Not-So-Random Thought

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Most of the time, the farther Left I look on the continuum of political opinions, the more I see people who do not reason well or are ignorant about history. Maybe I am overgeneralizing from my own experience. Most of the conservatives and libertarians I meet seem to have coherent worldviews even if I don’t always agree with them. A much larger fraction of the leftists I meet seem to have incoherent worldviews in which issues that I see as related exist as unconnected islands, or in which events that I see as consistent with spontaneous order and feedback mechanisms are seen as manifestations of conspiracy.

Perhaps the “Screwed Generation” would have benefited from better education. Perhaps they will learn from experience.

8 thoughts on “Not-So-Random Thought”

  1. They have really been harmed by the educational system. There are people who know history and who still make bad decisions but the lack of basic history removes the chance for logical conclusions.

  3. “I never meant to say that the Conservatives are generally stupid. I meant to say that stupid people are generally Conservative. I believe that is so obviously and universally admitted a principle that I hardly think any gentleman will deny it.”

    John Stuart Mills

    “The research finds that children with low intelligence are more likely to hold prejudiced attitudes as adults. These findings point to a vicious cycle, according to lead researcher Gordon Hodson, a psychologist at Brock University in Ontario. Low-intelligence adults tend to gravitate toward socially conservative ideologies, the study found. Those ideologies, in turn, stress hierarchy and resistance to change, attitudes that can contribute to prejudice.”

    Gordon Hodson

    Oh it’s too easy. I have found the above does generally hold true. There are some very large exceptions though.

  4. To PenGun,

    It is John Stuart Mill. Not Mills.

    Is your regard for authority and Mr. Mill’s (assumed) greatness so strong that you are willing to support all of Mill’s ideas and statements? If not, then why should I care about a particular statement of Mill’s?

    Wikiquote: John Stuart Mill said this in a Parliamentary debate with the Conservative MP, John Pakington (May 31, 1866). Maybe Mill was trying to irritate the British conservatives in front of him.

    Am I to accept everything that Gordon Hodson states? Is his study a groundbreaking revelation of universal truth, or is he a biased liberal hack? I couldn’t know without some detailed knowledge of his study. Have you investigated his work? Do you think that merely stating his result is convincing? Does it convince you, or are you subject to confirmation bias?

    You quote: “Those ideologies, in turn, stress hierarchy and resistance to change”. You have made two appeals to authority and hierarchy without extension or discussion. Are you unusually subject to ideology and submissive to authority?

  7. You may not be interested in politics,but politics is interested in you. The “good” ones just want to steal a little,but most want to run your life for you. They are concerned about your welfare and love you, so you had best be suitably grateful.

    The Presidency, as now constituted, is a danger to the Republic.Presidential orders and regulations should be subject to veto by panels of taxpaying citizens, as should all legislation, for that matter. Elections don’t work very well since the political class has lost its fear of the public. We have a would be Mugabe on top and a whole lot of stupid electors who think it is OK.

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