# Conservatism results in ignorance. **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 3, 2017, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatism-results-in-ignorance/790462 "2017-07-03T20:32:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Bone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bone/32/407_2.png) [@Bone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bone)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatism-results-in-ignorance/790462/61 "2017-07-06T18:46:51Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Nice try but you are still can’t make logical connections. Everyone can be ignorant, everyone is ignorant, but that has nothing to do with political ideologies promoting ignorance. Apparently you can’t understand, or are just deliberately trying to paint everything in black and white terms to promote your unstated argument. I’ve answered your irrelevant questions, you keep trying to reform my statements into some point you want to make but don’t express. It’s been an interesting exerices to see if you have any substance or are simply trying to engage in a Monty Python type argument. Better luck next time. Enjoy your relatively great amount of ignorance. Do not personalize your arguments in this fashion. Saying that someone can’t make logical connections or can’t understand is straddling the line on insults and I went back and forth on which side it should fall. I’ll give the benefit of the doubt here and advise you to avoid forcing this evaluation in the future. [/moderating] ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatism-results-in-ignorance/790462/62 "2017-07-06T18:59:24Z")
> [@TimeWinder](#): > > It didn’t used to. And “conservative” means a lot of things to a lot of people. And of course there are a lot of liberals on the whole GMO/Frankenfood/anti-vax ignorance bandwagons. > > But it’s really hard to argue in the age of Trump that you can be a Trump-supporter-type conservative and have even a basic grasp of reality, yes. It’s also really hard to argue that someone who could make a statement that broad-brushed and so incredibly wrong has a basic grip on reality. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatism-results-in-ignorance/790462/63 "2017-07-06T20:51:50Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > Great! Sounds like we agree on this point. If you think this is another version of the conservative dog whistling they are so fond of then yeah. We agree. Conservatives (rarely) outright say they hate blacks or Mexicans or homosexuals or scientists and whatnot. They merely act in every way as if they do while piously claiming they are not bigots because they never actually said they dislike any of those groups. The only people it fools is, maybe, themselves. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatism-results-in-ignorance/790462/64 "2017-07-06T21:50:49Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > If you think this is another version of the conservative dog whistling they are so fond of then yeah. We agree. I’m confused, and I’m genuinely trying to understand your argument here. When did “conservative dog whistling” enter the picture? Here’s the sequence AFAIUI: > [@Gyrate](#): > > There are plenty of ignorant people of all stripes. The problem is that - at this time, in Western culture - ignorance is being touted as a virtue in those conservative circles on the ascendant. > [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > I’ve got to ask for a cite on this. Who is out there ‘touting ignorance as a virtue’? > [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > No one explicitly says “ignorance is a virtue” … > [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > Great! Sounds like we agree on this point. I wonder if **Gyrate** can put this fact ahead of his ideology. > [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > If you think this is another version of the conservative dog whistling they are so fond of then yeah. We agree. See, you lost me there on that last one. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatism-results-in-ignorance/790462/65 "2017-07-06T21:57:44Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > I’m confused, and I’m genuinely trying to understand your argument here. When did “conservative dog whistling” enter the picture? I am saying that while no one outright verbally says that ignorance is a virtue conservatives nonetheless embrace ignorance as a virtue and I gave examples. This is akin to them saying they are not bigots while embracing bigoted policies flimsily cloaked as something else (aka dog whistle). ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2017, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatism-results-in-ignorance/790462/66 "2017-07-07T01:29:37Z")
> [@Airbeck](#): > > You don’t think there are any issues that were ever worth being angry over? At the present point in our society? No, not really. As regards to your historic examples: yes to slavery, the civil rights issues and the Holocaust, but no on Vietnam. My point is there’s not much going on nowadays in the first world that, IMO, warrants actual _anger_ over. > [@](#): > > Sounds like a very privileged viewpoint to me. So what if it is? ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2017, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatism-results-in-ignorance/790462/67 "2017-07-10T14:46:53Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > I am saying that while no one outright verbally says that ignorance is a virtue conservatives nonetheless embrace ignorance as a virtue and I gave examples. This is akin to them saying they are not bigots while embracing bigoted policies flimsily cloaked as something else (aka dog whistle). I agree with this (with a #NotAllConservatives caveat). I wonder if **HurricaneDitka** can put this fact ahead of his ideology? ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2017, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatism-results-in-ignorance/790462/68 "2017-07-11T14:32:13Z")
For those wanting proof of the point in the OP: [Pew: Most Republicans View Higher Education as Bad for America](http://www.thedailybeast.com/pew-most-republicans-view-higher-education-as-bad-for-america) ---
**Author:** ![Hector\_St\_Clare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@Hector\_St\_Clare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hector_St_Clare)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2017, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatism-results-in-ignorance/790462/69 "2017-07-11T14:42:21Z")
> [@Barack\_Obama](#): > > During the Islamic Golden age the people in Bagdad were tolerance, and educated. They progressed socially and advanced technology in nearly every field. Then one day some batshit crazy traditionalist named Al-Ghazale brings up traditional islamic belief and a strict believe in the literal teachings of Islam. I’m not a theological fan of Islam (or of Ghazali’s line of argument in either a Christian or Islamic context), and I know very little about Islamic history, but do you have any evidence for this claime? From the little I can glean, Al-Ghazali was neither crazy nor particularly traditionalist, the argument between Ghazali and his opponents was very similar to the theological arguments going on the Catholic Europe at the time, and Ghazali explicitly exempted science, mathematics, technology etc. from his criticisms of Hellenic philosophy. My vague impression is that a lot of Ghazali’s ideas were similar to William of Ockham, and while I think Ockham’s ideas are terrible, he didn’t retard the development of science in the west, quite contrary (on the contrary, internet athiests love to cite Ockham’s Razor as the grounding of all serious philosophical and scientific inquirey). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatism-results-in-ignorance/790462.md?page=3)