One reason I love talking economics with my son, a respected economist, is that I know his opinions are based on a wealth of knowledge and facts.
Until people show me that they lack an honest education in the subject they are discussing, I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, but there comes that time when I have reached the end om my patience
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Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.As a matter of fact, yes, but the truth is often complicated, and it's hard to list all the factors which add up to a nuanced conclusion. Republicans usually dumb things down to easy, simplistic slogans, which only take a few seconds to blurt out.
Storm1752
Level 8
Jan 16, 2023
2
That for the simple reason that Republicans are allergic to using what passes for their brains.
Do a search on “what is the ‘why don’t you, Yes but’ game.
I asked Bing and it replied Why don't you – yes but' This game begins when a person [Person A] states a problem in their life, and another [Person B] responds by offering constructive suggestions on how to solve it. [Person A] says 'yes, but...' and proceeds to find issue with [Person B’s] solutions.
Eric Berne described that game in his early 1960s book “Games People Play” and said Person B always loses the game.
How does Person B stop losing the game?
yvilletom
Level 8
Jan 16, 2023
0
I have learned to recognise willful ignorance when I see it. I no longer waste my time on such mental defectives.
anglophone
Level 9
Jan 15, 2023
7
which is why i sometimes have to remind myself to bring my jaw back up to my face.......
AnneWimsey
Level 9
Jan 15, 2023
5
When taxpayers’ subsidies stop, NASA in the US and similar organizations in other nations, will let the Big Bang origin myth die.
I tell people, and recently told a retired college professor who had taught the myth, “Enjoy your sci-fi. Don’t confuse it with science.”
yvilletom
Level 8
Jan 15, 2023
1
Trumpers are the worst. They don't understand or appreciate the significance of expertise because none of them have any. Trump himself has none. A good example is how they've berated Dr. Fauci throughout the pandemic because someone having devoted their lives to developing a body of knowledge is completely lost on them because none of them have ever done it. This is a class of people who think that if you can convince others of something, then it is true regardless of what the evidence says.
I say we can not stand for this, they are dumbing down our culture and we are all going to pay for it. I read an article some time ago about the beginning of anti-intellectualism was ushered in by Newt Gingrich in the 90's. But there seem to be so many of them now, people who don't understand the importance of being able to support your factual claims with evidence, people who prefer to exclude rather than include others in full social participation, people who don't understand the benefit of an educated society, etc.
I will continue to do what I can for as long as I can but I just don't know how to relate to those people. Today I was asked to run for local, public office and I wish I had that much gas in the tank. It is really up to the young people now.
LovinLarge
Level 8
Jan 15, 2023
5
It seems to me that you speak of tribalism built on the foundations of willful ignorance.
At some point, the hostility of the ignorant will become a crisis. It won't be pretty.
@anglophone In some cases but I'm not sure all. They are not swayed by evidence or logic because they don't understand it so I think the very fundamentals of acquiring knowledge seem to be absent in that at least some of them are uneducable. And they don't trust experts so they think they can just make stuff up and it is as valid as the expert knowledge base.
On Christmas, my hairdresser came over for brunch and to cut my hair. I must have mentioned something about Canada because she piped up with that Canada was letting children have medically assisted suicide without parental consent now. I asked her how she knew that and she said she heard it on YouTube from the Prime Minister's mouth. Then she started after transgenderism and gays and I shut her down unequivocally.
I got to thinking about it later that night and texted her a link to the government of Canada's webpage on the issue which explicitly states one of the requirements for assisted suicide as being 18. She texted me back her YouTube video where Justin Trudeau spoke for 2 minutes and then it cut to black snd some unidentified RWNJ took over for 24 minutes with every current conspiracy theory including assisted suicide for children without parental consent. I texted her back and told her that the man was lying about almost everything, like some people will do to get you on their side. She texted me back immediately and said that she didn't appreciate being called a liar and that she didn't like my attitude and that I wasn't to contact her again. I told her that she had misunderstood me, that I had only identified the man on the video as a liar but I'm pretty sure I need a new hairdresser. Incidentally, she had invited herself over on Christmas, came empty handed, charged me for the haircut and left with goodies and a gift.
So I concede, I am at a loss.
@alliwant I think that is my greatest concern. They are a strikingly violent group to begin with.
@LovinLarge It sounds like your now ex hairdresser has multiple issues, including but perhaps not limited to lack of basic comprehension of the written word, lack of critical thinking skills, lack of social skills, lack of human compassion, and lack of research skills. It must suck to be her.
@anglophone And my guess is that she's not capable of improvement, so it really would suck to be her or
anyone like her. I feel that I threw her a lifeline and she threw it back at me. My parents left a lot to be desired by at least they taught me how to think and how to learn.
@LovinLarge I just wrote this for Gwen below.
None of us can have a deep knowledge of everything, or even most things, and therefore when dealing with subjects of which I have no deep knowledge, which is most of them naturally. I fall back on the default position of using whatever seems to be the consensus among the acknowledged mainstream experts. While, where there is dispute among even them, I try to look for the side which seems to be using the best methods, using my experience in the fields which I do know to tell me what works best. The problem is, that when you have reject education in principle, as something that is a threat to your world view, then you can not use either of those methods, or even admit to yourself that there could be such things as methods. And rejecting education is sadly for many a tribal issue, where membership and status in the tribe depends upon the degree to which you are anti-education.
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