Conservatism as an ideology is dumb by definition

[agent00f]

The premise behind conservatism is dumb by definition. It's literally defined by stubbornly sticking to tradition no matter new emergent info. OTOH intelligence is dictated by learning ability: ie. progressing from mistakes made, in history or otherwise.

It's left as exercise to the reader to combine the logic of these two statement, and predictably the liberals will figure it out while the conservatives' performance match that of their opinion on education, ie learning new things.

Keep in mind there's no value judgement here as to the worth of intellect vs stupidity, just a definitional description of how things are in the world.

 

[disappoint]

The premise behind conservatism is dumb by definition. It's literally defined by stubbornly sticking to tradition no matter new emergent info. OTOH intelligence is dictated by learning ability: ie. progressing from mistakes made, in history or otherwise.

It's left as exercise to the reader to combine the logic of these two statement, and predictably the liberals will figure it out while the conservatives' performance match that of their opinion on education, ie learning new things.

Keep in mind there's no value judgement here as to the worth of intellect vs stupidity, just a definitional description of how things are in the world.

Trying to use shortcuts in your decision making process?

 

[agent00f]

Trying to use shortcuts in your decision making process?

Just stating the obvious, such as why your sorts will do whatever it takes to distract from the obvious.

 

[AnonymouseUser]

Well that explains your love of all things islam, now doesn't it? While the world moves forward, including Christian conservatives, moslems stay put, or move backwards.

 

[Victorian Gray]

Well that explains your love of all things islam, now doesn't it? While the world moves forward, including Christian conservatives, moslems stay put, or move backwards.

Black shirt today or brown shirt? Decisions, decisions, decisions.

 

[Jaskalas]

Well that explains your love of all things islam, now doesn't it? While the world moves forward, including Christian conservatives, moslems stay put, or move backwards.

They just want to go back... to the future!

 

[AnonymouseUser]

Black shirt today or brown shirt? Decisions, decisions, decisions.

MAGA shirt.

 

[Orignal Earl]

MAGA shirt.

lol

You'd be too chickenshit wear either in public

 

[Orignal Earl]

dp

 

[Victorian Gray]

MAGA shirt.

Got some nice suspenders to go with it? I hear that the boys seem to like red.

 

[AnonymouseUser]

Got some nice suspenders to go with it? I hear that the boys seem to like red.

Whether I do or not, as an atheist I have the choice of what to wear, unlike moslem women.

 

[1prophet]

Yet the elite intelligent so called liberals still lost to this, along with both houses of congress,

instead of asking themselves how did this happen most are still in denial looking to blame and point fingers instead of realizing that just like the republicans tripping over their so called family values the democrats have been tripped up with their secret love affair with corporate America while pretending to care about the average person.

 

[alcoholbob]

If you want an actual philosophical discussion on this topic, post this in off-topic. Anything outside of the news cycle on P&N is going to be back and forth trolling by obscurantists, dishonest actors, and partisan hacks.

 

[John Connor]

OTOH intelligence is dictated by learning ability: ie. progressing from mistakes made, in history or otherwise.

There's your problem. The libtards don't learn and they progress into a black hole as evident from where we are at now. These are not Democrats of the 1960's and JFK. They have morphed into a whinny sniveling party of debt, high taxes and nanny state bullshit to no end. The Democratic party is now a Quasi-Socialist party.

With Conservatives it's all about common sense. I can't say that about Republicans however. But conservatives are about traditional common sense solutions. Hench why over 1,000 seats were replaced in Congress during Obozo's term.

This is high school civics 101.

 

[Meghan54]

But conservatives are about traditional common sense solutions. Hench why over 1,000 seats were replaced in Congress during Obozo's term.

This is high school civics 101.

WTF are you on about? 1,000 seats replaced in Congress? Did all the Senators and Representatives get new chairs in their respective chambers? I only ask because to replace 1,000 members of congress during Obama's term would require replacing damned near every senator and rep. in both houses, twice. (Congress consists of 100 Senators, 435 Representatives, btw.)

