6 ms·

Consider this. I am a physician, a Harvard trained cardiac anesthesiologist. I was born in Soviet Union, and I traveled all over the world. I consider myse

by mudil 10y ago

Consider this. I am a physician, a Harvard trained cardiac anesthesiologist. I was born in Soviet Union, and I traveled all over the world. I consider myself to be well read and fairly well educated. And yet when I air my conservative views they are labeled dumb and not intelligent. How's that possible? In terms of grievances, they extend beyond white rednecks. (BTW, I read somewhere that the talented white redneck kids have the highest level of discrimination against them when applying into elite schools.) Consider African Americans: 73% of kids born to single mothers and huge level of incarceration. How is it not a failure of political science and Democrats that represent African Americans on all levels of government?

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
noobermin 10y ago
>How is it not a failure of political science and Democrats that represent African Americans on all levels of government? It could be a systemic racist system that marginalizes them even in the post-civil rights era--the sort of thing that Black Lives Matter and the NAACP propose. I'm not sure what "political science" or "Democrats" have to do with that other than tangentially.
Retric 10y ago
One possibility is the ideas are dumb. It's easy to live in an ecco chamber and not notice. Or possibly your not clearly expressing the ideas. The people you are talking to could also be misinformed.
tremon 10y ago
How's that possible? Neither your education nor your literacy level lends innate substance to your views. Maybe your are over-relying on your credentials and completely missing the real issues of your audience?
RobertoG 10y ago
Dumb views are dumb views, never mind the precedence. The idea that African Americans statistics have nothing to do with African Americans personal and collective history and it's just 'the way they are' (and, basically, that it's what you are implying) it's pretty dumb in my book. The same apply to 'rednecks' by the way.
jrock08 10y ago
> Consider African Americans: 73% of kids born to single mothers Why the value judgement on single mothers? Also, the 73% is out of wedlock, not necessarily single mothers. Single mother numbers are actually 67%. >and huge level of incarceration. Incarceration policies put in place by republicans and democrats. >How is it not a failure of political science and Democrats that represent African Americans on all levels of government? It is a failure of American political policy. However, the answer isn't to build a wall or stop immigration. The answer is to improve education, train people for the jobs that actually exist in our economy, and if all else fails, figure out what we do when there just aren't enough jobs, not just pretend like manufacturing is going to come back. American manufacturing has never produced more goods than the present, but it also employees almost no one, because automation is amazing [1]. [1] Page 4 and 5: http://www.cs.rice.edu/~vardi/workawesome16.pdf http://www.cs.rice.edu/~vardi/workawesome16.pdf
- imtringued 10y ago
  >Why the value judgement on single mothers? Also, the 73% is out of wedlock, not necessarily single mothers. Single mother numbers are actually 67%. Because if you look at black communities with low single motherhood you also see less poverty, violence and incarceration rates at the same time. Even for white people single motherhood is often the biggest factor that decides whether you end up in poverty or not. http://www.nationalreview.com/article/426433/family-goes-so-too-does-american-dream-w-bradford-wilcox http://www.nationalreview.com/article/426433/family-goes-so-...
  - kaoD 10y ago
    Could it be the other way around? Poverty leads to single motherhood.
    - majewsky 10y ago
      Explain. I can see an easy causality chain from single motherhood to low income to less education to poverty, but not in the opposite direction.
dang 10y ago
We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11977530 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11977530 and marked it off-topic.
gnaritas 10y ago
> Consider this. I am a physician, a Harvard trained cardiac anesthesiologist. I was born in Soviet Union, and I traveled all over the world. I consider myself to be well read and fairly well educated. And yet when I air my conservative views they are labeled dumb and not intelligent. How's that possible? It's possible because you being smart in one area of your life doesn't automatically translate to you being smart in your political views. It's entirely possible to be a smart doctor and be dumb and unintelligent on political matters. Maybe your "conservatives views" are dumb, that's a distinct realistic possibility, no matter how good a doctor you are.
johnnyhillbilly 10y ago
Sounds like you are up against the echo chamber of the soft sciences. Logic and standards of proof are out the window. There is no point in arguing against such points of view, since who is right is predefined and the result of pseudoacademic popularity contests - not science. Soft sciences these days are for people that want to appear as though educated, but don't want to be burdened by evidence, proofs etc. It is time to clear the fog on that matter.

