Not From the Onion

Tiny brain no obstacle to French civil servant.

Hat tip to Winterspeak.


Ah, small-minded libertarians laugh at the medical misfortunes of somebody who might equally well be employed in the private sector. Oh, wait, I forgot that everybody in the private sector is a mighty he-man genious entrepreneur magnate, just like in the Rand novels! That's not funny: where's political correctness when the poor, beleaguered capitalist rich folks are concerned? Won't somebody stand up for Paris Hilton?

But when demonizing anything having to do with government, who cares? Gotta get the yucks from confirmation bias. Libertarians might wince at Bobbitt jokes, but they can guffaw freely at hydrocephalacs.

Being a civil servant in France includes (IIRC) park attendants, janitors etc. and similar jobs.

And while Mike may be po-faced, I think Alex is being disingenuous to suggest there wasn't a little sneer at french bureaucrats even if the story is interesting on its merits. But, and this is where Adam Smith comes in, suffering at a distance doesn't actually overly concern us if you remember his comparison between losing your little finger and an earthquake in China.

FWIW, the substance of the post ('Tiny brain ... ') was lifted word for word from a story in the Scotsman, which (it seems to me anyway) is not obviously trying to be mean.

This does not mean that libertarians are nice people!

This article is very informative. Most interesting - a math student with an IQ of 126 and missing 95% of his brain mass.

Well, it is commonly stated (I have no idea if it is true or not) that you only use 5% of your brain, so if the 95% you are missing is the unused part, then maybe it is not so surprising that this man exists.

As for whether the humor was appropriate, I think Alex was making fun of bureaucrats. Is it inappropriate to make fun of bureaucrats? I think not.

Mike, do you work at the federal or the state level?

Alex said he wasn't laughing at the man. That was the title, he warned it wasn't from the Onion and not to take it that way. He is obviously aware of the potential joke, which is why rather than merely linking the title, he pointed out it isn't a joke. It is interesting, and if someone after the fact wants to make a joke about French bureaucrats, it doesn't in any way imply that they don't have sympathy for, or possibly receive inspiration from, the man in the story.

This is so intriguing. I do not find it mean at all. You may even title the post "in praise of iron cage bureaucracy."

The humor is in the symbolism, not the literal details of the story. That's why Helen Keller jokes are popular with every generation of children.

Civil servants are symbolically funny but a small-brained French civil servant? Priceless.

Actually, 75 is a pretty low IQ. The mean of IQ is 100 and the SD is 15, so 75 is nearly 2 SD below the mean. This guy's IQ is in the bottom 5%.

Of course, given the MRI, it's remarkable that the guy isn't comatose.

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