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PaperclipPerfector  2mo ago (text post)   26091 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 25, 2024

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I don't think it's entirely possible to disentangle cynical vs principled stands on this, in that the way a person votes is likely to be viewed as strong evidence of their intelligence in diametrically opposed ways. A Democrat increases their estimation of the intelligence of anyone that votes Democrat, while a Republican reduces it. I see similar dynamics with vaccine debates: when the correlation between various indications of intelligence (education, income, professional responsibility) and vaccination status are pointed out, antivaxxers instantly deny their uselessness: the vaccinated are definitely stupid to get vaccinations so any metrics that indicate their intelligence are flawed.

Oh sure, that's true as well. I don't think it's strictly required though. I am well aware that white Democrats are smarter than white Republicans, on average. While I might in some sense prefer that they didn't vote, I don't actually have a principled position against my local university's lefties voting. I disagree with them on many things, I even think they're obviously wrong on many things, but I will grant that they are reasonable adults that have different opinions from me. Drunken lunatics in the park, not so much. I could not possibly care less what their opinions are on zoning laws and I can't imagine why anyone would offer any honest disagreement with that position.

I mean the obvious principle, and the one that I generally adhere to, is who gets to decide what constitutes being a drunken lunatic in the park and therefore liable to disenfranchisement? There's obviously some level of procedural disenfranchisement at which people whose opinion we do care about would be disenfranchised, indeed there's a level of procedural disenfranchisement at which I myself would probably get disenfranchised! And for fear of that outcome I prefer to remain at universal franchise.

But that's in a vacuum, then the question becomes how much do you value that principle against other principles like accurate vote counting? Weighing that balance is the debate.

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