prove this other than the symbols. Some argued the BOMDAS approach, that multiplication came before addition, others simply missed the multiplication sign and followed the pattern established by all the additions in previous examples, and a lot failed to realise the last question included a single packet of fries, not a pair. Only one guy, aside from myself, got it right.

People were so busy trying to prove their argument that they missed the obvious. The question was the answer. Despite numerous arguments insisting the single packet was worth half of the two packs, even by a guy claiming to be a math teacher, the last question includes a symbol whose value was not defined. Just because it looks like half of one defined earlier, doesn’t make it so. If it were half the value of the symbols in the third equation, the two packs would have been presented as the symbol of a single pack preceded by the numeral 2.

Ignore what the symbols look like. Replace them with letters (a+a+a=30, a+b+b=20, b+c+c=9, and b+dxa=?). Are we still convinced ‘d’ is half the value of ‘c’? If ‘b’ represented 18, would that mean that ‘d’ is 81 just because ‘d’ looks like a backwards ‘b’? This was a logic trap. It was designed to encourage people to make assumptions. Maybe it was advertising by McDonalds. Maybe it wasn’t. What it proved was (a) that just because something looks like something doesn’t make it so, (b) we need to avoid making assumptions and refusing to reconsider better responses when they become apparent, and (c) personality influences interpretation.

Hopefully, you get what I’m trying to say with this example. I’m sure the likes of Paul and the other eleven idiots that trolled my post (about using flawed approaches to compare how smart people are to each other) will assume I’m suggesting they’re obsessed with junk food. Either way, time for a change of tact. Normally, my approach is the hand of friendship when someone new comes along or needs help. Offer withdrawn. Trolls like Bradley, Justin, Paul and his sycophantic pack of douchebags demand respect but make no effort to earn it.


That Dumb-arse Dozen are like a weird version of the story about the Good Samaritan, only they are the victim. They get ignored by their own kind because the other trolls are focussed on their phones. An X-gen offers the victim help but is accused of having a go at them, insulted, and told to piss off. Others watch the victim do this and respond to the victim in kind, but do these trolls learn? No, they blame everyone else, including those who tried to help them or otherwise did nothing to deserve it.

Here’s the skinny. People like me struggled all our lives to get what we have, which is not bloody much. We suffered the indignity and misery of long-term unemployment, rent we couldn’t afford, and went without meals. We didn’t go out, get coffee, or have holidays. We certainly didn’t travel around the world or have flash motorbikes. We lived in a squalid rental an agent would look you in the eye and lie about, insisting it was a “charming, renovator’s dream” when it was an old run down former (or located beside a) meth-lab.

We dreamed of getting a job so we could save-up to buy a house and one day, maybe, get married and have kids. That’s right. Just like you. Some of the lucky ones got apprenticeships, or worked our way through uni, on our own, no support, in an effort to try to improve our prospects. We didn’t have mummy and daddy to support us. We didn’t suck them dry then complain about how their generation was oppressing us, and demand they go away and die because the world was ours, but make sure our laundry was done and meals cooked first.

After that, we went back to the same shitty job because we didn’t know the right people or others were ahead of us for promotion. Just because you go to uni doesn’t mean you walk into a middle management job. It’s not some right. You have to prove you can do the jobs that lead there, can demonstrate ability, responsibility, and work ethic. Most of us never escape. Welcome to the real world, princess. All the while you bitch and whine about people having a go at you (when they’re not), and bully them because you refuse to listen or see reason, you’re missing the big picture.


The excuse that you are the way you are because of what the previous generation did to you are kind of true. In an opinion piece I read, some Y-gen chick even tried to point out that you are all our sons and daughters, and in a sense you are. One way or another, we helped raise you. Most of us sacrificed as much as we could to give you a better life and the things we never had when people like my (for lack of a better word) parents did such a piss-poor job because they were like you lot – a bunch of self-centred narcissists. They still are. Things like the free tertiary education you’re getting. Although, from your idiotic personality and behaviour, it has become abundantly clear that the taxpayers are getting ripped off.

So you’re right. We spoiled your lot. We gave you things you didn’t earn, much less deserve. We wanted you to have the things we never did. That’s why you feel so entitled and regard us with contempt as you insist this is your world, leaving no place for anyone else. Not all of us return that look either, no matter what you think. The look we give you is disappointment. Sometimes shame. Not just regarding your behaviour, but our own failure to help you be better people.

It is our fault that we allowed government to dictate laws and policies that have enabled your worst behaviour. We had no real means to stop them. They rule like they are entitled. As a result, there are no real consequences for anti-social behaviour and violaence at school. The teachers are not even permitted to physically intervene to stop even the most violent acts. There are too many of you unable to leave the nest but unwilling to take financial responsibility for your own lives despite demanding independence. You won’t even help clean-up after yourselves while you continue to live in your parent’s homes. When you go into the real world, you are unprepared for reality.


This world that you claim, that you insist you will make better, people like me built it. We fought tooth and nail, every fucking step of the way, to provide the things you take for granted. If you had bothered to read what I posted, and think about it, you’d realise that mobile phone you use like a mirror, and to photograph your junk (imagine my horror learning that no longer just means the mess in your garage), is something my generation created. You are not the only age demographic that uses and misuses that thing. It’s just one of many great gadgets my lot made or paved the way for you lot to make better.

