Posted on 01/28/2010 12:36:45 PM PST by lbryce
What if we could know, scientifically, that one side has the edge in brainpower? Should that change how we think about political issues?
Who are smarter, liberals or conservatives? This is the kind of question that could spark fierce and endless debates between political opponents, but what if we could know, scientifically, that one side has the edge in brainpower? Should that change how we think about political issues?
Though few partisans on either side are likely to admit it, most people at one time or another have suspected that their political opponents are dim bulbs. Sometimes these sentiments get aired publicly, and both the Left and the Right have been guilty of leveling the “you’re stupid” accusation. Last summer, for example, conservative activists pushed the view that Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, then a nominee, is an intellectual lightweight who lacks the brainpower to be an effective justice.
But questioning the IQ of opponents is a specialty of liberals. When John Stuart Mill labeled British Conservatives “the Stupid Party” in the 19th century, he apparently started a long-term trend. Ronald Reagan, after all, was an “amiable dunce,” according to Clark Clifford and other Democrats. And when Vice President Dan Quayle told a 12-year-old student in a spelling bee that potato had an “e” at the end of it, Democrats milked the incident for all it was worth and then some. They even had the same student lead the Pledge of Allegiance at their 1992 convention.
Smarter people usually make better choices, and smarter people are less likely to be conservative. So how are we to conclude anything but the obvious? Conservatism is stupid, right?
(Excerpt) Read more at american.com ...
No.
Next thread please.
What a stupid question.
I can put it this way...
Between me and liberals, we know everything there is to know.
Liberals apparently know everything about everything under the sun, except that they are pompous, elitist blow-hards...
and I know that!
Conservatives are marching forward with the most modern document of freedom, liberty, and justice known on the planet.
The liberals just think they are intellectually superior.
The rub is this,,, No matter WHO is smarter, nobody has a natural right to rule because they’re “smarter”, even if it’s true. Scientists are terrible about this,,,”i prove to you that hamburgers are bad, so they should be illegal based upon my higher wisdom, how dare you ignore my professional opinion?”.
NOBODY knows whats best for an individuals happiness, better than the individual. Leftists assume the most educated person should choose for all of us.
It’s a false assumption, so the whole question is moot.
Once again, the kid in question even told the press that the word was spelled with an "e" on the card Quayle was handed by the teacher and Quayle didn't want to contradict the teacher.
The really disgusting thing was Letterman had the kid on his show where the boy explained what really happened. And guess what was clipped from the West Coast airing and subsequent re-runs of the show?
This lie makes me madder that almost anything!
57 states,,, NOBODY,, and i mean NOBODY could make that mistake.
Nope. They suffer from Evil Eye and doing everything they can to apologize for their success and still keep everyone from being jealous of them.
It depends what you mean by smart. We all know that there are high IQ people who are really dumb about practical matters. Traditionally, the most important thing was to have wisdom.
And in the West, for several thousand years, it has been agreed what wisdom is. Check Ecclesiastes. Check Plato and Aristotle. Check Aquinas. To be wise is to seek the true, the good, and the beautiful, to be guided by the four virtues, to do what God commands.
All that is basically what conservatives believe in. It’s the liberals who usually say, “I’ll do whatever the hell I want, as long as it feels good.” Or, “Do your own thing,” in the jargon of the 60s. Or, everyone is entitled to make up their own versions of reality, in the SCOTUS Casey decision that confirmed Roe v Wade.
So, if you go by which group has the highest IQs, it’s hard to say. No doubt there are plenty of people with high IQs on drugs, who rob people to feed their habits. No doubt there are plenty of high-IQ academics who abuse their positions. That’s not really what I’d call smart.
Well, you can to your college,
you can go to your school
But if you ain’t got Jesus,
You’se an educated fool
And that’s all, I’ll tell you that’s all
‘Cause you better have Jesus
I tell you that’s all
Ry Cooder
Wisdom != Intelligence
Conservatives are more wise no matter what their intelligence level.
In general...
Liberals think Conservatives are stupid.
Conservatives think Liberals are evil.
That’s always been my experience... at least.
They think they’re smarter.
We know they’re not.
Pretty much...after all they seem inclined to superstition rather than fact (ala global warming/climate change, homosexuality, economics etc.).
Dennis Praeger brought up this subject in his show around noon today. He quoted Thomas Sowell who said that it takes an “intellectual” to be willing to overlook the moral depravity of gulags.
Clearly conservatives are smarter, liberals think and act purely with emotion, they have a group mentality, and they fail to consider human nature in any of their beliefs. Conservatives use logic and reason, they are free thinking INDIVIDUALS that come to conclusion based on experience, human nature, and rational deliberation.
I’m inclined to go with Reagan’s quote... something like “It’s not that liberals are stupid, it’s just that they know so many things that aren’t true”
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