Essay:Liberal Intellectualism

2008-02-21T02:47:10Z

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{{Essay}}

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It is interesting to observe how the [[liberal]] ideology, and [[liberal]] arguments, appeal most to educated, informed persons who are short on intellectual achievements of their own. Put another way, the biggest advocates of [[liberal]] arguments are the intellectual wannabees or pseudo-intellectuals.

Examples of not-quite-intellectuals who promote [[liberal]] arguments include:

*[[John Kerry]]
:*privileged youth, weak student at [[Yale]], no original work
*[[Al Gore]]
:*privileged youth, poor graduate student. Claimed to be behind the legislative efforts that lead to the creation of the [[internet]]<ref>http://www.snopes.com/quotes/internet.asp</ref>
*[[Bill Clinton]]
:*may have virtually flunked out of the pre-med program at [[Georgetown University]], never released his grades, failed to earn a degree at [[Oxford]], no original work or ideas
*[[Richard Dawkins]]
:*lasted only 2 years teaching at [[University of California Berkeley]], a mere lecturer at [[Oxford]] until a wealthy ally donated a professorship for him
*[[Stephen Jay Gould]]
:*[[Antioch College]] graduate (geology major), his work is riddled with contradictions
*[[Laurence Tribe]]
:*dropped out of a graduate math program, passed over initially for Law Review, passed over for [[Solicitor General]] in 1993,<ref>Tribe admitted he was being considered, but he was not nominated. "Under Clinton, Crimson tide washes over Washington," The Boston Globe (Mar. 4, 1993).</ref> plagiarism later found in his work<ref>"Joseph Bottum, books and arts editor of the Weekly Standard, presents overwhelming evidence to support his claim that Tribe's 1985 book, God Save This Honorable Court, was largely copied from a 1974 book called Justices and Presidents by the University of Virginia's Henry J. Abraham. Bottum's case rests on the relentless citation of example after example where it is clear that Tribe has copied both the substance and, in many cases, the exact wording of Abraham's text. Most damning is Tribe's repetition of errors, like slight misquotations of original sources, in Abraham's book."[http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/007975.php]</ref>
*[[Robert McNamara]]
:*described as a "whiz kid," he wrote or did nothing of significance, mishandled [[Vietnam War]]
*[[Henry Kissinger]]
:*fluent in relatively few languages for a diplomat, had no insights or noteworthy work, mishandled [[Vietnam War]] and [[Soviet Union]]
*[[J. Robert Oppenheimer]]
:*repeatedly passed over for the [[Nobel Prize]] due to a lack of achievement, allowed multiple leaks from [[Los Alamos]]
*[[Jon Stewart]]
*[[Noam Chomsky]]
:*famous for making a few guesses about [[linguistics]] some of which turned out to be partially correct. He has not done any work in linguistics in 30 years and just spends his time promoting left-wing politics outside his supposed area of expertise.
*[[John Maynard Keynes]]
:*dropped out of [[math]] to pursue the less rigorous [[economics]], but was unable to earn a doctorate even in that
*[[Michel Foucault]]
*[[Rachel Carson]]
:* Started the [[environmentalist]] movement with her book [[Silent Spring]] which was found to be full of errors, exaggerations and disregard for actual [[science]].
*[[Bertrand Russell]]
:*claimed to be proving the completeness and consistency of math, a goal [[Godel]] proved was impossible. Advocated unilateral nuclear disarmament.
*[[Ward Churchill]]
:Offended millions of Americans by comparing those that died in 9/11 to Adolf Eichmann, notorious organizer of the [[Holocaust]]. Had the gall to sue the University that terminated him.<ref>http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2007Jul25/0,4670,EmbattledProfessor,00.html</ref>
*[[Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr.]]
:*privileged youth, rise to the top based upon family name and inherited connections. Currently publisher of the ''[[New York Times]]''.
*[[Charles Darwin]]
:*poor student
*[[Carl Sagan]]
:*insisted that there must be life in outer space
*[[Stephen Hawking]]
:*Was fundamentally wrong about Black Holes. Never won the Nobel Prize. Like Sagan, is a major supporter of the idea of extraterrestrial life.
*[[Hillary Rodham Clinton]]
:*worked on the House Judiciary impeachment staff investigating [[Richard Nixon]]. Hillary's work was so poorly conceived and drafted that a member of the Committee, [[William Dixon]] said Hillary "paid no attention to the way the Constitution works in this country, the way politics works, the way Congress works, the way legal safegaurds are set up."<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=foWUM2R1K0wC&pg=PA121&lpg=PA121&dq=hillary+nixon+olson&source=web&ots=06xJC-jwnM&sig=P6LflOsDROMR16cn_WGvXg4iZHU#PPA122,M1 Hell to Pay: The Unfolding Story of Hillary Rodham Clinton], By Barbara Olson, Regnery Publishing, Inc, 2001, pp. 122-123.</ref>

Please add other examples.

== Praised Heaped by Pseudo-Intellectual [[Liberals]] on Each Other ==

It is remarkable how pseudo-intellectual [[liberal]]s praise each other as geniuses. Examples include:

*[[Bertrand Russell]] declaring that the most intelligent man he ever knew was [[John Maynard Keynes]]

Please add other examples.

== Motivation ==

There are two primary motivations for the [[liberal]] advocacy by pseudo-intellectuals:

* it is easier for them to obtain acclaim from the liberal press than from real intellectuals

* they genuinely fail to understand certain abstractions, such as:

:* how cutting taxes often increases government revenue ([[Laffer Curve]])
:* how guns save more lives through deterrence and prevention than they harm
:* how childbirth has a positive effect on health, and thus [[abortion]] harms health
:* how cease-fires always help a determined opponent in war
:* how arms limitations treaties always helps a dishonest adversary

* they expect superficial, flawed logic to persuade others, such as:

:* claiming that inequality in outcome implies discrimination
:* demanding equal treatment for genders in all situations
:* claiming that the [[gay agenda]] is like the civil rights struggle by African Americans
:* insisting that government can reduce poverty with more programs

Please add to these lists.

== References ==

<references/>
[[Category:Essay]]
[[Category:Oxymorons]]

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Essay:Liberal Intellectualism