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