I think Ben Carson is much smarter than we think and makes it a point to look that stupid

[LynneSin]

How the hell do you find a map where Massachusetts is NORTH of Vermont???!!!



I am serious.

There are only a trillion different websites out there where you can find a map of the 50 states of the US (or 48 if you can't be bothered to include Alaska and Hawaii). And many of those sites will allow you to color code those states so you can do all sorts of fancy graphics. I remember there was a site where I could click on 'States I have visited' and I could click on those states and they would turn Red (or some random color) and I could put them on facebook and say 'See this is where I have been'.

So where the HECK in this world do I find a map that moves Vermont down south next to Connecticut and Massachusetts up North next to New Hampshire? Unless someone was actually looking for a map that was incorrectly drawn in the first place.

I mean this guy has done stuff that makes me wonder 'How the hell did this guy actually get a license to practice medicine' like that whole 'The Pyramids were used to store grains' and the Popeyes Organization gun hold-up story.

But for the first time in my life I truly believe that Ben Carson is not running for President but running to mock this entire election process. This guy is a fricking Ivy educated neuro-surgeon. Those degrees don't just fall off the turnip trucks. And I have to think the guy knows there are a ton of really stupid, uneducated people out there that will buy into any stupid shit said. And Ben Carson has been saying Stupid Shit so stupid that I can't believe that anyone would want to elect this guy president let alone allow him to even practice medicine.

Which is why I think all of this is being done on purpose. No one can be that stupid unless they are being that stupid on purpose because they want to be the king of the stupid people.

[Thinkingabout]

1. Carson being smart is not the question, training him on the job is not the answer. Who of all people

should realize he does not have experience in being president of the US, Ben Carson, he should at least be this smart.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. In Carson's defense, I'm sure it was someone on his staff who came up with that.

A young staffer perhaps. Geography is not taught so much anymore.

ETA that I wish he had stayed a neurosurgeon and that in his retirement he had gone to work for Médecins Sans Frontières. Or, if that's too French-sounding, Doctors Without Borders. Think of the good he could be doing.

[LynneSin]

6. But where would you get a map like that?

Someone would have had to purposely photoshop the map to move Massachusetts and Vermont around so it they would be out of place. I mean this 2015, we pretty much know the borders of our states and where these states are and can find 1000s of images of the USA on the internet with the proper location of these 2 states.

So either someone on his campaign did it as a hoax or Carson himself knew about it and ok'd that the states be swapped, but it is nearly impossible to find a map of the USA with the states all swapped around like that.

[underpants]

3. Most likely:

1. He never thought he would get this far but could use the platform to sell books and speaking engagements. He is just flat out pandering towards that goal.

2. He actually flipped out at one point. People speculate about self medicating but it is more likely that he just went off the reservation. This could explain why he completely divorced himself from his medical background.

[LynneSin]

7. But where does one get a mis-drawn map of the USA?

I mean if I wanted to post a Map of the USA with the state borders shown. Perhaps it's a map of 'States I'd like to visit'. I could find tons of images just using Google Image search and I would grab the first one that works for me.

So how would I find one with the borders that are incorrect unless I made it a point to google 'USA with incorrect state borders'. Kinda like those John Oliver bits where he talks about an obscure country in the world and has the country highlighted behind him and then points out that we Americans are so clueless we didn't even realize it was the wrong country highlighted.

[underpants]

11. Lazy staffer?

But it looks like some had to create that graphic. I don't know how that could have happened.

[LynneSin]

13. That wasn't Lazy. Not like they were searching for the Maps of 1991 USSR

where the borders were changing every month.

Someone had to know that was a bad map and allowed it to be used. Whether or not Carson knew is the question.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

18. It looks as if there wasn't enough width on the page for the lower 48, so

Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Maine got moved up about one hundred miles.

In retrospect, it probably would have been easier to shrink the image so that it would fit.

[tanyev]

4. Or maybe the whole campaign is another Armstrong Williams scam

and Carson is just a willing figurehead.

[underpants]

12. Also very likely n/t

[matt819]

5. That map made me dizzy.

I want New England back. Is this a hostage situation? Pay up or Vermont gets it in the neck? Put $14 billion dollars in a sack or we dump New Hampshire and its 17 mile coastline into the Atlantic?

As for being smart, it was Dear Abby who once observed that half of all doctors graduated in the bottom half of their class. Obviously, this applies to more than medical school.

Also, apart from Ben Carson's books, I haven't read much from his patients or colleagues about his sheer brilliance as a brain surgeon. One former colleague alluded to problems with Carson, but it seems that doctors have their own version of the Thin Blue Line. I think it was this doctor who observed that most brilliant doctors become brilliant teachers and pass on their knowledge to med school students. it seems that Dr. Carson has not taken this approach. I guess he can argue that he's passing on his wisdom to the nation, but I gotta believe that Mannatech wouldn't set particularly well in any med school environment.

[struggle4progress]

8. "I've cut people apart! Now let me cut your country apart!"

[LynneSin]

9. Well Massachusetts didn't have enough snow last year

[Kalidurga]

10. It's like satire

I seriously in a lot of cases can't tell the real headlines from the fake. Reality has gotten so surreal that even the Nil Admirari looks real at times.

[MindPilot]

14. Remember how Rachel Madow covered Herman Cain's campaign as "elaborate performance art"?

Nothing else could really explain how someone who was otherwise well-accomplished in their respective domains could suddenly detach from reality.

[hobbit709]

15. That level of arrogance makes you stupid in some ways.

[Lizzie Poppet]

16. I've never thought he was stupid.

His academic and professional record argues strongly against that. I think, instead, that he's allowed an increasingly extremist version of his Christian religious views to shove aside the critical thinking and scientific viewpoint a physician is expected to have.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

17. Irony: It's Geography Awareness Week.

Wonkblog

Ben Carson’s campaign made a U.S. map and put a bunch of states in the wrong place

By Christopher Ingraham November 18

Happy Geography Awareness Week! Recognizing that "too many young Americans are unable to make effective decisions, understand geo-spatial issues, or even recognize their impacts as global citizens," National Geographic created this annual observance to "raise awareness to this dangerous deficiency in American education."

Ben Carson's presidential campaign inadvertently underscored this point Tuesday night, when it took to social media to share a map of the United States in which five New England states were placed in the wrong location. The campaign deleted the Twitter and Facebook posts Wednesday morning after media outlets and social media users pointed out the error.

[Vinca]

19. Carson is, by all reports, a fine mechanic when it comes to working on brains.

As pointed out by another neurosurgeon, that doesn't make you smart. It makes you well trained. Someone should give him a geography class. (Although I don't really mind living on the Gaspe Peninsula. LOL.)