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Is Fox “State-Run News?”
I have a lot of liberal friends. I do not discuss politics with them, because I value their friendship, and I know how they would respond. I keep them on my Facebook page because I like to keep up with their families and so on, but also I am fascinated by their political posts. Firstly, my liberal friends tend to post a lot of political material, whereas my conservative friends rarely do. Secondly, I’m constantly amazed by the content of my liberal friends’ posts.
My friend “Bob” grew up middle-class. Both of his parents were teachers. Bob went on to earn a Ph.D. in some type of chemistry and apparently is very good at it, because he started his own consulting firm, and has made millions in pharmaceuticals. He is extremely progressive. My point is, his background is similar to mine, he’s very hardworking, and he’s extremely intelligent. So I find posts such as the following to be fascinating, considering the source:
Donald Trump is afraid to answer questions from the press. He only wants to answer softball questions from the state-run media: Fox. He works for us. He will answer to us, sooner or later.
OK, so an Obama supporter is criticizing President Trump for not taking unscripted questions from the press. That’s amazing.
Then, he suggests that Fox News is “state-run media.” I’m of the view that Fox News is more populist than it is conservative, but it is most certainly not statist.
Then, he points out that Mr. Trump (who he has repeatedly said is “#notmypresident” in previous posts) actually “works for all of us.” Well, which is it?
Then, he ominously intones that President Trump “will answer to us, sooner or later,” as if he’s an elitist monarch who refuses to speak to the little people, instead of a loudmouth who seemingly can’t shut up or stop Tweeting.
Again, Bob is brilliant. In chemistry, at least. Which means he is a genius at logic and deductive reasoning. So how is his political thought so delusional? Or even, dare I say it, stupid? I’m not saying I disagree with him — that’s not the point. I’m saying he doesn’t make any sense.
And why is he not just openly delusional, but stridently delusional? It seems that those who make the least sense yell the loudest. Not a new observation, I know, but it seems odd coming from Bob, a man of such towering intellect.
As a devout Christian, I understand the power of faith. And I admire people of faith, who understand that there may be some things they don’t understand but are true nonetheless. So you could argue that Bob is simply a man of faith who is not a slave to logical thinking. I guess.
But this seems different to me. Very different.
How can someone who is so good at logical thinking be so bad at logical thinking? And so proud of it?
Published in General
You ask the right question about Bob, and in my opinion you reach the right answer. Leftism is a religion. In fact, it is a fanatical religion. Leftists, like most religious fanatics, are largely immune to facts and reasoning.
I used to ask myself the question whether leftists were bad or mad. Did they want to bring about evil results, or were their mental faculties simply so impaired that they could not understand what they were doing? But, like you, I eventually realized that it is neither of those things. There is simply a compartment in their brains where they have sealed off their religious faith in leftism and where the mental capacities that they bring to the rest of their lives are not allowed to intrude.
They are scary, but it is so much better to be us than them. Because while they are not insane, they had might as well be.
What could also be at work in a non-trivial way is the old “My girlfriend’s a vegetarian, which pretty much makes me a vegetarian” law of lifestyle choices as enunciated in Pulp Fiction.
Not to deny this fellow’s own moral agency, but he may feel hemmed in by a perceived lack of alternative mate choices in the event he even attempts to break ranks politically.
There are many highly intelligent people in India who believe in the Hindu Milk Miracle. This is where the statues of the Hindu deity Ganesha were thought to be drinking milk offerings.
Why do highly intelligent people believe this stuff? Partly because it is comforting. But it is also due to social conditioning.
This reminds me of a conversation I had with a Christian relative of mine.
I asked him if the Bible was without error. He said it was because it is the word of God.
Then I asked him if animals were created before man was created as in the first chapter of Genesis.
He said they were.
Then I mentioned that in the second chapter of Genesis, man (but not woman) was created before the animals, contradicting the first chapter.
Then I asked him what Jesus said on the cross.
Did he say, “My God, my God. Why has thou forsaken me?” as described in Matthew and Mark?
Or did he say, “Father, into your hands I commend your spirit,” as in Luke?
