The Problem with Stupid Intellectuals

"Some ideas are so stupid that only intellectuals believe them."

-- Orwell, from Notes on Nationalism (1945)

Maybe up until a decade ago, I could sit and watch a debate or discussion by a couple of intellectuals, and be somewhat 'entertained'.  But I reached some stage where it often pains me to watch intellectuals, journalists, scientists, political figures and provocateurs engage in discussions.

If you sit there and bring up poverty....the end-game of the discussion usually centers on what you want to 'give' the folks in poverty.  Yeah, it has to be a 'gift' or some government promise in the end.  Job-training or a craft-skill crash-course?  Birth-control knowledge and reasonable cost methods for the control?  Classes and knowledge on how to manage money once you get it?  None of these usually get brought up.

If you sit there and bring up gun control....the end-game of the discussion is usually centered on all weapons being banned (like the Australia method).  Hunters and farmers?  Left out of the discussion.  The mere fact that probably 90-percent of Republicans and Democrats in urban areas like St. Louis, Memphis or Birmingham have pistols in their car and house, and they have no desire to give them up?  The fact that most of these mass shooters from the past twenty years have legal or illegal drugs/prescription drugs in their system?  These are things never brought up in these discussions.

If you sit there and talk over fixing health care costs....the end-game of the discussion is that the dozen-odd things which make health-care expensive....cannot be discussed.  Generally, the talking intellectuals just want everyone to be included, and subsidy coverage for the poverty-class to be the support structure to keep this going.  We won't talk about drug companies, law-suit craziness, or the cost of medical schools. These are topics forbidden in any discussion.

If you sit there and bring up tax reform.....the end-game is a wild debate where no one really wants to pay taxes.....not the private wealthy guy....not the companies....and not working-class guy.  Why the government can't downsize it's spending budget?  Don't bother bringing that up.  Also, don't bring up state-by-state allocations.  There are literally hundreds of topics under this situation, which are just laying off in the shadows of the conversation.

If you sit there and bring up climate change....the end-game is usually to create a wealth distribution gimmick where rich industrialized countries pay the lesser countries.....for something, but you aren't sure about how this really works. The fear-factor about peer review?  Don't bring that topic up with the intellectuals.  The fact that they were fairly settled on the science in the mid-1970s with global cooling, and then a dozen years later....insisted that the science was settled in the late-1980s.....global warming was the absolute problem....then said a dozen years later, nope, the science is settled on climate change.  The fact that 500 sciences exist in the world, and only one is settled apparently, never dawns on most scientists talking the subject. 

An apology to the scientists and intellectuals.....you could do better, if you used your knowledge combined with common sense.  But you've yet to reach that level.