

Dumbass Government - A repository and search engine of government blunders  - civilian
http://dumbassgovernment.com/

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bithive123
This makes me uncomfortable. Disregarding the fact that you use terms like
"lamestream media" un-ironically on your blog, your point seems to be "all
government is bad". The basis for this? "Look at all the stupidity."

While I agree that government stupidity abounds, it's unfair (and
intellectually dishonest) to disparage it categorically. In a random I.T.
department there may be broken policies carried out by incompetent people but
nobody ever thinks about all the things that are working properly due to other
people's hard work and attention to detail; they fixate on things with "easy"
or "obvious" fixes.

People love incredible stories, and there are plenty of tales of stupidity
both inside and outside of government. But you didn't call your site "dumbass
human beings" because that isn't pejorative enough towards government. In this
way you expose your bias and make me extremely skeptical about your politics.

~~~
civilian
I didn't make the site, but I think it's a good site to have. I think the idea
is that it just makes it easier for people to find examples of government
making mistakes-- and government makes mistakes consistently. And I
acknowledge that the plural of anecdotes isn't proper proof-- but it works on
a lot of people.

Personally, I have tried to use principles to argue against government and
people throw anecdotal excuses back at me. (For example: It's been proven that
the existence of a minimum wage reduces employment in low-skilled workers
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0c2vmFGbtk> )

There is a lot of bias in the article summaries though. :/

~~~
JClaussFTW
Civilian, the site is definitely biased, but not partisan. It's biased in
favor of personal liberty and meritocracy, yes. But it's not anti-government
or anarchist.

The idea behind DAG is that you can quickly spot where the trouble areas in
government are, be they people or bureaucracies. If the site has wide enough
readership, being named on DAG could eventually become a political scarlet
letter.

~~~
bithive123
You're correct that it's not "anti-government" but pretending that it has much
intellectual, political, or literary merit is "anti-critical-thinking".

If TheDailyWTF.com was instead called "Dumbass Programmers" and promised to
help people "quickly spot where the trouble areas in programming are" it would
be simplistic to the point of tedium. The real problems are not simply a
matter of someone being a "dumbass", that analysis is just self-serving
pablum.

