I never said they where (of course some of them are, but they are hardly the only ones).
The author you have been defending did. And then you just agreed.
"Some of them are ignorant" != "they are ignorant".
As I said (and you quoted) "but they are hardly the only ones"
Some on the left are ignorant, some on the right are ignorant, and some in the center (to the extent there is anything that could be called a center) are ignorant. But I would not say, of any of those three groups "they are ignorant" as a blanket statement.
You think you are intellectually superior to the "silent majority"?
I never made any such statement in this conversation. Nor did I make any statement that implies such a thing.
To be upfront about the issue, since you brought it up, I do in fact believe I'm smarter than average person, but I suspect you are as well, and I also suspect you believe you are (but I don't think that makes you elitist). But I figure that like me, you wouldn't normally go around talking about it. Being a bit smarter than average isn't a vital point in life, and it isn't a relevant point to most of the conversations I have here or elsewhere. Smart people can be wrong, plenty of them are wrong on any particular major controversial issue, and on plenty of more minor issues. My intelligence, and my perceptions of my relative intelligence, are irrelevant. I wouldn't make them an issue, I only responded to your making them an issue, and I probably won't continue to respond. None of this should be about me.
Also not caring about an issue, or even being ignorant about a particular issue or set of issues, does not imply general ignorance or a general lack of intelligence. There are plenty of concerns, or areas of human knowledge, that I have not spent time to find out much about, and that I don't have any strong opinion about. Its part of being a human in a large complex world, there is more to human civilization than any mind could comprehend. Some choose to not focus on politics. Some of those who don't are brilliant people. Recognizing that politics isn't the focus of some doesn't mean I'm calling them stupid or ignorant, or looking down at them in any way.
People that do care a lot about politics tend to be less "centrist" than the norm. Recognizing that fact isn't elitist either.
And it doesn't mean that many in the middle are not informed and concerned. Many are. Its just that that group isn't the 80% between the two extreme 10%s as suggested by the theory that Kling was talking about. It might be 25 on the right, 25% on the left, 20% in the middle who are in to the issues and have a coherent set of political ideas (at least as much as the other groups do) and the other 30% who are apolitical or otherwise do not actually hold an idea that is "in the middle". That 20% would be many millions of people, some of whom are really engaged politically, its just not the huge majority that some would present it at.
Who the fuk do you think you are to say people in the middle don't care about the country?
I never said anything about anyone not caring about the country. Many do not care about many particular political issues, that's a very different thing. |
