The word "idiot" is just so harsh, don't you think?

SF Gate's Mark Morford is not optimistic about where all this is headed:

American kids, dumber than dirt
Warning: The next generation might just be the biggest pile of idiots in U.S. history

I have this ongoing discussion with a longtime reader who also just so happens to be a longtime Oakland high school teacher, a wonderful guy who's seen generations of teens come and generations go and who has a delightful poetic sensibility and quirky outlook on his life and his family and his beloved teaching career...

It's gotten so bad that, as my friend nears retirement, he says he is very seriously considering moving out of the country so as to escape what he sees will be the surefire collapse of functioning American society in the next handful of years due to the absolutely irrefutable destruction, the shocking — and nearly hopeless — dumb-ification of the American brain. It is just that bad.

Perhaps, Mark, but referring to them as "idiots" is just plain classless, don't you think? Up here in the Great White North, we're more tactful than that -- we use the term "Blogging Tories." It's more polite, and everyone still knows exactly what we're trying to say.

You're welcome.

(Via one of my new faves, "Rigorous Intuition".)