# Opinions or beliefs that you suspect some people secretly hold **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 15, 2016, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-or-beliefs-that-you-suspect-some-people-secretly-hold/757396 "2016-06-15T03:48:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2016, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-or-beliefs-that-you-suspect-some-people-secretly-hold/757396/81 "2016-06-27T15:29:17Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > “Extreme promiscuity” = dating, right? > > Consequences? I think \*\*Lumpy \*\*means that some people would like to have hundreds or thousands of different sexual partners. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2016, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-or-beliefs-that-you-suspect-some-people-secretly-hold/757396/82 "2016-06-28T16:07:47Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > I think \*\*Lumpy \*\*means that some people would like to have hundreds or thousands of different sexual partners. Not necessarily large numbers, but the complete freedom to boink anyone willing without being called a skank or a horndog. ---
**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:** [June 29, 2016, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-or-beliefs-that-you-suspect-some-people-secretly-hold/757396/83 "2016-06-29T09:02:24Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > I think \*\*Lumpy \*\*means that some people would like to have hundreds or thousands of different sexual partners. I’m not really sure that’s a secret, though. I don’t mean that in a glib way, either. I’d say that’s more “a really obvious statement”. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2016, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-or-beliefs-that-you-suspect-some-people-secretly-hold/757396/84 "2016-06-29T09:18:31Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > As most people who read the political threads know, I’m a conservative, but I admit I tend to be partial to Jewish Democratic officeholders. I don’t think it’s because they are Jewish, but for some reason they just rub me the right way whereas gentile Democrats normally piss me off for some reason. So I’ve obviously got a pro-Jewish bias on some level, which makes sense given that I’m Jewish. It’s probably just a matter of “speaking the same language”. There are some people with whom you (generic you) communicate better than with others: more background information in common, a similar sense of humor, or having the same notions about what constitutes good manners (rather than mere basic manners). I find that I communicate just fine with some groups that other people consider “horrible” and “closed” and “scary”. Usually we find out that, as soon as we scratch the surface, we turn out to have more of a common cultural background than it seemed at first sight. I’m betting that you’ve had instances where you found out someone was Jewish after you’d seen you liked what he said. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2017, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-or-beliefs-that-you-suspect-some-people-secretly-hold/757396/85 "2017-03-02T22:36:02Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > Back to the OP: > I suspect that in November, we will discover that many, many more people than we thought hold a secret which they never said in public: that they support Donald Trump. …You may have been on to something. ---
**Author:** ![x-ray\_vision](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/x-ray_vision/32/351_2.png) [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2017, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-or-beliefs-that-you-suspect-some-people-secretly-hold/757396/86 "2017-03-05T00:33:17Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > Back to the OP: Back to the OP? The thread seemed pretty on track to me. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2017, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-or-beliefs-that-you-suspect-some-people-secretly-hold/757396/87 "2017-03-05T00:51:13Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > I believe that most people are significantly more racist than they’re willing to publicly admit. > [@Bricker](#): > > Everyone’s a little bit racist, sometimes > Doesn’t mean we go around committing hate crimes > Look around and you will find > No one’s really color blind > > [/Princeton & Kate Monster, AvenueQ] I believe that most people are significantly more racist and sexist than they are willing to admit to themselves, let alone publicly. Does mean I think they’re criminals or even bad people. Just more human than they think they are. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2017, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-or-beliefs-that-you-suspect-some-people-secretly-hold/757396/88 "2017-03-05T01:04:53Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > \*\* > 1#. \*\*I believe that a substantial number of people - on the political right and left - secretly desire eugenics-based population reduction. I don’t mean that they want genocide of the “Shove them in a gas chamber with Zyklon B” variety so much as I mean that if they had a magic button that would make “undesirable” people in the world disappear, they’d press it. > > So, for instance, some liberals would push a button to make conservatives, pro-lifers, creationists, MRAs, etc. disappear, while some conservatives would push a button to make liberals, gays, pro-choicers, blacks, etc. disappear. And some liberals \*and \*conservatives would push a button to make Down Syndrome or low-IQ or ugly people disappear. You’re not describing eugenics, which was a theory of inherited traits that fell by the wayside once DNA was discovered (albeit, biology is so poorly taught, and eugenics seems intuitive, that some people still sort of believe it). What you are describing is more like judicial murder the way kings used to use it to get rid of the old regime when there had been a not-so-smooth transfer of power (cf. England’s Henry VII). Or some kind of weird utopia the way the Bolsheviks tried to achieve it, amusingly (it’s funny because it’s true) described by Greta Garbo playing apparatchik Ninotchka in the film of the same name: “There are going to be fewer but better Russians.” Eugenics was a terrible