tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post3490357610803936345..comments2024-03-27T03:19:11.216-04:00Comments on Assistant Village Idiot: Jesus and Personal FreedomAssistant Village Idiothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-27148696711955023932013-07-10T17:24:24.453-04:002013-07-10T17:24:24.453-04:00It seems an eminently fair set of criticisms.
I w...It seems an eminently fair set of criticisms.<br /><br />I will note that Democrats tended to do much better on photographs of people, Republicans on text. I don't know what to make of that. And it's not fully consistent anyway.<br /><br />The difference is indeed minor, about the same as Satoshi Kanazawa's oft-circulated (to me, anyway) research that liberals are smarter than conservatives. It is further imperiled by the fact that it is an online voluntary quiz, which would select for people with computers who had confidence they might do reasonably well. Not a representative sample of anyone.<br /><br />I included it because it goes against CW and amused me in that. But you are correct that I should have resisted that temptation, because it isn't quite what it says it is.Assistant Village Idiothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-66367999677440964912013-07-10T15:39:10.281-04:002013-07-10T15:39:10.281-04:00long time, no write
I won't comment on the fi...long time, no write<br /><br />I won't comment on the first part of your post, but I will call shenanigans on the last part about the Pew Center poll. Intrigued, I clicked through to read the link and immediately knew that something was fishy....no link to the study/quiz, just a link to another post somewhere else...which also neglected to link to the quiz.<br /><br />I spent several minutes trying to find the quiz myself, with many of the results just bringing me the repeated echo chamber of the snipped paragraph and no link to the study.<br /><br />That seemed very odd to me. Why wasn't anyone linking to the piece?<br /><br />I finally found it through some more digging.<br /><br />http://www.people-press.org/2011/11/07/what-the-public-knows-in-words-and-pictures/<br /><br />First, I would note that the survey was done in 2011, not 2010 as almost every conservative site I found on Google results claims. That tells me right off the bat that no one bothered to even look up the original source.<br /><br />It's one of those"Yeah, that totally makes sense and has got to be true !" reactions. A reaction that gets passed around from one conservative group/blog/forum to another with no reference, link, clarification or questioning. Just a spoon fed story to the faithful who always knew that Democrats/liberals are dumb.<br /><br />Secondly, I would note that some of the test questions at that particular date favor Republican knowledge. Who is speaker of the house? What is the symbol of the GOP? Republicans have a majority in? Country with debt problems?(Greece, a common reference point for Republican talking points about the economy.) Identify Israel on a map. (a country whose relationship is a high priority for Republicans.)<br /><br />Thirdly, I would note that there is an actual percentage difference between the parties of 1.9%. Not exactly a huge gap.<br /><br />If you look at this same quiz from 2013:<br /><br />http://www.people-press.org/2013/02/05/what-the-public-knows-in-pictures-maps-graphs-and-symbols/<br /><br />You will see that Democrats are off by only .1% in that quiz. But the questions also favor Democrats a little more because more of the questions relate to Democratic leaders and issues.<br /><br />I know that you try to moderate the misleading headline with your comments, but I still felt the need to point out the problems inherent in declaring one large group of people "smarter" than another large group of people on the basis of this 13 question quiz....especially in the context of its use on conservative blogs/forums.<br /><br />Misrepresentation, spin, broad conclusions,the neglect to actually link to the source material....etc.<br /><br />The type of thing that really bugs me from either side.terrihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12399706958844399216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-71945219075027009672013-07-10T15:35:34.633-04:002013-07-10T15:35:34.633-04:00This comment has been removed by the author.terrihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12399706958844399216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-84210005052312681932013-07-09T23:55:53.614-04:002013-07-09T23:55:53.614-04:00In the Scottish derbfine, there was a distinction ...In the Scottish <i>derbfine</i>, there was a distinction made for full siblings, but beyond that it was all one. First, second, third cousins or more distant were the same so long as one was in that tree.Assistant Village Idiothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-15092788675426947382013-07-09T22:58:19.511-04:002013-07-09T22:58:19.511-04:00I've read of brothers raising each other's...I've read of brothers raising each other's sons. From some villages there isn't always a distinction between cousin and brother, and sometimes even between a cousin and a more distant kinsman raised in the village.jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01792036361407527304noreply@blogger.com