The Vision of the Anointed
Upon R.S. McCain's advice to readers, I just purchased the PC Kindle version of Thomas Sowell's "The Vision of the Anointed." It looks to be a fascinating book, a peak into the assumptions and premises of liberal thought.
Sowell explains how liberals see themselves -- as morally superior and more intelligent than anyone else. This is why they have such disdain for conservatives, assuming as they do, that their thought patterns and beliefs are the evolutionary apex of thought, analysis and understanding of the world around them. Working under the assumption that they are just so damned smart, informed and knowledgeable, liberals automatically assume that those with different opinions are neanderthals, rednecks, pickup-driving oafs in tank tops and baseball hats.
I am looking forward to reading this book.
New iPhone 5
Yep, I got one. This week I retired my four year old iPhone 3 for the iPhone 5. I am not one of those cell phone aficionados who must have all the latest tweaks, gadgets and features. However, it was time for a newer phone. Haven't checked out all the features, but I do like the built-in digital camera (8 megapixels -- that's about as good as my actual digital camera). Also like the apps available -- I use Loseit.com as well as a bank gadget for making deposits by iPhone, and recently added a couple of apps for Spanish language study -- dictionaries and a verb conjugator.
Friday, September 28, 2012
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26 comments:
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Really?
"Working under the assumption that they are just so damned smart,
informed and knowledgeable, liberals automatically assume that those
with different opinions are neanderthals, rednecks, pickup-driving oafs
in tank tops and baseball hats."
Your 'victim-hood' inferiority complex is working overtime. There's an app for that.
You do know that when you breakdown the word, assume, it make and 'ass' out of 'u' and 'me'.
Ema Nymton
~@:o?
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I've neither heard of the book nor its author, so is asking you to have actually read it before reviewing it too much to ask? I mean, really. You might find that that you actually agree with some parts of it. I don't know. You don't, either.
"Sowell explains how liberals see themselves..."
Sowell creates a strawman. Funny how conservatives always have to explain to each other how liberals think, because QUOTING one would be too much like...research. When you START the essay with a logical fallacy, is there any reason to read the rest?
Disclaimer: I am a US Army veteran (E-5, Honorable). Your patriotism may vary.
Is that Spanish app you mentioned as good as the Cuthbert Verb Wheel?
The brain doesn't have a rigid
structure. It's a fact that the brain is "plasticy", it actually
changes shapes depending on activity, which is the thing that has made human
being uniquely adaptable to a wide variety of environments.
Studies of MRI scans of brains
correlated findings with questions and answers of subjects based on their
political opinions. It was an article in the Mail: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1342239/Brain-study-reveals-right-wing-conservatives-larger-primitive-amygdala.html
The amygdala is a primitive part of
the brain that is concerned with emotional processing and is the area
responsible for classic Pavolian responses to specific stimuli and is more
developed in "very conservative minds".
The anterior cinglate cortex is an
area concerned with reasoning and decision making, basically the rational part
of the human mind and is more developed in "liberal minds".
Because the brain is "plasticy"
the more you do certain task & it seems the more you think in certain ways,
the area of the brain associated with that activity developed more connections
& becomes "enlarged".
It just confirmed my thoughts that
right wing people are far more easily influenced (and manipulated) by emotive
stimuli; point to something to for them to hate or fear and they respond like
Pavlov's dogs with little rational thought behind the responses because their
amygdala is dominant.
It's probably the reason Hitler,
Mussolini, Franco, Pinochet, Batista, just about every politician currently active in Eastern
Europe, the Republicans and Tea Party in the USA et al could and can mobilise
so many right wingers for support - feed their fear - the actual threat doesn't really have
to much at all, just keep repeating the same thing and
they believe it because their rational functioning is overridden by Pavlovian emotive
responses. I suppose it would be a very strong factor in conservatively religious
minds as, no rational required for unquestioning faith at all.... just belief.
JD, based on my observations over many years, I have drawn the opposite conclusion. Conservative minds are more reality-based and less influenced by emotive stimuli. Further, I see the liberal mind as being more prone to wishful thinking or even "magical thinking," by which the fabric of reality can be changed merely based on the consensus of the group. Further, liberal minds arrive at sweeping conclusions based on no empirical evidence or research whatsoever, and Sowell gives several examples of this, from crime and punishment, sex education and other subjects. Liberals then viciously attack those who disagree, treating their disagreement as not just wrong, but evil. The pseudo-facts that you cite above are a good example of liberal wishful thinking, and is based on nothing but your biases. From time to time, we have seen such self-serving psychiatric conclusions published, only to later be shown as a joke or based on no scientific evidence whatsoever.
