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The more educated someone is, the more likely they are to have a coherent political ideology, and thus, the more confident that person is in his or her own opinion.
However, by actually having stronger ideological views and confidence in their own opinions, educated people-whether they be liberal, conservative, socialist, libertarian, or whatever ideology-are also more prone to ideological bias, which distorts their ability to receive new information that contradicts their own view. That can be dangerous.
This is a ridiculously simple way of seeing things. You don't need a big government to help people, you just need a government that prioritizes helping people over things like waging war or policing the streets or putting people in prison or giving money to oil companies.
More of your tax dollars go to helping the rich than helping the poor... liberals want to reverse this. The further left you go, the more you will see people being put ahead of profit, and the further right you go, the more you will see profit being put ahead of people.
1) I want my government to wage war against our enemies. Especially the irrational religious ones who declare that we are to be killed as a basic tenet of their religion. War is necessary and good at times. It's black and white. Not gray.
2) I want my government policing the streets to prevent criminals from infringing on my right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Policing the streets is good. Bad people need to be imprisoned and removed and taken out of the way of the good people. It's black and white. Not gray.
3) I want my government putting criminals in prison. Criminals belong in prison. Forever. I am happy to pay for a large prison system. If 97.3% of the population behaves in a criminal fashion, then 97.3% of the population needs to be locked up. It's black and white. Not gray.
4) Government does not give money to oil companies. Government robs oil companies of their rightfully earned profits and imposes all manner of illegitimate controls and fees and regulations on oil companies. Oil companies are doing us a big favor by staying in business at all. Oil company profits should not be taxed, and their products should not be taxed. Which would probably yield gasoline that we would be paying 25 cents a gallon for if we actually embraced a capitalist economy. It's black and white. Not gray.
5) Helping people is not for you to decide on or legislate or demand. You can decide to do that personally by volunteering or donating stuff that belongs to you. You can enlist others voluntarily to help whoever you please. Once you pick up your collectivist gun and start pointing it at people, you have renounced Reason and Morality and are basically just ISIS under a different name. In this case, it's just black. Not white or gray.
This is a ridiculously simple way of seeing things. You don't need a big government to help people, you just need a government that prioritizes helping people over things like waging war or policing the streets or putting people in prison or giving money to oil companies.
More of your tax dollars go to helping the rich than helping the poor... liberals want to reverse this. The further left you go, the more you will see people being put ahead of profit, and the further right you go, the more you will see profit being put ahead of people.
Exactly.
I would MUCH rather my tax dollars (and higher taxes, if necessary) go to:
* help the unemployed and working poor
* education, so that tuition rates would be lower and more people could actually afford education beyond high school; and
* single-payer, universal healthcare, so that NO more Americans go bankrupt due to medical bills (#1 reason for bankruptcy in America)
* invest heavily in infrastructure to bring America into the 21st century, so that we will be on an even-playing field with most other wealthy, western nations (heck, even with China, for pete's sake)
...LONG before I want my tax dollars going to finance ONE MORE manufactured war.
Funny how I rarely EVER hear conservatives complain about the TRILLIONS of dollars that have gone into the wars in the Middle East. They always complain about BIG government (which it need not be, as Odo says), but they don't have a problem with a HUGE military industrial complex, which President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned us about (now THERE'S a Republican I would vote for).
The older I get, the more I realize that the often less educated, have more wisdom in SOME areas than some of the Ph.D.'s I know! I think there is certain areas/types of intelligence that has yet to quantified.
I also wonder if sometimes we let our intelligence talk us out of, or take the place of our intuition, our inner knowing. Perhaps the more educated a person is, the less they use their intuition or inner knowing and thus do not feel the God connection.
Very well stated.
Intelligent people are also more likely to use drugs. Goes back to the "novelty" thing. So, from a purely evolutionary standpoint, being smart in an IQ sense is not always a good thing.
This has been proven in multiple psycological studies. The "smartest" genetic intellgience by demographic is male liberal atheists. Yes, it is evolutionary (has to do with rational thinking).
Conservative brains are hardwired to react easily to fear. Fear clouds the ability to rationalize thoughts.
The smartest humans tend to be male liberal atheists? As in progressives?
Liberals are rebels who ''feel'' they need to forge ahead progressively and improve mankind's lot. In doing so they tear down any semblance of society and there we go. So much for intelligence. We'll have to start all over but those with big intelligent brains can't do the manual labor of idiots who didn't spend their lives becoming ''intelligent''. Nah, stupid conservatives with minds clouded by fear will pull us through. It is they who grow our food, drill our oil, build our abodes and do other labor intellectuals have risen above. Guess what? You include most people of color in your definition of party affiliation versus itelligence.
Why not create a post stating most people of color are lacking of intelligence due to the fact they are theists. Yep, Hispanics and blacks are majority Christian.
I dare ya...
Gee, I wonder why higher education didn't rot my brain. I guess electronics are more or less sterile.
As for religion...do you think any politician is going to admit being an atheist? It is sure political suicide.
This is a ridiculously simple way of seeing things. You don't need a big government to help people, you just need a government that prioritizes helping people over things like waging war or policing the streets or putting people in prison or giving money to oil companies.
More of your tax dollars go to helping the rich than helping the poor... liberals want to reverse this. The further left you go, the more you will see people being put ahead of profit, and the further right you go, the more you will see profit being put ahead of people.
