I think Know Thy Neighbor may need to be called into action again. Once again a petition has been circulated and no one had any idea what they were signing. Didn’t make them any less eager to sign up though.
Please share widely!
Is Passion Supposed to Replace Common Sense?
Thanks for linking to that Kai, that’s great. Certainly it helps highlight one of the problems with the current initiative petition system used and abused in so many states. It can work, but only with a responsible and informed (and thinking) electorate.
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Here’s a current initiative from WA that is actually helping to get people to PAY ATTENTION because it a) took a state supreme court’s ruling at its word, which many people liked until someone actually put the ruling into action, and b) the title and content of the initiative are not the combo people expect. It’s brilliant. I hope it suceeds.
That last comment made it sound like I lay all blame for initiative duping at the feet of the electorate. I don’t. The state can go a long way in making it very hard to forge & scam your way to the signature goal by redesigning the petition forms and accountability of signature gatherers. They can also help minimize what the clip depicted by running apublic education campaign before/simultaneous to the initiative season. Everyone is at fault – everyone can help fix the problems.
While I disagree with the Washington group’s goals, I love their tactics! Its clever and funny.
But I think their take is a wee bit off. It’s less about joining than trusting.
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Given the right environment, a reasonably friendly and attractive messenger, and carefully chosen language, many people will sign a petition to drown their own mothers. They are far too quick to trust strangers, and believe things without verifying them. Frank Luntz taught the Republicans that lesson, training them to offer happy talk about clean air and water while gutting environmental protections.
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Trusting strangers is a cute throwback to a simpler time, but it’s a very dangerous habit in a world with plenty of sharks in the dihydrogen monoxide.
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Quotable line of the night, thankyouverymuch. I’ll be appropriating that at the first opportune moment. Royalties coming your way sometime soon.
Canadian Comedian Rick Mercer used to have a segment called “Talking to Americans” whereby he would convince Americans of the stupidest things — ending the Saskatchewan seal hunt, or celebrating the completion of Canada’s first one-mile road. It was a beloved feature on CBC.
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Top highlights include suckering George W Bush and Mike Huckabee (a good link can be found here).
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An official person with a camera crew can talk most people into anything. I’m decently educated, but if someone mumbled “dihydrous oxygen” to me I wouldn’t know what it was, and if I was relaxed, in a good mood and agreeable, I might go along with it. This is something we’ve known since Orson Wells first got on the air one Halloween.
Passion does replace common sense at times…have you ever been to a Democratic Convention? It’s chock full of well-meaning people armed with clipboards and petitons – and people are signing them left and right. The experiment undertaken by Penn & Teller could be easily reproduced at the Convention. The general assumption is that “we’re all Democrats” – so just sign it. Some of them get peeved when you decline, but the fact is, I have disagreed profoundly with our Party on some issues. Personally, I think that Antonio Banderas could be holding the petion and I would review the thing.
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The petitioners also assume we’re not paying attention. One time, my husband and I were approached by a several petitioners last fall while shopping. One was about banning the purchase of wine at Stop and Shop, and the other had something to do with providing a margin of state benefits for child care providers. All I really wanted to know was what the budget impact would be. We signed nothing – because the petitioners couldn’t answer my questions about their ballot question.
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People will continue to sign petitions to ban water. It’s a sad commentary on the how few people actually pay attention, and how petitioners can play us for all it’s worth.
Blogs purport to be progress, or democrratic or republican or whatever but they are really trojan horses full if the
opposition’s ideas, beliefs and platforms. hmmm