"We Have Met The Enemy And He Is Us"

[Formaldehyde]

However, it should be argued that the contestant should have known the answer already and not used a lifeline.

If they only used bright and knowledgeable pre-screened people on the show, as Jeopardy does, I doubt it would be nearly as popular.

 

[Brighteye]

Socialism isn't populist. It's all about drinking champagne and patronising everyone who isn't at the party.

 

[Oruc]

so why are people saying populism is a bad thing? What am I missing?

 

[Formaldehyde]

It all depends on your own perspective and agenda:

Populist movements can be precursors for, or building blocks for, fascist movements.[29][30][31] Conspiracist scapegoating employed by various populist movements can create "a seedbed for fascism."[32] National socialism populism interacted with and facilitated fascism in interwar Germany.[33] In this case, distressed middle–class populists during the pre-Nazi Weimar period mobilized their anger at government and big business. The Nazis "parasitized the forms and themes of the populists and moved their constituencies far to the right through ideological appeals involving demagoguery, scapegoating, and conspiracism."[34] According to Fritzsche:

The Nazis expressed the populist yearnings of middle–class constituents and at the same time advocated a strong and resolutely anti-Marxist mobilization....Against "unnaturally" divisive parties and querulous organized interest groups, National Socialists cast themselves as representatives of the commonwealth, of an allegedly betrayed and neglected German public....reaking social barriers of status and caste, and celebrating at least rhetorically the populist ideal of the people’s community...[35]

US international policies have intervened in Latin American governments in many occasions where populism has threatened its interests: the interventions in Guatemala, when the populist Arbenz government was overthrown by a coup backed by the American company United Fruit and the American ambassador in 1954, and Augusto Pinochet's Chilean coup in 1973 are just two cases of American intervention. Daniel Ortega's Sandinista government in Nicaragua was also viewed as a threat to US foreign policy during the Cold War, leading the United States to place an embargo on trade with the Sandinista's Soviet-sponsored regime as well as support anti-Sandinista rebels.[citation needed] One last example of US intervention has been seen in Colombia particularly since the assassination of Populist leader Jorge Eliecer Gaitan on April 1948 who supported land reform and other socialist initiatives which posed a threat to American interests; it is for this reason that Gaitan's assassination is alleged to have been a CIA plot. To this day Colombia continues to be the US most important ally in the region with continuos military aid under Plan Colombia.

 

[Bigfoot3814]

If they only used bright and knowledgeable pre-screened people on the show, as Jeopardy does, I doubt it would be nearly as popular.

Are the people on Jeopardy really that smart when you only get like 35 grand answering really tough questions while the people on Millionaire get a million dollars guessing the name of the dog from Frasier?

PS. It's Eddie.

 

[Sharwood]

This. I know most americans cant be morons, they are the technological driver of the world, for the most part. but ye have to consider, over here, people like Palin, Coulter, OReilly etc wouldnt get past the interview stage to be a politician or a journalist. There just inst enough of a stupid audience for them. People here are too clever, and people here arent particularly clever.

Agreed. People in Australia are xenophobic, terrified of change, ignorant, stupid, etc. And with the exception of complete nutjobs who are convinced Jesus will bring peace on Earth by nuking all but the 20 members of their weird church, no-one could wrap their head around Palin being the 2nd-in-command of our nation. She may have been elected to represent a district, but if she were 2nd-in-line to the Prime Ministership the Opposition would win in a landslide. As stupid as we are, we have standards for public positions that she just woldn't even approach, let alone reach.

It's stuff like that that just makes us look at America and think: WTH?!

 

[Cutlass]

Oh you are referring to the Populist Party.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Populist_Party_(United_States)

Well, that's different.

But I think the original party was referring to the generic term, which is extremely overloaded to mean just about any movement that is currently popular to even a precursor to fascism:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Populism

Fair enough. Populism has been misused by a lot of causes.

 

[Dachs]

Who cares about Virgin Islands? See what you know about really important stuff..
Q: Which Russian ruler do the Chukchee hate most?
A: Alexander II
B: Nikolay II
C: Stalin
D: Putin

Dude, subjective question.

If they only used bright and knowledgeable pre-screened people on the show, as Jeopardy does, I doubt it would be nearly as popular.

Meh, Jeopardy! ain't so hard.

Are the people on Jeopardy really that smart when you only get like 35 grand answering really tough questions while the people on Millionaire get a million dollars guessing the name of the dog from Frasier?

PS. It's Eddie.

That's true. But being on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? is a much more taxing experience than being on Jeopardy!.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

Socialism isn't populist. It's all about drinking champagne and patronising everyone who isn't at the party.

Champagne is disgusting, one of the few wines I hate.

 

[Bigfoot3814]

That's true. But being on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? is a much more taxing experience than being on Jeopardy!.

At least you can take your time.

 

[Dachs]

At least you can take your time.

If you need that much time to think of the answer, you probably don't know the right one anyway. Seriously, I would want to shoot the host of WWTBAM after an hour of watching the bloody show, much less playing in it, with the ******** lights and sound effects and the constant suspenseful music playing in the background and aaaarrgh

 

[philippe]

Champagne is disgusting, one of the few wines I hate.

then I wonder if you really drank champagne, what kind it was and in what conditions.

 

[Bigfoot3814]

If you need that much time to think of the answer, you probably don't know the right one anyway.

Well I don't think that's necessarily true.

Seriously, I would want to shoot the host of WWTBAM after an hour of watching the bloody show, much less playing in it, with the ******** lights and sound effects and the constant suspenseful music playing in the background and aaaarrgh

Side story, I once met former host of WWTBAM, Regis Philbin, at Home Depot. He was shopping for kitchen tiles. And he looks HORRIBLE without makeup on. And I was wearing a t-shirt with a $100 bill on it with the words "I want to be a millionaire". This is a 100% true story.

 

[Sharwood]

then I wonder if you really drank champagne, what kind it was and in what conditions.

Champagne tastes like warm, stale cat-piss. And the smell isn't much better. Then again, most wines are variants on the cat-piss taste-scale. No wonder people spit it back in the glass instead of swallowing it. You need the cheese afterwards to get rid of the taste. Ugh.

 

[Gilder]

Which king?

Yeah, it was Rush.

 

[Cutlass]

Yeah, it was Rush.

Rush doesn't even pretend to be a journalist though

 

[Bigfoot3814]

Rush doesn't even pretend to be a journalist though

He's a political commentator/superhero.

 

[Cutlass]

He's a political commentator/superhero.

He's an entertainer and nothing else.

 

[Bigfoot3814]

He's an entertainer and nothing else.

That's why I said /superhero followed by a laughing smiley.

 

[Cutlass]

That's why I said /superhero followed by a laughing smiley.

I always preferred to call him what he truly is: A devil worshiping communist traitor