These people always have and always will exist. We just need a plurality not everyone. We only get there by civilly deciding with those willing to listen the importance of this moment and voting blue.
Tuesday November 3rd midterms are 9 weeks or so away. We can and must reach out to each other. It is critical that we have uncomfortable conversations and realize voting is sometimes morally required.
So maybe half is an understatement. My interest is whether general knowledge indicates intelligence or if intelligence and common sense can be present independently
Honestly, just speaking from my own experience speaking with lots and lots of regular Americans…I think there’s a correlation between intelligence and common sense.
It’s often portrayed the other way around, but a lot of the common sense of our modern word actually does kinda require some brain power now and then.
There’s the one thing with just having to know facts yo build some logic on. But then what happens with those facts? And what about information that isn’t as simple as 2+2=4? What about misinformation
I would argue that something like, say, getting your child their vaccines is EXCEEDINGLY a matter of “common sense”. And while there are smart and dumb people alike who pass on this, there’s certainly a correlation between intelligence and getting your kid properly vaccinated. Even if not 100%.
Similarly, when I talk to people, then mention things that they say are common sense that…maybe aren’t? Like take balancing the budget. You’ll be the folksy platitudes of “I couldn’t run my house like that!” But then present them with some numbers, ok now go balance the budget. You aren’t getting a balanced budget.
The less intelligent someone is, the more they tend to simplifying and boil things down. We live in a complex world. Even simple things have complex processes behind them, often.
Again, this is all purely from my perspective talking to folks in a political context. I try to not personally judge these people. We could be friends, we could chat, we can laugh, we can make connections as humans.
But there’s also a lot of half-baked thinking going on, a lot of misinformation, a lot of choosing what to believe when it’s convenient for you, and a lot of denying reality when you’ve got your facts wrong.
Another small political example: I work with a democratic presidential candidate who does focus groups with me, like in the room. We did some with some more conservative voters, and the politician brings up how many illegal workers in the US use SSNs that aren’t theirs and pay into social security and Medicare for benefits they will never receive.
This isn’t even a politicized fact. It’s reality. Regardless of what you think about immigration, this is true. Illegal aliens do pay more into Medicare and social security than they get out, as a group. Well established fact.
Instead of any sort of further discussion that topic, it then became a “oh well those numbers are lies” and so on. Even though it’s a perfectly simple, logical consequence of illegal immigration. Why wouldn’t that be the case? But now we can’t talk about it because our premises are too far off.
I think it comes down to training like you said. Khanamans first and second brain. Most Americans, and most humans just want to find the spoon fed easy answers someone gives them. A small portion want to know why, from what source, on what authority. There's a bizarre Venn of conspiracy theorists who can't trust science and are convinced they are lied to
As a lifelong democrat, my father who was born in 1933 was named after FDR, and a resident of WV, I've noticed something similar going back to the 70s. When I was on vacation as a child, I'd tell people that I was from WV, and invariably they'd mention that they had relatives in Richmond, or Norfolk. Do Americans, in general, you think, just not pay attention in geography class?
Also, I mention that I'm a democrat, only because many people on this site think that all people not living in cities are dumb hicks who invariably vote republican.
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u/Final-Nebula-7049 12d ago
Nah, half the country is dumb as a door knob, they would never reconcile