Oscar-winning actor Matthew McConaughey recently took a blowtorch to the ever-popular idea of participation trophies, stating that they undercut genuine achievement. Boy, does the current generation need to hear this. Participation trophies ultimately instill entitlement thinking in children, creating the notion that someone deserves a reward for doing the bare minimum, including just showing up.
You can see real-world examples of this by visiting your local coffee shop. Many individuals behind the counter seem deluded into thinking they deserve a tip simply for punching your order into the register and handing you a cup of java and a muffin. They swivel that little screen around and look at you expectantly. Decline to leave a tip? Some respond with attitude. And we all wonder why places like McDonald’s have installed kiosks that allow customers to self-check out. Really?
McConaughey discussed the subject during a recent interview on the On Purpose with Jay Shetty podcast, where he also noted his aversion to raising grade point averages above 4.0. McConaughey comes across as very salt-of-the-earth, a trait that doesn’t sit well with the liberal hive mind. I’m sure his comments made them bristle.
“I’m not into extra credit. I don’t like 4.2 GPAs,” he told Shetty. “That tells me, like, what happened? Then we’re not giving the right tests. If 4.0 was the pinnacle, that means not many people should be getting it, if anybody.”
“So now we’re getting 4.2s, 4.4s,” he continued. “That tells me we’ve overleveraged the original task, or we’ve added amnesty or too many places to not have the real competence and merit at the task that you’re supposed to get, because, especially I think in the West, we want everyone to feel really great. Participation trophies. 4.2 GPA.”
The Dallas Buyers Club actor then explained that people receiving a 4.2 GPA would, in reality, earn a 3.8, but they bury that beneath a mountain of extra credit that is “balanced with the debit of the actual…what we learn from it.”
By the way, it’s important to note that achieving a 4.0 grade point average does not equate to real-world intelligence. Plenty of highly educated idiots walk the earth today. Just look at the World Health Organization, for instance. Or the medical doctors and psychiatrists who, with straight faces, try to convince us that men can become women and vice versa. Being good at school doesn’t mean you’ll correctly apply what you’ve learned. That’s called wisdom.
Hilariously, McConaughey recently made news by trademarking his famous Dazed & Confused catchphrase to prevent AI scammers from fraudulently lining their pockets off his image and likeness.
“The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office says McConaughey has filed eight trademark applications covering his public persona, including video, audio, and even his well-known catchphrase, ‘Alright, alright, alright,’” Breitbart reported. “The application includes audio clips, photos, and video of him simply staring straight at the camera. McConaughey hopes the trademarks will prevent unauthorized use of his persona and stop others from laying claim to his image first.”
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