Results 1 to 6 of 6

Thread: Questioning our Assumptions

  1. #1
    Sam the Sheepdog LA Ute's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2013
    Location
    Los Angeles, California
    Posts
    17,726

    Questioning our Assumptions

    This is a long piece but worth the time it takes to read. It made me remember that I need to be careful about my own assumptions.

    Were Trump Voters Irrational?

    http://quillette.com/2017/09/28/trum...rs-irrational/

    "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
    --Antoine de Saint-Exupery

    "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
    --Yeats

    “True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”

    --John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell

  2. #2
    Quote Originally Posted by LA Ute View Post
    This is a long piece but worth the time it takes to read. It made me remember that I need to be careful about my own assumptions.

    Were Trump Voters Irrational?

    http://quillette.com/2017/09/28/trum...rs-irrational/
    From his viewpoint and the viewpoint of Trump voters, they were not irrational in voting for Trump, at least no more so than Clinton voters. I'm stunned. What great insight.

  3. #3
    Five-O Diehard Ute's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2013
    Location
    Salt Lake City
    Posts
    4,894
    Quote Originally Posted by UTEopia View Post
    From his viewpoint and the viewpoint of Trump voters, they were not irrational in voting for Trump, at least no more so than Clinton voters. I'm stunned. What great insight.
    You actually made it through that insanely wordy thing to figure out what he was saying? I’m impressed!


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  4. #4
    Sam the Sheepdog LA Ute's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2013
    Location
    Los Angeles, California
    Posts
    17,726
    Quote Originally Posted by Diehard Ute View Post
    You actually made it through that insanely wordy thing to figure out what he was saying? I’m impressed!


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    Hey, he's an academic....

    "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
    --Antoine de Saint-Exupery

    "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
    --Yeats

    “True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”

    --John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell

  5. #5
    Sam the Sheepdog LA Ute's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2013
    Location
    Los Angeles, California
    Posts
    17,726
    Quote Originally Posted by UTEopia View Post
    From his viewpoint and the viewpoint of Trump voters, they were not irrational in voting for Trump, at least no more so than Clinton voters. I'm stunned. What great insight.
    It looks to me like he was writing to people who do think that people who vote the opposite way are irrational. It reminded me of one of the lessons I most fondly remember from my days at the University of Utah and the Hinckley Institute of politics: people who disagree wwith me or vote a different way than I do are not idiots or bad people. We have seen a lot of that in the current political environment, mostly coming from the left side of the spectrum, but enough of it is on the right to make me unhappy with that faction too. Don’t get me wrong; I am not lecturing anybody here, just remembering something important to my life that I got from going to the U.

    "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
    --Antoine de Saint-Exupery

    "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
    --Yeats

    “True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”

    --John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell

  6. #6
    I read the whole thing. It's an impressive piece. And quite flawed, by limitations it suggests, vis-à-vis the depth of the subject matter.

    In health science, we have axiom to help explain the interaction of genetics with a person's environment: "Genetics loads the gun, environment pulls the trigger".

    Rationality is profoundly impacted by circumstance. How many people act rationally when their kids are starving? Neurological research has established lower amounts of bloodflow to the prefrontal cortex of the brain - where our highest acuity thinking occurs - as stress is increased, measured by levels of the stress hormone cortisol, confirmed by fMRI brain scans that show brain activity in different brain regions.

    A significant number of Trump voters had previously voted for Obama. Did they become conservative? Or was their "change" impacted by their environment... job loss, effective labeling of Obama as being not being a citizen, being swayed by the vision of Trump as a decisive business leader who could get the country back on track, etc.

    The binary Democrat / Republican analysis of rationality is itself very limited.

    The author was trying to reveal a common liberal perception of Trump voters as being "irrational" as being erroneous, and in the process revealed how limited his own analysis is, and gives a glimpse of just how complex the landscape of human thought is.
    Last edited by Ma'ake; 10-04-2017 at 07:27 AM.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •