Posted On: Friday - May 30th 2025 8:07PM MST
In Topics: Music Political Correctness Educational Stupidity Healthcare Stupidity
Note: This has turned into Human Factors week here at Peak Stupidity. There was the humor about Mr. Floyd (one of them) and then the female stupidity factor. Today and tomorrow we will focus on psychological factors that are not usually really...
Our title yet again reflects an old Doobie Brother album title. We speculated a long time ago "I think that name is an early criticism of euphemisms, something I'd never thought about before." Google AI just now speculated:
The title "What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits" suggests that behaviors once considered morally wrong or undesirable have become commonplace and accepted, evolving into regular habits.I don't know. I think it's just a change in terminology, with the meaning staying the same. A "vice" is now a "bad habit".* AI might be right though, but I'll leave it up to The Doobies.
Alright, because of my deficiency there in attention span, that did not at all get to the point here, so let me talk ADD, which has actually been ADHD for quite a while now. Kids used to be Hyperactive, that's all. We just called them "hyper", not understanding that this prefix alone did not reflect our meaning. Said kids did not have a psychological condition. They were not on some "spectrum" - they just were extra-active, or maybe a little out of control.
In that era of the hyper kid, we also had many more male teachers in lower education. I don't say a majority of mine were, but as compared to now, there were a lot. The local elementary school here and now has ZERO male teachers in the classrooms. There's that Assistant Principal (the guy that was there with the laptops in a near deposition situation when we didn't bother to email about our boy being out for a few days.) There's the gym teacher. That's it.
Schools are filled with boys AND girls, we ought to remember. The girls do better in the "sit down for 7 hours" situation than the boys. Male teachers are, well, men, so they know slightly more about the mindset and boundless energy of the boys. The female teachers, at least the modern ones, don't. Therefore, instead of sending the slightly out of control, formerly "hyper", kid out of the room to run 20 laps or getting him to do 25 push-ups, they determine he must be made to sit there and behave, period.
To make this happen, they put 'em on drugs. You can't just start
Full disclosure here as mandated by the PS Legal Team:
I was NOT hyper, but I did have my own ADD license tag for a while. It just so happened that those three letters, with 3 or 4 numbers at the end, were on the plate on one of my cars for years. I was so glad to get a new sticker each year rather than a new plate, but, alas, due to my LACK of hyperactivity, I never got around to trying to get away with parking in handicapped spaces or arguing parking tickets in court**.
AI does a pretty good job of sorting through the BS, but after sorting... it's still BS:
"Diagnostic term?" Uh oh. After a diagnosis you usually get treatment. Boys, or I should say, the parents of boys, have been cajoled into "treating" their high activity with Ritalin, etc. It probably helped that being a victim of something, anything, is helpful for breaks in test-taking, college admission, and even career advancement these days.
I know adults who told me about their having taken Ritalin as a kid. Did it cure them, because, I didn't know it was supposed to be a permanent "cure" for being a high energy boy, and these men seem perfectly fine and relaxed now. I imagine they'd have been perfectly fine without having taken drugs for years. Who knows what years of "treatment" with these drugs do? Is something missing?
I have never agreed that ADD and ADHD are real mental problems of any sort. They are just descriptions of personalities that teachers don't know how to deal with. How is it that there was there no such thing as either when I was a kid, yet there are millions now of cases now.
They all say there is the very occasional Excitable Boy, in the Warren Zevon song sense. Is that what the schools have been doing, trying to avoid that very rare lawsuit about some excitable boy?
Warren Zevon relates the story:
Well, he went down to dinner in his Sunday best.That's all it was. ADD, my ass.
"Excitable boy," they all said.
And he rubbed the pot roast all over his chest.
"Excitable boy," they all said.
Well, he's just an excitable boy.
He took in the 4 A.M. show at the Clark.
"Excitable boy," they all said.
And he bit the usherette's leg in the dark.
"Excitable boy," they all said.
Well, he's just an excitable boy.
He took little Suzie to the Junior Prom.
"Excitable boy," they all said. (Ooh-ooh, excitable boy)
And he raped her and killed her, then he took her home.
"Excitable boy," they all said (Ooh-ooh, excitable boy)
Well, he's just an excitable boy.
After ten long years, they let him out of the home.
"Excitable boy," they all said (Ooh-ooh, excitable boy)
And he dug up her grave and built a cage with her bones.
"Excitable boy," they all said (Ooh-ooh, excitable boy)
Well, he's just an excitable boy.
Here's the pro-Ritalin song from the late great Warren Zevon:
Here's the anti-Ritalin song (Peak Stupidity's take) from The Eagles. However, Desperado is a Concept Album, one of the very best of them, so the song 21 must come first. 21 and out of control:
We'll get to autism tomorrow, definitely real for some but also overblown in its use as a diagnosis, maybe for differing reasons.
* When you think of smoking, that used to be a "vice", but it became a "habit", with the word "vice" coming into dis-use even by the cops. (Miami Vice was on 4 decades ago, and where is the Vice Squad now? WTH was the "Bunko Squad" anyway?!)
** "Your Honor, I'm ADD. Between this disease and the double vente expresso I had at the coffee shop, I was too wired to keep a watch for the meter maid, Rita. I throw myself at the mercy of the court."
Comments:
Moderator
Saturday - May 31st 2025 8:41PM MST
PS: Good point, SafeNow, and typo fixed. Thanks.
SafeNow
Saturday - May 31st 2025 5:21PM MST
PS
An interesting contradiction in society is that men are supposed to constitute the hyper, no-patience sex, and yet, when a man elaborately (of necessity!) explains something, a woman will roll her eyes and accuse the man of mansplainin’.
btw, it’s spelled assistant principal. The mnemonic is “the principal is your pal.”
An interesting contradiction in society is that men are supposed to constitute the hyper, no-patience sex, and yet, when a man elaborately (of necessity!) explains something, a woman will roll her eyes and accuse the man of mansplainin’.
btw, it’s spelled assistant principal. The mnemonic is “the principal is your pal.”
A Quick Public Service Announcement
Saturday - May 31st 2025 8:22AM MST
PS: Be very careful when transporting a propane tank.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igVwAx6I6uA
☮️
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igVwAx6I6uA
☮️
Moderator
Saturday - May 31st 2025 6:16AM MST
PS: Well, I mean, thanks, too. I KNOW, I can look it up. I just gotta go now, but I'll check into this Bunko Squad thing some more...
Moderator
Saturday - May 31st 2025 6:12AM MST
PS: M, I remember that term from old TV shows. I wonder if that includes "The Rockford Files", my obvious favorite of old detective/cop shows.
True - I lost $10 on a 3-walnut-shell monty game - I should say was cheated out of, as I know now the guy took the little foam thing out before he started shuffling them - years ago when it was worth more and especially was to me.
Now, the phone/computer/CC/EVERYTHING international scamming must be 5-6 orders of magnitude higher than anything all of the old "con-artist" types put together make.
True - I lost $10 on a 3-walnut-shell monty game - I should say was cheated out of, as I know now the guy took the little foam thing out before he started shuffling them - years ago when it was worth more and especially was to me.
Now, the phone/computer/CC/EVERYTHING international scamming must be 5-6 orders of magnitude higher than anything all of the old "con-artist" types put together make.
M
Saturday - May 31st 2025 5:56AM MST
PS
Bunko Squad? Covers fraud and cons. Supposedly from a game called Bunco, but there's also the word bunkum meaning BS.
Might be less visible with fewer pedestrians falling for 3-card Monte and more credit card skimming.
Bunko Squad? Covers fraud and cons. Supposedly from a game called Bunco, but there's also the word bunkum meaning BS.
Might be less visible with fewer pedestrians falling for 3-card Monte and more credit card skimming.
"What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits"
If the Doobies had made that album today they could have called it:
"What Were Once Vices Are Now Life-Styles"