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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
That's sort of what I meant. The kind of education and training needed to act does not necessarily involve the critical thinking skills necessary to evaluate scientific data.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"All things considered, Fighteer's basic point still holds. You spend enough time making lots of money pretending to be someone you're not, publishing entertaining books, playing a sport, being sexy and really good looking or developing a compelling political philosophy, and some of the resulting fame can lead you to overestimate your intellectual reach.
For our purposes, this can and does have deleterious effects on political discourse up to and including butchering proven scientific principles.
EDIT: The reverse is true as well. Some of the worst advocates of things like sexism, racism and outdated cultural values can have backgrounds in computer science, electrical engineering and cardiology. Having said that, I'd rather not play the game of having a who's-smarter competition between the humanities and the STEM fields. That's a really annoying debate that doesn't do anyone any good.
edited 12th Jul '15 6:39:14 PM by Aprilla
"Nobody's paying attention to me and my ego is an empty hole of shattered dreams. I know... I'll run for President!"
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"He speaks directly to the undercurrent of hate in the Republican base. It's no accident that he's popular. All the other candidates have learned how to talk around the hate — allude to it without coming right out and saying it. Trump's mouth is an open wound oozing the sewage of the GOP.
To the extent that he refuses to censor the stupid, he has the distinction of complete honesty, a rare trait in a candidate and something that people respond to no matter what the content of the message is.
Imagine Romney launching his campaign with this message: "I've got money, I've got rich and powerful friends, we run this country, and there's not a damn thing you can do about it. Romney 2012. 'Fuck the Poor.'" You know that poor whites would still vote for him.
edited 13th Jul '15 7:17:11 AM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"![]()
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Dry up like a raisin in the sun?
edited 13th Jul '15 6:58:39 AM by TheWanderer
| Wandering, but not lost. | If people bring so much courage to this world...◊ |The latest poll I can see has Trump in 2nd amongst likely Republican primary voters, but that's 10% of them.
10% of the group that vote in republican primaries back him, they represent only a part of the Republican party which represents only a part of the nation as a whole.
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ CyranAnd it also depends on what the margin of error is in the poll. As I heard the other day on NPR, many of these early polls have a HUGE margin of error, often between 3.5 to 5% or more, meaning any values in them could be off either way, for any of the candidates listed by that much.
In a field of 32 candidates, not only is it all about name recognition at this point, but a swing of + or - 5%, when the percentages are being diced up between so many people, makes the poll essentially meaningless.
| Wandering, but not lost. | If people bring so much courage to this world...◊ |I believe they would. After all, they aren't poor, they're temporarily embarrassed millionaires.
edited 13th Jul '15 9:43:13 AM by TheHandle
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.I don't really think you can run for the Republican Party nomination now unless you're already as well-known or more well-known than who's already in the race.
...Chuck Norris is a Republican, isn't he?
edited 13th Jul '15 4:47:06 PM by Keybreak
You gotta believe me when I scare you away, all that I wish for is that you would stay

Please do not throw thespians under the bus. Acting may not be on the same level as brain surgery or network security, but it takes quite a bit of study and fine tuning.
Besides, as it was noted earlier, smart, skillful people can proliferate really stupid ideas all the time, including the aforementioned Orson Scott Card. See: Richard Dawkins.
edited 12th Jul '15 6:26:10 PM by Aprilla