Basically what it all comes down to is that you can’t complain about the Idol contestants annoying you when you *choose* to “not live under a rock.” You *have* options to not be annoyed by them, though it may be unrealistic, and if you choose not to take them – and I’m not saying that’s a bad thing – you can’t complain about the results.

We’re just at a difference of opinion here. I think it’s dumb to comment on a graph (or video on YouTube, or article anywhere else) you don’t like just to talk about how much you don’t like it. You obviously don’t.

I wouldn’t have “jumped” on you if you hadn’t jumped on the maker of this graph, and even if you had fully explained your thoughts, I would probably still have commented on you because I would have disagreed, maybe just not quite so harshly.

My name says pplarestupid, and yeah, that means all people are stupid which includes Idol viewers, but it also includes people that watch the same shows and music that I like…AND me. I’m including myself as one of the stupid ppl. (Yay. I’m stupid too.) I’m not singling out any group of people, but you seem to think I am with:
“I’m wondering who you are referring to with your “us”. The same people you are calling stupid in your name? I wouldn’t think someone so above such menial things like American Idol and their music would bear to lump themselves together with the “stupid” people who watch that.”
…and…
“All I said was that you’re lumping yourself together with those “stupid” people, and that those people obviously do care about the contestants and their music, otherwise they wouldn’t watch the show.”
I’m including the whole species, which I consider myself apart of. I’m lumped with everyone regardless of television and music preferences. Stupid is actually a good thing if you think about it. It KINDA helps weed out the herd Anyway, I’m not saying or pretending to be above anyone or calling anyone in particular stupid. (I am above name calling though.) So please drop the stupid thing. It had nothing to do with my original point.
Speaking of things I never said….I never said I wasn’t defensive. I get defensive when someone jumps all over me because of my opinion. You and I are both defensive. How’s that? I keep replying b/c I’m stubborn.
I agree, it would be ignorant to hate someone just because they were on Idol. I don’t hate people because they get their start on American Idol. I’ve just yet to like someone who’s come from there. I dislike other musicians’ music that didn’t come from Idol also so I’m not discriminating based on the show. Other music annoys me too, but I didn’t feel the need to put that in my original post since none of them were mentioned on the graph. I do like other “pop” musicians so I’m not going to live under a rock and not listen to certain radio stations, not watch certain tv stations, and not read certain magazines because there’s a chance an Idol contestant might pop up. They are EVERYWHERE. It’s not their fault. It’s just pop culture. It’s in your face. I have nothing against the actual people, I just don’t care for anyone’s music…yet. Music that I don’t like, to me, is considered annoying. I don’t see anything wrong with calling them annoying. It’s personal opinion. I don’t think I’m being cynical. I’ll just remember next time I post an opinion on anything to fully explain it the first time so I don’t get jumped on.

I’m on graph jam cause I like the site. I don’t have a problem with music or culture. Yeah I find some music annoying, but that doesn’t stop me from reading this stuff. If I want to say I find such-and-such annoying on here, who cares? People may not want to hear it, but it’s just one person’s opinion. It’s not hurting anything. Move on.

Though you probably realize that already, given your name. (And did I say *anything* to contradict any of your statements? I didn’t say you didn’t use it elsewhere. I didn’t say I’m not the one who brought it up. All I said was that you’re lumping yourself together with those “stupid” people, and that those people obviously do care about the contestants and their music, otherwise they wouldn’t watch the show.

I also didn’t say Graph Jam wasn’t all music graphs. I believe I said, “Music and Pop Culture in Graphs and Charts.” And what genre of music you like to listen to is completely irrelevant.

It seems to me like you’re jumping all over everything I *didn’t* say. All I said in my original reply was that it’s stupid to say contestants are going to annoy “us” with their music and that if you don’t care about stuff like American Idol (which falls under both “pop culture” and “music”), then I wasn’t sure why you were on Graph Jam in the first place.

(And again – you misquoted me. I didn’t say no one cared, I said no one particularly wanted to hear your cynical arguments.) And if you’re not defensive, why do you keep replying to these?

You said no one cares about my cynical views on music. Um, lalala, obviously you care or you wouldn’t argue with me (unless you just like to argue then alright. Keep it up).

My opinion wasn’t even that horrible. All I said about American Idol was it’s annoying, and I don’t understand why voting matters. Let me explain: it doesn’t seem to matter if someone wins or loses, they still get record deals, and everywhere you look there’s someone from the show.
You jumped on my ass for that. Seems a smidge defensive.
P.S. I don’t listen to American Idol music.