by mudil 10y ago

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

noobermin 10y ago

>How is it not a failure of political science and Democrats that represent African Americans on all levels of government? It could be a systemic racist system that marginalizes them even in the post-civil rights era--the sort of thing that Black Lives Matter and the NAACP propose. I'm not sure what "political science" or "Democrats" have to do with that other than tangentially.

Retric 10y ago

One possibility is the ideas are dumb. It's easy to live in an ecco chamber and not notice. Or possibly your not clearly expressing the ideas. The people you are talking to could also be misinformed.

tremon 10y ago

How's that possible? Neither your education nor your literacy level lends innate substance to your views. Maybe your are over-relying on your credentials and completely missing the real issues of your audience?

RobertoG 10y ago

Dumb views are dumb views, never mind the precedence. The idea that African Americans statistics have nothing to do with African Americans personal and collective history and it's just 'the way they are' (and, basically, that it's what you are implying) it's pretty dumb in my book. The same apply to 'rednecks' by the way.

jrock08 10y ago

> Consider African Americans: 73% of kids born to single mothers Why the value judgement on single mothers? Also, the 73% is out of wedlock, not necessarily single mothers. Single mother numbers are actually 67%. >and huge level of incarceration. Incarceration policies put in place by republicans and democrats. >How is it not a failure of political science and Democrats that represent African Americans on all levels of government? It is a failure of American political policy. However, the answer isn't to build a wall or stop immigration. The answer is to improve education, train people for the jobs that actually exist in our economy, and if all else fails, figure out what we do when there just aren't enough jobs, not just pretend like manufacturing is going to come back. American manufacturing has never produced more goods than the present, but it also employees almost no one, because automation is amazing [1]. [1] Page 4 and 5: http://www.cs.rice.edu/~vardi/workawesome16.pdf http://www.cs.rice.edu/~vardi/workawesome16.pdf

imtringued 10y ago
>Why the value judgement on single mothers? Also, the 73% is out of wedlock, not necessarily single mothers. Single mother numbers are actually 67%. Because if you look at black communities with low single motherhood you also see less poverty, violence and incarceration rates at the same time. Even for white people single motherhood is often the biggest factor that decides whether you end up in poverty or not. http://www.nationalreview.com/article/426433/family-goes-so-too-does-american-dream-w-bradford-wilcox http://www.nationalreview.com/article/426433/family-goes-so-...
- kaoD 10y ago
  Could it be the other way around? Poverty leads to single motherhood.
  - majewsky 10y ago
    Explain. I can see an easy causality chain from single motherhood to low income to less education to poverty, but not in the opposite direction.

dang 10y ago

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11977530 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11977530 and marked it off-topic.

gnaritas 10y ago

> Consider this. I am a physician, a Harvard trained cardiac anesthesiologist. I was born in Soviet Union, and I traveled all over the world. I consider myself to be well read and fairly well educated. And yet when I air my conservative views they are labeled dumb and not intelligent. How's that possible? It's possible because you being smart in one area of your life doesn't automatically translate to you being smart in your political views. It's entirely possible to be a smart doctor and be dumb and unintelligent on political matters. Maybe your "conservatives views" are dumb, that's a distinct realistic possibility, no matter how good a doctor you are.

johnnyhillbilly 10y ago

Sounds like you are up against the echo chamber of the soft sciences. Logic and standards of proof are out the window. There is no point in arguing against such points of view, since who is right is predefined and the result of pseudoacademic popularity contests - not science. Soft sciences these days are for people that want to appear as though educated, but don't want to be burdened by evidence, proofs etc. It is time to clear the fog on that matter.