“People like Paul Krugman were saying that when Trump gets in, the economy is going to tank. No. The economy hit new highs. There are so many people, especially among the intelligentsia, who are absolutely immune to facts.” pic.twitter.com/NC7aL5X9jU
— Thomas Sowell (@ThomasSowell) November 5, 2019
November 5, 2019
"There are so many people — among the intelligentsia, especially — who are absolutely immune to facts.”"
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Not invented here is a convenient block to inconvenient truths. Not restricted to politics or academia.
Krugman was wrong in his prediction or forecast.
To what extent that was the result of ignoring factual evidence rather than animus or negative wishful thinking is harder to discern.
The trouble is that the intelligentsia never bother to question whether they're right. And they're usually quite immune to the effects when they're wrong, so being wrong never has any repercussions.
And since their friends are of the same 'class' and persuasion, there's never any contrary information that reaches their consciousness. If you never realize you're wrong, you'll just keep on being wrong.
The 'vast unwashed' in the US don't hate the intelligentia - they hate people who are constantly wrong but will never examine their mistakes or admit they're wrong. At a certain point you just tune them out because their utterings are meaningless.
They don't like him, because he is NOT them...and they want to keep their money train going, and he's out to crash it.
That might be the best quote I ever heard.
I intend to use it liberally in the future.
This perfectly describes most social sciences today.
Thomas Sowell is a national treasure and is the successor to and bears the same mantle Frederick Douglas did in his time.
He has repeatedly and consistently gored the sacred oxen of race apologism and the use of African ancestry as a crutch excusing every kind of bad behavior.
I only wish that Barack Obama had taken on the same mantle to speak truth to Black America. Such an opportunity was completely wasted. And if Obama had a son, he would've looked like Trayvon.
There's never been shortage of people who are willing to believe nonsense and disbelieve demonstrable facts as long as their personal biases are confirmed. But I think that Trump is sort of a special case.
Certain people find Trump so absolutely and thoroughly objectionable that he could literally cure cancer and they would still refuse to credit him. They're willing to totally believe any negative story or leak or claim made against Trump, and totally disbelieve anything positive that could possibly be attributed to him. It's as if their capacity for rational thought and basic reasoning has been completely short circuited, but only with regards to Trump. In many other cases they can still make reasoned arguments.
I mean, it's hardly a deep insight to say that emotions are very powerful things that can override rational thought. Negative emotions seem to be especially powerful. In particular emotions like disdain and disgust seem to be very potent when it comes to overriding reason.
Facts and logic don't matter to cultists, especially State-cultists.
I've read Sowell for years. A great free-market economist and a clear mind. We will miss him when he's gone. If you ever want to read about how our education system got to be what it is now (which is to say- not good) pick up his book, "Inside American Education", which was published way back in 1992 and lays out what was going on then, what went on before the 90s and what was to come (to reach the point we have today).
Progs are immune to facts because they can afford to be: no one will hold them accountable, and when reality bites, reality is to blame.
I love Thomas Sowell. The man is a righteous dude. In 1988, he wrote "A Conflict of Visions" - wonderful little book. Explains the big picture very well.
There's good reason why IYI "Intellectual Yet Idiot" is a comment in widespread use.
https://medium.com/incerto/the-intellectual-yet-idiot-13211e2d0577
TDS: Trump Derangement Syndrome can combine with IYI, and make it at least multiplicatively worse.
But even without TDS or the previous BDS, IYI is still a very real thing.
Because there's a huge difference between being educated, and being credentialed
To what extent that was the result of ignoring factual evidence rather than animus or negative wishful thinking is harder to discern.
Presumably by framing these as separate triggers you're limiting the first to ignoring factual evidence for reasons other than animus or negative wishful thinking. With this established it is not that difficult to discern which causes Krugman's errors. If it were the first his errors would be randomly distributed. If the second his errors would disproportionately denigrate his opponents or aggrandize his allies. Since Krugman's errors on politics nearly uniformly fit the latter pattern we know his errors are driven by animus.
