A Simple Question for the B&B
Whilst grazing on the internet I come across some weird and wonderful things. From discovering Bill Maher’s New Rules on YouTube to learning about the different strains of marijuana available in the coffeeshops of Amsterdam (for research purposes, ahem). But the following article is one of the funniest and I found it on the Ford’s own website. Ford got into this Web 2.0 social networking thing with a vengeance at thefordstory.com
The article starts off OK. Ford crowing about their quality beating everyone else. O.k., we’ll discuss that another time. It’s the comments that raise my interest. The second comment starts off a “Toyota vs Ford” debate by saying “Toyota is so much better.” I call flame-bait, that comment was written March 13, at the height of the Toyota-troubles. Then the conversation turns into an “All MBA’s aren’t bad” string (conveniently forgetting that Alan Mulally is an engineer, first and foremost). The comment is finished with a flourish: “WE MUST PROMOTE AN ‘INNOVATIVE AMERICA-‘ENVISIONEERING’ ITS FUTURE”.
The patriotic theme carries on with “C Burens” commenting that “The American public has forgotten that the Japanese once bombed us, and many other foreign countries hate US too. If we don’t support “USA Made” and all manufacturing goes abroad, do you think for a minute that the average Joe will be able to afford any car or truck? Think again, demand (for vehicles) increases pricing, “scarcity” drives up prices and once again, only the very wealthy will be driving vehicles. How far do you plan to walk?”
He wasn’t the only one in this line of thinking. “Gary” says “I agree, if you buy Japanese or German, you are sending your cash to the very countries that not so long ago were murdering millions of us westerners. My 2006 F150 is now 4 yrs old and I can honestly say it has had absolutely nothing go wrong with it yet, not even a bulb.”
This carries on and on through the whole comments section. So after reading all of these comments, I only have one question: Historical inaccuracies, and the U.S. educational system aside, have some of TTAC’s Best and Brightest been moonlighting on the Ford website? Nah, can’t be. It would have degenerated into a heated discussion about health insurance.
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I don't think it's about intellectual elitism. You don't [necessarily] have to be brilliant. It's about being fair-minded, undogmatic, apolitical, rational and non-defensive in your "arguments". Idiots just inadvertently disclose their prejudice and narrowness earlier and louder. And college or grad-school is not the guarantee of rational, scientific-method-quality formation it may seem. I know plenty of knuckleheads who can and do put 2 and 3-letter abbreviations after their names. The snobbish, faux-knickerbocker, port-sniffing self-appointed ideological aristocracy is not a priori any fairer-minded than the plumbers and their cracks. Decorum and open-mindedness comes from character. Hell, a distant relation of mine had an IQ higher than Einstein, and that person was Notoriously difficult and curmudgeonly. -- PPS:On the other hand, it's more fun if you keep 95% of the sub-100 IQs out. *If someone is going to insult, defame, inflame, scapegoat and marginalize, I really do prefer that it be done in a complex, byzantine fashion; preferably in French; while sipping Absinthe; and munching on honey-braised sparrows.
When I worked in Administration at a Ford plant, all of the copy machines were Toshiba's. One of my regular assignments was to order Euros' and Yen from the bank so that we could pay our suppliers. I don't think buying American ever crossed anyone's mind, anymore than selling only to Americans would have crossed anyones mind.