thing, genocide is a terrible thing, judicial murder “at the king’s pleasure,” was a terrible thing, and while Bolshevism probably had the least selfish intentions, in the end was a terrible thing as well. They were all very different things, though. **Here’s mine** : I think Trump won the election because he is a man. Or, Clinton lost because she’s a woman, whatever. I think when it came down to it, there are a lot of people who just wouldn’t vote for a woman for president. They had some gut feeling that the president had to be a man. I mean, we had probably the most qualified woman in the country-- hell, the most qualified person in the country, from the standpoint of resumes, and she was running against Bozo the Clown. But Bozo had a penis, and in the final analysis, people wanted a penis in the Oval Office. You can analyze Trump’s populist appeal till your soup is cold, or Clinton’s “un-personableness” (which I disagree with-- I think the media is overreaching) until it is reified, but it comes down to the penis. I think that it isn’t just men, I think it’s women too. All their lives, the president has been a man in a suit, has has a certain kind of presence, and Clinton didn’t “click.” They went with the familiar, the guy in the suit. They may have convinced themselves it was another reason, but I don’t buy it. It was the penis. ---
**Author:** ![Weisshund](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ba8739/32.png) [@Weisshund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weisshund)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2017, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-or-beliefs-that-you-suspect-some-people-secretly-hold/757396/89 "2017-03-05T03:47:17Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > \*\* > 1#. \*\*I believe that a substantial number of people - on the political right and left - secretly desire eugenics-based population reduction. I don’t mean that they want genocide of the “Shove them in a gas chamber with Zyklon B” variety so much as I mean that if they had a magic button that would make “undesirable” people in the world disappear, they’d press it. Even i agree some people should not breed, but i also agree it is not my right to make that choice for them. But yea i do think you could get a lot of people to go in for that sort of thing if packaged correctly > [@](#): > > \*\*2#. \*\* I believe that a substantial number of people care more about animals than humans, and would save an animal life over a human life, or even many human lives. Unfortunately i disagree with you there, i think more people care even less about an animals life than they do another human that is not them self. I think most people would chose to kill the animal over say getting a smudge in their paint that could be buffed out. > [@](#): > > \*\*3#. \*\* I believe that a substantial number of people would prefer tyranny over democracy if that tyranny were to their political liking - namely, that some conservatives hanker for a right-wing regime and some liberals hanker for a left-wing regime. That could very well be true, yet they would not realize it until somehow they found their selves at opposite ends to the tyranny > [@](#): > > \*\*4#. \*\* I believe that many people on the right and left who call for “equality” don’t really want equality - they want \*supremacy \*for their faction/group over other factions/groups. I believe some do yes, i wont say all, but some definitely do, which only hurts the reasonable and realistic people in the same group. I believe a majority of the people would kill a perfect stranger for a modest sum of money as long as they could do it indirectly ---
**Author:** ![Weisshund](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ba8739/32.png) [@Weisshund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weisshund)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2017, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-or-beliefs-that-you-suspect-some-people-secretly-hold/757396/90 "2017-03-05T04:00:42Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > **Here’s mine** : I think Trump won the election because he is a man. Or, Clinton lost because she’s a woman, whatever. I think when it came down to it, there are a lot of people who just wouldn’t vote for a woman for president. Nah, i’d vote for Elanor Roosevelt in a heart beat ---
**Author:** ![Atomic\_Alex](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atomic_alex/32/175_2.png) [@Atomic\_Alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Alex)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2017, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-or-beliefs-that-you-suspect-some-people-secretly-hold/757396/91 "2017-03-05T15:44:06Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > I believe a significant portion of men hold varying degrees of scorn in their hearts for women. I believe a significent portion of women feel the same about men, in my personal experience, and against the common stereotype, women are actually much more vocal about it in an intimate setting than men, although to be fair they’re bitchy about both genders, but I’ve heard plenty of “Typical man…” comments dripping with open contempt. I also believe its a minority of both genders who feel this way about the opposite sex but as in all things they’re the ones who get the attention rather than most people who just want to get along. Oh and to add to the thread, I there are many people on both sides of the political spectrum who would quite happily shut down free speech entirely so only the ‘correct’ opinions are heard, even to the extent that they would use a magical/sci-fi device that would stop people even _thinking_ these thoughts if it were possible. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2017, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-or-beliefs-that-you-suspect-some-people-secretly-hold/757396/92 "2017-03-05T21:28:15Z")
I believe that genetics has a lot more to do with who we are than anyone wants to admit. I believe most of us are what we are due to genetics, and all the shrinkery and drugs in the world ain’t going to change that. I believe most people are immensely talented, but talent is immensely overrated. Luck counts more. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-or-beliefs-that-you-suspect-some-people-secretly-hold/757396.md?page=4)