I find it fascinating that our left-leaning friends claim both that conservatives* are poor (at least compared to liberals) and that they’re rich. People of the left then use both claims as justifications for their self-righteous contempt for those who disagree with them.
Hillary Clinton last month:
But what the map doesn’t show you is that I won the places that represent two-thirds of America’s gross domestic product.
Thought of the Day
August 21, 2013
National Review’s Charles Cooke:
I’m still routinely surprised at the frequency with which the distinction between public and private, vital for all politics, is ignored.
Hat tip to Jim Geraghty’s Morning Jolt e-mail newsletter, who was talking about this, but it applies (as Cooke says) over and over again, all the time, e.g. in the unconscious leaps liberals make when they talk about caring for the poor.
How to Argue: ‘Play the ball, not the man’
November 28, 2012
I encourage you to share your thoughts or arguments in the comment section under each blog entry.
As St. Eutychus says, “Play the ball. Not the man.” (I think a lot of the rest of his comment policy is good advice, too.) Seriously, I think you should stick to talking about substantive ideas, even if only for totally selfish reasons—if you start insulting people and taking everything personally, it makes you look bad, and makes your arguments sound less reasonable.
RIGHT:
Mr. A: I don’t think pre-emptive war is ever justified. How would we like it if Iraq invaded our country?
How to Argue, How Not to Argue
September 29, 2011
Check out this flowchart about how to have a rational discussion.
I don’t entirely agree with the framework it presents; if nothing else, I think it’s sort of too legalistic, if meant literally—but that’s probably intentional, and part of the humor.
In any case, I think it’s pretty great, in that it articulates (and calls out) some of the ways that discussions can fall victim to sloppy thinking, perhaps usually without the participants’ noticing or understanding what’s going on. Read the rest of this entry »
Are liberals smarter than conservatives? It’s an interesting question, if you like, and you can find interesting studies and speculations on whether and why, but intelligence isn’t the same as wisdom. A person gifted with higher than average cognitive ability can still be a fool.
Some liberals certainly think that liberals are both much smarter and much wiser than conservatives. Arguably that belief is an intrinsic part of the ideology of the American Progressive movement. A commenter on this blog has said, “. . . the American people are by and large an idiotic bunch. . . . And these are the people that are voting!” Read the rest of this entry »
Case Closed
June 4, 2010
As someone who has more than once wondered what is true and whether (and with how much certainty) it is even possible to know, I was interested to learn that three factual claims I had heard Mark Steyn and other commentators make in the past have now been confirmed by longtime liberal bastion The New York Times and more-or-less liberal “newsmagazine” Time:
Enjoyment and Contemplation 