Liberal Platitudes with No Evidence Behind Them

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* "People know what is best for themselves."

The average life (mine included) is a quagmire of mistakes, lost opportunities now regretted, actions done but now repented, and so on. The idea that people know what is best for themselves is massively falsified by our everyday experience, by statistics on divorce, suicide, addiction, and depression, and by common sense. I think it is only by repeatedly chanting the above mantra that anyone can manage to ignore it manifest falsity.

* "We need the completely unfettered play of ideas so that the truth will triumph."

Once again, I say there is just no evidence whatsoever for this proposition. It was put forward as an article of faith by John Stuart Mill, and simply repeated by liberals ever since, without anyone ever bothering to marshall a scrap of evidence in its behalf. But, but... science!

However, this is not what happens in science, at all! In science, the only ideas that get to circulate are those carefully vetted by multiple experts in the field. So, science does not progress by the "free interplay of ideas": it progresses by carefully suppressing bad ideas before they reach a wide audience.

Comments

  1. Bob Murphy12:40 AM

    So, science does not progress by the "free interplay of ideas": it progresses by carefully suppressing bad ideas before they reach a wide audience.

    Whoa! I didn't see that coming, very interesting.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. gcallah12:51 AM

      And of course, this system can and HAS been abused to suppress good ideas. Well, nothing is perfect in this world!

      Delete

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