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"Greatest Living American"

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Swammerdami

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At another message board, participants like to play games with lists. For example right now they are voting for the "Greatest Living American".
Vote for one person each round whom you think is least worthy to be called the greatest living American, and thus should be eliminated from the game.
Click to expand...
They've spent one month already winnowing a list of 31 down to 16, and after another month will get their consensus "Greatest Living American."
Here are the 16 finalists in alphabetical order:

José Andrés: Humanitarian, chef
Joe Biden: President, uniter, overcomer
Warren Buffett: Level-headed billionaire
Bob Dylan: Poet of generation
Anthony Fauci: Physician, immunologist, scientist
Bill Gates: Futurist, philanthropist, billionaire
Jesse Jackson: Civil rights leader
Mark Kelly: Senator, astronaut, aviator
Stephen King: Great American writer
Barack Obama: President, statesman, lawyer
Dolly Parton: Artist, humanitarian
Bernie Sanders: Democratic Socialist leader
MacKenzie Scott: Philanthropist, prize-winning novelist
Steven Spielberg: Director, writer, entertainer
Bruce Springsteen: Singer, songwriter, activist
Elizabeth Warren: Fighting political foes

I propose that we mimic their contest here, but with much laxer rules. Each of you is free to edit the list, adding or removing names. Use strike-out to eliminate; Italics to add. Feel free to add non-Americans who are clearly greater than the "greatest Americans." But no more than six changes per post, please.

Here's my start, with three deletions and three additions, for the maximum six changes:
Delete Fauci, Kelly, Scott. Add Nicholson, Coppola, Swift.

New List:
José Andrés: Humanitarian, chef
Joe Biden: President, uniter, overcomer
Warren Buffett: Level-headed billionaire
Bob Dylan: Poet of generation
Anthony Fauci: Physician, immunologist, scientist
Bill Gates: Futurist, philanthropist, billionaire
Jesse Jackson: Civil rights leader
Mark Kelly: Senator, astronaut, aviator
Stephen King: Great American writer
Barack Obama: President, statesman, lawyer
Dolly Parton: Artist, humanitarian
Bernie Sanders: Democratic Socialist leader
MacKenzie Scott: Philanthropist, prize-winning novelist
Steven Spielberg: Director, writer, entertainer
Bruce Springsteen: Singer, songwriter, activist
Elizabeth Warren: Fighting political foes
Jack Nicholson: Actor
Francis Ford Coppola: Filmmaker
Taylor Swift: Musician, songwriter, icon

Your turn.
 
José Andrés: Humanitarian, chef
Joe Biden: President, uniter, overcomer
Warren Buffett: Level-headed billionaire
Bob Dylan: Poet of generation
Anthony Fauci: Physician, immunologist, scientist
Bill Gates: Futurist, philanthropist, billionaire
Jesse Jackson: Civil rights leader
Mark Kelly: Senator, astronaut, aviator
Stephen King: Great American writer
Barack Obama: President, statesman, lawyer
Dolly Parton: Artist, humanitarian
Bernie Sanders: Democratic Socialist leader
MacKenzie Scott: Philanthropist, prize-winning novelist
Steven Spielberg: Director, writer, entertainer
Bruce Springsteen: Singer, songwriter, activist
Elizabeth Warren: Fighting political foes

I propose that we mimic their contest here, but with much laxer rules. Each of you is free to edit the list, adding or removing names. Use strike-out to eliminate; Italics to add. Feel free to add non-Americans who are clearly greater than the "greatest Americans." But no more than six changes per post, please.

Here's my start, with three deletions and three additions, for the maximum six changes:
Delete Fauci, Kelly, Scott. Add Nicholson, Coppola, Swift.

