It is mighty encouraging to see so many folks contributing to the commentary, especially so many saying they’re moved to comment after visiting and reading for long time.
It is notable that this article by W has prompted over a hundred and thirty comments in just a few hours since its posting. Usually that sort of response has taken several days of ferment and rumination by the readers.
Maybe this means people are moved to share their thoughts, and reassure each other by letting us all know there’s a larger community than we’d imagined…
I am regularly humbled reading the concise, tightly-reasoned comments of other folks who seem to have a much deeper grasp of logic than I ever will.
At the school I attended, there were lots of students who were clever, quick, excellent bullshitters, able to spew daunting volumes of specious factoids faster than this public school grad could ever respond. It’s still a tactic of many on the Left, who are more concerned with overwhelming argument than any sort of dialogue.
One of many great things about BC is that people can take time to think about things, marshall their thoughts, do a little research to find some supporting links or citations, and compose a post as part of a general exchange among people who are actually trying to get their minds around issues.
Long time ago I realized that the smartest person in the room can still get things wildly wrong. As often as not, they go wrong with a vengeance, obstinately, relentlessly, WRONG, because they are convinced they’re so much smarter than anyone else that their ideas are infallible.
Those of us who have been certified as shy of genius level have learned to muddle through with more research, study, testing of hypotheses, and abandoning stupid ideas once they’ve been shown to BE stupid. Oh, yeah… and we learn to connect with other folks who use similar methods. The things that are discovered – or “revealed” – by the so-called scientific method are not always what you expected. But you can depend on that kind of knowledge more than any consensus achieved by shouting and threats.
Tolkien in LOTR has one of his characters refer to Butterbur, the proprietor of the Inn of the Prancing Pony, as someone who may not seem overly bright, but who “in time will see through a wall.” There are a lot of people who can think things through and spot the contradictions and lies in a con or a sham.
And there are lots of lying bastards giving us lots of practice doing so.
Maybe the local hardware store will have a sale on roofing tar. I mind an Arkansas purveyor of chicken products that might be willing to give discounts on large orders of feathers.
