Dumb Looks Still Free: Question Authority?

Yes, yet another cheap post where I get to copy and paste a comment given elsewhere and make it into a post here! Its a two-fer and saves typing time... still, there is always some fun to be had with such and I can easily comment on any knowing thing in an inane way and almost make some sense, now and again. Or feed an encyclopedia through a Cuisinart and then take the resulting scraps and paste them together to get the same effect.

This time I was at Rusted Sky a bit closer to the present time, and the good site owner had a post on 'Questioning Authority' as the epitath of the Nation. Yet again some value was found in my meanderings and thought put forth and the site owner added yet more into the concept! Still, the idea of that lovely and charming 'Question Authority' did, get a response to do that and so my response is given here. As with all such, you get it just as I put it down, with dictionary thrown out the window, syntax twirled through the air and logic left to the fair winds of time, with just a bit of reformatting to make it almost readable:

I do love the one button I picked up way back when on this topic, quite the way to put things in perspective:
"Question Authority -
Ask me anything."

Then there is the 'speak the truth to power' concept, which always assumes that one is unbiased and the wall outlet is biased... which it had better be for most appliances.
Still, the nub of it is that in some way by doing the questioning and speaking one will play upon the conscience of the authority/power. I mean if you already *think* that you are being lied to... then you are doing an exercise in self-fulfillment, but really not much beyond that and definitely not working towards 'making a more perfect Union'.
Questioning competence or even the ability of those with some power and/or authority to do something *right* is something else again, and We the People clearly demarcate not only what the power *is* but what the limits and responsibilities *are*. Thus when I hear a Congresscritter decrying the lack of supplies to the Armed Forces, the Constitution tells me which part of government gets to set out, scope and ensure funding for these things: Congress. Funds may be ill spent, but that is *also* done with full Congressional oversight and mandate by the laws it passes and the resultant bureaucracy it creates. A Congresscritter decrying those things had best look in the mirror to apportion blame and responsibility or realize that they have just indicted themselves as *incompetent* and without a clue as to their actual power and responsibilities.
The extra, special fun these days is the generation that first promulgated these memes is NOW the one in power and authority and they do *not* like being questioned or having 'truth' spoken to them. So lovely, that.
And if one is actually doing the questioning and truth-speaking it is best to know what you are actually talking about... or the actual question and truth one is speaking may suddenly show up one's *own* inability. That would be far more entertaining if those doing that weren't screaming so much about how they want the world to run to *their* liking and biases.... then it is mere juvenile ranting, which wears on the nerves very quickly.
Of course there is a button for every situation, and the best for this is:

"All power corrupts...
But we need the electricity."

Ah, buttons!

One could live their life with just buttons to give solace and guidance to a weary noggin.

The world obviously needs more buttons!