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Things that make you go "Hmmm"

A commenter in David Brin's blog once aptly noted that whereas the word "evolution" turns off the conservative brain, the word "nuclear" does the same for the leftist brain. So very true. The greenish opponents of nuclear power often tout the argument that nuclear plants shouldn't be built because are too good targets for terrorists. For them, this is an argument against nuclear power, even though it is an even better argument for the idea that certain ideologies are totally incompatible with social and technological progress. I wonder how the greens, knowing their typical views on gender issues, would react if someone similarly suggested that women should not dress provocatively and walk alone at night, as this makes them too good targets for rapists.

One of my favourite sayings is "Chasing rabbits, the hunter is blind to mountains", which I learned from a book about the game of Go whose exact title I can no longer remember. This saying conveys the idea that when one gets too enthusiastic about reaching some minor goal, they might neglegt the big picture, not realizing that what they think they are gaining in the small scale actually works against them in the large scale. The posting "Army signs on mouth-breathers, part 2" nicely illustrates this concept, when the leftist author, in her eagerness to rush to mock the military and the Bush administration, somehow forgets the official party line of the standardized tests being meaningless and the whole concept of IQ being invalid.

Speaking of intelligence, wouldn't it be funny if Paris Hilton turned out to have a higher than average intelligence, so that her public persona were mostly an act? It's not like she would be the first pretty blonde to use the airhead act to advance her career. What would make this so hilarious is that she hit the sweet spot of our culture: the whole ideological spectrum wants her act to be true so badly that it was accepted on the spot. Now, of course, there is so much emotional investment in the stupidity of Paris Hilton that they can't even bring themselves to ask if it is an act, all commonsense media criticism be damned.

And besides, even if Paris really were the way she is seen in media, that would still put her somewhere in the middle of the gaussian curve in terms of intelligence and general knowledge. Anyone who claims otherwise has a vastly inflated and unrealistic view about what it really means for someone to have average intelligence. Remember that the majority of people don't even read anything unless they are forced to, and thus cannot even point out major countries on an unmarked map, or name and locate important historical events with any real accuracy. Since the cognitive elite spends its time mostly with each other (the members learned in junior high that it is dangerous to act smart in the presence of the masses), they tend to lose all sense and proportion of what the normal really is.

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