[quote]but i had one professor, vincent for history,[quote]

Don't talk trash about him of he'll RUN OVER your foot!

9/7/2006 5:41:53 PM

i've had many of them

but i'm an environmental technology student, sooooo.....

9/7/2006 6:09:22 PM

[Edited on September 10, 2006 at 12:41 AM. Reason : .]

9/10/2006 12:30:25 AM

Regarding the hypothesis that more educated people tend to be more liberal, the underlying assumption is that education = intelligence, and therefore, if you are less educated, you are probably less intelligent, explaining your rightward leanings. I have a couple of thoughts:

1. The assumption that education = intelligence is not clear cut. I'd bet education level has more to do with the *parent's* socio-economic status than the *offspring's* intelligence.

2. Education is more relevant to certain occupations (such as academia) than others. Again, I'd bet most Fortune 500 CEOs lean right. But they're less likely to have masters or PhDs than professors. Does that make them less intelligent?

3. In my career, I've noticed a *big* difference between 1st generation academicians (ie, parents didn't have advanced degrees), versus those that are 2nd or 3rd generation. The former tend to be more conservative; the latter more liberal. Make what you will of that -- I have my own opinions


[Edited on September 10, 2006 at 12:34 AM. Reason : .]

9/10/2006 12:30:30 AM

Quote :

"I'd bet education level has more to do with the *parent's* socio-economic status than the *offspring's* intelligence."

actually, it best correlates with the education level of your parents.

Quote :

"But they're less likely to have masters or PhDs than professors. Does that make them less intelligent?"

Yes. The smartest dont up the richest, nor are the richest the smartest. But the educated certaintly are the smartest. Any attempt to argue against this is absurd. If acedemia doesnt favor the smart, the system would collapse.

Quote :

"education = intelligence, and therefore, if you are less educated, you are probably less intelligent, explaining your rightward leanings."

Yea that sounds about right.


[Edited on September 10, 2006 at 1:14 AM. Reason : hgj23]

9/10/2006 1:06:01 AM

Quote :

"Yes. The smartest dont up the richest, nor are the richest the smartest. But the educated certaintly are the smartest. Any attempt to argue against this is absurd. If acedemia doesnt favor the smart, the system would collapse."

You are an idiot.

9/10/2006 1:19:26 AM

^^ So education does correlate more strongly with the parent's educational level than socioeconomic status? Great, show me the evidence. But even then, my point is made -- education has less to do with the offspring's intelligence than the parent's characteristics.

Obviously, we can put out ancedotal evidence all day about whether education implies intelligence, but let me just share one experience with you:

I live in a neighborhood full of highly-educated professors. After one storm, an *engineering* professor from Duke was out in his yard, trying to cut down a small pine tree with a *circular* saw. Another prof (UNC) couldn't figure out how to tighten the chain on his chainsaw, so he took it in for "service." Whatever education they had clearly didn't cover common sense.

In fact, I'll put forth a hypothesis (how it would be tested, I'm not sure):

H1: Education level is inversely correlated with common sense

The inference is, of course, that liberals tend to lack common sense

9/10/2006 11:32:21 AM

Quote :

"Great, show me the evidence. But even then, my point is made -- education has less to do with the offspring's intelligence than the parent's characteristics."

anyone can look up those studies. if you want to know the truth, youll have to look for it. i am not going to gather information for you.

9/10/2006 1:44:48 PM

Oh c'mon, look it up for me -- you are the educated one, after all. But as I said, my main point holds: education <> intelligence.

9/10/2006 2:00:28 PM

unless one depends on the other.

9/10/2006 2:10:42 PM

Ok, I'll go ahead and put the kibosh on this stream of thought.

The Pew Center did a study where they divided respondents into four groups, based on their responses to questions that measured their position on 1) economic / governmental issues and 2) social issues.

http://pewresearch.org/obdeck/?ObDeckID=17

The taxonomy they came up with were liberals (liberal on all issues), conservatives (conservative on all issues), libertarians (conservative on economic / governmental issues; liberal on social issues), and populists (liberal on economic / governmental issues; conservative on social issues). In the interest of full disclosure, I should point out that I lean libertarian.

Now look at the table labeled "Demographics of Ideological Groups". Yes indeed, liberals have the largest percentage of college graduates. But look at the populists: they have the *lowest* percentage.

So if one wants to insist that liberals must be right because they are more educated, and therefore more intelligent, than it's only fair to point out that they also share their views on economic and governmental issues with the *least* educated group.

[Edited on September 10, 2006 at 2:52 PM. Reason : .]

9/10/2006 2:52:16 PM

Yeah, and on social issues conservatives share their views with the least educated group, too. You're an idiot.

9/10/2006 3:24:36 PM

^ As I said, I tend toward libertarian (economically conservative / socially liberal). If you're having trouble with any of the bigger words or holding multiple ideas in your head at once, do let us know, won't you?

9/10/2006 3:48:42 PM

Quote :

"If you're having trouble with any of the bigger words or holding multiple ideas in your head at once, do let us know, won't you?"

You're a dick.


[Edited on September 10, 2006 at 4:01 PM. Reason : .]

9/10/2006 3:55:42 PM