The author argues that altruism is a characteristic of smartness and therefore, since Liberals support the federal government giving people money, they're altruistic. First of all, that's not altruism, that's being on board for someone else (government) taking the responsibility for helping the needy and hoping that rich people get soaked and the individual Liberal voter will escape with little or nothing required of him leaving said average voter to pat himself on the back for being so caring toward his fellow man.
These days definitions of things aren't what they used to be. Bigotry used to mean not allowing other people to have their own point of view. But these days, if you have a point of view Liberals don't agree with, you're not allowed to have it, because you're a bigot. Yes, I'm scratching my head too. You're only a bigot when you have a point of view a Progressive or Liberal doesn't like, when they have points of view you don't like, they're not bigots, you're still the bigot. Scratching my head doesn't help me get around that, so I stopped.Altruism has been rehabilitated to mean, "The desire for the state or federal government to tax people who have money so that some of it can be given to the needy, no personal involvement or thought involved." In my thinking, that's not altruism. Altruism costs the individual something that matters to him, adding a few dollars to one's tax bill doesn't cost the average voter anything--it doesn't even cost him the time to think about whether his tax dollars are being used wisely. Heck, many average voters don't even pay taxes!
Using phony altruism as the scale to determine intelligence is a pretty flimsy way to set one's self up as the smarty on the block! It's kind of like saying that because a group of five guys have won a few million dollars in a League of Legends Tournament, they're the best athletes in the world. (League of Legends is an online game you can play for free where you control an avatar that co-operates with other players' avatars. Your team of avatars goes around shooting things with the goal of taking the enemy's base.) Good League of Legends players have teamwork, strategy and fast reflexes. I'm pretty sure those qualities are on the list for best athlete--that is unless you're a weight lifter (I'm assuming that teamwork and fast reflexes might not be weightlifter's strong suit), an individual swimmer or runner (no teamwork required) or any number of other sports that don't require any number of skills which other sports require. It's probably safe to say that people who compete in sports played by physically interacting with some kind of environmental element like water or snow or weights probably won't think a top League of Legend player, who sits on his backside punching computer keys and operating a mouse, is an athlete.
If Satoshi Kanazawa had posted an article reporting how League of Legend players are the best athletes in the world, other athletes would suspect she's an electronic gamer who loves League of Legends--kind of like, how I, a Conservative, suspect that Kanazawa is a Liberal who loves the total disconnect and lack of real effort and thought involved in the process of supporting some of her tax dollars (hopefully most of those tax dollars coming from the so called "rich") be spent to help the needy and wants to believe that makes her and her ilk smarties.
The Liberal back patting never ends.
Satoshi Kanazawa: Why Liberals are More Intelligent than Conservatives
For more analysis on Liberal back patting check out:
Reason Magazine: Are Conservatives Dumber?
Update: Since the initial publication of this article I have learned that using the term "guys" to refer to a group of human beings, whether that group is all male or not (especially if it's not) is a micro-aggression. I am female and have never felt the use of the male pronoun "he" as the generic pronoun to be a vile or evil practice, but learned in the 80's that it was. I still don't find it offensive. I also like words like "stewardess" and "actress" and so on. These days I insist on using "he" as the generic pronoun and "stewardess" as well as other banned words because it annoys people. Now, my ability to annoy people has been expanded, through no effort on my part, to include words that I regularly use, words like "guys." You guys who are annoyed that I insist on using "he" as the generic pronoun are probably going apoplectic over "guys." Well, that's fine. Knock yourself out. You've never cared about what has annoyed or offended me either, so we're even.
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