Comments on: Those crazy intellectuals

By: Bertrand

Bertrand — Mon, 16 Mar 2015 21:11:20 +0000

By: On the stupidity of intellectuals « Poumista

On the stupidity of intellectuals « Poumista — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 14:38:42 +0000

[…] the stupidity of intellectuals Thomas Sowell, via neo-neocon: Bertrand Russell, for example, was both a public intellectual and a leading authority within a […]

By: Artfldgr

Artfldgr — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 15:27:29 +0000

nd only one in ten capable operate high level abstractions.

and i would say even fewer who can construct abstractions for those people and not have them catch on.

🙂

By: waltj

waltj — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 15:12:12 +0000

Intellectualls have another common trait: misunderstanding of human nature. They erroneosly suppose that it is infinitely malleable (that is, nonexistent) and overestimate power of education.

Steven Pinker, in his book, “The Blank Slate”, described this misunderstanding at considerable length. While the Right didn’t get off Scot-free, Pinker aimed most of his evolutionary biology artillery at the Left, with good accuracy and precision. Bottom line: we can only be molded so far before our innate traits kick in. (As an example, I pick up foreign languages easily, but can’t carry a tune in a bucket, while my sister struggles with English, but can play a melody by ear on the piano). Leftist intellectuals in particular find these characteristics of human nature to be frustrating to their goals to create a utopian society, so they attack the messengers, like Pinker, trying to discredit the science. But no matter how much they try, their efforts can’t give me the ability to sing on-key or enable Sis to read a newspaper in Thai.

By: Sergey

Sergey — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 14:43:09 +0000

Intellectualls have another common trait: misunderstanding of human nature. They erroneosly suppose that it is infinitely malleable (that is, nonexistent) and overestimate power of education. While everybody tends to project his own psychology on others, intellectuals here are in disadvantage: when ordinary Joe believes that others are more or less like him, in most of the cases he is right; but when an intellectual believes the same, in most of the cases he is wrong. In reality, half of the general population is not educable above elementary literacy and arithmetics, and only one in ten capable operate high level abstractions.

By: House of Eratosthenes

House of Eratosthenes — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 13:00:44 +0000

[…] sheer coincidence, Neo-Neocon was noticing this about our “intellectuals” the very same day. The stupidity of supposedly smart men can […]

By: rickl

rickl — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 11:47:18 +0000

Norman Podhoretz had a relevant op-ed in Monday's Wall Street Journal: In Defense of Sarah Palin

But how do we explain the hostility to Mrs. Palin felt by so many conservative intellectuals? It cannot be differences over policy. For as has been pointed out by Bill Kristol–one of the few conservative intellectuals who has been willing to say a good word about Mrs. Palin–her views are much closer to those of her conservative opponents than they are to the isolationists and protectionists on the "paleoconservative" right or to the unrealistic "realism" of the "moderate" Republicans who inhabit the establishment center. Much as I would like to believe that the answer lies in some elevated consideration, I have reluctantly come to the conclusion that the same species of class bias that Mrs. Palin provokes in her enemies and her admirers is at work among the conservative intellectuals who are so embarrassed by her. When William F. Buckley Jr., then the editor of National Review, famously quipped that he would rather be ruled by the first 2,000 names in the Boston phone book than by the combined faculties of Harvard and MIT, most conservative intellectuals responded with a gleeful amen. But put to the test by the advent of Sarah Palin, along with the populist upsurge represented by the Tea Party movement, they have demonstrated that they never really meant it.

He even goes on to quote Iowahawk!

By: Richard Aubrey

Richard Aubrey — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 10:26:19 +0000

Many who call themselves intellectuals are, like professors, likely to spend much of their day in front of those who, by design, know less than they do. Such as students.
Clergy giving sermons….
The cumulative effect is that they think they know more than everybody, not just the students in a narrow field.
Ever hear a lawyer confess ignorance of…anything?

By: Sergey

Sergey — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 09:21:21 +0000

After the most famous Russian dissident Andrey Sakharov, “father” of Soviet thermonuclear bomb, returned from exile to Moscow, he was interviewed by a Western journalist about his struggle for human rights. And this woman was shocked to know that he never regretted his involvement in weapon project, because he always believed that this weapon was the best way to preserve peace. This journalist literally burst into tears when she aknowledged that Sakharov was not a pacifist: she hardly could believe that this champion of human rights also advocated nuclear arms race as a way to preserve peace.

By: Nolanimrod

Nolanimrod — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 06:47:54 +0000

that of failing to understand the workings of the totalitarian and tyrannical mindset. Incorrect as written. To make true replace failing to understand with being attracted or even aroused by. That'll get 'er done.