The War on Common Sense

American Greatness ^ | 14, Oct, 2019 | Robert Curry

[MtnClimber]

hen Thomas Paine appealed to “common sense” to make the case for American independence, it probably never crossed his mind that there would ever be a need to make the case for common sense itself, at least not in America. But common-sense thinking has fallen out of favor. Because it has been under attack for a very long time, it no longer gets the respect it once commanded. Deep thinkers have discarded it, elites have learned to disdain it, and many of us have had our confidence in its value badly shaken.

The consequences are enormous. Faltering belief in common sense is behind the rejection of the Founders’ idea of America. More broadly, it is behind the astonishing rejection of Western civilization by its own people—a rejection that has reached what looks to be a civilization-ending crisis in Europe.

Examples of the war on common sense are now everywhere in public life. How about the denial of the plain fact that humans are either male or female?

Not long ago, a boy in a tutu and a tiara who claimed he was a girl would still be regarded as a boy. Today, academic and cultural elites, as well as government officials, insist that “gender identity” is more real than biology. They say there are many genders, and one website tells me there are 63.

(snip)

The war on moral common sense has reached new heights of absurdity. If we point out a need for common-sense steps to protect ourselves from Islamic terrorists, we are said to suffer a psychological condition called “Islamophobia

[MtnClimber]

An excerpt from Reclaiming Common Sense: Finding Truth in a Post-Truth World (Encounter Books).

An uninformed populace is easier to control.

[TomServo]

Great editorial

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

It is not a war on common sense as much as it is a war on reality. And it is deliberate.

This is what happens in cults. You are forced to parrot things that are not real until you lose sight of what is real and what is not.

Once you have kicked reality out of the room people will literally believe anything. And once they get used to believing six impossible things before breakfast it is very hard to get them to stop.

[Dilbert San Diego]

Very true. The liberals have declared war on common sense.

[blueunicorn6]

There are some insane Democrats.

That is a fact.

However, most of their foolishness is merely a smokescreen to coverup their looting of the public treasuries.

“Girls aren’t girls! And don’t look at my stealing.”

“The planet is boiling! And don’t look at my stealing.”

“Syria is going to destroy us! And don’t look at my stealing.”

It’s 98% smokescreen to coverup the Democrats while they loot the public treasuries.

[DeweyCA]

FTA: "Reid’s fundamental insight was that our ability to make sense of our experience presupposes certain first principles. Because these principles are implicit in our conduct and our thought, they cannot be proved; there are no other truths from which they can be derived. However, to deny or even to doubt any of them is to involve ourselves in absurdity. Consequently, the principles of common sense have the special authority of first principles: we cannot operate without them. They are inarguably true and “self-evident.” In Reid’s words (which we have seen quoted by Herman), common-sense judgments are “no sooner understood than they are believed,” because they “carry the light of truth itself.”

(Skip)

"As you know, the American Founders claimed they were guided by self-evident truths. They relied on self-evident truths because their deliberations were deeply informed by the thinking of Thomas Reid. And Reid continued to be at the center of American thought for more than a century. Generations of American academics were common-sense realists, and until the Civil War, every major American collegiate intellectual was a common-sense realist.

Reid is all but forgotten in America today. He is routinely missing from survey courses in philosophy and even from courses in American thought. You may very well have never heard of him. But you don’t have to read his Inquiry into the Human Mind on the Principles of Common Sense to understand common sense. You already have everything you need for that."

I was unfamiliar with this guy. I would say that his "first principles" are god-given abilities that are present in any normal person - until they are corrupted by modern philosophy, such as Leftism.

[SkyPilot]

It is not a war on common sense as much as it is a war on reality. And it deliberate. This is what happens in cults. You are forced to parrot things that are not real until you lose sight of what is real and what is not.

Excellent point.

[Cobra64]

My tag line for years: “Common sense isn’t common anymore”

[tbw2]

”The charge is often made against the intelligentsia and other members of the anointed that their theories and the policies based on them lack common sense. But the very commonness of common sense makes it unlikely to have any appeal to the anointed. How can they be wiser and nobler than everyone else while agreeing with everyone else?” - Thomas Sowell

[tbw2]

It is the result of liberals defining morality based on feelings. “Follow your heart”, “Listen to your heart to know what is true/right”. In this worldview, what you want is good and what you don’t like is bad. It also means that the paranoid and delusional are right, while those ambivalent or annoyed are to be oppressed as toxic haters.

It also plays off unhealthy, toxic narcissism. Dr. Henry Cloud wrote about this. That love equals total endorsement and agreement with the person no matter what. And if you tell them no or simply refuse to agree, you’re not an equal with the right to disagree - you’re an evil hater who wants to hurt them. All because if you love them, you have to agree and give them whatever they want.

[tbw2]

It is the result of liberals defining morality based on feelings. “Follow your heart”, “Listen to your heart to know what is true/right”. In this worldview, what you want is good and what you don’t like is bad. It also means that the paranoid and delusional are right, while those ambivalent or annoyed are to be oppressed as toxic haters.

It also plays off unhealthy, toxic narcissism. Dr. Henry Cloud wrote about this. That love equals total endorsement and agreement with the person no matter what. And if you tell them no or simply refuse to agree, you’re not an equal with the right to disagree - you’re an evil hater who wants to hurt them. All because if you love them, you have to agree and give them whatever they want.

[tbw2]

”The charge is often made against the intelligentsia and other members of the anointed that their theories and the policies based on them lack common sense. But the very commonness of common sense makes it unlikely to have any appeal to the anointed. How can they be wiser and nobler than everyone else while agreeing with everyone else?” - Thomas Sowell

[grey_whiskers]

“I get the idea,' said Mark though with an inward reservation that his present instinctive desire to batter the Professor's face into jelly would take a good deal of destroying.”

― C.S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength

[P.O.E.]

This goes back to the 1920’s. Leftist ideas fell flat among the workers because they had enough common sense to see through the scam. The left’s solution was to abolish common sense.

[Albion Wilde]

bump

[Jane Long]

Thanks for posting.

[gogeo]

BFL

[Svartalfiar]

[wastoute]

Which is why these Trump Rallies are so important. The libtards would like to think that not only are they correct about all their retardation but that everyone agrees with them. Then Trump comes along and has a rally in their city and tens of thousands of Trump fans descend on them from outside. It has to be scary for them to realize they are literally surrounded and by people who really do outnumber them. NORMAL people.