Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Actual left/right wing discussion -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lane3 who wrote (8740)	12/4/2010 7:38:00 PM
From: koan	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 10087

Well, at least your arguments are strong. This is my view. koan: "The rest of your post deals with the human condition which you do not seem aware of? E.g. scientists do the best they can to check their findings with "peer review"." lane: <<"Balderdash! Sure, there is peer review. And within peer review you find groupthink. And conformity pressure. And ass kissing. And career concerns. All those are part of the "human condition." Just because something is peer reviewed unfortunately does not mean that it has been treated with honest skepticism by qualified, objective peers."">> koan: Easy to critisize. You know a better system? Where in all of histroy have you seen humans do a better job of fact checking and logic overview? koan: ""In one group (conservatives) most people do not believe in evolution and in the other group (liberals) almost all of them do believe in evolution."" lane: <<"<<So, you're taking the binary path once again koan "pedantic"). And generalizing from evolution. You're making evolution your sole proxy for liberal vs conservative and for quality thinkers vs poor thinkers. Good grief! False dichotomies. koan: "' I never said it was my sole proxy. It was one example which I felt was quite clear. Evolution is more complicated than knowing the earth is round, but not so complicated as understanding existentialism, which many/most great minds do not, so is not a good proxy for measurement. It was a standard for measurement. My background is experimental psychology. The was a test I use. That test correlates with other variables which verify the two distinct characters of the left/right populations. "" lane:"<<I noticed that you framed it in terms of "believe in evolution." Not very scientific. One doesn't "believe in" a scientific theory, one recognizes its proof. Science isn't about belief. Belief is the realm of religion. I submit that any scientist who claims to believe in evolution is a fraud.">> koan: "you know what I meant. I was using the colloquial term. Evolution is as real as trees and the sky. It is beyond quibling over terminology. Would you quibble with me if I were to say I believe the sun is round? lane: "<<As for conservatives and evolution, I think you're mixing apples and oranges. The only excuse for not "believing in evolution" is that evolution conflicts with one's religious beliefs so those who don't "believe in evolution" are those strongly religious who cannot reconcile the two. You can't generalize from that cohort to conservatives. It's true that social conservatives have made a political issue out of it, but that doesn't make the cohort exclusively or even predominantly conservative nor does it make the conservative cohort predominantly evolution deniers. IMO evolution denial is more about political identity than anything else. We know that people adapt the values of their group, that people take on the beliefs of their political cohort more than they join a cohort based on their beliefs. Liberals or Democrats who don't "believe in evolution" just shut up about it because it's not cool. koan<< no, the evolution denyers more like the global warming denyers and gay is natural denyers. Same population over and over. The correlations are very strong.