The Role of Ignorance in Politics

The third most favourite game in politics, after Mud-Slinging, and References to Fascism, is Accusations of Ignorance.

Generally speaking the game of "Accusation of Ignorance" is played by comparing your opponent's knowledge to an authoritative source of information. You then highlight the difference, and voila - you have proven that your opponent is ignorant.

Let's go through an example. Republican Representative Michele Bachman stands up in congress, and blames the Democrats for the great depression, citing as the key factor in triggering the depression, the Hoot-Smalley Act.

By checking with Wikipedia, you can find (if you're lucky) the Smoot-Hawley act, dreamed up by Republicans and signed by Herbert Hoover.

However, the Republicans are playing this game too. And they have come up with a powerful defence. They have challenged every authoritative source of knowledge as being Liberal-Biased. For example, Wikipedia is challenged by "Conservapedia", a new online encyclopedia that provides the "true" facts as opposed to the leftist leaning slant of Wikipedia. We all know by now that the mainstream media is biased towards the liberals, and to counteract that we now have Fox News with the slogan "Fair and Balanced" that presents the facts and lets you decide. We also know that almost all universities (except Bible Colleges) are under the control of the leftists. And the scientific community is also anti-Republican - meaning all the scientists who are doing research and participating in the so-called peer review process.

I think it is fair to say that nothing has been left out, so there are no authoritative sources respected by both the left and the right. If you are a conservative, you can now get all the information you need without ever going to left-leaning public schools, mainstream media, left leaning online encyclopedias, without paying attention to left leaning mainstream scientists, university professors, or newspapers.

Now see if you can win this game of calling the Republicans ignorant. To do so, you must read an authoritative but not a left-leaning source. I will warn you that reading conservative sources is not an easy task, for example Conservapedia states about Hitler that "Hitler is a leftist" and also states about leftists that they "favor reduced military budgets."


What does conservapedia say about Smoot Hawley?

"The Hawley-Smoot Tariff was a high U.S. tariff enacted in 1930. It raised tariffs on imports to protect American manufacturers. It is criticized by nearly all economists as a huge mistake; many consider it partly responsible for the Great Depression. Modern economics, however, places greater blame for the Great Depression on the inaction of the Federal Reserve. See Debt Deflation Hypothesis."

Conservapedia does not assign any blame to the Republicans, and seems to deflect blame to the Federal Reserve, meaning more reading from Conservapedia is needed.



What about the left leaning Wikipedia? Of course they blame the Republicans.

"The [Smoot Hawley] act was pioneered by Senator Reed Smoot, a Republican from Utah, and Representative Willis C. Hawley, a Republican from Oregon.

.......................

Hoover opposed the bill and called it "vicious, extortionate, and obnoxious" because he felt it would undermine the commitment he had pledged to international cooperation. (Hoover was right. The international community levied their own tariffs in response after the bill had become law.) However, in the end, Hoover bowed to pressure from his own party and business leaders and signed the bill. [9]

Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke against the act while campaigning for president in 1932.[4]"