As any parent of non-liberal teenagers knows, our children are berated into silence on their views
Assuming that is true - and as we are talking about young conservatives, I shall take it to be so - there is a very fine reason for it. It is almost certainly an effort to inculcate those young geysers of sophistry with the notion that it’s better they keep mouth shut and appear stupid than open it and remove all doubt. It is a school, after all.
All you did was prove my point.
And I said "non-liberal." Why was that unclear to you? My daughters are libertarians like their old man. It's anything you don't agree with that you want quashed, not just conservative
Dude, you wouldn't know a proven point if it crawled in the bed and laid down next to you. Thank you all the same for confirmin' that you didn't learn the lesson of which I earlier wrote. Maybe you should have spent more time on one of those college campus, or even nursery school, for they teach that particular lesson there too.
Your response to that non-liberal views are attacked by teachers is that non-liberal views are "stupid." You're a sick authoritarian fuck. It was your answer. All you're doing is digging yourself deeper into your intolerance for views you disagree with. I understand your views fine, I completed the third grade a long time ago. Why should other views that you decided are "stupid" not be heard? Actually I kind of answered my own question, didn't I?
Let me answer your question by quoting Murray Rothbard.
It is no crime to be ignorant of economics, which is, after all, a specialized discipline and one that most people consider to be a "dismal science." But it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on economic subjects while remaining in this state of ignorance.
I know Murray was speaking specifically of economics, but the general idea is applicable to all topics.
I don't have a problem with non-liberal ideals, per se, only with the stupid ones audaciously articulated by airheads. I don't actually have a preference for whether ideas are liberal or conservative; for me, ideas need only make sense in the forest and in the trees. Do you follow me? Make no mistake, there are plenty of dumb liberal ideas too, it's just that there are fewer of them than dumb conservative ones.
When it comes to people expressing their ideas, the mere fact that they have an idea does not justify their airing it. That's why we say children should be seen and not heard. They are cute to look at, but they don't have much that merits hearing.
That same idea applies at all ages, but we expect that adults have the presence of mind to know when they don't know enough to have something worth saying. What society does is send children to school so they can learn, upon reaching the age of majority, how to tell when they dwell largely in a state of ignorance on a given topic. Of course, graduation and maturation bring upon adults another expectation, a burden, if you will. Adults, when they have a point of view, are obliged to use the tools they got in school to determine whether be theirs the views of a fool.
Now as for why stupid views should not be heard, well, among adults engaged in public discourse, the reason for one to withhold one's stupid or ill considered views is so that one does not prejudice others toward surety that one is an idiot. Was that not apparent from what I wrote at the outset? "It’s better to keep mouth shut and appear stupid than open it and remove all doubt." What else does that axiom indicate?
Conservative Alternatives to the GOP
Lastly, and FWIW, I am not given to liberal or conservative idea on an qualitatively existential basis. I simply receive the ideas that come my way and consider them. Let me illustrate lest you feel compelled to refute my claim.
I recently found myself with another USMB member sharing some thoughts about how to improve our educational system. I saw the thread, and
thought the topic interesting enough to offer my suggestions. A brief discourse ensued between the thread's OP and me and at the end of it, I learned the member considers himself a conservative who apparently holds liberals in low regard as adjudged by his signature line: "I was going to dress up as a liberal for Halloween, but I couldn't get my head up my ass."
I was quite surprised. I had no idea my views on education align with those of conservatives or liberals. By the same token, I have no concern over whether they do; my views on the matter are merely what what I think would be best for improving the effectiveness of education in the U.S.
To my point about knowing the limit of one's own ignorance...In the course of the conversation the other member asked me about the financial impact of my suggestions. This is how I began it: "
That's a hard question for me to answer with any real rigor because financial impact necessarily means measuring costs and gains. There are too many dimensions that I've not carefully researched enough to offer a reasonably accurate and quantitative answer." So you see, it's not impossible or even difficult for one to know when one doesn't know something and simply say so, or remain silent. I can't say one of those tacks is a better/smarter one than the other, but I can say neither of them is a stupid course.