 

[agent00f]

If you want an actual philosophical discussion on this topic, post this in off-topic. Anything outside of the news cycle on P&N is going to be back and forth trolling by obscurantists, dishonest actors, and partisan hacks.

I think the posts here make for pretty solid evidence of the OP. Conservatives can't for the life of them form a coherent argument, or add numbers correctly for that matter, yet for the the reasons noted insist they possess some level of intelligence.

They do however succeed with taking mouthy dumps in anything worthwhile, which is evidently their main strategy for dealing with anything in life.

 

[Gryz]

Conservatism is easily explain:

"I am am richer than average. I am richer than you. If things change, it is likely I might get slightly poorer. Or my kids might get slightly poorer. So therefor, I do not want ANYTHING to change. FYGM".

 

[John Connor]

Liberalism: Like a bucket of crabs. When one tries to escape the other pulls him back in.

 

[mikeymikec]

The premise behind conservatism is dumb by definition. It's literally defined by stubbornly sticking to tradition no matter new emergent info. OTOH intelligence is dictated by learning ability: ie. progressing from mistakes made, in history or otherwise.

It's left as exercise to the reader to combine the logic of these two statement, and predictably the liberals will figure it out while the conservatives' performance match that of their opinion on education, ie learning new things.

Keep in mind there's no value judgement here as to the worth of intellect vs stupidity, just a definitional description of how things are in the world.

Push any political concept to its purist form and it would be stupid to implement.

Your points regarding conservatism illustrate my point, but a conservative viewpoint could have been used at various points in history to a valid and positive outcome: Take any regressive step in history, and a conservative popping out of the woodwork to say "this change is bad", is a good thing.

Liberalism in its purest form wouldn't work either; we have laws for a reason, and equality isn't always the most appropriate solution, as is clearly described in this image:

Same goes with socalism: If everything was owned by all its workers, where would the kind of direction come from that results from great leadership? Ok, that doesn't compute in the strictest sense, but a society that prizes socialism greatly would probably not look overly fondly on entrepreneurs.

While I would probably agree that conservatism is a less valid viewpoint than other political isms, however I think that as a concept, humanity could have benefited from it at various points in history. Unfortunately a lot of the time when conservatives have stepped in, they've pursued their own personal interests rather than those of society and its environment as a whole.

 

[compuwiz1]

Push any political concept to its purist form and it would be stupid to implement.

Your points regarding conservatism illustrate my point, but a conservative viewpoint could have been used at various points in history to a valid and positive outcome: Take any regressive step in history, and a conservative popping out of the woodwork to say "this change is bad", is a good thing.

Liberalism in its purest form wouldn't work either; we have laws for a reason, and equality isn't always the most appropriate solution, as is clearly described in this image:

Same goes with socalism: If everything was owned by all its workers, where would the kind of direction come from that results from great leadership? Ok, that doesn't compute in the strictest sense, but a society that prizes socialism greatly would probably not look overly fondly on entrepreneurs.

While I would probably agree that conservatism is a less valid viewpoint than other political isms, however I think that as a concept, humanity could have benefited from it at various points in history. Unfortunately a lot of the time when conservatives have stepped in, they've pursued their own personal interests rather than those of society and its environment as a whole.

Hey, Mikey, Conservative and Liberal are interchangeable, in your example. Ideologues will always work toward their own personal interests. Can't throw that on one without seeing in the other.

 

[agent00f]

Push any political concept to its purist form and it would be stupid to implement.

Your points regarding conservatism illustrate my point, but a conservative viewpoint could have been used at various points in history to a valid and positive outcome: Take any regressive step in history, and a conservative popping out of the woodwork to say "this change is bad", is a good thing.