I think it’s funny how you claim that I’m “defensive” and yet you say, “I can express my opinion if I want to so get off your huffy bike and chill.” Because that’s not defensive at all.

Basically, what I was saying was that I’m not sure why you’re reading graphs in the first place if you don’t care about American Idol voting and GraphJam is “Music and pop Culture in Charts and Graphs.”

Also, contestants do not *have* to “annoy” us with their music. You don’t *have* to listen to them.

We don’t particularly want to hear your cynical views on music. Are you saying you truly dislike every song by every artist ever to come off American Idol?

Also, as far as I know, there is no law saying you *have* to listen to their music. Do you have to buy their albums? Do you have to play the radio stations that play their songs?

I’m wondering who you are referring to with your “us”. The same people you are calling stupid in your name? I wouldn’t think someone so above such menial things like American Idol and their music would bear to lump themselves together with the “stupid” people who watch that.

AT&T spokesman Ted Wagnon told us today, “AT&T does not divulge or confirm how many votes were cast in any state.”

Give me a legitimate source for AT&T admitting to “going to Kris Allen parties with special phones and teaching people to power vote” and I will believe you. *snort*. Good luck.

On Adam getting “totally robbed”: So Kris gets one – maybe two – albums. Big deal. In five years no one will know his name. Whereas Adam’s debut is currently number 5 on the iTunes store and on Amazon. I wonder who really won. And as Adam himself said:

“To me, its not about the title of ‘American Idol,’ it was the experience. I made music, and I got to do a different performance every week, and I was able to use [the show] as a platform to get myself out there, and now I have a career. There’s no need to dwell on the negative. We should look forward, and be excited about an album and the rest of my career. I couldn’t be happier for Kris [Allen]. I think he’s immensely talented. I don’t think the title of first or second place really matters at this point.”

By definition, a tyrant cannot be “fair and just”. Though I do see your point.

And what happens when the fair and just “tyrant” dies? Sooner or later, you’re going to get someone not so fair and just.

And think about it for a minute even if you don’t believe me. The amount of time put into editing each video before each week would be ridiculous and just not possible without an ungodly work force. Not to mention the fact that the votes would have to be counted each week and decide who gets sent home, then do rehearsal and way too much other crap nobody knows about.

tl;dr
Way too much crap gets put into the T.V. process to be able to show American Idol “live”.

It’s insane that if you move from a city to the countryside your vote suddenly counts for more. This system also means the yokels get a bigger vote, which explains a lot about some of the presidents you’ve had …

According to the definition of democracy, you do not actually have a democracy. Doesn’t that mean you’re supposed to invade yourself or something?

And NEVER has a widely-hated president won the election. Even when Bush won in 2000 he was very close to 50% (as was Gore).

Never mind, eh, the UK suffers from a similar voting system.

(note that I “bash” countries equally. But seriously, just because we don’t suck up to you, I mean, tell you you’re all brilliant and suchlike all the time doesn’t mean we hate you)

I’m not a fan of Bush…I’m just pointing stuff out.

That said, I would prefer a runoff system. I think the benefits outweigh the costs.

No one can know the preferences of the third-party voters, but considering the next highest candidate was Nader with 411,000 votes (when Bush had 62 mil and Kerry had 59 mil), there wouldn’t have been enough to put Kerry over Bush even if every one of them voted for Kerry. And I assure, they wouldn’t have.

This fail just made my day.

If only I could come up with a better system that people would actually accept….

You vote per state, each state then sends a guy to the capital and they only have to count a hand full of votes instead of several hundred thousand.

Also, consider this: if 50% of the people live in the 9 most populated states, and only 50% of those (assuming even distribution) are needed to win those states, it is possible for a president that 75% of the population absolutely abhors to be elected. If every individual’s vote counted towards the election, this wouldn’t be the case.

I’m oversimplifying the electoral college a bit, but it still does allow for a widely-hated president to be elected by a small handful of states.

But the point is that using an election result and/or political persuasion of 51% of the voting public of the US at one moment in history as the basis for calling us stupid is a fallacy. Point to our education record, our overly conservative school system, lack of parenting responsibility and ADHD culture, but make a real argument and don’t

Fun fact – 50% of the population lives in the 9 most populated states. That leaves 50% of the population in the other 41.

The guys who came up with our system did it for a reason. It was to keep politicians from only reaching out to highly populated areas like a straight majority wins system would encourage. Who’s going to give a crap about states like Rhode Island and South Carolina unless their votes are important like they are in an electoral system?

Sincerely.