461–470 of 564 posts
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They're embarrassed to be seen supporting candidates that are so transparently anti-science, anti-education and anti-reason?
All three of those labels can easily be applied to both major parties, just with different examples. Conservatives tend to not speak up because the hyperbolic vitriol has gotten out of hand.
I'll risk making this a partisan issue and say the anti-intellectual and anti-science bent seems increasingly prevalent among Republicans like Mike Parson and their constituencies. One of the most shocking statistics I've seen recently is the Pew poll which shows that in the space of 2 years Republican attitudes about higher education saw a 20-point swing such that that most Republican voters now believe college is n…
This is my favorite time of the decade because it’s at the nadir of political tension in the US. We’re exactly halfway between elections and the next election is an unimportant one (relatively). The only people still talking about politics are people who are genuinely interested in politics or who have interesting insights. Nothing that anyone says politically right now matters. For proof, consider how many of your f…
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You're making it about sides. Facts are not one sided. If someone speaking truth makes you feel bothered, that's your problem, not theirs. We should be able to speak to one another without getting emotional about which team someone aligns with. Republicans are fostering anti-intellectualism which is (in fact) anti-science. From my perspective you'd be alienating yourself out of spite. This goes for Democrats or any p…
The problem is that democrats are also fostering anti-science anti-intellectualism. Which side is worse is a matter of opinion. Personally I think they are both dangerous and won’t identify myself with either party as a result. The result is that there is no point in leveling this accusation as part of a debate about something substantive, unless you just want to derail the conversation into a meaningless partisan ba…
Flawed opinions are not all of equal import. Representatives of a political party are not all of equal import. You have to actually evaluate the evidence and act accordingly, even if this puts you on the outs with friends, family, and co-workers.
This all being said, I think the prime driver of partisanship is not analyses of truth or impact but social connections. People are afraid to be exiled from the community they depend on -- their friends, family, co-workers, co-religionists, doctor, grocer, plumber, etc. Just as you can tell a lie more convincingly if you believe it, you can simulate partisan allegiance best by enacting it. If you are going to be ridden out of town on a rail if you are thought to have voted for a Democrat/Republican, then it isn't sufficient to say you voted as the mob prefers; you have to do it. The mob knows this. That's what the Second Amendment has come to be about: having guns to scare your neighbors over to your side. Better to be with the bully than against him.
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This situation is keeping his name in the spotlight, and people will, in general, be more likely to vote for names that they recognize. I don't believe that there is any other reason here.
I would assume this is pure politics. He knows perfectly well who is to blame, but he's using the situation opportunistically to further his own career. The issue isn't just that he's objectively and morally wrong, it's that most voters don't see through the grandstanding. All they see - and all they want to see - is a rich old white dude punching down at some college-educated kid who thinks he's clever enough to hav…
So why would he change his mind? There's nothing to gain.
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How can you say this about Republicans when Democrats and their increasingly radical dogma include such blatant anti-science as: any distinction between men and women is imaginary, that vaccines are better than naturally acquired immunity, that skin color determines virtue, that speech is violence, that COVID is more dangerous to a child than forced isolation, that an unborn child is not alive, etc. etc. etc. You're…
What distinctions between men and women are being denied that you feel need to be made? Have you done any work to asses your biases along these fronts? What makes you think that the immunity after getting infected from covid is better than getting vaccinated and not getting sick at all? I know I don't personally have the time to be sick, I have a family to feed.
For one thing, the argument on the left that gender and sex are not the same and a biological man can become a biological woman is currently scientifically impossible. Men and women are fundamentally distinguished by DNA. Even with genital mutilation surgery and hormone therapy you are only changing about 0.01% of what makes and man and a woman different as every chromosome in that person's body is the same biological sex they had at birth. Setting aside any political or subjective "reality" they are trying to push on to others.
Second, Pfizer scientists are on tape stating that antibodies gained through COVID infection are more robust than those gained from their vaccines. https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/oct/5/project-veri...
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Your proposal suggests that this result is due to lack of knowledge, rather than malice. While I'm a fan of Hanlon's Razor in the absence of evidence to the contrary, the Governor's office clearly employs technologically competent people. That means that the Governor is either persisting despite knowing better, or is remaining deliberately ignorant despite the expertise at his disposal. Either way, this is at least s…
I've got plenty of life experience that proves that people in power who employ technologically competent people often refuse to listen to expert advice because might makes right. You don't have to be malicious to be incompetent.
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Obviously America has problems that should be addressed, but I tend to think these "blame the US for everything cuz it's irredeemable" are doing a pretty big disservice all around. If we could singularly find these problems to be a uniquely American thing, that would be great! That means we've identified the problems and conceivably we could change the US to suddenly fix it. I think the reality is that it's not that…
It all depends. If one side believes the election was stolen and proceeds to rig elections in their favor in retaliation. America is done. We're at a point where fact don't matter. This is story illustrates that. Fact that SSN were sent out publicly doesn't matter. Fact that any security expert would say this wasn't hacking doesn't matter. Experts no longer matter. Whether they are doctors, scientists, etc.
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Young children's brains aren't developed sufficiently to build these skills. Even a lot of high schoolers have difficulty with it. It's largely taught in post-secondary education because by then, the brain has matured enough to handle the cognitive load.
Tell me you haven't raised kids without saying you haven't raised kids. Mine have been critics since before they could speak.
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There aren't sides! I'm not on your side, I don't even know you. No one here owes you anything. You're saying "you must woo me to do the right thing" and it's complete garbage (you've already admitted OP is "probably right"). If you're going to vote out of spite because people aren't "taking a chill pill" you can go pound sand. I'm tired of this "you didn't tell me in the perfect way, so I'm right and you're wrong" r…
Spoiler alert: there is no perfect way to tell them, that’s the point.
Once the goalposts are moved back to the point where you're practically begging, they'll turn around and try to assert dominance by calling you weak for trying to reason with them like a perosn.
I'll risk making this a partisan issue and say the anti-intellectual and anti-science bent seems increasingly prevalent among Republicans like Mike Parson and their constituencies. One of the most shocking statistics I've seen recently is the Pew poll which shows that in the space of 2 years Republican attitudes about higher education saw a 20-point swing such that that most Republican voters now believe college is n…
The left has its fair share of growing anti-science sentiment. I agree it's quite a bit worse with Republicans but it is growing in both directions, which is a concern. People pick their science a la carte as long as it confirms what they want. - Denial of the science of sex differences - Denial of the science of intelligence differences, the relevance of intelligence in life outcomes and how heritable it is - Belief…
One thing I've noticed about the friends who are dyed in the wool liberals is that they seem to be more susceptible than average to pseudoscientific practices such as reiki, crystals, homeopathy, etc.
And that jives, I think, with historical trends. Go back 100 years and G.K. Chesterton was chiding the liberal upper-class socialites who were taken in with this stuff.
Of course, my own observations are just anecdotal, but I would be curious to know if anyone else has noticed it.