Works both ways Trump supporters believe him when he says the CNN camera's are turned offf when they are live broadcasting for instance, and then there is the tax cut for the rich which has proven to benefit the few and the list goes on,
Thomas Sowell is despised by the dems and their LLR fake con allies for his fearless truth-telling and unassailable scholarship.
Lucid-Ideas said...
Thomas Sowell is a national treasure
11/5/19, 10:12 AM
This!
And yes, what a wasted opportunity Obama was. He was able to refocus and redirect SO much in regard to race relations and POC culture and instead he was totally unable to raise himself above his ideology for the good of the country. Instead history will know him as one of the worst Presidents this country has ever had [the savior of Carter]. What a shame.
I would crawl over broken glass to vote for Thomas Sowell for President.
I know that probably makes me a racist according to the Left.
"There are so many people — among the intelligentsia, especially — who are absolutely immune to facts.”"
Tens of millions to be exact and they are going to vote Democrat next year. Ask them about their 401Ks and they are happy but cannot comprehend had Hillary had won their 401Ks wouldn't be up much and if Warren gets elected next year they really should sell off the day after the election.
Bilwick said...
Facts and logic don't matter to cultists, especially State-cultists.
Like Jo Biden SAID: We Choose TRUTH over facts
Thomas Sowell is a star. So disarming in his plain-spoken style, but his BS filter is pretty much perfect. God bless him.
I think the intelligentsia ignore inconvenient facts because they pay no price for doing so. Up to a (considerable) point, they are rewarded for doing so, by their community of peers and clients. By the time the shared delusion becomes fully detached from reality, too much time has passed and too many rice bowls have been filled and emptied, for any honest accounting to take place.
Wince
So Krugman confessed his error? Link please.
Facts are an invention of the White Patriarchy designed to allow White men to oppress women and minorities.
r/v: "Works both ways Trump supporters believe him when he says the CNN camera's are turned offf when they are live broadcasting for instance, and then there is the tax cut for the rich which has proven to benefit the few and the list goes on,"
It is very unfortunate for you and your latest batch of lefty lies that CNN and MSNBC et al routinely explain why they won't show Trump rallies or cut away from the Trump rallies.
Further, your very very very tired tax cuts only for the rich lies are also falling flat in a full employment/rising employment/rising wages across all quintile groups.
And all of that on top of the collapse of all your extraordinary hoax lies over the last 3 years.
Not very impressive r/v. Not impressive at all.
Which makes you angrier r/v: record low unemployment among African-americans, or record low unemployment among hispanics/latinos?
Spoiler: I'm guessing its Both!!
Blogger roesch/voltaire said...
Works both ways Trump supporters believe him when he says the CNN camera's are turned offf when they are live broadcasting for instance, and then there is the tax cut for the rich which has proven to benefit the few and the list goes on,
Wow, that's impressive.
"Trumps voters are delusional, so I'll spout some Left wing delusions to show how that is so!"
Remember, remember, the fifth of November
Democrat treason and plot
I see no reason why Democrat treason
Should ever be forgot
I posted that unironically one year ago (or maybe two?) on this board. The Dems did something that easily fit my definition of treason (and that of many others here) on Nov 5 a year or two ago, and now, ironically damnit, I can't remember what it was. In my defense, it's just been buried among all the other crap they pull every day of the year.
Works both ways Trump supporters believe him when he says the CNN camera's are turned offf when they are live broadcasting for instance, and then there is the tax cut for the rich which has proven to benefit the few and the list goes on,
Fake, fake news! You don't believe The New York Times? Even the Times on the eve of “tax day,” April 14, 2019, had to admit that most folk in America got a tax cut, rather than a tax hike, as a result of Trump and Congress's tax reform bill.
As the foregoing Times piece notes: [quoting…]
If you’re an American taxpayer, you probably got a tax cut last year. And there’s a good chance you don’t believe it.
Ever since President Trump signed the Republican-sponsored tax bill in December 2017, independent analyses have consistently found that a large majority of Americans would owe less because of the law. Preliminary data based on tax filings has shown the same.
[/unQuote]
As that piece lays out, overall 64.8% (nearly 2/3!) of the public is paying lower taxes than under the previous law. Even for households with incomes below $30,000 per year (most of whom paid no income taxes to begin with), overall 32.1% (nearly 1/3) of such families received a tax cut. For the $30,000-50,000 household-income range (where people indubitably do pay taxes), 68.1% (more than 2/3) of the people in that category paid lower taxes.
