Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for August 02, 2024

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    BasilBruce  2 months ago

    Be careful, Goat; remember, you’re the smart one here.

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    ImDaRealAni  2 months ago

    And those who come from generational wealth built off unethical means. Wouldn’t hurt to hold them back either.

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    hariseldon59  2 months ago

    ‘We’? Speak for yourself, Rat.

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    fretlessman71  2 months ago

    Public school has been holding back the gifted and talented for decades.

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    salakfarm Premium Member 2 months ago

    Vote R and they’ll stop that, and benefit the dummies.

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    Walter Kocker Premium Member 2 months ago

    Why raise the bridge when you can lower the river?

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    iggyman  2 months ago

    Nowadays only the perception of smart is what is seen! even if the person is dumb as an onion!

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    darkwingdave  2 months ago

    Harrison Bergeron..

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    Bilan  2 months ago

    Giving advantages to smart people? Don’t worry, Trump will take care of that.

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    zekepotato  2 months ago

    You’ve read Kurt Vonnegut!

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    alien011  2 months ago

    Is that you, Harrison?

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    californiamonty  2 months ago

    Today’s strip reminds me of Kornbluth’s The Marching Morons.

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    Uncle Kenny  2 months ago

    Send in the sapiosexuals!

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    CementerAD5  2 months ago

    Holding QUALIFIED, INTELLIGENT persons back, began with the advent of “affirmative action”, a term that has now been replaced with DEI. Of course DEI is inclusive of a much larger pool of applicants

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    Charles  2 months ago

    Smart kids have been held back in schools for generations now.

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    Troglodyte  2 months ago

    That’s a dumb strategy, literally.

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    win.45mag  2 months ago

    Ha ha ha Democrats suck !

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    Gent  2 months ago

    Not all smart peoples Rat. To be more precise it cunning and duplicitous peoples who is has all the advantage.

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    jbmlaw01  2 months ago

    The weird democrats will not like this comic; hits too close to their policies.

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    Differentname  2 months ago

    “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut. The 200th Amendment to the Constitution makes it illegal for anyone to make another person feel inferior.

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    colddonkey  2 months ago

    The Dept. of Education is on it since 1979.

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    Ellis97  2 months ago

    Rat is basically saying that the world has to be stupid.

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    brianstreleckis  2 months ago

    From this very site: “As of July 17, 2024, GoComics will no longer offer commenting on political cartoons.” So don’t ruin the commenting for Pearls with political talk.

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    paulprobujr  2 months ago

    It’s funny how Asians are touted as “People Of Color” until it comes to jobs, college admissions, etc. See the latest version of Assassin’s Creed.

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    NRHAWK Premium Member 2 months ago

    I’m pretty sure that’s part of the republican agenda.

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    morningglory73 Premium Member 2 months ago

    The dumbing down of American is in full swing and has been for some time now.

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    Mel-T-Pass Premium Member 2 months ago

    “They” already are, Rat. For example, downfunding education promotes ignorance which makes frightening people, and thus control, easier.

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    klapre  2 months ago

    This is a plank in the Dem platform. All people MUST be treated equally. That means if you’re too smart, we must eliminate Advanced Courses in high school and place you in a regular class so you are dumbed down. If you doubt this statement, you haven’t been paying attention.

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    rugeirn  2 months ago

    Americans hate, loathe, fear and despise anybody with a brain.

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    Bendarling1  2 months ago

    Start? That we has been with us always, Kind of like the rich are with us always. What passes for smart anyway? Helping society or enriching oneself at the expense of that society? The pursuit of knowledge ( or creation of any art form) solely for the results? How smart is that?

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    davidlwashburn  2 months ago

    We already do, when they’re kids. It’s called the factory model school system. It’s designed to make all kids the same regardless of personal potential.

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    Blaidd Drwg Premium Member 2 months ago

    Do you sense quite a lot of panic from the trumphole trolls here? It’s like they can’t make up stuff fast enough!

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    zwilnik64  2 months ago

    Pastis read Harrison Bergeron?

