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Off Topic » in reply to It's not about intelligence...though I'm starting to reconsider

re: It's not about intelligence
Tom Brosz — (archived)

The only reason I'm a conservative, that I have the principles I do, and take the sides I do, is because ah've bin HEEP-NO-TIZED! *sigh*. Whatever.

Part of the problem is that you might have a different definition of intelligence than I do.

...More complexity to exploit, a tendency to gravitate toward complicated ideas over simple ideas, a tendency to concede grey areas and give the benefit of the doubt, and of course there's the timeless flattery angle.

I find these traits a lot more often in people who believe themselves to be brilliant, rather than those who really are. The inability to arrive at a conclusion, or the belief that there really are no "final answers" does not say "intelligent" to me, neither does belief that the simple answers are always the wrong ones. We'll leave the flattery angle alone.

If you look back at scientific achievment, some of the greatest minds were those that cut through a load of complex crap and found simple underlying reasons for things.

Maybe you want to check yourself out and see how much of what you believe right now has come from other sources with little examination.

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