So stop and think about all that while you blame us for how hard your life is compared to ours. It wasn’t easy for us either. We had to put up with the Baby Boomers telling us how lazy we are, how we need to learn how to save when they have no idea how expensive everything is now. We still do. But you have more in common with us than we do with them. Most of my generation don’t feel entitled. We are grateful for everything we managed to set in place for you lot.

Geordie Brown was only partially right about our so-called political representatives failing students and teachers. They also fail the parents, communities and society as a whole. He was right when he said they were not elected to blame others. But he was wrong when he suggested they were elected to fix the problem. They won’t. We all know it. It’s up to Geordie Brown and folk like him to do that. My generation couldn’t change anything. We had to wait for our predecessors to retire and go away before we could make changes, but we will never get the chance.

The worst people from our generation have moved into positions of authority, and unless you stop and learn from history, the same will happen to your generation. My generation, your collective parents, had so much hope that you would build a better world. We gave you everything we could to prepare you. We wanted to step back, let you know we were there if you needed us, but give you a little nod and say, “you’ve got this.” But people like you, Paul, have created an image that leaves us shaking our head in bitter disappointment. You are evidence of the stereotype.

You had twelve years of primary and secondary education and now you’re at uni. But here you are, insisting you are better than everyone that came before you and behaving like an ill-educated, ignorant twat. All those years wasted. What the hell were you doing when they were trying to educate you? Staring at yourself in a phone? Texting your junk at some poor bastard whose number you accidentally entered? Wake up, buttercup, you’re a big boy now. You want to wear the big boy pants, it’s time to take responsibility for what you are instead of blaming everyone else.


If you had been even half-as smart as a High School leaver who manages to over-achieve and get a higher score than the average of his fellow students, then you may have realised exactly what my less than subtle point was about trying to compare people of different ages based on questions that may favour one generation or culture over another. You can’t. It’s all subjective. It only really works when testing subjects that underwent the same education program. 

One bloke suggested they test how smart people are based on the job he does as a plumber. It would provide him with an unfair advantage unless the student knows about plumbing, but it was a very cleverly made point. All the post did was expose angry, resentful, self-centred, narcissistic, over-entitled, ungrateful jerks like you, who have an over-inflated opinion of themselves and like to tear others down to make themselves feel bigger. 

This is your world? Well, you clearly have a lot to learn. It’s not your world. Your first lesson is about sharing. You are the future? If that’s even remotely true, the majority of the world is weeping. Unless they are a vast improvement on you, Paul, the only way a “tonne of young people” will ever make a “positive impact on the world” is if we drop them from a great height onto other trolls like you and Donald fucking Trump. 

The education you exhibit is a variation of the tired old “school of hard knocks”, where people claim their life experience makes them the smartest person in the world despite the evidence of, well, them being a colossal dumb arse. It’s people like you who go into the public service or jobs where you are supposed to help people but, instead, become part of the problem. You are a product, and pedlar, of the entrenched culture of corruption.


You bear all the relevant qualifications. You come across people you don’t know, who may even need help, or who say something you decide somehow offends your delicate sensibilities, and you respond with behaviours that include indifference, ineptitude, idleness, negligence, apathy, incompetence, insincerity, unfounded and defamatory accusations, and or intimidation. Although the education system may have been wasted on you, the harsh reality is you are exactly what it indirectly taught you to be.

The politicians we have elected, and the majority of the ranking public servants they appointed, model that very behaviour. The system is designed to isolate and silence not just victims, but the whistle-blowers and anybody else that dares object, and to conceal and enable predators, crime, systemic failure, and injustice. We are indoctrinating the idiocy that oppresses us. As long as this continues, until we force positive change, we are part of the problem.

We, as a society, need to change how we do things. We need to go back to school, all of us, and have a good hard look at the whole process. Not just what we are teaching, but how we are teaching it, and what children are learning in an environment where children can behave badly and never suffer real consequences to deter and discourage repeat offences. We need to have a look at the role of parents who cannot discipline themselves, let alone their brats, and how they insist their child is a victim when that child is the perpetrator.

It’s time we had a look at why our education system is producing less well-adjusted and educated people than Asian countries. Children who throw tantrums, refuse to do their work, refuse to learn, and spend their time vandalising property and assaulting others are being enabled when they should be punished to deter that behaviour. Children who are being attacked, and in a class with a teacher constantly having to monitor bad behaviour, suffer adverse learning outcomes that flow on and impact on the rest of their lives and employment opportunities.


It’s time to stop allowing people to inflict themselves on others and then claim to be the victim. It has resulted in a return to the ignorance, misogyny, racism, bigotry, violence and other anti-social behaviour that has taken decades to expose and attempt to end. We have struggled to actually enforce policy and weed-out problem people in the police, public services, politics, sports and churches, and now we are confronted by a culture that encourages the narcissism and idiocy of the next generation as it moves into the employment sector and multiplies those very problems.

It’s time social media was forced to adopt real regulation to protect users from trolls hiding behind so-called ‘free speech’ to attack others and inflict their seriously flawed personalities and mental health problems on their victims. It’s time we taught people that respect must be earned, and that there are consequences for bad behaviour. We cannot compare people based on tests that favour one over another because this leads to assumptions, generalisations, discrimination, unfounded personal attacks, anti-social behaviour, and injustice. Thanks, Bradley, Justin, Paul, and all your half-wit mates, for the wilful stupidity you demonstrated to prove my point.

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