They prove themselves unworthy

A thought occurred to me.

All the smartest people* in the nation -nay, the smartest people in the world- said two things over and over in 2016:
A) We plebs need to give more power and control to the government so all the really smart technocrats can make life better, more fair, safer, cleaner, more productive, and nicer for everyone because they were so smart and had all the data; and
B) Trump would never win.

It seems to me that (B) disproves the premise that they are the smartest people in the room, and further is a strong indicator that (A) should never be done because they just demonstrated they are clueless more often than not.

 

* we know they are the smartest people in the world because they tell us constantly.

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13 thoughts on “They prove themselves unworthy

  1. History has shown repeatedly, witih repetition long past any real educational benefit, that letting a small group of people plan for the “good” of the many leads to premature famine, pestilence and death of the many, so I would say that the falsity of “A)” has been demonstrated to the satisfaction beyond all but the most crazed true believers.
    And the tripe about them being the smartest people in the world, in 1976 Esquire Magazine had an article about the new elite, and the author, whoever he (or she) was said something to the effect that for the first time in history we’re sorting populations so they can mate and have children with others who are considered “smart”, whatever that means (and we’re going to find out).

    Well, forty years on, we’re finding out, and it’s the same as it’s ever been. An elite based on some scan-tron test score doesn’t have an effect on the hoi polloi that is any different from an elite based on who got to the sword or gun first.

    • Oh, agreed. But it’s rare that you have two things so clear and so public and so side-by-side. They are fresh in people’s minds. Put these two items out there, and you have what the left will see as a paradox. They know they are smart and should have power, but something catastrophic and impossible happened when they were working to make it not happen. HOW?!?!?! Rub their face in it, make them see it, make them accept they can’t see the future any better than anyone else, so they really should not be in charge, let alone forcing us all into one boat on one course across the iceberg strewn sea with one captain fighting far harder to keep his job than to make sure the course is good and the supplies sufficient and secured.

      • …with one captain fighting far harder to keep his job than to make sure the course is good and the supplies sufficient and secured.

        Especially when that one captain seems willing — if not hell-bent — to accelerate and risk crashing the ship rather than let someone else take over and change course.

        It’s the whole, “If I can’t have it, no one will” thing, but on a tragically-massive scale.

      • “… make them see it, make them accept they can’t see the future any better than anyone else…”

        The problem is that the vast majority are incapable of seeing this. Might as well try to goose a ghost. Leftists are mindless in their pursuits, and like rust, they never stop.

        • Likely true. But you can make the pain of the cognitive dissonance so great they shut up and get out of the way and quit clambering for people even further left policies that fail, because they really don’t like getting laughed at.

  2. This is why the left has melted down so completely. It’s not that they’ve been proved wrong, it’s because they believe that they’re still right. They have exactly two data points that they can trust. 1) Hillary won the popular vote, and 2) Donald Trump won the presidency. In their minds, the popular vote is all that should matter. In effect, they won the battle, but lost the war.

    And, even before he is inaugurated, the entire tenor of the country changed. Markets rebound, companies bring jobs back to the US, consumer confidence soars. Their entire worldview has been repudiated. “But Hillary won the popular vote!.”, and the meltdown intensifies. The data points clash and they can’t reconcile the dissonance.

    They believed, without any evidence, that the Democrats would rule the nation for the next decade. Now, they’re utterly in disarray. They’ve lost most state legislatures, they’ve lost the Congress and the Presidency. Their old mainstays are retiring, and they have no one in the wings to take over. “But Hillary won the popular vote.” is their cry.

    It’s interesting to watch the meltdown. The woman who was going to be their savior is now irrelevant.

    • With any luck, Shrillary won’t be irrelevant. She’ll be employing FBI agents and DOJ minions by the hundreds for a couple of years, then DOC uniforms for the rest of her life.

    • No, it isn’t that “the popular vote is all that should matter”. What the left actually wants is an excuse for why Hillary should have won. As it actually worked out, she got the popular vote, so that’s the excuse of the day. If she hadn’t, they would have picked a different excuse. Conversely, if she had won (i.e., the electoral college) you wouldn’t have heard any leftist mention the popular vote at all.

  3. One thing to always look at when somebody boasts intelligence, one must always question “How is the intelligence tested?” and “Who Wrote the Test?”

    As a biologist I always laugh at comparisons to people and animals. Yes, humans are the smartest animals alive….when it comes to doing human things.

    Yet many species can determine amazing from smell. Other animals can develop 3D spatial images based entirely on sound.

    Some animals can thrive their entire life without ever encountering a member of their own species, and ONLY need to find another when its time to mate. (Try birthing a human baby in the wilderness, then immediately take the mother away and see how it survives!)

    Further very smart humans need a very subjective lens when telling about their brilliance. Albert Einstein did poorly in the school system, landed a lousy job as a patent clerk, and had numerous severe social dysfunctions.

    Vincent Van Goh was a degenerate addict and died penniless.

    Am I denying their genius? No, but I wouldn’t let Van Goh help me manage my finances, nor would I have Einstein give me relationship advice, or tutor my daughter in grade school subjects.

    Further I wouldn’t commission Einstein to paint for me, nor would I ask Van Goh for his thoughts on physics….

    And there’s the saddest part of American Politics, the scale is simply How good are they at being elected. In the 2016 race, I would argue the BEST man for the job was Rick Perry. He was a two-term governor who left with high approval ratings running a massive, and diverse state that easily could survive as its own autonomous country.

    Yet he ran a lousy campaign, and all his accolades are irrelevant compared to the people who actually did well in the primary.

    • A quote commonly attributed to Einstein says, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”

      Likewise, even among humans, some individuals labelled as developmentally disabled or retarded can do amazing things with mathematics, numbers, and pattern recognition.

      Any time someone mentions “the smartest people” or some iteration of “Top Men”, I question how either of those were determined.

    • Indeed. Obama will become, as current events age into history, the classic case of “master campaigner” =/= “great leader.”

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