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    gregcomn  2 months ago

    Sounds like Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron.”

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    DD IN AZ Premium Member 2 months ago

    All this and no one mentioned the real problem: parents who don’t give a $*!# if their children learn anything or not. I was fortunate to have parents who insisted every day that I do well in school…public school.

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    zodismoon  2 months ago

    Rat must be a stupid person.

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    ajakimber425  2 months ago

    And technically, that’s where our Society is already doing.

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    Goat from PBS  2 months ago

    As a smart person… I protest.

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    poppacapsmokeblower  2 months ago

    Intelligent people are held back, few are in high political office.

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    Upton O'Goode  2 months ago

    It’s always been that way.

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    zeexenon  2 months ago

    The Donald will take care of that … he’s started with his gang of 75 million. Not to forget our Legal System.

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    EXCALABUR  2 months ago

    too many stupid smart people in this world

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    Mekoides  2 months ago

    I remember the smartest kids at school were often bullied – either becasue they wore glasses or just because – wait for it – they were smart and did well in class.

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    moondog42 Premium Member 2 months ago

    Hey, rat sounds like what my director is doing to my manager right now. Only he’s doing it because she’s a woman and he doesn’t think she belongs (despite her having 17 years in the department under her belt)

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    KEA  2 months ago

    I don’t think smart people are given much if any advantage – the egregiously wealthy on the other hand…

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    wordsmeet  2 months ago

    I’ve started to think if other industrialized nations have the same self-defeating policy of splitting up the population into groups, highlighting their differences by skin color, language or national origin. I say self-defeating because, to me, all these policies (affirmative action, DEI, etc.) seem to divide people more rather than making them into a united group, all Americans. In the end, setting a group apart for preferential treatment (even if said group have been disadvantaged in the past) is fostering a dominance by a minority, which is antidemocratic by definition.

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    rhpii  2 months ago

    Ivy league schools admission practices have been doing that for years.

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    Hello Sweetie  2 months ago

    Smart people, pretty people, tall people, strong people, athletic people, talented people……

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    William Stoneham Premium Member 2 months ago

    We are holding them back. Some schools have dropped advanced placement classes because they were seen as an inequality. Equity is if we all can’t be smart, then none of us can be smart.

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    Dr. Whom   2 months ago

    Evidently you think that two whites make a wrong.

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    [Unnamed Reader - 14b4ce]  2 months ago

    we can’t afford to start such a program before December 2024

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    MFRXIM Premium Member 2 months ago

    “The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has it’s limits.” E. Einstein

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    dpatrickryan Premium Member 2 months ago

    Isn’t that exactly what the Rethuglicans are doing?

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    WF11  2 months ago

    Being white, male, hetero, reasonably smart, growing up a good neighborhood, born into a reasonably affluent family, easily got into college, etc. etc., I know d**n well that I am privileged, much more so than most. So I have no problem with reasonable affirmative action. My issue with it is that upper management often uses it as a way to look good and pat themselves on the back, and uses it as another way to advance themselves (and in reality don’t give a hoot about those that are being assisted, since it isn’t their share of the pie that’s getting smaller).

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    pchemcat  2 months ago

    We’ve been holding back the smart people since the 1960s with the “mainstreaming” of students and then teaching to the lowest common denominator.

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    mail2jbl  2 months ago

    No Child Left Behind = No Child Gets Ahead

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    eddi-TBH  2 months ago

    Schools do their best to level the playing field. To fit in smart kids play dumb.

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    Otis Rufus Driftwood  2 months ago

    I think Kurt Vonnegut wrote a story about this thing.

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    Serial Pedant  2 months ago

    Nice hate!

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    morningglory73 Premium Member 2 months ago

    I saw a commercial for a cradle/crib that rocks when the infant cries. So now people don’t have to hold their crying baby, just let the machine rock it. Now how sick is that?

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    redback  2 months ago

    TV, man, woman, broccoli.. no wait. man, woman, refrigerator…no, it was woman, man covfefe.. darn, I wish I was that smart

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