# I know we're better than this... **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 4, 2009, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-were-better-than-this/512511 "2009-10-04T02:30:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2009, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-were-better-than-this/512511/41 "2009-10-07T02:56:47Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > Attend—to my above post. That they don’t vote? Sorry, I’m not getting the connection. But I’m going to back out of this discussion, carry on. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2009, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-were-better-than-this/512511/42 "2009-10-07T06:47:23Z")
> [@DanBlather](#): > > Are you sure? 😉 Possibly! ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2009, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-were-better-than-this/512511/43 "2009-10-07T10:02:45Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > That they don’t vote? Sorry, I’m not getting the connection. But I’m going to back out of this discussion, carry on. Any person who doesn’t vote is a fool, & only a tiny percentage of the population votes. ---
**Author:** ![Apollyon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/apollyon/32/4238_2.png) [@Apollyon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollyon)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2009, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-were-better-than-this/512511/44 "2009-10-07T11:03:48Z")
> [@DanBlather](#): > > Are you sure? 😉 Noting the wry smiley, and at the expense of perhaps being whoosed… **Downing effect** : tendency of people with below average IQ to overestimate their intelligence, and of people with above average IQ to underestimate their intelligence. **Dunning-Kruger effect** : The strongest degree of Illusory superiority has been found when people rate themselves on abilities at which they are totally incompetent. This has been interpreted as a lack of metacognitive ability to recognise their own incompetence. ([Illusory superiority](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illusory_superiority) at Wiki). Put bluntly: stupid people are too stupid to realize that they are stupid. Dunning and Kruger’s original paper: [Unskilled and Unaware of It](http://www.apa.org/journals/features/psp7761121.pdf): How Difficulties in Recognizing One’s Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2009, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-were-better-than-this/512511/45 "2009-10-07T17:35:54Z")
“This anonymous clan of slack-jawed troglodytes has cost me the election. And yet if I were to have them killed, I would be arrested. That’s democracy for you.” -C. Montgomery Burns **lurking guest** , that’s great and all, but you are speaking in such vague generalities it’s hard to make sense of it. You speak of money and power as bad things like some coffee shop beatnik standing on a soapbox. But the reality is that nothing gets done, good or bad, without money or power. Really what this comes down to is that you are upset that there are people who have different beliefs from you. What do you care if people root for Republicans or Libertarians or Gay Nazis? This is a free country and people are free to root for whatever cause they believe in, regardless how stupid. The hope is that there are enough people with enough sense to keep things muddling along. Also, I suggest you learn the concept of conflicting interests. My interests and motivations may not be the same as yours and it is stupid for you to think I should believe what you believe because what you believe may not apply to me. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2009, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-were-better-than-this/512511/46 "2009-10-07T19:52:25Z")
> [@lurking\_guest](#): > > I think that the vast majority of people are too stupid to hold a political belief, much less as passionately as they tend to hold them. > > Really? > > The “VAST MAJORITY OF PEOPLE” are the folks in EVERY country who cause the “Elites” to be uncomfortable; who sign up to fight wars; who vote as the ads tell them to; who have children and make communities; who pay taxes and buy houses; who purchase goods and services; and keep the “Elites” on that ‘edge’…“Are they still believin’ us?” - can we keep controlling them?..from the kids making sneakers in third-world countries - to the envied Americans…ALL peoples around the earth HATE injustice. > > It is not a hard concept. > > It is an easy concept. > > And most all folks recognize it. > > I guess most of the world’s populace are “Rubes” - according to the those with Power. > > But the fact is, that most common folk, in every country, under every government, know what is right or wrong. They do, do they? You think what is right and wrong is universal? A devout person in an Islamist country thinks it is wrong for a woman to run around with her legs uncovered. A person in the US, deluded by propaganda, thinks that the “death tax” is wrong because it destroys family farms - despite the fact that no such thing happens. Lots of people think it is wrong to teach that godless Darwinism to their children. I’m sure the right can find other examples on my side - no side has a monopoly on stupidity. Paying taxes doesn’t take a lot of brains - what do you think would happen if everyone had to get it together and save enough for a one-time tax bill. Remember that a bunch of people weren’t smart enough to avoid getting taken by shyster mortgage companies. It is true that every person thinks he is on the side of right, but dictators and leaders have manipulated what this means down through history. I think a dose of Mencken would expand your horizons wonderfully. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-were-better-than-this/512511.md?page=2)