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Intelligence and radical economic attitudes

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Re: Intelligence and radical economic attitudes

#11

Post by kelseyfrog »

nh23423fefe wrote: post #7
tqi wrote: post #4

I wouldn't be surprised if "intelligence" would loosely predict extreme attitudes on almost any topic (such as is a hotdog a sandwich?).

I'm not sure political positions have means.

Any concept projectable down to a single dimension can have a mean. Are there valid projections for certain contexts or at all is a decent line of inquiry.

Re: Intelligence and radical economic attitudes

#12

Post by lame-robot-hoax »

kelseyfrog wrote: post #10
tqi wrote: post #4

I wouldn't be surprised if "intelligence" would loosely predict extreme attitudes on almost any topic (such as is a hotdog a sandwich?).

Pretty much. For those who possess average intelligence, centrism(compromise) and status quo maintenance is a decent decision heuristic.

The thing is, right vs left doesn’t necessarily capture extreme positions.

For example, you have r/neoliberal on Reddit. There users are overwhelmingly in favor of YIMBY policies (zoning reform, banning single family zoning, focusing on high density coupled with public transit), getting rid of the Jones act, pro free trade, automating ports, pro carbon tax, etc. while also being very liberal/progressive (imo) on most social issues.

So, while not necessarily extreme left or right, they have views that would be relatively extreme compared to the average voter, namely views on housing and trade.

Re: Intelligence and radical economic attitudes

#15

Post by liotier »

WalterBright wrote: post #14
tqi wrote: post #4

I wouldn't be surprised if "intelligence" would loosely predict extreme attitudes on almost any topic (such as is a hotdog a sandwich?).

I'm sad that free markets are viewed as an "extreme" position.

Free markets indeed is an extreme position: efficiency in trade requires regulation.

Re: Intelligence and radical economic attitudes

#16

Post by scarmig »

People like the sense that their views are coherent. Intelligent people are more likely to see how their point of view is incoherent. So they adopt points of view that are more coherent. Our world, both in its material basis and the ideology under/overlying it, is a messy hodgepodge, so those points of view tend to be radical i.e. a rejection of the existing basis of the world.

Re: Intelligence and radical economic attitudes

#17

Post by tbrownaw »

Hubris, the third great virtue.

The more you're confident in your own ability to figure things out, the less you need to seek out an established consensus to follow.

Sometimes it'll work, sometimes it won't, but hopefully on net it works more than it doesn't.

Re: Intelligence and radical economic attitudes

#18

Post by pessimizer »

mjreacher wrote: post #3
bediger4000 wrote: post #2

If true, this would explain tensions here on HN when discussion of economic issues happens. HN readers are self selected high cognitive ability people.

Well that's what we would like to think of ourselves.

That's covered by "self-selected."

Re: Intelligence and radical economic attitudes

#19

Post by scarmig »

clairity wrote: post #6

anything that starts off with "left" and "right" as an underlying political model is already hopelessly lost in poor thinking. this particular model is especially prone to tautological "evidence" of its own potency but it's simply uncovering a bias embedded in its own premises. start with a more realistic multidimensional model of political space and then maybe we can have productive conversations about things like i…

Conflict tends toward dualism, and politics is inherently about conflict. The space of possible positions is indeed very wide and multidimensional, but the process of effective contention and coalition building drives everything into two sides. Actors who don't want to do this can avoid falling into that binary, but they're also then less engaging in politics than philosophy.

Re: Intelligence and radical economic attitudes

#20

Post by aeternum »

WalterBright wrote: post #14
tqi wrote: post #4

I wouldn't be surprised if "intelligence" would loosely predict extreme attitudes on almost any topic (such as is a hotdog a sandwich?).

I'm sad that free markets are viewed as an "extreme" position.

Purely free markets also have some very well-known failure cases: tradgedy of the commons, ability of a large participant to drop prices to eliminate competition then raise prices, inability of market forces to handle extreme tail risk like major natural disasters.
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