Or did he say, “It is finished,” as in John?
He told me, “You shouldn’t go looking for contradictions in the Bible. You need to go all in for Jesus. Then you will know the truth.”
In my opinion, this relative of mine was/is relying on hope and faith, not reason and analysis. But that’s human nature.
There were so many famines, I’d guess, or maybe I read it, they had to protect the cows from slaughter so made them sacred. It evolved from there and I’ll bet we could explore a great variety of permutations and changes to find it served some specific interest. Culture is a marvelous curiosity. Not all adaptations are positive. The caste system evolved from guilds. Sort of like our public schools.
Sam Harris recently got into a bit of trouble by having Charles Murry, co-author of “The Bell Curve,” on his podcast.
“The Bell Curve” discussed the role of intelligence in American life. The book argued that intelligence is normally distributed. Some people are smarter than others. On average, smarter people end up making more money and going to the better colleges.
But the book also mentioned that, on average, IQ differs between some subgroups, such as racial groups. The part about Asians being, on average, smarter than whites wasn’t really that jarring. Similarly, the part about Jews being smarter than non-Jews wasn’t that jarring.
But the part about African-Americans having, on average, lower IQs than whites was considered fascist. Charles Murray was denounced by many people who never bothered to read the book.
And Sam Harris was criticized for talking to Murray about the facts. We might want to think that all racial groups are identical in all respects. To think otherwise might lead us to think that the old school racists were right somehow.
So, instead of confronting the truth head on, polite Leftism says that anyone who says that there are average IQ differences between the races is a bigot.
There are “good” reasons for this kind Leftist dogmatism. But it’s still dogmatism.
Some years ago, when my kids were in elementary school, my wife and I had a meeting with the school principal about our daughter. I said, “Look, this kid is 10 years old, she’s a member of Mensa, and she’s bored out of her mind. What can we do to challenge her? Her IQ is so far above average that her education may require a different approach than some other kids.”
He responded immediately and sincerely, “Dr. Bastiat, our goal at XYZ Elementary is that all of our students should be above average.”
I just looked at him. I didn’t know what to say.
Again – that was the principal of the school.
I knew people who had the numbers tattooed on the arms. And I’m sick of it.
These people are only semi-literate in history. The ones whining, “Oh, this is how it starts…” are pathetic. No, building a re-election strategy is not “how it starts.” Seizing the means of communication, shutting down opposition newspapers and broadcasters, limiting free speech, confiscating guns, using the power of the police state to intimidate and harass your political opponents… those are their ideas. And that’s how it starts.
Of course. In one of his first books Thomas Sowell pointed out how these measurements change through time and with different sub groups. European Jews didn’t start out on the right of the IQ curve, nor did Asians, and blacks immigrants are also to the normal curve right because they’re self selected and not part of the American black culture. The left has systematically tried to destroy American blacks with their liberal programs and the meme that they can’t compete except in sports. Murray’s point was valid but is a snap shot and not immutable, a point he agrees with. Also the difference between people who measure on the upside of I.Q and those below them isn’t as great as the smart folks would like to think. Sowell also makes that point in a number of books and he’s right.
The leftist narrative is so embedded in their thinking, they can’t see past it.
Their thoughts are like a phonograph record, and the only way to interrupt it is for the INDIVIDUAL’s record to get a scratch.
We can pray for more individual aha moments that serve to scratch the phonograph record, and provide clarity. .
But a would-be totalitarian group can’t use the power of the state until it gains control of the state. And it often gains such power thru violence..private violence, not yet state-sponsored violence…against opposition groups.
German Nazis were beating up political opponents long before Germany had a Nazi government. (So were the Communists beating up their political opponents, but the Nazis won)
We can’t all agree, but we can agree that there are few mainstream news outlets that report facts anymore. It was sad and shocking to see this bias everywhere – it’s never been this bad, and unless the press gets a grip, it will no longer be a cornerstone of our freedom and democracy. Don’t sweat it – this is the new norm when talking politics with friends and family.
This is it in a nutshell – well said!
Don’t forget to blame K-12. Used to be that much of our cultural heritage was taught there.