New List:
José Andrés: Humanitarian, chef
Joe Biden: President, uniter, overcomer
Warren Buffett: Level-headed billionaire
Bob Dylan: Poet of generation
Anthony Fauci: Physician, immunologist, scientist
Bill Gates: Futurist, philanthropist, billionaire
Jesse Jackson: Civil rights leader
Mark Kelly: Senator, astronaut, aviator
Stephen King: Great American writer
Barack Obama: President, statesman, lawyer
Dolly Parton: Artist, humanitarian
Bernie Sanders: Democratic Socialist leader
MacKenzie Scott: Philanthropist, prize-winning novelist
Steven Spielberg: Director, writer, entertainer
Bruce Springsteen: Singer, songwriter, activist
Elizabeth Warren: Fighting political foes
Jack Nicholson: Actor
Francis Ford Coppola: Filmmaker
Taylor Swift: Musician, songwriter, icon

Maya Angelou-great American author
Andrew Young great leader
Robert Reich
 
A year ago I would have put Jimmy Carter on my list, but he no longer qualifies.
 
I'm glad to see Toni crossed two names off. I'd like to get the list down to about five, so we'll need a lot of crossing out.
I propose to use strike-out to reject. If a SECOND Infidel wants to reject the same person, just erase them altogether (with a note).
At the other message-board they will reduce the list to a SINGLE name, but that seems like a fool's errand to me.

(While editing this post I notice that the Editor here has yet another annoying feature -- it MERGES adjacent strike-outs. To counter this I've prefixed a (non-struck out) dot to each name.)

Here is the current list, with two more strike-outs by me (Andrés and Parton):
. José Andrés: Humanitarian, chef
. Joe Biden: President, uniter, overcomer
. Warren Buffett: Level-headed billionaire
. Bob Dylan: Poet of generation
. Anthony Fauci: Physician, immunologist, scientist
. Bill Gates: Futurist, philanthropist, billionaire
. Jesse Jackson: Civil rights leader
. Mark Kelly: Senator, astronaut, aviator
. Stephen King: Great American writer
. Barack Obama: President, statesman, lawyer
. Dolly Parton: Artist, humanitarian
. Bernie Sanders: Democratic Socialist leader
. MacKenzie Scott: Philanthropist, prize-winning novelist
. Steven Spielberg: Director, writer, entertainer
. Bruce Springsteen: Singer, songwriter, activist
. Elizabeth Warren: Fighting political foes
. Jack Nicholson: Actor
. Francis Ford Coppola: Filmmaker
. Taylor Swift: Musician, songwriter, icon
. Liz Cheney: contemporary profile in courage
. Maya Angelou: great American author
. Andrew Young: great leader
. Robert Reich: important political commentator
 
www.niaid.nih.gov

Nobel Prize Awarded for Research Leading to mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines

Earlier this month, the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Drew Weissman, M.D., Ph.D., and Katalin Karikó, Ph.D., for their groundbreaking, decades-long work on messenger RNA (mRNA) that enabled the unprecedented rapid development of the mRNA vaccines that stemmed the COVID-19...
www.niaid.nih.gov www.niaid.nih.gov

These people should be on the list. Saved countless lives with their research.

Not to mention those working on GMOs:

will.illinois.edu

Meet The Woman Who Pioneered GMO Research | Illinois Public Media

At 76 years old, Chilton is still working. The genetically-modified corn, soybeans and other crops that her research helped develop now grow on more than 170 million acres of U.S. farmland. Earlier this month, Chilton’s groundbreaking discoveries earned her a place in the National Inventors Hall...
will.illinois.edu will.illinois.edu

Too bad everything that saves lives is being undermined by rabid batshit insane conspiracy theorists.
 
This should be Greatest Living American Celebrity. How in the bloody heck is it possible to identify the Greatest Living American? There is just too much going out there to even hazard a small 1D view in one small subset of Americans.
 
  • I Agree
Reactions: WAB
Jimmy Higgins said:
This should be Greatest Living American Celebrity. How in the bloody heck is it possible to identify the Greatest Living American? There is just too much going out there to even hazard a small 1D view in one small subset of Americans.
Click to expand...
This to the power of ten. The thread is too silly to believe. Rolling Stone can't make a list of the 250 greatest guitarists that two people will agree on. And in a nation of some three hundred million, we are only aware of a pitiful few, as Jimmy says.

