Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian Swartz
I think the great preponderance of the available evidence, is that we keep doing stupid things because we, the people, keep doing stupid things. Not, primarily, because Russia made us or the various other theories that preceded that are explanations.
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You know, I was reading this, and my immediate thought were all the studies that I read back on college on the ways that people are influenced. It's a very libertarian viewpoint to say that everything that happens is the fault of the person who let it happen to them. I heard this when I was in 4th grade too. I was picked on by the son of one of the pastors in the church that my divorced mom and I went to. I didn't handle that sort of thing very well and it ended up with me losing it multiple times. I remember sitting in the office and explaining why I had done what I had done. I was told that it was my fault, that they would talk to him. They also said that I was one foot out the door to being expelled (not the first or second incident with me and after I punched another kid in the nose and sent him crying). But the bottom line, from my perspective, is that there's a lot more going on than people who just made bad decisions.