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I wouldn't be surprised if "intelligence" would loosely predict extreme attitudes on almost any topic (such as is a hotdog a sandwich?).
by tqi 4y ago
I wouldn't be surprised if "intelligence" would loosely predict extreme attitudes on almost any topic (such as is a hotdog a sandwich?).
- nh23423fefe 4y agoI'm not sure political positions have means.
- kelseyfrog 4y agoAny concept projectable down to a single dimension can have a mean. Are there valid projections for certain contexts or at all is a decent line of inquiry.
- clairity 4y agoyes, as you move toward more intelligence, you tend to move toward the edge of human knowledge, which by definition, are at the extremes (not in everything of course, but in areas of more intense focus).
- kelseyfrog 4y agoPretty much. For those who possess average intelligence, centrism(compromise) and status quo maintenance is a decent decision heuristic.
- lame-robot-hoax 4y agoThe thing is, right vs left doesn’t necessarily capture extreme positions. For example, you have r/neoliberal on Reddit. There users are overwhelmingly in favor of YIMBY policies (zoning reform, banning single family zoning, focusing on high density coupled with public transit), getting rid of the Jones act, pro free trade, automating ports, pro carbon tax, etc. while also being very liberal/progressive (imo) on most social issues. So, while not necessarily extreme left or right, they have views that would be relatively extreme compared to the average voter, namely views on housing and trade.
- kelseyfrog 4y agoCertainly. That's the downside of heuristics and in this case collapsing a multidimensional non-linear space down to a linear value. Any point on that projection doesn't necessarily map to a commonly held/centrist belief.
- pram 4y agoI think because extreme 'right' and 'left' are used today to characterize basically non-liberal ideologies, and liberal positions are described as the 'center' Historically liberalism can be very extreme and radical, considering groups like the Jacobins.
- WalterBright 4y agoI'm sad that free markets are viewed as an "extreme" position.
- liotier 4y agoFree markets indeed is an extreme position: efficiency in trade requires regulation.
- WalterBright 4y agoFree markets require a government to enforce contracts, property rights, and ensure there's no force or fraud in the transactions.
- Test0129 4y agoRegulations? You mean the same mechanism ISPs, food companies, "sin taxable" companies, etc use to capture entire segments of the market and price fix their way to a billion dollar profit? Or the regulations that nearly sank Tesla in the cradle that existed for no reason other than politicians are as corrupt, if not more, than the worst CEOs? 99.9% of the time regulation is unnecessary. Over-regulation is a huge problem and one that only an actual theoretical free market could address. I see people on HN complaining about last mile politics often. Yet people seem hard pressed to look to the free market for a solution. I'd rather deal with a corrupt CEO whose power will end when their life does, rather than a politician whose power will continue for centuries until someone with a few more brain folds steps in and stops it.
- astrange 4y agoIf you didn’t have regulations you wouldn’t be able to consume or produce any modern product. It’s not worth making electronics if your users all have randomly shaped random voltage power sockets installed by whoever built their house, uncontrolled RF emissions, and want to pay you in private bank currencies you can’t spend. This is an example of the article - libertarianism requires people to replace how things actually work with brief inaccurate summaries of how it works they fit in their heads, and the smarter you are the more incorrect information you can fit in your head and the more wrong you are.