Comments for Lean Left

Comment on How Would Uncle Like His Crow by tgirsch

tgirsch — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 23:16:57 +0000

By the way, I fixed your link, which was broken. As seems to be typical for libertarian types, it’s an incessantly long screed that ultimately manages to say nothing of substance. But at least now others can find it and judge it for themselves.

Comment on How Would Uncle Like His Crow by tgirsch

tgirsch — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 23:14:01 +0000

Seerak: Who's confusing the two? "Liberals" was the term ~~YOU~~ mike w used in the comment I was responding to. In any case, congratulations on not self-identifying as either liberal or conservative. But guess what: according to the same study, libertarian/objectivist types do just as poorly when quizzed on economic principles that are inconvenient to their particular ideology. So what's your point?

Comment on How Would Uncle Like His Crow by Seerak

Seerak — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 22:23:12 +0000

Actually, lefties (not "liberals"; don't be confusing the two) is where I have usually heard that sort of sentiment. I only recently learned it was a Dick Cheney quote. I wasn't that surprised, though, as I'm not stuck in that particular trap.

Comment on How Would Uncle Like His Crow by tgirsch

tgirsch — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 15:55:35 +0000

Yeah, because it’s liberals who gave us such gems as “deficits don’t matter.”

Comment on How Would Uncle Like His Crow by mike w.

mike w. — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 14:43:51 +0000

One doesn’t need a study to determine whether liberals are teh suck at basic economics. History shows that they are.

Comment on How Would Uncle Like His Crow by SayUncle » Confirmation bias

SayUncle » Confirmation bias — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 13:26:04 +0000

[...] Now, I think everyone sucks at economics. [...]

Comment on How Would Uncle Like His Crow by digglahhh

digglahhh — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 18:12:36 +0000

Yeah – first of all the real study wasn’t even what it purported to be. Second, after misappropriating the questions in the first place, the study still misrepresented what it was studying. I’d say they did this unintentionally, but it’s so abjectly obvious, I’m dumbfounded and Occam’s Razor is pointing me toward an accusation of disingenuousness. And, FWIW, the same charge would apply to the second stduy, except that by then they “figured out” what they were actually studying in the first place.

Look, the questions on the first survey were more ideological than economic. A quiz about the applications of economic principles? Pshh… A quiz like that would sound more like–

1. In the case of an economic slowdown due to insufficient aggregate consumer demand, which of the following government behaviors represent a Keynsian perspective?

2. The tendency for individuals to value their possessions more highly than identical possessions held by another is known as?

…

Many of the first survey’s questions weren’t even predominantly economic at core. And, they were phrased in a way where pretty much anybody with an IQ above 90 would really want to answer “depends” to most of them.

And, finally, WTF is up with “somewhat agree” and “somewhat disagree” as being discrete choices, and then being assigned to different groups when tabulating responses. If you somewhat agree, then you also somewhat disagree. Either use a numeric scale or something. Of just go, strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly agree. That’s just bad research design. 101 level stuff here.

C’mon Man!

Also, I’m waiting for the definitive Lean Left Penn State post!

Comment on Hell, No by digglahhh

digglahhh — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 13:33:27 +0000

Weed carriers – A term for members of a celebrity entourage, especially as they relate to musicians. Random dudes devoid of talent on the payroll for no reason – ostensibly their job is to hold the weed. Many times, because of their closeness to a celeb, they are often given the opportunity to do things they have no business doing, talent-wise, like make their own album, cameo in a movie. etc.

Comment on Hell, No by Dan M.

Dan M. — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 16:30:00 +0000

“weed carriers”?

For what little it’s worth, I don’t juggle, but I know who Michael Moshen is. But largely because of juggler friends squeeing a lot near me.

Comment on Hell, No by digglahhh

digglahhh — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 14:44:57 +0000

I get your point too. I’m just saying there’s room for reasonable people to disagree on what the right thing to do was… not what is the best way to approach these issues socially and philosophically as to minimize the impact of false pretences and empower people to make their own decisions as a social dynamic, but in the vacuum of a dying man’s one last preference and as a question of whether he is obsinately depriving himself of what he really wants as a last stand of fruitless machismo that benefit nobody, himself included.

Perhaps, Penn’s upbringing does have to do with his penchant for libertarianism – as I admit our individual experiences help shape our political views, but not all “self-made” successes are libertarian. Nearly all celebrities are overly self-entitled though. As in any case, there are probably many overlapping factors at play.