A fellow I know solicited input on Facebook about area builders who do pole barns. Several suggested contractors were named and I suggested a local Amish contractor who I know to be hardworking, honest, and dependable.
The very next response was from a person claiming that, “the amish [sic] charge double of what anyone else would. And the money you pay them doesnt [sic] go back into our infrustructure [sic]. So keep that in mind when you hit a pothole on your way to work.” The next post after that was, “…sometimes they are cheaper because alot [sic] of them have 10-12 year old working and they don’t pay workers comp insurance or into social security. And they fill up the waiting rooms everywhere they are offering free health services eye exams or dental care.”
Several things immediately came to mind. First, neither have mastered basic punctuation, spelling, and the rules for capitalization. Secondly, both are obviously prejudiced and biased against the Amish and I’ll assume the Mennonites as well. And lastly, they are both just plain ignorant of reality.
Continue reading Amish Reality; There’s Just No Shortage of Ignorance
Sometime in the recent past I saw John Oliver interview Reza Aslan about his new best seller, Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth. Reza Aslan is a Muslim scholar with an obvious interest in the history of religion. What I didn’t see was an interview of Aslan on Fox News where Lauren Green just couldn’t understand why anyone other than a Christian would be interested in the life of Christ. Below is a comment I read online and the line that caught my sense of ironic ridiculousness is at the end where Aslan had to explain what a scholar is.