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Off Topic » in reply to re: I haven't read the book.

re: I haven't read the book.
Tom Brosz — (archived)

Lakoff comment wryly that grasping the essential elements of the cognitive theory of politics requires application of several of the progressive modes of thinking that are so opaque to conservatives, and so it's likely that only progressives will understand what the hell he's talking about.

One sure sign that someone is full of shit is when they claim that their ideas are so ethereal and complex that if you don't understand them, there must be something wrong with you.

I have seen damn few important ideas, especially in ethics or politics, that could not be explained in plain English by someone knowledgable in the field.

As always, my theory is that if someone is wrapping an idea in fifty layers of bull exhaust, it's because they're trying to slide something past you.

I've seen some of Lakoff's articles on "freedom," for example and by the time he gets through massaging the word, you could be convinced that Cuba has the most freedom of any nation in the Western Hemisphere.

What I often find in people like Lakoff is that their ideas fail on very simple premises, because they've forgotten what simple premises are like.

For example, here's Rockridge trying to reframe the idea of taxation, by making it equivalent to dues, investments, and "fair shares."

Of course, all of these faulty analogies fall flat when someone asks the simple question why some people have to pay a hundred to a thousand times more than others for exactly the same return on their "investment, dues, or fair share."

In real life, someone who invests a million dollars stands to make a much larger return than someone who invests a hundred. I have never seen where one person is asked to pay two orders of magnitude higher dues for exactly the same YMCA membership as the other guy.

Simple points, but that's all it takes.

Lipstick on the wealth redistribution pig again.

Let me clue you in on something: "progressives" are nowhere near as smart as they think they are.

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