"If you're not a conservative by adulthood, you have no head, hurr durr"

It's true though

This place surprises me with how conservative it can be, it's very unique for an internet forum- They tend to gravitate towards more liberal ideas.

This place surprises me with how conservative it can be, it's very unique for an internet forum- They tend to gravitate towards more liberal ideas.

I've been under the impression that the conservative members are just more vocal about their opinions.

Quote from: Connor on January 17, 2016, 08:12:12 PM

This place surprises me with how conservative it can be, it's very unique for an internet forum- They tend to gravitate towards more liberal ideas.

I've been under the impression that the conservative members are just more vocal about their opinions.

Actually, you're probably right.

Does Midget even count?

Quote from: Connor on January 17, 2016, 10:35:29 PM

Does Midget even count?

He's legit dumb but he turns it up to 11 when he's here, because one certain user still takes his bait.

I've always thought he was just a troll, and I'm not sure why he's allowed on Serious.

I mean his name is literally "Niggerbot 9000" so I thought that was enough of a giveaway.

I would argue that our "Conservative" users are in most cases the most liberal of all, in the classical sense of the word. I could be misunderstanding him, but, Meta, for example, seems to support Western militarism and "tradition" as a way to defend the relatively liberal society we currently have.

Conservatives basically are ideological liberals in the sense that they tend to adhere to the values of the Enlightenment. I'd say conservatism is more of an attitude than an outright ideology; it's an attitude towards humans as entities and how they act, towards progress, towards power and authority and order.

To give you one example of the difference, just think about rule of law. Liberals want it (and indeed the French classical liberals fought for it on this ground) in order to make application of the law equal and truly just, without being based on the whims of a monarch or bureaucrat. Conservatives, on the other hand, tend to want the rule of law so that institutions are capable of preventing populist violence and disorder.

>Ted Cruz supporters are mostly Canadians


what

So do you Bernie supporters believe that younger voters are of equal or greater intelligence than older voters? You're all pretty vague and dismissive.

Intelligence is not increased with age itself; rather, with experience in a field. Someone older has a higher probability of being more familiar with something like politics, but it is not necessarily so that a middle-aged man will be more politically savvy than a young adult.

Quote from: Cadenza on January 17, 2016, 09:30:08 PM

So do you Bernie supporters believe that younger voters are of equal or greater intelligence than older voters? You're all pretty vague and dismissive.

Intelligence is not increased with age itself; rather, with experience in a field. Someone older has a higher probability of being more familiar with something like politics, but it is not necessarily so that a middle-aged man will be more politically savvy than a young adult.

Which supports Cadenza's point, really.

Yeah, the article in the OP is fucking dumb, but we're all in agreement that there's some kind of empirical trend across age groups to do with experience, politics, whatever you want to call it. Just because it's not a logical necessity, it doesn't mean it's fallacious or unworthy of further study.

yeah, because words like "stupid" and "dumb" are so objective and empirical

If you replace those term with "unexperienced" or "unrealistic" you get the same content as the one basically in Cadenza's argument. The article in the OP is a polemic, not an academic paper, but that shouldn't preclude discussion of its general point.

which leaves them more resistant to change and therefore less responsive to reality

The corollary being that more change is equivocal to being more responsive to reality?

"I was a liberal when I was young, therefore all young liberals will eventually be conservatives. Also I was dumb then and I'm not now so all young liberals must be dumb."

This doesn't even belong on the serious board in my opinion.

"If you're not a conservative by adulthood, you have no head, hurr durr"

Reading comprehension is a very valuable skill, that wasn't what he said at all.

The young are the dumbest (in terms of politics) in EVERY group.

A good understanding of the world is a moving target and the assumption that merely being older means you have attained a better understanding of the world as it exists today is baseless, not to mention that views tend to become more deeply entrenched over time which leaves them more resistant to change and therefore less responsive to reality

The depends entirely on how you define "good understanding of the world". Knowing how to budget, knowing how to drive a car, knowing how to cook, knowing newton's laws of motions, knowing basic chemistry, knowing how to talk to people, etc.: These are all things that give you a good understanding of the world that you need time to learn about, and aside from driving they've always been useful (even if you didn't understand newton and chemistry rigorously in terms of modern definitions, everyone has an intuitive understanding about motion and what keeps you warm and such). The older you get the more time you have to learn about these skills and get proficient at using them, and understanding their limitations.