Posted on 03/26/2007 1:25:49 PM PDT by NYC Republican
Sorry .. it's true. Liberals love to paint conservatives as being ignorant, stupid, obtuse, mindless, irrational and, on occasion, retarded. For the most part leftists use this "stupid" tactic in order to avoid actually having to intellectually engage with someone who thinks differently than they. After all ... you really don't have to consider the opinions offered by someone who disagrees with you if you can successfully and falsely brand them as ignorant.
Sadly ... many conservatives seem to have dedicated their lives to lending credence to the left's "conservatives are idiots" claim. You will remember several weeks ago I told you about one Georgia Republican (former Democrat) legislator whose campaign chairman sent out some memos and letters promoting legislation to outlaw the teaching of evolution in government schools. The letter referred the reader to the website of "The Fair Education Foundation, Inc." In this website --- and I'm not kidding you here --- you will learn that the Earth stands still in space ... not even rotating ... while the Sun and everything in the universe rotates around the earth every 24 hours. Think I'm kidding? Check it our for yourself.
Well .. there's more. Sunday's Atlanta Journal-Constitution tells us about another website, this one run by Andrew Schlafly, the son of Phyllis Schlafly. Conservapedia pushes the creationism theme with revelations that dinosaurs and humans roamed the Earth at the same time.[video] You'll also learn that atheism has led to a large increase in bestiality. But once again you'll learn that not only is the Earth standing still, but it's actually flat ... and sitting still in space while everything revolves around it.
Tell me .. how do you counter the "conservatives are ignorant" argument, and how do you manage to recruit more people to the cause of lower taxes, less government and more individual responsibility when you have people running around loose calling themselves conservatives, getting elected to office as conservatives, and running websites as conservatives all the while telling us that the earth does not spin on its axis and does not revolve around the Sun .. and that everything in the known universe revolves around the Earth?
If true conservatives really want to expand their philosophy and mount a sustained movement that just might save individualism, freedom and economic liberty --- they had better jettison these zealot nut-cases .... and FAST.
This all sure makes me glad to be a Libertarian.
Unfortunately, there are quite a number of them within our movement. I attribute it to the anti-intellectualism that seems to pervade modern American Protestantism. Religious people tend to be conservative, so the conservative movement tends to attract large numbers of religious people. Unfortunately, a large proportion of religious people in America today are of the anti-intellectual Protestant variety, and so our movement ends up getting filled with Luddites.
Mind you, I don't believe there is any causal link between religiousity and the anti-intellectual mindset. And I recognize that there's nothing inherently anti-intellectual about Protestantism. It just so happens, for reasons unknown to me, that American Protestantism today tends to be anti-intellectual. This Protestant/anti-intellectual link seems to be recent; it doesn't seem to be present before the 1950's. And it's also uniquely American, because there isn't much evidence for it in other countries. It's a real puzzle.
That's an extreme case. But there are a large number of people in our movement who, for example, believe nonesense such as the Earth being less than 10,000 years old, or that man and dinosaurs coexisted, or deny that humans have common ancestry with apes. In some parts of the country, such people make up a majority of GOP voters!
This is scary, IMHO.
Frankly, liberetardians can take a hike as far as I'm concerned. Boortz is an unimaginative boor.
Nah. Just the Luddites who believe the Earth is less than 10,000 years old or who deny the the mountain of evidence showing that man and ape share common ancestry.
Exactly right, its good to see someone else has a sane perspective on this issue.
How incredibly tolerant of you. Which side of the global warming debate should we purge?
>> Isn't it possible that the former democrat is a plant and he's a temporary republican only to make republicans seem stupid and he will become a democrat again once his job has been accomplished? <<
Please visit
http://foil-hat.com/
Is this any worse than some of the liberal kooks in NY that think the WTC was brought down by a conspiricy between the Jews and Bush for an excuse to go to war?
Yes, I'm intolerant of crackpots who spout junk science, like that intelligent design nonsense or, even worse, creation "science."
Which side of the global warming debate should we purge?
Unfortunately, no this issue, too many people on our side have been mislead by crackpots. Of course, so has the other side (i.e. Al Gore).
There is no doubt the Earth is warming, and that man has something to do with it. The evidence is overwhelming, and the arguments of the global warming deniers are no better and no less pseudoscientific than that of the hawkers of creation "science."
On the other hand, the alarmists lead by Al Gore are no less ridiculous. They too politicize their reports and conclusions, and always assume the worst case scenario for which there is little evidence. For example, it is very unlikely sea levels are going to rise by 20 feet, something which Algore takes as an article of faith.
Likewise, the luddites on the left propose and favor extremely drastic and costly measures that it is unclear are worth the cost. They assume, without any evidence, that warming is unequivocally bad and that it must be stopped at all costs.
What's needed is a cool-headed, rational (i.e. conservative)approach to this, which aknowledges the sound conclusions of climate science but at the same time recognizes that there are significant costs to curbing greenhouse emissions. We need to rationally consider the tradeoffs.
Unfortunately, right now, there are very few elected officials who are willing to do that. Instead, on the right we have luddite deniers and on the left we have the luddite alarmists. It's a horrible situation, I'm afraid.
And of course Neal, everyone knows that there are no idiot Libertarians, right?....... RIGHT?!
Those damn luddites!
How horrible it must be for you to be surrounded by fools.
I'll leave it to you to figure out Mr. Conspiracy Theorist.
If you had the ability to read my original post correctly, I called it speculation, you dimwit. It's not a conspiracy theory at all. There is a difference. If you like, I'll explain it to you with some crayons of your choice.
You gotta learn to not take everything you read so seriously. Learn to read within the context of the thread. You happen to be the only one that took my post that seriously.
LMFAO! You think because you preface some stupid-asssed comment with "speculating" you won't get called on it?
Go put your tin foil dunce cap on.
.. a genuine "Head-scratcher" , bookmark ping-a-ling
The author forgets about the Democrat who was suckered about the dangers of dihydrogenmonoxide. (aka water)
It was a spoof site and ON THE PUBLIC RECORD she read the inforamtion about the dangers of dihyrogenmonoxide.
We have two idiots, yet all the nutcases of the left get a free pass.
Because I ridicule your retarded post I'm a dem? You take the cake, brainiac.
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