AOW, I have never seen the Cuthbert Verb Wheel, but you can view the online website for this app at http://www.spanishdict.com/.
Go to the conjugation section and try it out.
Sowell creates no straw men. He also quotes liberals at length, as well as texts liberals have adopted in support of their magical thinking. For example, he quotes both Kennedy and Johnson's assumptions for the "War on Poverty" (which increased poverty) and the Economic Opportuity Act of 1964. He explains how increased sex education, pushed by the federal government, was supposed to curtail teenage pregnancies and STD's, but actually dramatically increased what it was attempting to cure. For reform of the criminal justice system, Sowell quotes Chief Justice David L. Bazelon as well as Earl Warren and Ramsey Clark, liberals who believed that the way to reduce crime and recidivism was to decrease the length of prison terms and to offer psychiatric treatment, counseling and increased opportunities for felons. Clark's book on the subject, "Crime In America" was widely praised among the opinion elites, like the NY Times and the New Republic. The liberal's new way of solving crime then resulted in dramatic increases in crime in the years that followed. Again, we see the "magical thinking" of liberalism, in which major conclusions on critical subjects are founded on no research or empirical evidence whatsoever, but merely on wishful thinking.
Maybe you should read my post before you comment. The book is by a conservative thinker, a member of the Hoover Institution think tank at Stanford University. I expect to agree with 95% to 100% of it. And yes, I do know.
Ema, I do believe my observations of liberal elitism and snobbery are well documented. Read "Slander" by Ann Coulter or "Unhinged" by Michelle Malkin if you want numerous examples. I can't tell you how many times a liberal in some discussion group assumes I am ignorant of the subject matter, like Islam, though I have read 18 scholarly books on the subject and they have read none. No, I do not see myself as a victim, just an observer of the human comedy.
I mentioned it because it was based on a scientific study & related to scientific findings - not just my opinion - whereas yours is just you opinion. I cite eveidence, you don't because you have unquestioning faith & no matter what evidence is presented you wont change your mind. Irrational & dogamtic. If eveidence was presented to me that suggested otherwise, I think again.
feeding fear a liberal trait? to be fair it's become far more a characteristic of both but you're just place wrong - the examples of right wing leaders I gave have always presented scenarios of your "way of life is threatened by some extental or internal threat but follow me & you will be safe", if you can't see how that has been deployed in US politics by the right I really don't know where you've been looking.
Yes, somehow I though you'd be a global warming denier. So you "feelings" about it are based on what? You've done an indepth scientific evaluation of the data & evidence? No? They you belivev thousands of scientists are in the biggest conspiracy the world has ever know to manipulate & fabricate data... to what end? Well it's a dam good job that at precisely the same time climate scientists predicted increasing bouts of extreme weather would be a consequnce of more heat reatined in the atmosphere, we get extreme weather events that could normally be expected once a century happening frequently over the past couple of years... their conspiracy would have looked rubbish otherwise, so it was really lucky that it's happening...
Come on, the idea they're making it up to what, tax up more? is just absurd... oh I'm forgetting, you're a right winger, you don't bothere to consider the evidence... you have faith. The right wing are scaring you about measures to tackle climate change by saying it's just a trick to tax you.
& yet you have no question that the huge sums of money involved in the oil industry & the vested interests they have in throwing any smear they can to delay meaningful action. It's interesting to see how their tactics have changed over a few years as the evidence continnues to mount - from "it's not happening" to "ok it's happening but it's nothing to do with human activity". I hope you live long enough to see the consequences.
JD, you assume you are so logical and scientific and fact-based, when you are merely a liberal tool and amenable to liberal talking points and propaganda. Yes, I deny that manmade global warming exists, and there is NO scientific evidence for your position -- just a bunch of "scientists" with computer models whose accuracy is based on the assumptions fed into them, and which are incapable of predicting past weather patterns which are know, let along future weather patterns which are unknown. You have deluded yourself by selectively believing "facts" which support your preconceived notions and biases and by ignoring those that do not. You are, in short, what you accuse me of being: a rigid, close-minded ideologue.
As far as the "scientific study" of conservative minds vs liberal minds, you haven't even cited the name of the study or the researchers who allegedly performed it or published it.
By the way, your belief that psychiatry supports the superiority of the liberal mind is not shared by a key researcher in the field. Ryota Kanai of the University College of London. He says:“It’s very unlikely that actual political orientation is directly encoded in these brain regions,” he said. “More work is needed to determine how these brain structures mediate the formation of political attitude.”
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" I feel intellectually quite superior to liberals in general and you in particular. Just being honest."
