Dachshynddawg
Verified User
Despite the total failure of socialism, it is amazingly popular in the US where recent polls have shown that around 43% of Americans say socialism would be a good thing for the country. There are also an astonishing number of socialist sympathisers on this forum.
This all really blows my mind, as does the fact that socialist politicians like Alexandria Ocasio - Cortez and Bernie Sanders are celebrities in the US.
My intuitive rationalisation for the strange popularity of socialism in America is that it is the result of plain stupidity. Because, given its disastrous track record only a person who was quite dumb would ever vote socialist.
Given this, I was interested to see that a scientific research paper was published in the High-Impact Journal, "Intelligence", in 2014 by an Oxford University academic , Dr Noah Carl, (REFERENCE: Noah Carl, "Intelligence", 44 (2014), pp. 142 - 149) showing that intelligence was strongly correlated with a belief in less government intervention in the economy.
This was not a one-off result. There is also reputable research evidence supporting the conclusion that Americans who identify as Libertarian (classic Liberals), radical believers in capitalism and social freedoms have the highest average IQ of any American political identity. In short, the negative relationship between IQ and socialism suggest that the ideology is not the most intelligent view.
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One reason that socialism is so surprisingly popular in America is that expressing socialist views can look very kind and caring. To disagree with these kind of views, even if it suggests intelligence, is not so sexy.
Imagine you are a young man on a first date with an attractive girl and the conversation rears into politics. The girl expresses a desire to help the poor with more welfare spending. She is probably a rather caring, compassionate person. If the boy disagrees and suggests that cuts to welfare will incentivise poor people to look for work, instead of being dependent on the state, immediately the girl will see red flags. How could she possibly start a relationship with someone so callous ?
Socialism is sexy, but it is the proverbial dumb blonde of American politics. And a potential partner probably prefers sexy AOC-stye socialism over the cold rationalism and logic of heartless capitalism.
I remember the night over 30 years ago that I was in my lounge room at home and I first heard the news that the Berlin Wall had fallen come down the wire. I must confess that I got a little "misty" for a while as I watched the the historic images on my television. After all it was the end of the "Evil Empire" and the "Triumph of Human Freedom" I was looking at, and that's not just cheap, empty hyperbole, because I was seeing it with my own eyes for real. It was an extraordinary moving experience to see the overjoyed German people frantically attacking the hated wall with their picks, axes, sledge hammers, iron bars...anything they could find that could smash the wall's four-inch thick concrete.
Like I said at the start of this post, the American love affair with socialism in the 21st century baffles me, regardless of the diabolical and disastrous failures of socialism many US citizens are still irrationally attached to it. I think that our brains are the key to seeing the blatant tragedy of socialism for what it is. And while capitalists should not insult insult the intelligence of their political opponents, they should be frank with them - SOCIALISM IS DUMB !!
Finally, having said that, just because capitalists are smarter does not, of course, mean they are right; BUT, it is foolish for socialists not to take them more seriously.
Dachshund
This all really blows my mind, as does the fact that socialist politicians like Alexandria Ocasio - Cortez and Bernie Sanders are celebrities in the US.
My intuitive rationalisation for the strange popularity of socialism in America is that it is the result of plain stupidity. Because, given its disastrous track record only a person who was quite dumb would ever vote socialist.
Given this, I was interested to see that a scientific research paper was published in the High-Impact Journal, "Intelligence", in 2014 by an Oxford University academic , Dr Noah Carl, (REFERENCE: Noah Carl, "Intelligence", 44 (2014), pp. 142 - 149) showing that intelligence was strongly correlated with a belief in less government intervention in the economy.
This was not a one-off result. There is also reputable research evidence supporting the conclusion that Americans who identify as Libertarian (classic Liberals), radical believers in capitalism and social freedoms have the highest average IQ of any American political identity. In short, the negative relationship between IQ and socialism suggest that the ideology is not the most intelligent view.
.
One reason that socialism is so surprisingly popular in America is that expressing socialist views can look very kind and caring. To disagree with these kind of views, even if it suggests intelligence, is not so sexy.
Imagine you are a young man on a first date with an attractive girl and the conversation rears into politics. The girl expresses a desire to help the poor with more welfare spending. She is probably a rather caring, compassionate person. If the boy disagrees and suggests that cuts to welfare will incentivise poor people to look for work, instead of being dependent on the state, immediately the girl will see red flags. How could she possibly start a relationship with someone so callous ?
Socialism is sexy, but it is the proverbial dumb blonde of American politics. And a potential partner probably prefers sexy AOC-stye socialism over the cold rationalism and logic of heartless capitalism.
I remember the night over 30 years ago that I was in my lounge room at home and I first heard the news that the Berlin Wall had fallen come down the wire. I must confess that I got a little "misty" for a while as I watched the the historic images on my television. After all it was the end of the "Evil Empire" and the "Triumph of Human Freedom" I was looking at, and that's not just cheap, empty hyperbole, because I was seeing it with my own eyes for real. It was an extraordinary moving experience to see the overjoyed German people frantically attacking the hated wall with their picks, axes, sledge hammers, iron bars...anything they could find that could smash the wall's four-inch thick concrete.
Like I said at the start of this post, the American love affair with socialism in the 21st century baffles me, regardless of the diabolical and disastrous failures of socialism many US citizens are still irrationally attached to it. I think that our brains are the key to seeing the blatant tragedy of socialism for what it is. And while capitalists should not insult insult the intelligence of their political opponents, they should be frank with them - SOCIALISM IS DUMB !!
Finally, having said that, just because capitalists are smarter does not, of course, mean they are right; BUT, it is foolish for socialists not to take them more seriously.
Dachshund