Pretending to Be Virtuous by Pretending to Be Stupid

 

Dr. Bastiat goes for a walk in Washington, DC.

My daughter plays volleyball at Georgetown.  They scrimmage George Washington University a lot, partially because of convenience.  You could nearly walk there from Georgetown.  All you’d need would be a comfortable set of walking shoes, a team of Marines experienced in urban warfare tactics, and close air support.  So I don’t walk.  But my point is that it’s close, so I’ve been to the campus of George Washington University several times for volleyball games.

When I told my daughter that they had changed their mascot, she naturally asked, “Why?”  I didn’t feel like going into all the detail, so I just replied, “They’re pretending to be virtuous by pretending to be stupid.”  She just shrugged her shoulders and walked away, but it occurred to me that that is a reasonably good description of the strategy of the Democrat party on a great many topics.

Men playing women’s sports.  Reparations for blacks.  Trying to control the weather 100 years from now.  Viewing Che Guevara as an heroic freedom fighter.  Reducing crime by defunding police.  Saving lives by banning gas stoves.  Releasing criminals but killing innocent babies.  I could go on and on, and so could you.  So much of leftism just doesn’t make any sense.

Conservatives tend to begin with a certain set of principles, then start thinking about and arguing about the details.  But leftists tolerate no thinking and no debate.  They tolerate no dissent whatsoever from their orthodoxy.  And their orthodoxy changes all the time.  And much of it makes no sense whatsoever.

Which means that Democrats demand that their followers pretend to be virtuous by pretending to be stupid.  That’s the price of admission.

It’s amazing how many people are willing to pay it.  I don’t understand.

And Republicans think that they can win voters by reasoning with them.  By pointing out that leftism is illogical, unethical, and destructive.

That won’t work.  Not often, at least.  People don’t vote Democrat because it makes sense.  They know it doesn’t.  How many lives were saved, or even improved, by changing George Washington University’s mascot from the Colonials to the Revolutionaries?  None.  But that’s not the point.  If you think they were doing what made sense, then you don’t understand.

They were simply pretending to be virtuous by pretending to be stupid.

When voters do this, it leads to non-sensical politics.  When our leaders do this, it leads to mass casualties.  Every time.  But they keep doing it.

I’d tell you why they do that, but I can’t.

Because I don’t understand.

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  1. Clavius Thatcher
    Clavius
    @Clavius

    Somehow I am reminded of this:

    • #1
  2. Douglas Pratt Coolidge
    Douglas Pratt
    @DouglasPratt

    They do it because it feels right, and they haven’t been taught to operate from facts rather than feelings. 

    Excellent post, BTW. I like your phrase. I’m looking forward to stealing it when appropriate.

     

    • #2
  3. Clavius Thatcher
    Clavius
    @Clavius

    Douglas Pratt (View Comment):
    Excellent post, BTW. I like your phrase. I’m looking forward to stealing it when appropriate.

    Yes, excellent post.  Completely on point as usual.

    • #3
  4. Ekosj Member
    Ekosj
    @Ekosj

    They do it because, like Pavlov’s dogs, they get rewarded for that particular behaviour.    It’s classical conditioning.    And it’s amplified and multiplied by the hyper loop of the internet.        

    • #4
  5. DonG (CAGW is a Scam) Coolidge
    DonG (CAGW is a Scam)
    @DonG

    Dr. Bastiat: George Washington University’s mascot from the Colonials to the Revolutionaries

    I don’t like either “Colonials” or “Revolutionaries”.  I do like “Patriots”. 

     

    geo.jpg

     

    • #5
  6. Red Herring Coolidge
    Red Herring
    @EHerring

    They aren’t pretending. 

    • #6
  7. Dr. Bastiat Member
    Dr. Bastiat
    @drbastiat

    Red Herring (View Comment):

    They aren’t pretending.

    Yes they are.

    I have a lot of leftist friends.  They are not as stupid as they pretend to be.  In general, they’re quite intelligent.

    I don’t understand. 

    • #7
  8. Red Herring Coolidge
    Red Herring
    @EHerring

    Dr. Bastiat (View Comment):

    Red Herring (View Comment):

    They aren’t pretending.

    Yes they are.

    I have a lot of leftist friends. They are not as stupid as they pretend to be. In general, they’re quite intelligent.

    I don’t understand.

    Don’t assume that folks who are smart in one thing are smart in something else. 

    • #8
  9. Old Bathos Member
    Old Bathos
    @OldBathos

    It was a master stroke. Assuage the brain-dead majority but keep the same imagery, theme and mascot outfits. 

    A better move would have been to tell the hive to buzz off. They do have a limited concentration span and so many other targets…

     

    • #9
  10. Zafar Member
    Zafar
    @Zafar

    Dr. Bastiat (View Comment):
    I have a lot of leftist friends.  They are not as stupid as they pretend to be.

    We are so! 

    But wrt virtue signalling – every group does it.  The specifics of how it’s done are part of what defines group culture.

