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Location: New Albany, Indiana (Greater Louisville)
11,974 posts, read 25,473,841 times
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As an American it saddens me that 99% of immigrants I've met from the poorest countries come across as being far more intelligent than the average American, even ones with a college degree. Most foreigners are floored by how knowledgeable I am on world affairs but I'm probably below average by European standards.
The root cause is that in America you can be a complete fool and still have a good income. At some point are dumbed down / entitled / lazy nation will not be able to sustain our greatness and will collapse the way every other great power has. We would already be in decline without bringing in large numbers of highly educated immigrants. I was just in the hospital my doctors were from Iran, Pakistan, and only one American. The same is true in engineering. We are a society in decline.
I think you made too many assumptions about my views...
This changes nothing. Americans are anti-intellectual because so few are willing to open their minds to other ideas. It has nothing to do with too few identify as Marx. It's the large number of people who aggressively reject Marxism without having a proper understanding of it. It does not matter that if a proper understanding was reached that they'd feel the same way about it in the end. To reject things you know nothing about to the point where a conversation cannot even be had is stupid by definition. Intelligent people should ALWAYS be on board with understanding new ideas and hearing opposing arguments.
Are there, as you call them, 'pseduo-intellectuals.' Sure. There are many who simply won't hear other arguments. But you make it seem like its a 'left wing' problem, when it by definition cannot be given how hard it is for even a guy like Bernie Sanders to be taken seriously becasue he used the word 'socialism' as something other than a swear word.
Good points here. But the hasty assumptions about Senator Sanders which you correctly point out are matched by the unwillingness of progressives to credit conservatives with an arguably valid, if differing, view of the value of Marxism/socialism stemming from a study of twentieth century history, the Western tradition of individual expression, and the social benefits of (relatively) free-market economies. To many progressives, opposition to Sanders' proposals are not only wrong, but actively evil; the devil's work, you might say -- though most progressives would reject such a blatantly religious allusion!
Having a college degree doesn't necessarily make one smarter than those who never went to college. There are idiots with high level degrees and idiots with no degrees. Just because the candidate you don't like is winning doesn't mean the voters are stupid.
Location: New Albany, Indiana (Greater Louisville)
11,974 posts, read 25,473,841 times
Reputation: 12187
Quote:
Originally Posted by Yeledaf
Good points here. But the hasty assumptions about Senator Sanders which you correctly point out are matched by the unwillingness of progressives to credit conservatives with an arguably valid, if differing, view of the value of Marxism/socialism stemming from a study of twentieth century history, the Western tradition of individual expression, and the social benefits of (relatively) free-market economies. To many progressives, opposition to Sanders' proposals are not only wrong, but actively evil; the devil's work, you might say -- though most progressives would reject such a blatantly religious allusion!
Many on the Far Left don't understand how European socialism works and think it is Govt being Santa Claus. Yes tuition is free but only the best students get it for 4 year college, the other 90% get free trade school. Health care isn't free, you willing pay more tax to protect yourself from financial ruin from a bad health problem. Govt healthcare always puts a priority on treating some people over others based on age and likelihood of success. Many rich people come to US hospitals from socialist countries because they can cut in line and get surgeries their countries wouldn't pay for.
Wrong. The religious right were pushing for Cruze.
Two things:
1. It's Cruz.
2. Trump consistently out performed Cruz with evangelicals. It was reported in exit polls throughout the primaries.
ex:
Cruz won his home state of Texas, along with Oklahoma and Alaska, but lost to Trump in Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia. In those states, the twice-divorced New York billionaire won a plurality of evangelicals, beating Cruz among the very voters expected to make up his base.
There is a strong current of anti-intellectualism in America, without a doubt.
While the country was founded in the 18th century by Enlightenment intellectuals, the real growth of the country from a set of ideas to a functioning state and economy, its material foundation, was created by men who became very successful as 'makers and doers'. These men who founded railroads, steelworks, roads, and factories, were not unintelligent men by any means, but their visible legacy was of construction, not ephemerisms.
Nonetheless, many of these early industrialists endowed America's intellectual pillars such as its libraries and universities. Yet, the average American who toiled to realize the dreams of America's industrialists were focused on the prosaic and material successes that they wrought with their own hands and their descendants maintain the value in those acheivements.
Of course this is one side of the coin. There is a vigorous academic and intellectual tradition in America which stems from its origins as an Enlightenment experiment in state building. A legacy that is unfortunately being squandered by miring itself in half-realized social philosophies, political correctness, intellectual isolationism, pandering, and irrelevance.
Essentially, the country is tearing itself apart, socially, by stretching to the extremes of anti-intellectualism to the point of intentional 'pride in stupidity' on the one side, and impotent, self-spiting social liberalism on the other.
They were thieves, crooks and liars, just about every one of them. Their "endowments" were cheap attempts to legitimize themselves and soothe their guilty consciences.
Managed to fool an entire country for generations.
But he's not saying anything that needs to be understood. Did you hear Wolf Blitzer interview him today? Blitzer asked about the supporters who have been stalking writer Julia Ioffe, the journalist who interviewed Melania Trump for a profile in GQ magazine. The article was accurate and in the most part flattering. Melania took issue with the fact that the article mentioned 1) she had a half-brother she did not acknowledge and 2) her caviar-infused skin care products did not perform well in the crowded cosmetics market. Both of which are true, provable statements.
Because Melania claimed to be a victim of unfair reporting after the article was published, Trumps rabid supporters came down on Ioffe like a ton of bricks. Death threats, insults, and rude photoshopped images of her. Most of which were based on the fact this well-respected international journalist is Jewish. The most polite one I saw showed Ioffe being interviewed on TV with a yellow Star of David photoshopped onto her dress. The less nice ones included pictures of her appearing to be in Auschwitz. She was also sent a cartoon of a Jew being shot in the back of the head.
How did Trump respond to Blitzer's polite question, "What’s your message to these people when something like that happens?" First he claimed the article was very inaccurate (it wasn't) and "nasty" (it wasn't) and then he admitted he hadn't read it. He claimed he knew nothing about the insults and death threats to the author.
The only time he even approached responding to Blitzer's very direct question he said, "I don’t have a message to the fans. A woman wrote an article that was inaccurate. Now I’m used to it. I get such bad articles. I get such ... the press is so dishonest, Wolf, I can’t even tell you ... so dishonest. There’s nothing more dishonest than the media." He's using the media to tell the media nothing is more dishonest than they are.
Well, yes, I guess those are words anyone could understand, but what did they say? They are all lies. And I say that being no big fan of CNN or Wolf Blitzer. I especially object to the sentence where Trump said he had "nothing to say to fans." The pretense that he didn't know this had even happened said everything to his fans. It said, "Keep it up, folks," in his best dog whistle.
Oh, please. Where is the criticism of Bernie and Hillary when they send their goons to Trumps rallies to agitate? The F-U's being chanted by folks wearing Bernie shirts and I'm with Hillary buttons to Trump supporters peacefully going to and from Trump rallies? Maybe if the constant barrage of negative comments and articles would stop, Trump supporters would not feel they need to defend him to such an extent.
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You haven't been paying attention
