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Comment by avs733 | Hacker News Reader

Its all well and good to take people at face value when you ask them a direct question, but when the data consistently bears out that that is not the truth you have a responsibility to look at reality.

Response bias is well studied: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Response_bias

Especially when one has been fed a narrative specifically to cover underlying beliefs in something that has more social acceptability.

"The democrats are smug" okay...lets ask the follow-up question. Why? how? please explain? Taking people at their literal word for why they do something is basically the worst possible version of any social sciences research.

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> but when the data consistently bears out that that is not the truth you have a responsibility to look at reality.

I have to admit you've lost me. What reality are we talking about?

> "The democrats are smug" okay...lets ask the follow-up question. Why? how? please explain?

Thomas Sowell has written entire books about the arrogance of leftism. This one I've read personally: https://www.amazon.com/Quest-Cosmic-Justice-Thomas-Sowell/dp...

This one I would like to find time to read: https://www.amazon.com/Vision-Anointed-Self-Congratulation-S...

From my own personal experience, it takes a certain arrogance to believe in authoritarianism, that a few elite should be making all the decisions for the unwashed masses. This describes the current democrat party to a tee.

Similarly, it takes a certain arrogance to believe you have all the answers, and similarly, to ignore all the evidence that disproves your assumptions. This describes most so-called progressives.

In contrast, it takes humility to be a conservative, recognize that you don't have all the answers, that things are the way they are for a reason, and that the world is complex with more far tradeoffs than pure solutions.

> it takes a certain arrogance to believe in authoritarianism, that a few elite should be making all the decisions for the unwashed masses. This describes the current democrat party to a tee.

I see you got the names of the Democrat and Republican parties confused. As the 2020 election showed a minority of the country tried to throw out the results of an election to usurp power for their authoritarian...

No I got the parties right. Democrats are the true authoritarians right now. No amount of January 6th political theater can cover it up. It's too massive to hide.

Making you feel bad isn’t authoritarianism.

I’m pretty convinced parent comment is parody. Sadly that’s a position I’m holding just for my own sanity

This is what is meant by the “arrogance”. Peoples opinions are not accepted as inherently credible. The bad faith and the intellectual dishonesty and the projection are not an accident, they are a narrative tool that metastasizes

“People have written books”

Is not a response to “why do you hold this opinion”

It strikes me as pretty much straight up satire to use as your primary source the writings of a guy with degrees from Harvard and works for the Hoover institution at standford. To then go from the arrogance of the left to the arrogance of authoritarianism…I honestly think this is parody.

The basics here, that are worth reiterating, is that there is, as usual, no serious people on the left claiming they have all the answers…the only people claiming that are constructing useful strawpeople to then try and tear down.

I'm glad I can amuse you with satire that isn't. I challenge you to read one of those books and open your mind a little. If you aren't blind, the authoritarianism and arrogance of the left is visible everywhere. And Sowell is anything but the typical Harvard grad. So there is nothing funny about my citation.

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