The fleas have fled

I see my readership levels have dropped back to near normal and the mind-bending comments from the "we're smarter than the experts" crowd have ceased. 

I grew up in a family like them, smart enough to understand issues if they tried to research them, but unwilling to accept answers that might conflict with their religious or political beliefs.   That's bad enough, but then they choose to listen to radical myth-makers that convince them that all the highly educated experts are wrong.  The myth-makers then present other "experts" or dissenters who they claim are SMARTER than all those educated experts.

Here is what drives me crazy.  I daresay most of us find ourselves having to evaluate the validity of two opposing ideas.  Once we make up our mind which makes most sense to us, do you then embrace that position and forever close your mind to the other?  Of course not.  But these people do.  The one thing that defines them is certainty.  There is absolutely nothing the opposing camp can present that can change their mind.

For an example, Dagny T wrote in a comment on one of my posts:

And yes, I am a Global Warming Denier, as are most people with functioning brain cells.

According to Wikipedia,

In the scientific literature, there is a strong consensus that global surface temperatures have increased in recent decades and that the trend is caused mainly by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases. No scientific body of national or international standing disagrees with this view, though a few organisations hold non-committal positions.  [note: Wikipedia here is not commenting on the truth of global warming, just that there is strong consensus in the scientific community that it is true.]

So Dagny, in one blithe statement, implies that all the experts who have concluded that global surface temperatures are increasing and that it is human induced, are stupid.  In science people who hold a minority view have the responsibility to convince the majority that they are wrong.  I'm quite certain that by insisting that those who disagree with them are just too stupid to understand is NOT a good strategy. 

Certainty appears to be the bedrock upon which the post-Reagan right is built upon. Certainty and hubris.  Certainty appeals to intellectually lazy people because they prefer being told what to believe.  They do NOT want to have to figure it out for themselves because they are either insecure in their knowledge or judgement, or they just don't want to have to take the time to think and evaluate every idea or proposal that comes along. 

It is this certainty (and hubris) that will eventually be the downfall of the new right.  People who don't have doubts, people who are not open to new evidence or ideas can't adapt and are left behind.  I think we will see the new right crash and burn in the next few years.  It will be a relief (and a pleasure).

--Trakker

 

Comments

[Dagny T]

"The fleas have fled!"

Not quite yet, pumpkin!

Yes, am back again, after all 'tis a woman's prerogative to change her mind. :D

Besides, you are not at present exactly *overwhelmed* by your "normal readership level's" participation in commenting in here are you?

Trakker, you wrote ... "[note: Wikipedia here is not commenting on the truth of global warming, just that there is strong consensus in the scientific community that it is true.]"

Most enjoyable DISCLAIMER I have ever seen in my life, Trakker.

Disclaimer: An act of repudiating another's claim or renouncing one's own.

~ Dagny

[Dan D. Doty]

Trakker, what you accuse others of doing, you yourself are doing as well. Any fact that doesn't fit within your belief system you call " inane" and choose to ignor it, or act as if it doesn't exist.

" People who don't have doubts, people who are not open to new evidence or ideas can't adapt and are left behind." Dud, that's you.

Or as it was well said on THE GRIME ADVENTURES OF BILLY AND MANDY - Evolution doesn't take prisoners.

[Dagny T]

Dan ... you wrote

"Trakker, what you accuse others of doing, you yourself are doing as well. Any fact that doesn't fit within your belief system you call " inane" and choose to ignor it, or act as if it doesn't exist."

Love it! Love it! Hugs darlin' man!

~ Dagny

[Ted McG]

Not quite yet drain-bamaged
I notice you're removed your baseless complaint about the federal weenies not getting a raise at the same time that social security got zip (and an insurance increase) because ‘there was no inflation’. But you didn’t bother to note that the “pay freeze” did not affect the time in grade, annual and promotional raises; just no inflation adjustment. Wonder??? How did the congress do? Did they accept an automatic raise for themselves?

[Trakker]

Dagny, Do you have a problem with reading comprehension? I've repudiated nothing. My disclaimer says, "Wikipedia here is not commenting on the truth of global warming, ..." Note the word "here." I placed that word there to make the point that while you believe that nearly everyone with functioning brain cells believes as you do, Wikipedia - in that particular passage - says differently. BTW, Wikipedia has a whole entry on Global Warming (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming), you should read it. Oh, wait, you only trust radical news sources.

Dan, we've been over and over this before. I've tried logic, I've tried using little words, I've even tried snark and insult. It doesn't work. We live on different planets. I wish it were literally so but, alas...

Ted, I'm familiar with federal employees getting time in grade increases and promotions, but they do not get an annual raise AND a cost of living raise. Nice of you to refer to workers who work for you as Weenies. Makes me feel better about the names I call Tea Partiers, but then the Tea Partiers don't work for me do they? I'm not really sure what point you're trying to make in your comment.

[Dagny T]

Trakker wrote ...

"Dagny, Do you have a problem with reading comprehension?"

No. Do you?

"My disclaimer says, "Wikipedia here is not commenting on the truth of global warming, ..." Note the word "here." I placed that word there to make the point that while you believe that nearly everyone with functioning brain cells believes as you do, Wikipedia - in that particular passage - says differently."

Again with the Wikipedia nonsense, Trakker?

"You should read it."

No thanks! I'll take a pass!

Nice try, but EPIC FAIL!

~ Dagny

[horsec]

Still not here

Will come back in tomorrow to reply to his two responses to me, as promised, and then I am outta here!

~ Dagny

Posted by: Dagny T | January 24, 2012 at 11:47 PM

[Ted McG]

Juat as an aside - I do not belong to the tea party, the republicans or the dims.

As a correction to your claim, as I have a federal weenie in the family - when they get an adjustment, it is in addition to and listed seperately from their annual bump - which they have gotten every year including all of those years when federal salaries were 'frozen'.
The point being the federal salary 'freeze' was all smoke and mirrors. But that conflicts with your blinders on view so you will never admit it.

[Trakker]

Ted, I don;t know what annual adjustment you are referring to. Maybe the locality pay adjustment? Ours was never broken out separately, we had to go online to see what portion of our pay was due to the locality adjustment. But that was all part of the cost of living adjustment.

I object to your "blinders" accusation. I worked for the Dept of Commerce for over 30 years. The only annual raise that EVERYONE got every year was the cost of living raise. Other than a rare promotion, the only other raises we got were "in-grade" increases which were spaced 1, 2, and 3 years apart and it took 18 years to reach the top, then no more raises for the rest of your career unless you got a promotion. That was under the GS pay system. If your relative who is a federal employee gets a raise EVERY year besides the cost of living increase then he/she is in a different pay system. I never met a federal employee that got a raise EVERY year, on top of the COL raise.

If the salary freeze is all "smoke and mirrors" as you claim then why did Congress tell us it saved the taxpayers billions of dollars, and the Republicans want to extend it another year? Are the Republicans dupes? Or could you be wrong?

[Ted McG]

You got it all right except the part about the COL - that's what was froze and it saved billions.

Now I know about you 30 and out I understand better how your mind got all twisted. You have my sympathy.