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Thread: The Thomas Sowell Thread for forums that don't have Thomas Sowell Threads.

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    Senior Member United States Diabolical Boids's Avatar
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    The Thomas Sowell Thread for forums that don't have Thomas Sowell Threads.

    Thomas Sowell is an American author, economist, and political commentator that comes from poor and oppressive beginnings to become America's premier philosophical and economic genius.

    In spite of his race, he is mostly ignored by Establishment figures but especially ignored by certain parties that prefer black people to be victims for their own political purpose. Sowell is hardly that. He's self admittedly not disadvantaged or oppressed. Moderate people of either political leaning embrace him for his solid common sense. He doesn't advocate pie in the sky theories or conspiracies or schemes but obvious realities.

    Warning: Sowell has a lot of observational zingers.

    A sampling of Sowell Wisdom:


    “Much of the social history of the Western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded good.”


    "People who pride themselves on their complexity and deride others for being simplistic should realize that the truth is often not very complicated.”

    “One of the common failings among honorable people is a failure to appreciate how thoroughly dishonorable some other people can be, and how dangerous it is to trust them.”

    ((A nod to Thomas More who observed that more people were bad than good. ))


    “The problem isn’t that Johnny can’t read. The problem isn’t even that Johnny can’t think. The problem is that Johnny doesn’t know what thinking is; he confuses it with feeling.”

    “I have never understood why it is greed to want to keep the money you have earned, but not greed to want to take somebody else’s money.”

    “Despite a voluminous and often fervent literature on income distribution, the cold fact is that most income is not distributed. It is earned.”

    "The fact that the market is not doing what we wish it would do is no reason to automatically assume that the government would do better.”

    “Since this is an era when many people are concerned about fairness and social justice, what is your fair share of what someone else has worked for?”

    “Those who suffered in centuries past are as much beyond our help as those who sinned are beyond our retribution.”

    “Most officially poor Americans today have things that middle-class Americans of an earlier time could only dream about—including color TV, videocassette recorders, microwave ovens, and their own cars.”


    "Competition does a much more effective job than the government at protecting consumers.”

    “If politicians stopped meddling with things they don’t understand, there would be a more drastic reduction in the size of government than anyone in either party advocates.”

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    Senior Member United States Diabolical Boids's Avatar
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    Ouch

    https://thehayride.com/2022/03/its-n...igrated%20from.

    "The British got rid of the white-trash culture in the south and west of England by shipping those people off to America, Australia and other places."

    In other words what we know as 'Western Culture" today.

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    Senior Member Aianawa's Avatar
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    By crikey, you will have the shire Antifa on you soon with this data stream >

    What follows is a two-part video series which comes from a tremendous Thomas Sowell book, Black Rednecks and White Liberals. Sowell explodes a whole lot of common narratives in that book, but most notably he makes the case, which this pair of videos captures the essence of, that “black culture” is by no means wholly a product of slavery and segregation. In fact, Sowell says, and passes along scholarship to document it, that what we know as ghetto culture today isn’t racially derived at all.

    It’s a fascinating case. Sowell says, in fact, that “black culture” comes from southern white culture, which came from the rural, underdeveloped areas of southwestern Great Britain where most poor southern whites immigrated from.

    Annddd

    mainly dentured from memory. >

    Speech patterns and language, personality traits, economic and moral behavior and other things we now commonly associate with urban blacks are exceptionally similar to those observed in southern whites – particularly poor southern whites – before the Civil War. And those same things were observed in the early and mid 20th century when those poor southern whites migrated to large cities in the North, interestingly enough to endure discrimination by Northerners who weren’t accepting of the typically rowdy and often lawless behavior of “hillbillies” and other southern white migrants.

    Much of that southern white culture has melted away as a result of urbanization, social mobility, mass media and other factors, but you can certainly still see it in the more backward and rural areas, particularly in Appalachia. It’s commonly quite striking how similar you’ll find the culture of poor urban blacks and poor rural whites to be.

    Sowell says that’s because it’s the same culture. Blacks were brought as slaves to the South, and there they mingled not just with white slaveowners but poor white farmers and others, and as those slaves weren’t imported in the typical way immigrants are – families and clans didn’t immigrate; they were caught, sold into slavery, and brought to America mostly as individuals – they didn’t really bring all that much African culture with them.

    Instead, they inherited the culture of poor white people.

    Cheers , looks an interesting ride

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    I've got a certain respect for an intellect like Thomas Sowell, similar to say Glenn Beck, there is certainly varying amounts of hard gained knowledge and opinions being shared.

    Here's where I have the problem: when you wind up hitching your train to any given movement, in these cases down the line right wing conservative, at a certain point ideology starts taking over in place of objective reason. It greatly narrows the windows in which one is allowed to operate.
    The unexamined life is not worth living.

    Socrates

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    Senior Member Catsquotl's Avatar
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    Not trying to be flippantly dismissive.
    But I do wonder if he clarifies what he(TS) describes as " hard work" somewhere.
    Have a great day today

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    Quote Originally posted by Fred Steeves View Post
    I've got a certain respect for an intellect like Thomas Sowell, similar to say Glenn Beck, there is certainly varying amounts of hard gained knowledge and opinions being shared.

