We frequently hear the some large percentage of the public is in support of universal background checks for firearms sales. But it is easy to demonstrate that a large percentage of the public is either ignorant of the effectiveness of background checks or has evil intent.
Basically the problem boils down to a large percentage of the public has opinions on things they really don’t know much about. Brother Doug pointed out a great example recently:
A … survey in January conducted by the Oklahoma State University Department of Agricultural Economics found that 82 percent of respondents supported mandatory labels on GMOs. However, 80 percent of respondents also said they supported mandatory labels on “foods containing DNA.”
This is the reason we have a representative democracy with enumerated powers for the government rather than a direct democracy. Our representatives are supposed to carefully study and debate any potential laws and only enact laws that are beneficial to the majority of people and do not infringe upon the rights of anyone.
Popular opinion can easily be shown, see above, to be a very poor way of determining, well, almost anything.
It’s been demonstrated that you can convince a majority of people to ban anything.
Look up “dihydrogen monoxide”. It can be correctly described as “a tasteless, odorless, colorless chemical substance that can be harmful or fatal if inhaled and can produce dangerously hot vapors.” And it’s everywhere!
Using that description, it’s not difficult to convince people that someone should be lobbying the EPA to ban water.
It is a well known fact that deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) can be harmful to children, women and minorities. Worse yet, it is now detectable in the tissues of all new born babies! Why is this not being discussed in the media? What are they hiding?
Yes, but it also causes pregnancy, so it must be a choice thing.
“Popular opinion can easily be shown, see above, to be a very poor way of determining, well, almost anything.”
Yes, which is why we have public education. Its purpose is to produce a mailable, compliant, suggestible, demoralized, helpless and dependent population.
It was gratifying then, when my daughter was finally kicked out of high school. It took more than a little prompting to get the principal to admit to the reason. He finally admitted that her presence could not be tolerated because she is “somewhat bold”. Well we can’t have that, can we? We must program every last little bit of boldness out of our children. I responded to the principal with, “Well, shouldn’t it be our goal that all children, all people, be at least ‘somewhat’ bold?” Silence. Most of the teachers loved her, but at least one of them was mad extremely uncomfortable because my daughter asked pointed questions.
In the Middle East, this is why they are beheading and crucifying people– they’re not compliant and stupid enough. It’s also why Progressives hate Jews and it’s why they hate capitalism.
I thought the whole idea of enhancing girls’ self-esteem at the expense of ignoring troubled boys was to produce bolder girls and women.
Can’t they get anything right?
DNA has also been linked to several chronic diseases, and is found in deadly biological toxins.
There’s a youtube video of a petition getting signed supporting legal fourth trimester abortions……
Of course, there’s also the little fact that damned near every piece of food sold on the open market today would have to bear a label if it were mandated that “GMOs” had to be so identified.
After all, selective breeding modifies the genetics of the organism, and we’ve been doing that for… how long, now?
Just another prime example of the blind spots of popular opinion.
The GMO labeling is a perfect example of what frustrates me about the “there aught to be a law” types. They think “yeah, that sounds like a good idea- make it a law” without paying mind to the consequences. The law won’t put labels on food- it just creates an ultimatum. Put “contains GMO” on your label… or you can’t sell it here. People seem to forget about that second part- the fact that some products won’t be available anymore (especially when passed at the state level).
I also say why not keep doing what we have been. Products that don’t contain GMO ingredients are labeled “non-GMO”. Consumers who value that can look for it (and assume it does contain GMO if not labeled). That’s the same thing we did with “organic”. They didn’t pass a law saying you must label your food “non-organic”.
The biggest issue with “GMO” is that it’s a false category. With the exception of native wild plants gathered in the wild, ALL food plants are “genetically modified”.
It reminds me of the “no chemicals” craze that drove my father mad, when I was a child. “chemical” did not mean what the word means, it was some touchy-feely concept roughly meaning “a substance made in a certain kind of factory from certain kinds of starting materials”. For example, there was a claim that white vinegar was a “sharp chemical tasting vinegar”. The reality, of course, is that vinegar is dilute acetic acid no matter how it’s made, except that some manufacturing processes introduce various other substances into the mix as remnants of the source material. “chemical” vinegar is by far the most pure of the readily available forms, but no, it had to be tarred with some anti-scientific brush.
The modern warmists are direct descendants of that line of thinking.
80% of the American public are downright morons and that is being charitable.