Liberalism in its purest form wouldn't work either; we have laws for a reason, and equality isn't always the most appropriate solution, as is clearly described in this image:

Same goes with socalism: If everything was owned by all its workers, where would the kind of direction come from that results from great leadership? Ok, that doesn't compute in the strictest sense, but a society that prizes socialism greatly would probably not look overly fondly on entrepreneurs.

While I would probably agree that conservatism is a less valid viewpoint than other political isms, however I think that as a concept, humanity could have benefited from it at various points in history. Unfortunately a lot of the time when conservatives have stepped in, they've pursued their own personal interests rather than those of society and its environment as a whole.

Take note that the OP explicitly states it makes no value judgement as to the worth of intelligence vs stupidity. It could very well be that the best laid plans don't work out, as anyone who's attempted change of any sophistication can attest to. However, key to this argument is the reality that people with no ideas just aren't part of any meaningful conversation, as anyone who's ever attempted dialog with an idiot can also attest to. There's simply nothing to be had from either argument or explanation to the willfully dumb least one becomes a co-moron of their own.

For example, between the two of us we can discuss the tradeoff of various forms of equality vs justice or whatever, or even talk about the nature of conservatism itself, in a way that's different in kind than possible with any of the conservative archetypes above. Any disagreements would be based on reason with basis in facts and understanding of the topic at hand, and largely resolvable through further inquiry such as empirical observation, all virtues of the enlightenment that conservatives by definition know are not meant for them.

That's basically the point here, which you will no doubt understand, and pretty much none of the conservatives will as is the way of the world.

 

[Dr. Zaus]

Tradition carries with it a lot of wisdom. Science is a foundation worthy of taking it down, love for those suffering direct harm is another

But as a progressive social scientist, I implore you not to trade common sense for whatever comes out of the sociological/psychological/anthropological dogmas.

It's really quite disgusting how bad our social "science" is.

 

[amenx]

Are racists dumb? Do conservatives tend to be less intelligent than liberals? A provocative new study from Brock University in Ontario suggests the answer to both questions may be a qualified yes.

The study, published in Psychological Science, showed that people who score low on I.Q. tests in childhood are more likely to develop prejudiced beliefs and socially conservative politics in adulthood.

I.Q., or intelligence quotient, is a score determined by standardized tests, but whether the tests truly reveal intelligence remains a topic of hot debate among psychologists.

Dr. Gordon Hodson, a professor of psychology at the university and the study’s lead author, said the finding represented evidence of a vicious cycle: People of low intelligence gravitate toward socially conservative ideologies, which stress resistance to change and, in turn, prejudice, he told LiveScience.

Why might less intelligent people be drawn to conservative ideologies? Because such ideologies feature “structure and order” that make it easier to comprehend a complicated world, Dodson said. “Unfortunately, many of these features can also contribute to prejudice,” he added...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/27/intelligence-study-links-prejudice_n_1237796.html

I've always suspected this. You can see it in the quality of the comments in any political, social discussions almost anywhere on the web. More so right-wingers than average conservatives, their discussions tend to be one dimensional, lacking nuance and often oblivious to important aspects in many of the arguments discussed. You can feel their sense of frustration as they try to come up with something meaningful but can only blurt out simple generalities they can relate to or failing that just blurt out "libtard" in the vain hope it'll score some vague point or other.

 

[Dr. Zaus]

I've always suspected this. You can see it in the quality of the comments in any political, social discussions almost anywhere on the web. More so right-wingers than average conservatives, their discussions tend to be one dimensional, lacking nuance and often oblivious to important aspects in many of the arguments discussed. You can feel their sense of frustration as they try to come up with something meaningful but can only blurt out simple generalities they can relate to or failing that just blurt out "libtard" in the vain hope it'll score some vague point or other.

Thus why he started the thread - I was calling for eloquent conservative thought...

I really think ther is value in a well articulated defense of tradition!

We don't know until we hear it

 

[jmagg]

Logic should dictate progression. There you have it, eloquent conservative thought.