    • #10
  11. Clavius Thatcher
    Clavius
    @Clavius

    Zafar (View Comment):

    Dr. Bastiat (View Comment):
    I have a lot of leftist friends. They are not as stupid as they pretend to be.

    We are so!

    But wrt virtue signalling – every group does it. The specifics of how it’s done are part of what defines group culture.

    1 Corinthians 4:9-13

    As I see it, God has exhibited us apostles as the last of all, like people sentenced to death, since we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and human beings alike. We are fools on Christ’s account, but you are wise in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are held in honor, but we in disrepute. To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are poorly clad and roughly treated, we wander about homeless and we toil, working with our own hands. When ridiculed, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we respond gently. We have become like the world’s rubbish, the scum of all, to this very moment.

    • #11
  12. Henry Castaigne Member
    Henry Castaigne
    @HenryCastaigne

    I understand it all. People do things because they are bad. It isn’t a hard comcept.

    • #12
  13. Henry Castaigne Member
    Henry Castaigne
    @HenryCastaigne

    Dr. Bastiat (View Comment):

    Red Herring (View Comment):

    They aren’t pretending.

    Yes they are.

    I have a lot of leftist friends. They are not as stupid as they pretend to be. In general, they’re quite intelligent.

    I don’t understand.

    You really need to explicate on this.

    • #13
  14. Zafar Member
    Zafar
    @Zafar

    Clavius (View Comment):

    Zafar (View Comment):

    Dr. Bastiat (View Comment):
    I have a lot of leftist friends. They are not as stupid as they pretend to be.

    We are so!

    But wrt virtue signalling – every group does it. The specifics of how it’s done are part of what defines group culture.

    1 Corinthians 4:9-13

    As I see it, God has exhibited us apostles as the last of all, like people sentenced to death, since we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and human beings alike. We are fools on Christ’s account, but you are wise in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are held in honor, but we in disrepute. To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are poorly clad and roughly treated, we wander about homeless and we toil, working with our own hands. When ridiculed, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we respond gently. We have become like the world’s rubbish, the scum of all, to this very moment.

    But that is true virtue, rather than empty virtue signalling, and it has nothing to do with winning or losing politically.

    Does any group in the modern West actually do this:

    When ridiculed, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we respond gently.

    • #14
  15. Red Herring Coolidge
    Red Herring
    @EHerring

    Some or more signaling than virtue.

    • #15
  16. Alan Aronoff Member
    Alan Aronoff
    @Alan Aronoff

    The leftists do this for wealth and power. This is the part to understand and it also has a measure of logic. The problem is that others pay the price.

    • #16
  17. Keith Lowery Coolidge
    Keith Lowery
    @keithlowery

    • #17
  18. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    Ekosj (View Comment):
    They do it because, like Pavlov’s dogs, they get rewarded for that particular behaviour.    It’s classical conditioning.    And it’s amplified and multiplied by the hyper loop of the internet.

    I emphasized your last sentence because I believe it’s key to the left’s rapid attack on everything normal . . .

    • #18
  19. TheBigH Coolidge
    TheBigH
    @TheBigH

    Spot on – these days I am continually asking myself who put the stupid juice in the water in this country?  And then I reach for another bourbon…

    • #19
  20. Al Sparks Coolidge
    Al Sparks
    @AlSparks

    Dr. Bastiat: Which means that Democrats demand that their followers pretend to be virtuous by pretending to be stupid.

    Andrew Klavan, in his latest podcast stated much the same thing in a different way. Basically everyone knows that what the woke are pushing doesn’t make sense. Including the adherents.

     

    • #20
  21. Unsk Member
    Unsk
    @Unsk

    “They are not as stupid as they pretend to be” The Good Doctor

    Depends on what you define as “stupid”.

    I tend to think there are several influencing factors to the Left’s apparent “stupidity”

    First of all I think the die hard rabid Leftists are deeply troubled people who seek to punish those “normal “ people who seem to succeeding at Life because of a resentment factor where they want everyone to be feeling the emotional pain they do, plus these troubled Leftists as troubled people often do have a need to control others.

    Second, these troubled Leftists have a then as a consequence-a great need to gain power over others to be able to exercise their desires to strongly control and punish, which has led many of them to strive to ascend to leadership positions in the Democratic Party and the government bureaucracy which is why so many Democrat  Leaders and Bureaucrats have become so irrationally obsessed with gaining power and control. However a byproduct of the ascendency  of these troubled Leftists has been the implementation and strict enforcement of a Hard Leftist Orthodoxy which does not allow deviation from the Orthodox Naarrative without extreme punishment to the offenders.

     Now while many people on the Left are not generally “stupid”, the new LeftWing Orthodoxy has conditioned even the brightest Leftists  to avoid any critical thinking or investigation into issues that are not sanctioned by the Narrative, so what has happened is an enforced “stupidity” even among the brightest Leftists . 

