the fact still remains that they are stupid.

totally agree there is nothing to be accomplished by calling names or telling them they are stupid. but that doesn't change the facts.

sorry, i can't help feeling contempt, even as many of these people are in my life that i have had very strong bonds with over the years. my view of them is forever changed.

understanding them is useless. what is shocking to me is how an entire alternative reality has been created online, on tv, and on the radio--and that nothing you can say or prove will penetrate that reality. people are willingly duped and don't want to be un-duped.

i am wondering if reestablishing anti-trust rules and enforcement in media markets would make a difference. break them all up. treat social media as a public trust, like a newspaper, and only facts are allowed. treat the internet as a whole as a publisher--factual information only. same with tv and radio. you aren't allowed to post, publish, or broadcast an untruth.

i know some evangelicals very well. kind, decent people. and unbelievably gullible--in all facets of their lives, not just politics.

My point is that they are not stupid, not all of them and perhaps not most of them.

One can be intelligent and be led to believe something illogical and counter to one's own wellbeing. This is how cults work. It is what's at play in cases of mass hysteria. (Yes, I know that there are more up-to-date words for mass hysteria. I use it here because we all know what the colloquial term means.)

Everybody in Germany who was convinced by the Nazis was not stupid, either. I know brilliant, brilliant people who believe things that are incompatible with logic, with their own self-interest, and with the tenets of the religion they believe that they love with such devotion.

It is looking like our election may hold, but it is even now not a sure thing. I find this astonishing, but only because I've been lucky enough to live my whole life in a time and place that was stable for people who looked like me. The events of this year have caused me to worry that this stability may be behind us. For a country that has the power and might of the United States to find itself so close to the brink, the rot has to come from within and I don't think it can be limited to the lowest echelons of intelligence.

It is a mistake to equate irrational destructiveness with a lack of intelligence, and it can be deadly.

quote:

One can be intelligent and be led to believe something illogical and counter to one's own wellbeing.

sorry, to me that is a good definition of stupidity. on what basis are you claiming that such people are "brilliant?" by what definition are they smart?

their beliefs tell me they are not smart.

to put it another way:

can an intelligent person lack the ability to think critically?

i don't believe so. by definition, they cannot meet my standard for calling someone intelligent.

How people react to friends and family who get COVID. Reactions vary widely.

Sorry, NYT. Not sure if it's a paywall....a lot of the coronavirus reporting is free...

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/1...us-cases-deaths.html

Traits of Trump supporters

My brother was born with an authoritarian bent.

quote:

Originally posted by piqué:
to put it another way:

can an intelligent person lack the ability to think critically?

i don't believe so. by definition, they cannot meet my standard for calling someone intelligent.

There's actually a lot of research on this question, pique. Here's a high-level summary of some of the findings. Bottom line: intelligence doesn't equal critical thinking and, in some cases, smarter people struggle with critical thinking.

quote:

Though often confused with intelligence, critical thinking is not intelligence. Critical thinking is a collection of cognitive skills that allow us to think rationally in a goal-orientated fashion and a disposition to use those skills when appropriate.

Why am I the one who has to keep making allowances?

So if critical thinking isn't intelligence, then what is?

quote:

Originally posted by piqué:
So if critical thinking isn't intelligence, then what is?

Since when does intelligence not allow for unconscious bias? You can be intelligent without being self-aware.

Moreover, does faith ... believing in something that you cannot prove ... indicate a lack of intelligence? If so, then everyone who has ever believed in God in the history of the human race was unintelligent. Are you sure you want to go down THAT road?

Finally, in response to your question, there are many aspects to intelligence. Pattern recognition. Memory and recall and the ability to summon useful and relevant information from your memory. The ability to learn. Critical thinking is an important aspect, but it is hardly the only aspect of what is a very complicated and layered concept.

I agree with what Quirt said.

As an example, I'll offer a physician of our acquaintance. She's board-certified in internal medicine and lipidology, and she also has a master's degree in exercise physiology. She's one of only six lipidologists in the state. One can have a fascinating conversation with her on the genetics of metabolic syndrome and the fine points of the results of her multi-page testing protocol. She also has an interest in Native American art.

However, her eclectically decorated office includes cute little tchotckes about how great guns are, and when you call her office, you get to listen to patriotic music. I'm pretty sure I know what her political views are (although I could be wrong) and I'm pretty sure she would offer some sharply thought-out arguments if I should ever be so unwise as to talk politics with her. I'm satisfied with my positions. I know that I have no chance of changing her mind. That's the way it is. But the woman is not stupid.

I have always said that I come from a long line of redneck geniuses. It is only in my generation that most of us have had access to higher education, but the generations before me were inventors, self-taught musicians and artists, and leaders in their communities. None of them were stupid. Just within my family I know any number of people with whom I disagree strongly, but with whom I would also never try to argue. They would offer sharply thought-out arguments with which I would disagree, and then they would invoke God to settle things. I believe there are flaws in their logic, but they are not stupid.

As my father always said, "Only a fool plays another man's game."

PS--If the lipidologist I described above knew what I just ate, she would not think much of my intelligence.

Critical thinking is but one form of intelligence.