Posted on 03/26/2010 7:34:18 PM PDT by naturalman1975
Dr. Kanazawa,
In your recent PT blog post, Why Liberals Are More Intelligent Than Conservatives, you explained why liberals tend to control institutions such as academia and the media:
"[Liberals] control the institutions because liberals are on average more intelligent than conservatives and thus they are more likely to attain the highest status in any area of (evolutionarily novel) modern life."
You asserted that liberals have higher IQs, are more generous, and are essentially more evolved than conservatives. In response, I'd like to defend the unfortunate, knuckle-dragging schlubs by deconstructing your logic. Unlike most of your previous work (your book Why Beautiful People Have More Daughters is excellent and people should buy it), this piece is simply irrational.
Let me begin with some definitions, as you did. You rightly pointed out that political ideologies are difficult to pin down. That's especially true since few people fall neatly into liberal or conservative camps. There are many people like me, for example, who are fiscally conservative and socially libertarian. There is no place for us on the liberal-conservative spectrum.
So, for sake of simplicity, when I use the word "liberal," I'll be referring to the liberal elitists you have noticed occupying the higher ranks of certain institutions. I'm not speaking about the Democrat next door, with whom I can have a beer and a friendly discussion about policy, but the ideologically-driven hard left who you assert are more intelligent than the rest of us.
Onward... You started with this definition of liberalism: "the genuine concern for the welfare of genetically unrelated others and the willingness to contribute larger proportions of private resources for the welfare of such others."
(Excerpt) Read more at psychologytoday.com ...
The only two liberals I know personally are insecure control freaks. And have developmentally stilted immature personalities.
Because “liberals” are largely academics with a whole lot of letters behind their names, they’ve been told that they are the best and the brightest constantly and it’s sunk in. Spend any quality time on a university campus and this phenomenon stands out. It doesn’t matter that such people have no clue how to jump a car battery or how to back a car down their driveways (see the crazy neighbor across the street). Oh, no, book learning makes them brilliant, don’t cha know.
Don’t know about intelligence. The Ivy League college are sure putting out some genius politicians. Cough.
More important in a discussion of ideas, is the question of emotional maturity and accurate perception of the real world. It is my professional observation that the liberal is in an arrested state of emotional development around 5-15 years in age.
Typical lyin' liberal weasel words. He left off the most important part, "contribute larger proportions of others private resources against their will".
Big government is the only real god in the life of a liberal, and therefore they feel they are entitled by history and evolution to be the ones who direct big government forever.
Obama worshippers believe he is exceedingly smart, but how can someone (BHO) think that if an insurance company cannot turn down someone with a preexisting condition that insurance premiums will go down? Anyone who thinks that is not intelligent regardless of how many college degrees they have.
Thanks for posting that. I love to bring my crassness to elitists...I posted the following to one of the inane posts.
Well Eileen, first off your assertions that liberals being inherently evil people is “against all evidence and reason” is inaccurate.
Today’s liberalism is not the same liberalism found in the eighteenth century. Liberals today are really marxist based ideologues. Hence their lack of regard for the individual, including the right to life (yes, Eileen life begins at conception all other “guesses” are arbitrary at best). They also have little regard for the right of private property, indeed they seem obsessed with determining who is allowed to have what and taking from those who they deem to have too much to give to those who did not earn it. This is not very nice is it? And, this redistribution of wealth is still sought after even after all the economic facts (and societal facts) show that it is cruel and mean to deprive people from earning their own way. One only needs to look at the generations of people who were forced by incentives from liberal policies to have children out of wedlock. Indeed, instead of rationally accepting that this is morally wrong, liberals redefined the morality as to it is fine to have children without both parents. Creating a horrible lifestyle that to this day haunts millions of individuals and results in addiction, crime and prison time.
Liberal politicians love giving tax breaks when individuals do what they deem and punishing those who want to live as they choose.
So, I have to ask you Eileen, what is there to like or respect? I happen to be a Tea Party patriot. I have been continually called racist, nazi, tea bagger, and other vile names in the liberal media and by liberal politicians. All are untrue and horribly mean spirited, designed to make each of us patriots feel apart from the society in which we live.
You know, if your side was so certain of their belief systems...why do they have to enslave those of us who want to be free? Why not allow states that choose be communist or socialist be so, and allow states that wish to be free to be free? The reason your side will not allow that is that they have evil intent basically...why else would they feel that they have to enslave even those who do not wish to follow them?
