The Idiot Awards (part 3)

It's time for another batch of Idiot Awards! This week's winners include arts councils, survey creators, and to start things off a foolish journalist who has a strange concept of equality.

1) "Pioneers of gender equality"

Throughout history there have been many notable woman who have fought for women's rights such as Emmeline Pankhurst (founder of the Suffragette movement), and Alice Paul (who campaigned for the 19th Amendment). However, according to one journalist at The Economist, we should add the Aztecs to that list of notable women's rights activists.

What did the Aztecs do to further women's rights, I hear you ask? Well, they practised human sacrifice, and as 'pioneers of gender equality', they sacrificed not only men ... but woman as well!

Seriously, I'm not joking! Archaeologists discovered that the Aztecs sacrified both men and women and this journalists immediate reaction was, 'Wow! What pioneers of gender equality! They killed women as well! Great work for equal rights!'

Pioneers of gender equality.

It's no wonder the media are seen as a joke these days, and the journalist responsible for this idiotic report thoroughly deserves inclusion in this week's Idiot Awards.

2) Knowledge of the unknown

Here's a story from a Reader's Digest reader which definitely deserves a nomination for an Idiot Award...

"I was at the airport, checking in at the gate when an airport employee asked, "Has anyone put anything in your baggage without your knowledge?" I replied, "If it was without my knowledge, how would I know?" He smiled knowingly and nodded, "That's why we ask."

Apparently it happened at Luton Airport, so if you're flying out of Luton Airport be prepared to be asked questions about things that may or may not have happened without your knowledge!

3) Breaking news: Viruses can go viral!

This next Idiot Award goes to E & T Magazine, who reported that viruses can go viral ... just like internet memes!

The journalist who wrote this obviously doesn't realise where the expression 'viral' comes from.

More accurately, perhaps the award should actually go to E & T Magazine's readers, because they're clearly extremely dumb if they need it explained to them that viruses can go viral!

4) Operating Systems

The next Idiot Award goes to whoever was responsible for this survey on Windows 10...

"Wow! This operating system is amazing!"

"I need you to understand that people don't have conversations where they randomly recommend operating systems to one another."

Ha, ha! Top marks to Sean for pointing out that normal people don't generally rave about operating systems to their friends. Although to be fair, I have personally moaned about iOS updates to people, so perhaps the question should have been worded, 'How likely are you not to complain about our operating system?'

5) Arts Council England

Finally, the last Idiot Award goes to Arts Council England who have declared that artists will no longer be known as artists! From now on artists will be known as 'creative practitioners'. Arts Council England claim they are doing this to be 'inclusive', and they say this will benefit people in the North of England!

The artist formerly known as an artist.

I live in the north myself, so I can't wait for the many improvements to my life which will inevitably occur now that Arts Council England have renamed artists as 'creative practitioners'. #sarcasm

And how exactly was calling artists 'artists' non-inclusive? Who exactly was it excluding? It makes no logical sense.

Anyway, here's my message for Arts Council England...

Don't blame the north for your stupidity!

I also couldn't help noticing that Arts Council England have the word 'arts' in their name! Does that mean that from now on they'll be known as the 'Creative Practitioners Council England'?

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All five of this week's idiots fully deserve their Idiot Awards, but who would you rank as the biggest idiot of all? Who would you say is the idiot among idiots that stands head and shoulders above all other idiots? Vote for your favourite idiot below!



Sadly, the world is filled with idiots these days, so I'll no doubt feature another round-up of idiots at a future date.

In the mean time, if you'd like to discover some of the previous winners of the Idiot Awards, then check out the blog posts below:
Idiot Awards (part 1)
Idiot Awards (part 2)