Why don't you lay off the lies, r-v? “Proven,” indeed — not!
Thomas Sowell is a fount of great observations. Some of my favorites that I have cataloged over the years:
“In a democracy, we have always had to worry about the ignorance of the uneducated. Today we have to worry about the ignorance of people with college degrees.”
“The black family survived centuries of slavery and generations of Jim Crow, but it has disintegrated in the wake of the liberals’ expansion of the welfare state.”
"Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it."
“Much of the social history of the Western World, over the past three decades, has been a history of replacing what worked with what sounded good.“
"I can't imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong."
What do you call it when someone steals someone else's money secretly? Theft. What do you call it when someone takes someone else's money openly by force? Robbery. What do you call it when a politician takes someone else's money in taxes and gives it to someone who is more likely to vote for him? Social Justice.“
“There are so many people, especially among the intelligentsia, who are absolutely immune to facts.”
roesch being a case in point.
And add my vote for Sowell being declared a national treasure.
“There are some ideas so absurd that only an intellectual could believe them.” -- George Orwell. [Probably fake but irresistable.]
roesch/voltaire said...
Works both ways Trump supporters believe him when he says the CNN camera's are turned offf when they are live broadcasting for instance, and then there is the tax cut for the rich which has proven to benefit the few and the list goes on,"
I happen to be one of those "rich" who happened to get a tax rate reduction which is not a tax cut. Those who argue tax cut instead of rate reduction are either stupid or willfully stupid. CNN= the Baghdad Bob of 'news'.
Here’s a fact: Polls a year out are WORTHLESS. Even worse than worthless. They are corrupt attempts to craft a narrative. Don’t believe me? Look at previous poll numbers a year out from any election.
Yet the pundit class cites them — or should I say cherry picks them — every day to validate their biases. Sickening.
So long as Krugman and others among this intelligentsia never pay a price, professionally, for being wrong then they will continue to ignore the things that contradict their prognostications.
I am very curious, R/V. Show me how the tax cuts favored the rich. I think cancelling the SALT deduction hurt rich people a lot more than poor people. Aren’t you always yammering on about how blue states and Democrats are better because you guys are richer?
Isn’t that why you belong to the party of the rich, the Democrats? You don’t even understand the tax cuts, you just repeat the talking points that the DailyKos gave you in its “call to action” to go spam blogs.
the best way to combat delusion is with cold hard facts, R/V. Educate us with the facts. This is a chance for you to deal out a real WWF style smackdown!
Meanwhile Reuters is running a Twitter poll about what people think is most likely to tank the economy.
Back before the vote for prop 209 that was designed to end affirmative action here in California, they held a big rally for those who were against it at the Federal building in Westwood. They had a lot of heavy hitters, including Bruce Springsteen giving a free mini concert. But there I was, the lone counter protester across Wilshire Blvd., holding up a sign that stole a subtitle from Thomas Sowell's "Vision of the Anointed." It read End Self-congratulations as the Basis for Social Policy.
I guess we were a little more civil back then. I got flipped the bird a few times, but no one came over to try to beat me up.
Sowell wrote some great books.
"By 2005, it will become clear that the Internet’s impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine’s" -- NYeT columnist Krugman.
One of the best Sowell videos is his take on the phrase "trickle-down economics" . . . the favorable use of which pretty much brands the user as a member of the Stupid Left.(Hi, roesch/voltaire!)
To what extent that was the result of ignoring factual evidence rather than animus or negative wishful thinking is harder to discern
I'd offer they were arrogant enough to believe they would alter the outcome by their proclamations.
Speaking truth to facts, not limited to the Twilight faith, Pro-Choice quasi-religion, political congruence, social-justice mongering (e.g. elective wars), diversity and exclusion, and the prophecy of [catastrophic] [anthropogenic] climate change established by an ensemble of models that demonstrate no skill to hindcast, let alone forecast, and require regular injections of brown matter to sustain a consensus with reality.
