Stupid is as stupid does and stupidity votes Obama

[Asher]

The only person here with blind faith is Asher. His arguments in favor of his thesis are quite literally the same sort of gymnastics religion uses. His claim is non-falsifiable. He requires no evidence before proclaiming its obvious truthfulness. This is blind faith. Jaguar, Kuci and I are the skeptics.

No, you are the ones with blind faith.

You three have no understanding of humanity. It's ridiculous to assume there's nothing untowards on large scales.

[kentonio]

I'm sure that somewhere, someplace, some person has once bribed a professor for a grade. This, of course, does not support the original claim of "What you score in school doesn't mean you're intelligent, it means you're book-smart or wealthy enough to buy your grades."

I think it was more that its no guarantee of intellect because bribery, nepotism and cheating are far from unknown even at the top colleges.

[Kuciwalker]

Yes, here comes the black helicopter thesis again.

xpost

[Asher]

I don't have any particular faith in the integrity of top educators. I just don't believe that they compromise it in this particular way given that neither I nor anyone else I know at a top university (many of whom would have opportunity to know) has ever mentioned it, nor have I ever seen any kind of new story claiming that it happened.

I'm sure that somewhere, someplace, some person has once bribed a professor for a grade. This, of course, does not support the original claim of "What you score in school doesn't mean you're intelligent, it means you're book-smart or wealthy enough to buy your grades."

No, but the spectacular failure of an argument by the terrible trio here sure does. It's exactly what I'm talking about. You guys are too smart to know how stupid you can be.

[Kuciwalker]

I think it was more that its no guarantee of intellect because bribery, nepotism and cheating are far from unknown even at the top colleges.

Except that the first two only apply to admissions.

[Asher]

Except that the first two only apply to admissions.

Why the **** would you assume that? It's irrational.

[Hauldren Collider]

Because we have evidence for it? We know that it's true. It's obvious, even when it's kept relatively under the table. It'd be just as obvious if they did it to grades as well.

[Kuciwalker]

No, but the spectacular failure of an argument by the terrible trio here sure does. It's exactly what I'm talking about. You guys are too smart to know how stupid you can be.

Really? Let's recap the arguments by both sides:

Asher: it's obviously true.
Us: then you should be able to find at least one case of it actually happening, right? All three of us have personal experience with the institutions in question and have never learned of a system where we could pay for grades - despite all of us being wealthy enough for it.

[kentonio]

All three of us have personal experience with the institutions in question and have never learned of a system where we could pay for grades - despite all of us being wealthy enough for it.

We're not talking about some system you'll get told about during freshers week for goodness sake, we're talking about the vulnerability of a system where very rich people are dependant on a small number of individuals for potentially the direction of their entire futures. Do you honestly believe that there haven't been students who were failing and who offered large financial bribes to lecturers for grades?

[Asher]

Really? Let's recap the arguments by both sides:

Asher: it's obviously true.
Us: then you should be able to find at least one case of it actually happening, right? All three of us have personal experience with the institutions in question and have never learned of a system where we could pay for grades - despite all of us being wealthy enough for it.

The reason you're stupid here is because it's not something that leaves a paper trail, and in the case of private institutions, if there was a known case of it it would never be made public. I understand you three are not capable of understanding this, and that's also my other point - booksmart people can be awfully stupid in the real world.

And no, you're not wealthy enough. I'm talking about Bush levels. Sons of actuaries are just pretending to be wealthy.

[Jaguar]

For what it's worth, one of my two best friends is far richer than the Bush family is, and his family name is only slightly less recognizable. He went to Harvard.

[Hauldren Collider]

I know the son of Scooter Libby and the son of former senator John Sununu. They were in my class at TJ. Both ended up at Yale and I'm pretty sure they've never paid for their grades.

Incidentally, I know for certain that they didn't get into TJ because of who their parents were. Yale's another story, of course.

[Jaguar]

My parents, incidentally, were friends with Scooter himself. He was a big college leftist back in the day.

[Hauldren Collider]

His son is seriously apathetic about politics. Also a really nice guy. What happened to his dad was unfair.

I was far less impressed with Sununu's son (also named John). He liked to make some quip about who his dad was whenever he got an excuse.

I once commented on how Bob Dole works at my dad's law firm during history when we were talking about the '96 presidential campaign and Sununu just shouted out "I'm sorry." Sorry for what? He's a good lawyer.

[Asher]

This is why no one likes you three.

Somewhat proud of your connections to a convincted Felon who was disbarred, and a great example of what was wrong with America. Someone as ethical as he obviously was means he's certainly above paying for a grade, or using his influence to adjust a grade. What a great man he was.