Well, the only thing ridiculous to me is your apparent lack of awareness. Your post also entirely undermines your original post. I mean, these would make great placards in a March On Washington for whatever the Cause Du Jour is, but they are just totally detached from the facts.
Let's look at the top 5 ways the Federal Government will spend its money (Sorry, I meant to say 'our money.' In a liberal universe, it's 'the government's money') in FY 2015, as a percentage of total budget:
Pensions -- 25%
Health Care -- 27%
Defense -- 22%
Welfare -- 10%
Interest -- 6%
In other words, 60% of the Federal budget gets spent on entitlements, social programs, and health care, which pretty much destroys your statement that war gets priority over people. And given the dangers in the world today, 22% for defense seems to represent a very reasonable expenditure.
As far as policing the streets is concerned, that is a state and local matter in both operations and funding, not a Federal matter. You do know that, don't you? But in the larger scheme of things, you really can't have functioning society with criminals running amok on the street.
Now, let's take the highlighted phrase as the Fallacy Numero Uno of those mindlessly parroting the left. In 1964, the poverty rate was 17%. Now, the poverty rate is somewhere around 14-15%. So we have made enormous expenditures to barely make a dent in the poverty rate over the course of a half century. Meanwhile, the tax burden of the average American has mushroomed. So are you really putting people over profits, or are you putting the needs of the bureaucracy over the individual and business to enjoy prosperity. Big difference between the two. Smoke on that for awhile.
I would argue that when you increase the tax burden of the average American to fund programs that are not working as advertised, that's just indefensible. It is certainly not a sign of higher intelligence or better morality if you ask me.
Intelligent people are also more likely to use drugs. Goes back to the "novelty" thing. So, from a purely evolutionary standpoint, being smart in an IQ sense is not always a good thing.
1) I want my government to wage war against our enemies. Especially the irrational religious ones who declare that we are to be killed as a basic tenet of their religion. War is necessary and good at times. It's black and white. Not gray.
So, in which war have YOU served your country, MP? In the ones that were necessary and good?
In which war have YOU been on the front lines fighting? In the ones that were necessary and good?
Are YOU going to go down to the recruiting center and sign up, if you believe that more war is necessary and good?
You're right; it IS black and white. So please don't give gray answers.
And don't tell me you're now too old to be on the front lines. You could very easily become a member of a crew that cleans up body parts (they're necessary and good AND in pretty high demand).
If ANYONE believes that more war is necessary and good, then he/she should feel obligated to serve their country and get out on the front lines and fight!! End. of. story.
Last edited by newdixiegirl; 10-12-2014 at 12:56 PM..
I would MUCH rather my tax dollars (and higher taxes, if necessary) go to:
* help the unemployed and working poor
* education, so that tuition rates would be lower and more people could actually afford education beyond high school; and
* single-payer, universal healthcare, so that NO more Americans go bankrupt due to medical bills (#1 reason for bankruptcy in America)
* invest heavily in infrastructure to bring America into the 21st century, so that we will be on an even-playing field with most other wealthy, western nations (heck, even with China, for pete's sake)
...LONG before I want my tax dollars going to finance ONE MORE manufactured war.
Funny how I rarely EVER hear conservatives complain about the TRILLIONS of dollars that have gone into the wars in the Middle East. They always complain about BIG government (which it need not be, as Odo says), but they don't have a problem with a HUGE military industrial complex, which President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned us about (now THERE'S a Republican I would vote for).
As stated before, the large majority of the Federal budget goes to social programs, healthcare and pensions.
As far as education is concerned, the United States spends a far higher percentage of its GDP on education on any other industrialized country: U.S. education spending tops global list, study shows - CBS News. The problem isn't a funding issue. It's a allocation issue, chiefly because the United States operates its schools on the political spoils system.
As far as single-payer healthcare is concerned, it's interesting to me how many countries, particularly in places such as Scandinavia are moving away from such a system even as people such as you are espousing it. And just spend time talking to anyone from Canada or Great Britain about the misery of going through their national health systems. My brother-in-law's mother was a perfect case in point. She died from a respiratory illness that was imminently treatable here in the United States because the British health system lacked the means to care for her. So it's a great system until you're actually sick.
As far as China is concerned, you might want to look beyond the press releases of gleaming high-speed railways. A recent report of the IMF found that there is absolutely no way that China's railway system will ever be able to pay for itself, and huge problems are being found on their tracks due to shoddy construction. In fact, China's infrastructure construction is a pretty good metaphor for the entire country, with serious malinvestment beginning to make itself felt in the overall economic life of the country.
Mind you, the War In Iraq was baloney, something I pointed out at the time. But we can't look backwards now. We have to look at the situation today. Are you really going to sit idly by and allow ISIS to overrun Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon? Are you really prepared for a bunch of thugs to drag that region even further back into the medieval period, lopping off heads and enslaving women? A willingness to do so is not a sign of higher intelligence, but rather one of moral vacuity on your part.
You inadvertently made my point for me. Because you keep reciting the same tired shibboleths of the left, never stopping to think if any of them have any grounding in reality. In that sense, you are just as bad as the knuckle-dragging Fox News watchers. You simply get your propaganda from a different source.
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