"There are so many people — among the intelligentsia, especially — who are absolutely immune to facts.”
Exhibit A: Blogger roesch/voltaire said..."and then there is the tax cut for the rich which has proven to benefit the few ..."
Big Mike said...
“There are so many people, especially among the intelligentsia, who are absolutely immune to facts.”
roesch being a case in point"
Posting a drawing of Voltaire on your Google profile does not make you a member of the intelligentsia.
Voltaire, remember, was a champion of free speech.
"It is clear that the individual who persecutes a man, his brother, because he is not of the same opinion, is a monster."
Has R/V ever criticized campus speech codes? Or Antifa?
Exhibit A: Blogger roesch/voltaire said..."and then there is the tax cut for the rich which has proven to benefit the few ..."
11/5/19, 12:59 PM
The more often a stupidity is repeated, the more it gets the appearance of wisdom. – the real Voltaire
RNB said...
“There are some ideas so absurd that only an intellectual could believe them.” -- George Orwell. [Probably fake but irresistable.]
Not fake, just a paraphrase. What Orwell said was; "One has to be a member of the intelligentsia to believe this." It was his comment on the British Left's idea, which gained traction during the pre-Normandy troop build up, that Churchill's real movtive was to use the US Army to eradicate them.
@exiledonmainstreet, whoever said one has to be intelligent to self-identify as a member of the intelligentsia?
Keep on keeping on, Mr. Sowell. Please!
I've always enjoyed Dr. Sowell's unadorned matter-of-factness in dealing with issues others find uncomfortable or taboo. (Separately, he's also a pretty good amateur photographer.)
Being comfortable with facts is a discipline that needs to be cultivated early in life for most, since few are born with that temperament. It is not a way to become popular with one's (real or aspirational) peer group, that's for sure, but it does have its rewards, if sometimes rather sardonic ones.
Part of being civilized is achieving a balance between being well-oriented regarding reality, and maintaining ties to the rest of the human race.
That's Paullie "The Beard" Krugman for you!
Sowell's think piece hits two of the four
FOUR STUMBLING BLOCKS TO TRUTH
I. THE INFLUENCE OF FRAGILE OR UNWORTHY AUTHORITY
II. CUSTOM
III.THE IMPERFECTION OF UNDISCIPLINED SENSES
IV. CONCEALMENT OF IGNORANCE by OSTENTATION of SEEMING WISDOM
Roger Bacon, 1219 - 1292
translation: There are in fact four very significant stumbling blocks in the way of grasping the truth, which hinder every man however learned, and scarcely allow anyone to win a clear title to wisdom, namely, the example of weak and unworthy authority, longstanding custom, the feeling of the ignorant crowd, and the hiding of our own ignorance while making a display of our apparent knowledge.
My hero!!!
Like the Emperor’s new clothes, our so called intelligentsia is proving themselves monumentally ignorant. They might be book smart within their domain, but all too often, they read the wrong books.
He's right, and the reason he's right is that the intelligentsia is as susceptible as anyone else to emotion and bias, but they have additional flaws: 1) is that they are less able to admit that they share these weaknesses; "I mean how can I be wrong when I'm part of the intelligentsia. I'm one of the smart ones.", and 2) their knowledge base comes primarily from academia which is only tangentially related to the real world, and their knowledge is always obsolete by comparison. That's why so many of us do not consider that intelligentsia has superior knowledge, just different knowledge, much of it useless.
A strong economy, especially one with full employment and rising wages, benefits more people than any other pile of polices could. If policy does not do that, then what is it for? The idea that the tax cuts did not help substantially with that is just willful blindness.
I can't imagine ever wishing for an economy like this to stop or reverse, but there are a lot of Americans who do wish that, and would relish the news if it appeared, and for what? Because they are butt-hurt. Get over it, children.
I hated Obama and his policies, but I never wanted a bad economy just to prove him wrong. In the end, he produced the slowest recovery in modern history, and I do think that was a direct result of his policies and his rhetoric, and that both discouraged investment and risk-taking by the makers, while paying the takers more than ever. He encouraged sloth and graft, rather than effort and risk taking. Trump does just the opposite.
Sowel invented the Pith helmet
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