The console market currently seems to be setting its sites firmly on the lowest common denominator. And the perception of console gamers being a loud unpleasant dimwitted lot incapable on maintaining their attention on anything for long is hardly a rare one.
Is this their fault or the industries fault? Is there more untapped potential in the current console market than publisher's and developer's output would suggest?
Personally I was a console gamer right from my father's spectrum up to around the time the Xbox360 came out. By that time i felt that consoles just didn't provide me with what i was looking for gaming wise and purchased my first PC. I can't help but look back at the early days of the playstation (anyone remember, or even own, the black net yaroze playstations?) and think that console gaming just isnt what it used to be.
Am I being hopelessly nostalgic? am i blinded by these rose tinted lenses clamped over my eyes? Are current console gamers really all retarded? (i dont think they are but... discuss!)

They're not all retarded, the problem is the most retarded ones are the also the loudest attention whores, so they have become the representative sample of the "average console gamer".

by design the console is lesser. You use less buttons, the game loads without installing (normally), it's just turn it on and go. You don't have to worry about anything else. It's simplistic in design. It is a large competitor for television because of it. You basically turn it on and let the content come to you. Higher planes of thought are hardly required. So because of this, the console is opened up to a larger demographic than the PC gaming group.
So that is why the typical console user is seen as such, but it is worth of note that developers see console games as a way of getting a ton of money (idiots will buy anything) and getting it safely (piracy isn't as highly done with say a Wii or PS3).

I'm chuckling at the fact that you think the PS1 days are the good old days.
I own a 360 and love it. Here's why:
Holding down a full-time job where I sit in front of a computer 8 hours a day I find it unappealing to come home and sit down in front of another computer.
My gaming hours are limited for the above reason.
I don't want to spend the additional time installing, hunting for patches, have the game crash, searching forums for a fix, tweaking graphics detail, etc. I just want to play a game hassle-free. I used to love tweaking a game to squeeze every ounce of performance out of my PC. It's grown old to me.
TV size + couch > Monitor size + chair.
I'm guessing your "perception of console gamers being a loud unpleasant dimwitted lot" is influenced by the morons on Xbox Live. Stupid people are everywhere, even on PC.
Consoles: Realm of the Retarded? Yes, just as much as the PC as well.

exactly, this is why consoles garner the retarded crowd, because for the most part, there are no hassles which require you to think, to search, to know how to fix it. Not only that, but it's cheaper than buying a top of the line pc which plays the same games.

I would suggest the demographics are so messed up that its hard to get a good picture of the socio-economic classes or gender/age classes that seperate console gamers from PC gamers, especially as many folks have multiple platforms.
Personally, I've been a PC gamer for ~20 years, and been a console gamer at various points, (especially if you include handhelds).
My own lack of desire for a modern console is mainly due to their inherent limitations, such as the back catalogue, control limitations (better recently), exclusive content (missing out on certain games essentially), and so forth.
I prefer the games that come to PCs, and in particular older games, so the PC will always get my attention.
btw, the era of configuration, fixes, patches etc. to get your game working has largely diminished, with only a few exceptions (and those tend to be... drumroll... console ports! see further GTA4, Fallout3...).

I think that you get to notice the "retards" of the console market just because console appeal to a much larger demographic than the PC: with more people drawn in, it's inevitable you'll find more assholes.
My opinion is that everything in life gets its fair share of retards, regardless of consoles, PCs or anything else :)

The days of messing around with autoexec.bat and config.sys to get those extra kb of base memory and a bit more more EMS...
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh
The good old days. :)
If people find computer complicated to configure for a game today, then you didn't try to do that in the days of DOS 5.0 :D

I remember having to have boot disks for specific games... ahh those were the days :)

I only have one problem here:
Don't call the spectrum a console, it wasn't. It's a computer. People have a tendency to regard anything other than a PC as a console.
A console comes with game controllers and no keyboard.

I couldn't disagree more. There are far more PCs in the world than there are consoles, by millions (recent numbers peg the number of PCs in the world at just around a billion). That's a much larger demographic than any single console or the console market as a whole can lay claim to. By your logic, PC gaming should have the rep that it is populated by more retards and assholes. I'm not saying we don't have our fair share, but the general perception still is that PC gamers are a better "class" of gamer (for want of a better term).

I think part of it has to do that a lot of kids get consoles for Christmas whereas to buy a PC gaming rig you generally have to be older.
But I don't think console gamers are retarded, just that unlike most PC communities there is a vocal minority that makes it a point to be as rude and loud as possible. I've come across the same thing in PC games but the difference is that we can votekick/ban you in the blink of an eye. ;)
I still love playing console games--heck I've got a gamecube and Sega Genesis plugged into my TV that double as my computer monitor--I just am not interested in being in their non-regulated community where the rude people run around without restraint.

No, no, that's not what i meant to say.
The point i was trying to make is that you can find annoying people on any gaming community; it doesn't matter if it's PC or consoles.
You just get to notice the ones on the consoles just because console gamers are more than PC gamers, at least lately :)

Whenever I do game online on a console, I either surround myself with just my friends or I mute everyone. I know this isn't a great way to deal with it, because I like to meet new people, but the number of extremely load annoying jerks vastly outweighs the number of people who just play like a normal person would.