Yes. And being honest for me, it is near-mathematically perfect joy of watching smug and
contemptible creatures of the right dodge and swerve and make excuses
and, most of all, whine. There is no joy in the kingdom of man so great
as the joy of seeing bullies and hucksters laid low, and watching people
who have arrogantly spent years assuming they were right about the
world living to see all those haughty assumptions die before their eyes.
It’s not lies with which Limbaugh and
Morris and their ilk are now coming face-to-face. It’s the truth.
Americans like Barack Obama. They (and you) don’t like Mitt Romney. They (and you) really
don’t like Paul Ryan. And they don’t want any part of the ideology of
callousness and make-believe facts and pigheaded warmongering—and
economic crisis and big deficits and all of that—that the RepublicanTs
are peddling. Of course you will never come to terms with all
that. But right now, boys, you’re running out of targets, and excuses.
Just being honest.
Ema Nymton
~@:o?
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You aren't just being honest, Ema, but delusional, as is normal for you. I have always liked Paul Ryan. I would have preferred a more conservative candidate than Mitt Romney, but he is way better than Barack Obama. Limbaugh and Morris do not lie and all you are doing is calling people names because your politics are more of a bad attitude than a position based on facts. Yes, I do oppose war-mongering, and I opposed Barack Obama's idiotic incursion into Libya and accurately predicted the results. So you don't believe there is an economic crisis? You really are delusional and probably need supervision lest you hurt yourself.
wasn't really saying political opinion was encided in regions of the brain, the research suggest that if you think (or do) things in a particular way it increases neuron activity in the associated area of the brain, effectively making thaht area larger. It doesn't have to be a conscious thing - if somebody is constatly bombarded with the same messages it is in effect brain washing or indoctrination.
It also wasn't making any claim as to which was "superior" as you put it, you're the one who seems obseesed with superiority & therefore by clear inferrence inferiority, which is generally a common facet of right wing philosphies. The point was that it inclines people to deal with issues differently, the cortex is associated with rational reasoning, the amydala with emotive responses.
Your statements of "your experince" trumping everything just rings of self-centred superiority.
What do you understand by the terms "liberal" & "conservative" exactly?
I don't really assume I am loical and scientific but I will change my opinions based on credible scientific research. I am not aware of any climate scientist working who denies global warming is happening, the few arguments are about what's causing it to happen more quickly than it has ever done in the past & what the consequences will be. All the smear comes from big money vested interets of the fossil fuel industries (the leaders of which who I assume, along with many others, think they'll be dead before the crap really hits the fan)
A fanatical green agenda? Really? Compared to the fantatical Big Oil agenda backed by $trillions of PR? Why don't climate scientists just take the money from Oil & shut up? It would be a lot easier for them to earn their money that way.
Point is if we believe what climate scientists are saying & do something about it but they turn out to be WRONG, we end up with relatively expensive ways of produsing energy (expensive until fossil fuels inevitable run out anyway) & no change to the climate. If we believe deniers & do nothing & they turn out ro be WRONG, the consequences will, likely as not, be catestrophic. That's an insane & reckless risk for us to take on behalf of future generations, just based on our own greed.
You might want to look at the latest scientific evidence of the sun's recent activity, it is unusually inactive, as inactive as the period which produced the 18th century mini ice age... which begs the question as to why it hasn't got a lot colder.
"As far as the "scientific study" of conservative minds vs liberal minds, you haven't even cited the name of the study or the researchers who allegedly performed it or published it". I gave the link which was cut for some reason - look it up, I saw articles in the Daily Mail & the Independent & New Scientist.
why do you have such an obsessive need to define yourself as
superior (& by relation define others inferior) by one means or another?
Usually is just plain wealth, sometimes "breeding", now you have this
need to show that "conservatives" are a superior life form to "liberals".
It doesn't seem to me to be so much a political thing as cultural. America is the "greatest" country on earth isn't it?
How many other cultural examples can you name where nations have an obsession with categorising themselves as superior to others...
& from which end of the political spectrum do they usually hail from?
Ah JD, you are trying to fit me into one of your liberal stereotypes of what you believe conservatives to be. I have no need to define myself as superior, my comment was a direct response to Ema's contention that I have an inferiority complex. It should be understood in that context.