You folks on here really need to think hard on what I wrote and I will leave you with one last thing to consider. Are you willing to die for your belief in socialism? Because there are literally millions of Americans who are willing to die for their liberty. Just think about that when you can open your superior minds and your thoughts a little...
Dang, I lied...one more last thing :) it has long been known that liberals teach because they cannot do...they don’t have the intelligence to make it in the real world... ;)
Conservatives are informed
Liberals are opinionated
( and the smartest person in the room due only to the glorious act of their divine birth )
I don't claim to be an actuary, but would it be a good analogy to say that would be like having someone write a life insurance policy for a 65-year-old smoker as if they were a 25-year-old nonsmoker?
That’s the kind of car you want to slap a bumper sticker on that says, “I’m not as smart as I think I am.”
Ever notice certain things about liberals? For one thing, their children are always little spoiled monsters, because liberal parents don’t believe in discipline. As far as generous goes, just watch any waitress when a group of teachers comes into a restaurant - CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP. She’ll be lucky to get a buck from the whole table. They can’t stand it that others donate real money to causes they believe in, so they need to MAKE LAWS that support their destructive ideals (planned parenthood, NEA).
Liberals think they are more intelligent because they latch onto every new ‘thought fad’ like converts to a new religion, e.g. enviro nuts. They consider themselves on the cutting edge, and gravitate toward new, exciting ideologies throwing out the old and becoming trendy. The fact that these ideologies won’t put dinner on the table or pay the rent forces them into academia where they are surrounded by others who look for the newest religion, and are protected by tenure. They can get as wacky as they want, and keep their jobs forever.
These people would never make it in the real world. Obama couldn’t run the candy stand at a little league baseball game.
If liberals are so intelligent, how come relatively few of them become scientists? Many of them have PhDs but it’s mostly in fluff subjects. There are a lot more conservative scientists than most people know (although you only hear about the liberal ones on TV)
Love it, the exact wording I try to use. Great, easy to understand for US...
Liberalism is a mental illness. I have liberal relatives that prove the point.
And if being a Forrest Gump means I am successful and happier than a liberal then so be it.
I suspect that happiness requires intelligence though.
I saw the most pompous, elitist, judgmental and ignorant lefty bumper sticker the other day. It said “A PBS mind in a Fox News world.”
I was liberal too until I was about 25. I examined my beliefs and realized just how they made no logical sense. In every instance liberalism leads to human misery. I can’t think of an exception.
That article is OUTSTANDING. I’d suggest everyone click the link and read the whole thing.
Hopefully that comment hijacking Ann has crawled back under her rock!
OMG
translation:
Ignorant self important communist “stuck” in most free and prosperous country God ever gave to man
Better research seems to have been optional.
Extensive surveys by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, conducted in 2006 and 2007 of 14,000 college freshmen and seniors at fifty colleges nationwide, indicated that college education results in little advance in knowledge of American history and institutions, which is already poor among non-college graduates, but an often significant increase in favoring liberal ideology was seen over those who were not college graduates. In addition, those with the highest degrees were the most liberal. Intercollegiate Studies Institute, ‘’The Shaping of the American Mind.’ http://www.americancivicliteracy.org/2010/major_findings_finding1.html
Of 100 colleges and universities graded on their general education requirements by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA), 42 institutions received a D or F for requiring two or fewer subjects, while 25 of them received an F for requiring one or no subjects. Only 5 institutions received an A for requiring six general education subjects. Average tuition and fees at the 11 schools that require no subjects was $37,700; average tuition at the five schools that require six subjects is $5,400. Walter E. Williams , professor of economics at George Mason University.
In 2001, Harvard was focused upon as part of a controversy in which high, but allegedly unwarranted, GPA’s (Grade Point Averages) were awarded. While in 1940 C-minus was the most common GPA at Harvard, and in 1955 only 15 percent of undergraduates had a GPA of B-plus or higher, in the year 2000, 50% in of all the grades given were As or A-minuses, with just six percent being C-pluses or lower. More than 90 percent of the class of 2001 had earned grade-point averages of B-minus or higher.
Observers point out that entering freshmen typically have straight-A averages in high school, SAT scores near 800 in all fields, and have demonstrated an unusual ability to engage in serious study. The days when Harvard included many “Gentleman C” students there for social activities are long gone.
