"I googled it" -- the new "I made poopies in my pants"?

[tzikeh]

I'm having a ... discussion (not on lj) with someone who cannot understand the concept of a television season. She will not let go of the idea that this season of Heroes ends in early December, because the promos say things like "They only have FIVE WEEKS to blah blah blah" (avoiding spoilers). I have tried, carefully, more than once, and with small words, to explain how a standard network season works. Her answer is that I'm wrong, and she can prove it because she googled it -- and the source she chose to use to back her up from her foray into Google? A thread on Ask Metafilter.

So - just how dumb does someone have to be before I'm allowed to think of them as food?

Comments

[mecurtin.livejournal.com]

It depends on how tasty they're likely to be.

[sunqist.livejournal.com]

She sounds like the kind of person who thinks every word of Wikipedia is true, so why not just show her that article and trump Metafilter?

[luminosity]

just how dumb does someone have to be before I'm allowed to think of them as food?

I use a sliding scale.

[raincitygirl.livejournal.com]

There isn't always a bright line. However, in THIS case, I'd say there's absolutely no doubt whatsoever that this person falls well under wherever you've chosen to place the fuzzy line.

Actually eatng her would probably be a bad idea. I doubt she'd taste very good, and there's that whole pesky murder trial thing hassle you'd have to deal with. But for the sake of humanity's future, you could try strongly advocating that she get a tubal ligation.

[klia.livejournal.com]

Geez, louise! I really, really wonder about people who think everything on the internet is true, especially when they point to something some random idiot posted on an Ask thread. I'll bet if you Googled, you'd find someone who claims Santa Claus is real, too.

The tough part is that this TV season may very well end in Dec., because of the strike. If you haven't already given up, maybe you should point her to a website that shows some history, like epguides.com?

[j00j.livejournal.com]

Here's Google's Guide to Evaluating Websites at Google Librarian Central. Heh.

[svilleficrecs.livejournal.com]

Well, from what I've read, they're talking about turning what was originally a intra-season arc into what they will term the season finale (even though it wasn't originally conceived that way.) (because of the writer's strike)

[the-shoshanna.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I did not know about Google Librarian! Thanks for the link!

[amilyn.livejournal.com]

I think this is appropriate levels of dumb to equal food.

It recalls to me the conversation I had with a woman who ostensibly worked in the syndication business in L.A. who was FURIOUS, ENRAGED, I tell you, that in 1999, in afternoon syndication, they would DARE to cut 8 minutes out of each episode of a 1983-87 show (S&MK) and was INSISTING that she was SURE it was ILLEGAL to strip the episodes and not broadcast the entire episode.

I discussed this at length, and then in small words, and then with numbers, and then with, "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU FREAKING INSANE, WOMAN?" and then with, "Would you RATHER we get 5/6 of the episode for folks who've never seen it or ZERO???" And then she was like, "Then they shouldn't show it if they're going to mess it up."

...I no longer speak to this person. It's not worth the blood pressure issues that arise. Gods.

[ratcreature]

I don't think it is ever advisable to eat dumb people. I mean, doesn't the saying go "you are what you eat?" and how could you be sure the stupid wasn't caused by something communicable like Mad Cow?

[delle.livejournal.com]

I belong to little_details. THe amount of stupidity (esp during NaNo) and hand-wavy googling is infuriating.

I dunno know if you want to EAT the stupid, but be so kind as to put her out of her misery? Obviously she is too stupid to breathe.

[zephiey.livejournal.com]

*Re-reads entry*

Cover her with BBQ sauce, she is dinner!

[bluerosefairy.livejournal.com]

*facepalms* I doubt she'd taste very good, dear. I suggest covering her in BBQ sauce and feeding her to lions.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

I get that, but that's not what she was saying. Trust me on this one. :D

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Yeah - that's the hard part, is that this discussion came out of the "writers strike" discussion, so that's getting all conflated. But really -- I USED SMALL WORDS. It's supposed to *work* when you use small words.

POOPIES!

[svilleficrecs.livejournal.com]

I figured as much. :)

She doesn't get the basic... TV shows generally run 22-ish episodes from sometime in late sept-late oct through May concept? Or is she so stupid that if I try to grasp her stupidity it will only hurt my head?

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Right - at one point she tried explain that, if I were right, there would be two twenty-episode seasons in one calendar year.

I gave up.

[svilleficrecs.livejournal.com]

Please tell me she's, like 16 or something.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

tragically, not even close. Yet "speaks" (we need a new word for what we do online - "types" isn't even close) like a teenager.

[dargie.livejournal.com]

You don't want to eat dumb people. All that stupid collects in your liver and can give you idiotitus or worse.