    However that said, what has happened to the less than brilliant leftists has been a conditioning to generally avoid any critical thinking or investigation into controversial issues whatsoever, so this wide swath of the American populace has been conditioned by the Leftist Orthodoxy that rule our schools and Universities to be functionally “stupid” in most things.

    So yes, from my point of view , the vast majority of Leftists are now very dense, brainwashed, “stupid” people who have s fear of critical thinking and rational thought. 

    • #21
  22. Red Herring Coolidge
    Red Herring
    @EHerring

    Unsk, there is a lot of truth in that. My youngest and her in-laws live about 10 minutes apart. The other grandparents keep our granddaughter a lot and take her to the neighborhood pool. They got a lot of grief over how often they let the granddaughter visit and swim in the pool from a neighbor who finally let it slip that she was jealous because her daughter and grandchildren didn’t visit her. That neighbor eventually moved back north. 

    • #22
  23. CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill Coolidge
    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill
    @CarolJoy

    Unsk (View Comment):

    “They are not as stupid as they pretend to be” The Good Doctor

    Depends on what you define as “stupid”.

    I tend to think there are several influencing factors to the Left’s apparent “stupidity”

    First of all I think the die hard rabid Leftists are deeply troubled people who seek to punish those “normal “ people who seem to succeeding at Life because of a resentment factor where they want everyone to be feeling the emotional pain they do, plus these troubled Leftists as troubled people often do have a need to control others.

    Second, these troubled Leftists have a then as a consequence-a great need to gain power over others to be able to exercise their desires to strongly control and punish, which has led many of them to strive to ascend to leadership positions in the Democratic Party and the government bureaucracy which is why so many Democrat Leaders and Bureaucrats have become so irrationally obsessed with gaining power and control. However a byproduct of the ascendency of these troubled Leftists has been the implementation and strict enforcement of a Hard Leftist Orthodoxy which does not allow deviation from the Orthodox Naarrative without extreme punishment to the offenders.

    Now while many people on the Left are not generally “stupid”, the new LeftWing Orthodoxy has conditioned even the brightest Leftists to avoid any critical thinking or investigation into issues that are not sanctioned by the Narrative, so what has happened is an enforced “stupidity” even among the brightest Leftists .

    However that said, what has happened to the less than brilliant leftists has been a conditioning to generally avoid any critical thinking or investigation into controversial issues whatsoever, so this wide swath of the American populace has been conditioned by the Leftist Orthodoxy that rule our schools and Universities to be functionally “stupid” in most things.

    So yes, from my point of view , the vast majority of Leftists are now very dense, brainwashed, “stupid” people who have s fear of critical thinking and rational thought.

    A lot more Lefties are potheads, as well.

    I have nothing against weed, if used with moderation.

    But the same individuals I know who smoke so much you can tell if they are home because a cloud of smoke is floating 300 feet from their front window – well, is it any surprise that these individuals value feelings more than intellect?

     

    • #23
  24. Henry Castaigne Member
    Henry Castaigne
    @HenryCastaigne

    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill (View Comment):

    Unsk (View Comment):

    “They are not as stupid as they pretend to be” The Good Doctor

    Depends on what you define as “stupid”.

    I tend to think there are several influencing factors to the Left’s apparent “stupidity”

    First of all I think the die hard rabid Leftists are deeply troubled people who seek to punish those “normal “ people who seem to succeeding at Life because of a resentment factor where they want everyone to be feeling the emotional pain they do, plus these troubled Leftists as troubled people often do have a need to control others.

    Second, these troubled Leftists have a then as a consequence-a great need to gain power over others to be able to exercise their desires to strongly control and punish, which has led many of them to strive to ascend to leadership positions in the Democratic Party and the government bureaucracy which is why so many Democrat Leaders and Bureaucrats have become so irrationally obsessed with gaining power and control. However a byproduct of the ascendency of these troubled Leftists has been the implementation and strict enforcement of a Hard Leftist Orthodoxy which does not allow deviation from the Orthodox Naarrative without extreme punishment to the offenders.

    Now while many people on the Left are not generally “stupid”, the new LeftWing Orthodoxy has conditioned even the brightest Leftists to avoid any critical thinking or investigation into issues that are not sanctioned by the Narrative, so what has happened is an enforced “stupidity” even among the brightest Leftists .

    However that said, what has happened to the less than brilliant leftists has been a conditioning to generally avoid any critical thinking or investigation into controversial issues whatsoever, so this wide swath of the American populace has been conditioned by the Leftist Orthodoxy that rule our schools and Universities to be functionally “stupid” in most things.

    So yes, from my point of view , the vast majority of Leftists are now very dense, brainwashed, “stupid” people who have s fear of critical thinking and rational thought.

    A lot more Lefties are potheads, as well.

    I have nothing against weed, if used with moderation.

    But the same individuals I know who smoke so much you can tell if they are home because a cloud of smoke is floating 300 feet from their front window – well, is it any surprise that these individuals value feelings more than intellect?

    I have observed similar effects from constant and copious use of pot.

    • #24
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