In a Harvard Crimson article, noted conservative Harvard professor Harvey Mansfield contended that “Grade inflation got started … when professors raised the grades of students protesting the war in Vietnam...” “At that time, too, white professors, imbibing the spirit of the new policies of affirmative action, stopped giving low grades to black students, and to justify or conceal this, also stopped giving low grades to white students.” The problem was essentially seen as the predominance of the notion of self-esteem, “in which the purpose of education is to make students feel capable and ‘empowered,’ and professors should hesitate to pass judgment on what students have learned.” Such assertions resulted in no small controversy.
Harvard alumnus and author Ross Douthat attributed this problem partly to socioeconomic differences, and noted that “Harvard students are creatively lazy, gifted at working smarter rather than harder”, being brilliant largely in their tactics “to achieve a maximal GPA in return for minimal effort.” Few people who have taught at Harvard agree with Douthat’s notions.[16] http://conservapedia.com/Harvard#High_grades
94 percent of political conservatives, and 94 percent of Americans who regularly attend religious worship services believe there is such a thing as sin, versus only 77 percent of political liberals and 80 percent among those who do not attend services. ^Ellison Research, March 11, 2008
Some 71 percent of [those classified as] conservatives say you have an obligation to care for a seriously injured spouse or parent versus less than half (46 percent) of liberals. Peter Schweizer, “Makers and Takers,” Doubleday, June 3, 2008. http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=16895
Liberals are two times more likely to say it is okay to cheat the government out of welfare money you don’t deserve. Peter Schweizer, “Makers and Takers,” Doubleday, June 3, 2008. http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=16895
Beliefs reincarnation, yoga, the existence of spiritual energy in physical things and astrology are more common among Democrats and independents than Republicans, and are more widely held by liberals and moderates than conservatives, especially as concerns belief in yoga as a spiritual practice, with 39% of liberals expressing this belief (39%), in contrast to only 15% of conservatives. Conservatives and Republicans also report fewer experiences than liberals or Democrats communicating with the dead, seeing ghosts and consulting fortunetellers or psychics. (http://pewforum.org/newassets/images/reports/multiplefaiths/multiplefaiths.pdf)
The population of Massachusetts ranks as the most liberal, with Boston and Cambridge being the most liberal large cities (100,000 or more), followed by California. http://www.epodunk.com/top10/liberal/index.html
The 16 most Catholic states contain 24 of the most liberal cities. Excluding (Maryland 26th), predominately Roman Catholic states contain all but one (Seattle WA) of the 30 most liberal cities. Of states in which S. Baptists are the single largest denomination none (of the 30 cities) were found (the term “liberal: being defined according to individual contributions to PACs, election returns and the number of homosexual households: http://www.epodunk.com/top10/liberal/index.html http://www.glenmary.org/grc/RCMS_2000/Catholic_findings.htm, http://www.adherents.com/rel_USA.html.
10% of Evangelical Protestants reside in the NE, 23% in the Midwest, 50% in the South, and 17% in the West. Catholics: 29% NE, 24% Midwest, 24% in the South, 23% in the West. “Muslim Americans: Middle Class and Mostly Mainstream,” Pew Research Center, 2007. http://religions.pewforum.org/comparisons#
See here for intriguing chart: http://peacebyjesus.witnesstoday.org/Statistical_Correlations.html
61% of Americans have a positive image of capitalism, and of 95% of small business, versus 36% seeing socialism positively, while 33% have a negative image of capitalism, and 58% of socialism. 53% of Democrats have a positive image of socialism, compared to 17% of Republicans. 61% of liberals say their image of socialism is positive, compared to 39% of moderates and 20% of conservatives. http://www.gallup.com/poll/125645/socialism-viewed-positively-americans.aspx February 4, 2010
A (disputed) study showed that 50% of American college faculty identified themselves as Democrats and only 11% as Republicans (with 33% being Independent, and 5% identifying themselves with another party). 72% described themselves as “to the left of center,” including 18% who were strongly left. Only 15% described themselves as right of center, including only 3% who were “strongly right.” North American Academic Study Survey (NAASS) of students, faculty and administrators at colleges and universities in the United States and Canada 1999
In a 2007 Pew Research Center study of journalists and news executives, the ratio was 4 liberals for each conservative. Pew Research Center’s 2007 survey of 222 journalists and news executives at national outlets.
More: http://peacebyjesus.witnesstoday.org/RevealingStatistics.html
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.