Quote:
Originally Posted by peter12
Hard to be a good surgeon and an idiot.
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Not really. He was clearly smart and talented enough to get through medical school. But his dismissal of science in general shows that while talented and smart shows he is indeed an idiot.
And it has actually been looked at by Science and is known as the bias blind spot (along with other biases). One blog I think called it smart-idiot-itis.
It essentially means smart people believe they are right because they are smart so the conclusion they arrived at must be the correct one and the other person must have made the thinking error. They can also defend things they arrived at for very stupid reasons very well indeed.
In the above case he believes the pyramids were for grain storage and will defend that using big words and terms like hermetically sealed and the like. He doesn't care what anyone else says because he is smart and therefore the others are wrong. The general population think smart people know stuff, especially smart science types. And people believe them and many will simply nod their heads and say "that makes sense I believe him cause he's smart!". But he's an idiot so they shouldn't. Or at least one should always do their own research to see what the prevailing science has to say. That requires some critical thinking and a large chunk of the general population is scared to do that or think it's hard.
Obama is a psychopath!
Israel should adopt the US system for politics because theirs is too complex! (when being told about the system by an israelite)
Islamists fighting in Syria aren't Syrian but are from Morroco and Europe! It's just like the troublemakers in Ferguson!
Prison makes people gay!
I'd get everyone to rush the shooter!
Hey guy with the gun in my back I think the person you actually want is over there at the cash register!
man causing climate change isn't true!
Muslims shouldn't be president!
Pyramids stored grain!
Obamacare is the worst thing to happen to the country since slavery! In a way, it is slavery...
He's never ever been wrong. The smartest man in the room. Just ask him. If you don't believe it then you are a moron.
In reality once you get away from medicine he's the biggest idiot in the room. Well until Donald Trump comes over.
It's also why doing research and remaining objective is extremely difficult to do at times.
http://www.newyorker.com/tech/fronta...ple-are-stupid
http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borow...d-most-popular
On why does he pander...well because it's the evangelical, more right leaning Red states that tend to dominate early primaries so he hopes to win those (like Santorum and other crazies) and hope some momentum can propel him to a nomination. It never really works but that's why these guys do it.
In the end though, the GOP primary is actually dominated by the Blue states full of moderate republicans which is why the more moderate candidates tend to come out on top (and why the actual guys sitting in Washington tend to be on right side of the GOP party). The problem the last two elections has been that they have been pulled so far right early on in the primary process they can get picked apart in the general election for those things.
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/...rson-and-cruz/