And why in the living actual fuck is Taylor Swift on the list?
 
WAB said:
Jimmy Higgins said:
This should be Greatest Living American Celebrity. How in the bloody heck is it possible to identify the Greatest Living American? There is just too much going out there to even hazard a small 1D view in one small subset of Americans.
Click to expand...
This to the power of ten. The thread is too silly to believe. Rolling Stone can't make a list of the 250 greatest guitarists that two people will agree on. And in a nation of some three hundred million, we are only aware of a pitiful few, as Jimmy says.

And why in the living actual fuck is Taylor Swift on the list?
Click to expand...
Swift is a music icon, but yeah, I think she would need a bit more accomplishment before "Greatest American" can be considered.

However, when considering outright celebrities, I would consider Jennifer Lopez, who amassed an incredibly successful career that started at the bottom and covered many fields: dancing, acting, singing, fashion. Not quite the 0.001% in any of the fields, she had notable success in all of them. And as long as Carol Burnett is still alive, I'll have her under consideration too. Comic genius that worked her way up scraping at whatever she could and became an icon.

But when I think of Greatest Americans, I think of the people who care for the mentally ill day in and day out, with kindness and humility.
 
I actually like Taylor Swift. I think she's talented, beautiful, and funny as hell, as proven by her appearances on SNL and various talk shows. But objectively I could never place her in the list of 100 who are greater than the other 300 million plus. I wouldn't even put her in the list of 100 greatest entertainers.

But it's subjective anyway, and lists like this are abortive from the start. Most lists are. Even the one here about actors who nailed a role so hard that you couldn't imagine anyone else doing it. That quickly devolved into "actors who were really good at something something".

Start a thread called, " Name the one album you would take with you to a desert island", and after ten posts you have people listing ten albums, and eventually dozens of albums.

All that being said, I'm not taking this in the spirit intended and just being a turd. Apologies.
 
On The Other Board™ this is just treated as a fun little time-waster. The criterion is VERY ambiguous and will depend greatly on one's perspective; it's interesting to see others' opinions. Mild good-natured discussions follow. They've done MANY of these games: Ranking the U.S. Presidents, Revising the Ordered List of the most influential 100 persons in history, according to Michael H. Hart, Etc. I think there are many copies of Hart's list on the 'Net; I find it well-argued. I've linked to a copy of the book, so you can read Hart's discussions if you wish. (Muslims like Hart's List because Muhammad the Prophet pbuh tops the List at #1 !)

Anyway, progress is very slow in the thread at The Other Board™. They still have sixteen names which I show below. I've crossed out the names I'd want ousted ASAP, leaving only my Final Four.

José Andrés: Humanitarian, chef
Joe Biden: President, uniter, overcomer
Warren Buffett: Level-headed billionaire
Bob Dylan: Poet of generation
Anthony Fauci: Physician, immunologist, scientist
Bill Gates: Futurist, philanthropist, billionaire
Jesse Jackson: Civil rights leader
Mark Kelly: Senator, astronaut, aviator
Stephen King: Great American writer
Barack Obama: President, statesman, lawyer
Dolly Parton: Artist, humanitarian
Bernie Sanders: Democratic Socialist leader
MacKenzie Scott: Philanthropist, prize-winning novelist
Steven Spielberg: Director, writer, entertainer
Bruce Springsteen: Singer, songwriter, activist
Elizabeth Warren: Fighting political foes
Click to expand...

This is just a "snapshot" in 2025 of course. What does the future hold? I'd LOVE it if a future list places Elizabeth Warren in the Final Four!

Even the word "Greatest" is VERY ambiguous. It usually has a connotation of Good, but some would argue that great importance or even great evil make one "great." In that case the "greatest living American might be the criminal psychopath in the process of selling out America to his Uncle Vladimir.
 
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