[b]Neal Stephenson
Arguing with anonymous strangers on the Internet is a sucker’s game because they almost always turn out to be—or to be indistinguishable from—self-righteous sixteen-year-olds possessing infinite amounts of free time.[/b]
Fucking Kids! However old they are.
The difference between stupid and intelligent people – and this is true whether or not they are well-educated – is that intelligent people can handle subtlety.
Some [believe it or not] can even handle ambiguity.
Ninety-nine percent of everything that goes on in most Christian churches has nothing whatsoever to do with the actual religion. Intelligent people all notice this sooner or later, and they conclude that the entire one hundred percent is bullshit, which is why atheism is connected with being intelligent in people’s minds.
Now it’s up to 99.9%
When you are wrestling for possession of a sword, the man with the handle always wins.
Of course here some wrestle for possession of the word. The handle being its definition.
Our opponent is an alien starship packed with atomic bombs, I said. We have a protractor.
Or, for the lucky ones, a drafting compass.
Whenever serious and competent people need to get things done in the real world, all considerations of tradition and protocol fly out the window.
And then there’s how things get done in la la land. And, no, not just here.
This is America. People do whatever the fuck they feel like doing, you got a problem with that? Because they have a right to. And because they have guns and no one can fucking stop them.
In some parts more than others let’s say.