Al Franken Schooled by Antonin Scalia at New York Event

The National Ledger ^ | 11-23-05 | CK Rairden

[driftless]

I've already asserted that Franken may have been a whiz with abstract numbers, but he is no genius with reason and logic. It's just that like most people, his intelligence is selective. There are obviously many libs like Franken. There are many scientists who are also raving liberal nutters. They're good at doing experiments or calculating equations but stupid at evaluating societal manifestations or analyzing and understanding the results of seventy years of screwball socialist/liberal policies.

[muir_redwoods]

Somehow the words. "Shut up, fatboy" come to mind

[Casloy]

Never bring a pogo stick to a gun fight.

[sphinx]

He is normally a very nice person... but also a very ignorant one...like most libs when they talk about politics or social matters.

A small example. I had a conversation this week with a liberal acquaintence: bright, well-educated (attorney), businessman, a thoroughly decent fellow who I would trust in any personal matter. The distribution of wealth came up in a glancing way and I brought up IRA's and 401(k)'s. The broader thrust of the conversation is not relevant here, but the interesting point is that he thought only about 1-2% of American families held wealth in equities. He simply refused to credit that the figure is actually over 50%. With ignorance this deep, one really has to start with a tutorial at about the 8th grade level on how the world works.

Such people clearly have chosen to remain ignorant, and this preference for ignorance puzzles me. I find that conservatives, confronted with an awkward (alleged) fact, will confront it, analyze it, perhaps attempt to refute it, but will in any event wrestle it into a broader framework. Liberals will just plow on as if nothing had been said.

I suppose part of it is that conservatives are regularly challenged to keep their arguments sharp by the liberal bias in academia and the media. But I think it goes deeper, into the territory David Horowitz (among others) explores: active bad faith, tolerance for dishonesty and hidden agendas, and the habitual conversion of issues disputes into ad hominen attacks. This approach to politics emerged from the hard left during the communist era, but it clearly has infected the broader left, probably through the tranmission belts of the universities.

Goodness knows, conservatives ain't perfect, but conservatives still deal in honest debate and will face facts. The left has worked itself into a very bad place.

[driftless]

"a very bad place"

Remember also that many people need villains to hate. Hate keeps a lot of people going. They need to feel that their side has all the good people and that the other side, to wit Republcans and conservatives, is totally evil. Add to that hate, which was ingrained early in their lives, a strong dose of ignorance and you have many of todays liberals...like my bro-in-law.

Coincidentally his own brother thinks, like AlGore, that stocks are "risky" and that most wealthy people invest in land rather than stocks. He informed my wife and I of that "fact" over dinner one time. Even my liberal sister was taken a little aback by that astonishing show of ignorance. My wife almost choked on her food when she heard that stupid statement, but said nothing. By the way, the b-in-law who made that statement is an ex-schoolteacher who retired in his fifties.