• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

John August

  • Arlo Finch
  • Scriptnotes
  • Library
  • Store
  • About

Smug ignorance

January 23, 2012 Rant

I haven’t said much about SOPA/PIPA, largely because the whole thing makes me so depressed about the industry I work in and the lawmakers who are too stupid or too lazy to understand what they’re voting on.

As Mike Davidson puts it:

If you want to pass any sort of bill that affects the internet, you better vet it with the people who control the internet. […]

It would be like the EPA trying to sneak through a law that automobiles get 100mpg by year’s end without even talking to the car companies first.

But that’s just what Congress did, and was shocked when freedom-loving citizens and giant corporations — never best buds — rose up together in protest.

When you stir stupid and lazy together, they form a toxic compound called Smug Ignorance. It’s non-partisan and always fatal. The symptoms are phrases like, “I don’t know much about computers, but…” or “Look, no one knows if climate change is real.”

Senator, someone knows. It’s your job to ask.

Related Posts

  1. Strike, days 42 and 43
  2. Idiocy on Parade
  3. Josh posted

Primary Sidebar

Newsletter

A weekly-ish roundup of stuff we've found interesting delivered right to your inbox.

Read Past Issues

Explore

Projects

  • Aladdin (1)
  • Arlo Finch (27)
  • Big Fish (87)
  • Charlie (39)
  • Charlie's Angels (16)
  • Chosen (2)
  • Corpse Bride (9)
  • Dead Projects (18)
  • Frankenweenie (10)
  • Go (30)
  • Karateka (4)
  • Monsterpocalypse (3)
  • One Hit Kill (6)
  • Ops (6)
  • Preacher (2)
  • Prince of Persia (13)
  • Shazam (6)
  • Snake People (6)
  • Tarzan (5)
  • The Nines (118)
  • The Remnants (12)
  • The Variant (22)

Apps

  • Bronson (13)
  • FDX Reader (11)
  • Fountain (32)
  • Highland (71)
  • Less IMDb (4)
  • Weekend Read (33)

Recommended Reading

  • First Person (86)
  • Geek Alert (146)
  • WGA (123)
  • Workspace (19)

Screenwriting Q&A

  • Adaptation (66)
  • Directors (90)
  • Education (48)
  • Film Industry (484)
  • Formatting (128)
  • Genres (90)
  • Glossary (6)
  • Pitches (29)
  • Producers (59)
  • Psych 101 (117)
  • Rights and Copyright (96)
  • So-Called Experts (47)
  • Story and Plot (170)
  • Television (162)
  • Treatments (21)
  • Words on the page (236)
  • Writing Process (177)

More screenwriting Q&A at screenwriting.io

© 2022 John August — All Rights Reserved.