Everybody knows

If I had finished up the other things I was working on this weekend I would have written a post on how many times Joan Peterson uses “common sense” as the sole basis for her assertions of the righteousness of gun control.


Linoge does the equivalent (or better) than I would have done with Peterson’s use of “everybody knows”. Reading this excellent post reminded me of this quote by Robert Heinlein.

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3 thoughts on “Everybody knows

  1. Damn. How did I miss that quote!? Apparently I need to stop trying to catch up on these newfangled scifi authors and get back to my roots :).

    (Thanks for the linkage, by the by, and the kind words.)

  2. There was an even more relevant Heinlein quote to the effect that seemingly empty catch phrases actually give you a valuable insight into the speaker’s inner thoughts, if you listen carefully. He gave as an example “it goes without saying,” which is a clear indication that the speaker doesn’t have the facts to back up his thesis. When I hear the bigots talk about “common-sense gun control,” I get two things. First, I get the same lack of facts to back up their opinions; but second, I sense a desperate desire by an egghead to prove his or her middle-class bona fides, by invoking “common sense,” a concept associated with the middle class.

  3. Why is it that those who point to common sense for the base of their arguments never seem to have any of their own.

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