Smart people tend to think smart people are immune from irrational beliefs. The smart scale has belief at one end and rationality at the other. The conceit of smart people is that they populate the rational end, while dumb people are at the other end. This leads to hubris. Smart people often fail to examine their own beliefs, assuming their every utterance is the model of rationality. It also leads to blindly going along with the crackpot ideas popularized by pseudo-intellectual posers adept at playing the role of smart guy.
The fact is, that smart scale is a fiction. Smart people are just as prone to nutty ideas as anyone else. Belief as a stand-alone cognitive trait is largely independent of our ability to work the puzzles of life. History is full of examples. Francis Bacon dabbled in the occult and alchemy. Ben Franklin was a Rosicrucian. J.B.S. Haldane was the father of population genetics and a dedicated communist, then a socialist and at one point a fan of eastern mysticism. The most bloody ideologies were the invention of intelligent men.
Another consequences of thinking belief and rationality are mutually exclusive is the mistake of assuming a rational motive to the crazy actions of smart people. For example, Steve Sailer thinks people like Paige Harden are running a complex ruse when they go out in public and howl from the Progressive catechism. After all, Harden is a smart person who spends all day working tough problems related to human genetic diversity. Sailer jumps to the conclusion that she must be doing this to safeguard her research.
That’s comforting to a smart guy like Sailer as it appeals to his preference for a wheels-within-wheels explanation of the world. The truth is though, smart people are just as prone to group think and crazy talk as everyone else. Read Mx. Harden’s social media feed and you come away with the sense that she is every bit as nutty as the hormonal feminists from the womyn’s studies department. She believes these things, because these are the things her social class now believes. All of her smart friends hate white people too.
That’s the age old error regarding the Left. The default assumption is that they are acting as rational players. If they are rational, yet arriving at insane ideas like communism, egalitarianism and multiculturalism, they must have the wrong facts or a mistake in their reasoning. After all, they are smart people and smart people always seek the factually correct answer. Therefore, the only explanation for their mistake is they lack the facts or have a flaw in their logic. Fix that and the radical will embrace you as a brother.
The bourgeois Marxists of a century ago are now bourgeois anti-whites of today. Read old books from a century ago and it is remarkable to see how many smart people bought into fascism, socialism and communism. The New Deal intellectuals were all fans of European fascism and many were communists. The British ruling class was saturated with various forms of socialist. Today, you cannot be a Cloud Person without embracing some degree of anti-white hatred. It’s what’s come to define the Western ruling elites. It’s their religion.
Of course, most of the bourgeois socialists of a century ago were serious about their radicalism right up until it required sacrifice. It is the old gag about the pig and the chicken discussing breakfast. The pig is committed, while the chicken is merely involved. You see that with the modern anti-whites. They talk like MLK and live like the KKK. You can be sure that Mx.Harden makes sure to avoid the spicier parts of Austin like Montopolis, which is just seven percent white. She appreciates her diversity from a great distance.
Just as pointing out the outlandish contradictions between how bourgeois socialists lived and what they advocated had no effect on them, pointing out Mx. Harden’s hypocrisy is a pointless exercise as well. She’s not motivated in this area by rationality. In fact, she will hate you all the more for having tried to force her to focus on herself. The whole point of being an anti-white is to hide from her own whiteness. Her belonging to the anti-white anointed is all about self-abnegation. She hates white people because she hates herself.
Modernity is based on the false assumption that man is rational, at least in the general sense. That people wish to be satisfied in their material wants and at peace with their neighbors. The truth is, people are motivated by a quest for grace. Humans want to believe the universe cares for them and it has a purpose for their lives. Therefore they seek out some avenue to reach that state of grace, to give purpose to their lives. Ask Paige Harden about her research, and you will get some statement about social justice.
That’s the key to understanding the current crisis. Our ruling elites believe they are on the side of history, so the results of their actions must be the will of the heavens. They don’t measure the results empirically or think through the consequences. When they see white people complaining about anti-white rhetoric, the anti-whites see this as proof of their righteousness. Marxist said the recalcitrant working classes were suffering from false consciousness. Today’s anti-whites accuse recalcitrant whites of white privilege.
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The really repulsive thing about arguing with leftists is that they refuse to empty their drool cups during their “discourse.”