JD, let me just say that your belief that a "scientific study" shows liberal minds to be superior is totally bunk. My contention that the liberal mind is delusional is based on concrete, observable facts. You can list what liberals have believed in the past, why it was wrong and how it did more damage than good. That's what Thomas Sowell's book is all about. I do not believe in man-made global warming. There is much evidence that the earth is in a cooling phase, and yes, no doubt sun activity is a large factor in that, just as it is sun activity and water vapor in the atmosphere that are most responsible for warming periods. Carbon dioxide plays a very minor role. Liberalism is so corrupt it has now politicized science itself. I can believe a bunch of leftwing theorists, or I can believe my lying eyes, and I choose to believe what I observe for myself. I have read three books on global warming, and they make a convincing case that the climate alarmists are full of the hot air they attribute to CO2. Try reading something from outside your liberal bubble of opinions and beliefs, and maybe you will learn something.
your "giant brain", you "intellectual superiority" there you go, you define yourself as superior. Nothing I have said says "liberal" (whatever you mean by thta) is superior or inferior - thaht all comes from you ... & you avoid answering the question because you know where the evidence points.
it didn't say they were "superior" - you're obessed with the notion - read it again & try to turn off your auto-emotive responses - it was specifically talking about rational & reasoning as opposed to emotive.
so it's not just all the climate scientists who are part of this global warming conspiracy, all governments are in on it as well? Really, you need to step back & think how utterly absurd that notion actually is. - it's the plot from a B-movie.
& what freedoms would you give up? according to you living under a "liberal" President is living under a tyranny anyway. The USA already locks up more of it's citizens per head than any other country on earth, has that anything to do with freedom (& you never answered my post about the levels of poverty & its association with crime either - definition of poverty in the US is a family of 4 living on or less than $23,000 per year - there are over 46,000,000 Americans living at or below the poverty level)?
expanding use of fossil fuels? You do realise they are finite? Has anybody told you they will run out eventually... it's estimated half of recoverable reserves of oil have been used in 150yrs & with China & India on board wanting to be 2 car families the remaining half will be used far more quickly... but the cost of it will spiral, which will effect the cost... of everything. Yet you see no logic in developing sustainable alternatives for future generations... maybe because you've been told not to or you're just too greedy?
You are being obtuse. My comment about my "giant brain" was ironic, because I only have a normal brain. You say that conservative thinking is emotive whereas liberal thinking is logical and rational, and I do indeed think logical and rational thought is superior to emotional when making political policies. I ignore your many questions which are off topic, posed only for "baiting" me or wear me out by providing expansive essays to answer complex but impertinent questions.
It is clear that liberals are elitists who believe themselves to be intellectually and morally superior to the hoi polloi, "bitterly clinging to their guns and religion," as one elitist recently put it. It's the whole point of Sowell's book. Read it yourself.
I do know where the evidence points. Read Sowell's book. Read "Unhinged" by Michelle Malkin or "Slander" by Ann Coulter and you will see many examples of liberal emotional thinking. In fact, liberals are not only emotional but often very hateful as well. Another website that chronicles the continuing temper tantrum of the left is Twitchy.com. In short, you lose the argument.
JD, you cite a "scientific study" that you are unable to name or link to, and I am supposed to believe what you say it concludes? The only scientific study that even touches on the topic of brain function vs political philosophy has been cited above, where its chief investigator says, and I REPEAT:
Ryota Kanai of the University College of London. He says:“It’s very unlikely that actual political orientation is directly encoded in these brain regions,” he said. “More work is needed to determine how these brain structures mediate the formation of political attitude.”
That quote invalidates your entire argument, so don't waste any more of my time with your shallow insults. As a matter of act, my science training was in Chemistry and Biology, and I spent six years full time in a chemical laboratory as a technician. What's yours? Oh yeah, you don't have any.
Your comments are way too long, introduce many new subjects that are entirely off topic, and seem designed to wear me out or provoke me into making intemperate comments. You've been here before, I suspect, under different pseudonyms, like "Sven." I am wise to you.
As far as your mention of the poor in America, they will be best helped by a vigorous economy, one that is fueled by cheap energy, both fossil and nuclear. "Green" energy supplies only about 10% of our needs, is expensive and unreliable, and won't be practical for widespread use for at least a century, if ever. Meanwhile, people in the here and now need jobs and incomes, and they won't get them from liberal theorists like you. We have enormous fossil fuel reserves, enough to last us for 300 years, and then we also have the possibility of nuclear. I have already refuted your APG hoax, so won't repeat myself. Thanks for commenting.
i *lose* the argument? It reveals your obsession with "beating" people - proving yourself superior & therby other people inferior. Right wing bully mentality, eh?
Note to readers: The troll who calls himself JDSixsmith has been banned from this site. I have seen this kind of cyberbully before and I won't entertain such behavior on my blog: writing huge essays instead of brief comments, straying off topic frequently, attempting to overwhelm the discussion with myriad subjects impertinent to the post, all the while attempting to manufacture false and insulting memes about who and what I am and what conservatives are. Go troll someplace else, JD.
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