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Originally Posted by skylark
I think that the assumptions I make are more based in statistics than others, simply to say that I think college-educated people are more likely than not to read the paper, watch the news instead of wheel of fortune, etc. Sure it isn't a guarantee and surely we have all known people that graduated from college by a miracle against nature.
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Well, feel free to show those statistics if you'd like to reference them, but (as we've already discussed) I'm not 100% sure that reading the paper or watching the news gives a deeper level of understanding beyond rhetoric, given Obama's speaking style.
Quote:
Originally Posted by skylark
I always find it funny how when you say something on GC, it turns into that you said that something was ALWAYS true, no matter what, under any circumstances, because someone wants to pull your thought down off of the shelf and give it a beating. I think the expression is something like taking down a straw man (or close).
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I don't really know what this means (which is probably part of the issue), but if you're referring to the logical fallacy of "setting up a strawman" I don't really think I'm doing that.
I'm claiming that you're making an improper assumption that college grads have an implicitly or explicitly deep understanding of their chosen candidate's politics by nature (or whatever), just like others are improper in assuming Obama's followers are superficial fans of his rhetoric. I don't know if it's "always true" - I assume everyone reads message board posts as opinion pieces barring citation. Maybe that's dumb? No idea, dude.
Quote:
Originally Posted by skylark
Anyway, I certainly don't think that a college degree protects you from ignorance, nor do I think that if you are out there without a college degree you can't be one of the smartest thinkers in the country. I think that it is merely an indicator that a person might have more actively engaged brain cells than the average non-college-educated person.
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I'm not saying that college-educated people aren't, on the whole, more intelligent - I'm saying that there's a certain threshold for going "deeper" than rhetoric or simply "I like him!" You have clearly passed this threshold yourself, so I think you're assuming others have as well. I don't think there is any evidence that this threshold is set at "college educated."