If Aristotle were alive today he would be a fan-fic writing brony.
Yes, but they are old and out of touch and just don’t understand real struggle.
When it comes to measured IQ levels of different racial groups, Leftists just go insane. To even suggest that IQ varies among racial groups is considered on the level of supporting child molesters and murderers. This is just one on a long list of scientific issues in which the “Party of Science” puts their fingers in their ears and yells Blah Blah Blah!….
It occurs to me that the personal experience of a kid who goes straight to college from high school, who has grants and loans and other subsidies, pretty much precludes rethinking socialism versus capitalism. They often don’t get enough money to pay off their debts (and/or don’t have experience paying off debts) which is ‘proof’ that capitalism doesn’t work.
As Steyn points out, they remain non-adults for their entire academic career.
I agree that few mainstream news outlets report facts anymore. They have devolved down to the level of tabloid magazines. I think the days of the Press being our “cornerstone of freedom and democracy” have already disappeared long ago. THANK GOODNESS FOR ALTERNATIVE SOURCES!
Always at the top of my list. We’d be better of if we just did away with public schools entirely.
I listened to a recent podcast featuring Jonah Goldberg. Goldberg mentioned that he lives in Washington DC and he sends his one child to a private school. (The Washington DC public schools aren’t very good at all.)
But Goldberg says that even in his child’s private school, the teachers still tend to teach the “America is bad” version of history to the students.
This is a tough issue to deal with.
A couple of buddies of mine got into it a few weeks back, over gun control (I wasn’t there, I heard this story from one of them, the pro-2A guy). The friend who was not pro-2A had this same kind of reaction, when the things he was saying were challenged, out loud, by the other friend. Turned into a shouting match, and some apologies later.
I think that personal reaction is what escalates it so quickly. I also think it’s a good reason to stay away from these types of discussions amongst friends, and all the friends are aware of each others’ political leanings. It only leads to destruction of relationships (these guys have been friends for almost 30 years).
The one difference, though, is that on the liberal side, they’re all quite perfectly happy to bring this stuff up, and exclaim, loudly, how Trump is x, y, or z. Then if you point out, even casually, from a policy perspective, how prior Democrat presidents espoused or followed a similar policy, now it’s just on. Logic need not apply. Economics, basic math, incentives, etc, are all disregarded as the contradicting evidence triggers an emotional reaction.
We do it on our side, too. Which to me means the entire system is broken, because the last thing a Washington would have wanted was Americans picking sides against each other, based on who the President is. The system was set up to be the opposite of that. The individual is preeminent, not the president/monarch/what have you.
I followed your link, came to this sentence: “However, the term “emotion” is relatively modern. It was introduced into academic discussion as a catch-all term to passions, sentiments and affections.[2]”
Followed that link and then another one and now my reading program is set for the rest of the year.
Totally off topic for this post so I won’t say anything more, but feel compelled to comment that neither of the bible examples (Genesis and the Gospels) you gave are contradictory. In general, a serious consideration of how they could both be correct will lead the serious student to a possible answer.
Maybe an exploration of how those verses do not contradict each other can be made on a thread devoted to that topic.
My point was that this relative of mine did not want to analyze the ancient text to determine whether it is truly error free. Instead, he took it on faith that it is error free.
I think this is how many on the Left approach political issues. They assume that if a Republican politician wants to lower marginal tax rates, the only explanation is that they are beholden to the rich.” If a Republican politician desires to cut spending on an anti-poverty program, in the eyes of many on the Left, it’s because they don’t care about the poor.
It’s an article of faith.
@drbastiat, you inspired me!
I have observed that when my more conservative friends post something on FB and I correct them they tend to thank me. I have a couple of friends from the other side, even family :( and I have been able to provide the facts a few times. Not one single time have they accepted a correction.
Private school teachers are not immune exposure to the America-is-bad-kool-aid.
But not every person that comes through public school and public university drinks the kool-aid.
Children are more than their exposures at private or public school. Their parents may be, and should be, the most influential in helping their children sift through ideas and information.
But not with plastic straws.
Haha!