    Here's where I have the problem: when you wind up hitching your train to any given movement, in these cases down the line right wing conservative, at a certain point ideology starts taking over in place of objective reason. It greatly narrows the windows in which one is allowed to operate.


    You could indubitably be correct but in America today you would be called a racist for criticizing a black scholar who grew up poor and sociologically disadvantaged or rather lived what he is talking about. And that would be the end of it. You would be scarlet lettered with an R and there would be no redemption for you because that is the precedence that has been set. And that precedence is set so one is less inclined to take input from black people. White leftist America leads the narrative now. And plenty of blacks in America no longer mirror liberal values. If you insist to any of these black people when they object to being continuous victims, they are labeled white supremacists. You cannot make this shit up in Crazed America today.


    It's not really a movement. Or rather it's not a current one. It's uncomfortable raw look at our beliefs. Thomas Sowell's hey day of influence was in the 80's and early 90's when America made the most strides in normalizing and taming racial tension and improving race relations which was most noticeable in the North. But racism is an ideological necessity in America. It's how the politicians stay in power. So new life had to be breathed into racism. That's a huge voting base we are talking about then and even bigger now. Same as with the Civil War but who knows that because people cannot learn from history so it just repeats itself endlessly.

    The enduring myth about the obnoxious over educated Yankees and the gentile courtly southern courtiers is just that. Enduring but hardly factual. But we see the same divide in America today where everyone hates stupid, even stupid people hate people stupider than they, but intelligence is equally despised.

    Sowell is what he appears to be. If you rewind back forty years you'd think you were looking at the typical a moderate liberal, perhaps even a toned down Malcom X, not a ideologically fronted conservative. Current political shifts have shoved him over to the right like it has most moderates. Or maybe you had to be a moderate liberal at one time to notice that.

    Economists are nearly always moderates, because extremism cannot exist in sound economics. We are beat over the head continuously that economics and sociological issues are entwined. You can't comment on one without the other. Then or today. It's not ideological its just life. Then it gets uncomfortable and we back pedal from it.

    With that said, it's less ideological and more of shock if you have read a lot of American history. The shock comes from realizing what Sowell says was hiding in plain sight the entire time you were wandering the halls of history. Not the public-school version of history but the letters, the exploits of the wild Westerners, the stand alone biographies and accounts of social activity, the descriptions of antebellum life, and how things were after the Civil War. I personally believed a lot of the reasons given for racial tension in America. The plight of black people today was ONLY because of slavery. No other reason was ever allowed to be given or explored. Eventually that began to not sit well with me this insistence that black people MUST ALWAYS BE OPPRESSED HELPLESS VICTIMS, America's version of the noble savage.

    Now the flavor of the month belief is that racism exists because all white people are assbags but it was white people who fought for Civil rights. The majority of them Northerners. But I also was very very aware of what history showed and what was written about Southern Democrats referred to plantation politics. There was an obvious difference between southern Democrats and Northern ones.

    It's mirrored in woke politics today regardless of geographical location or color. Plenty of white kids have gone ghetto. It's self evidential. I think that is what bites people. That today's liberals were somehow associated with such nefarious activities as slavery. They have been and still are today. The bitter enduring fact is that conservatives are the one's responsible for emancipation. Now you can say that it was not 100 percent for noble reasons and you would be correct, but the fact remains.

    And believe me because I have some parts of the family tree shading the South, I did watch some of Sowell's lectures with some cringe as if it were an indictment of my own heritage and genetics.

    But its not really about black people. It's about white people.


    . And I didn't intend it to be a blanket sneer at Europeans either. There are fine distinctions to be made between the 'trash' shipped over to America and the greater portion of British Aisle inhabitants. Remember though both Australia and America started as penal colonies so you know some bad eggs were here and there right from the beginning. Anglo-Irish vs the unwashed masses of Gaelic commoners that came later and who couldn't afford a slave let alone a plantation.

    Even Thomas Crowell and Henry Tudor commented on the behavior of the northern English during Reformation times as a collective of bad manners, bad food, and bad morals. If you are familiar with Tudor history.

    So antebellum south. A goodish portion were low income cracker redneck types with a couple of slaves or none at all.

    Then there was the plantation class. In spite of the economic division their behaviors mirrored each other. This mirrored in the knowledge that the Civil War could have been avoided and emancipation achieved in moderate terms, but the extremists on both sides took over. It's written all over history to this day.

    Setting the slavery issue aside, it was the dueling over nothing, staying in a constant reactive state to their honor, self titling themselves Colonels as if they had some military significance when they had never served. When the wild West was developing even Westerners despised southerners for their pretenses and infiltrating the west bringing their pretensions with them and raising hell in an environment that had little tolerance for drama and rustling bustles.

    All that pseudo chivalry was developed in Tudor like eras not in America. I read all of this at some point or another. It's been exploited in Civil Films and documentaries. But because of the reasons given, I never ever connected the behavior I was reading about with destructive behavior rumored in days of old or today. And to be honest we are trained in America to not see criminal activity in people other than white commoners and WASPs. And those reasons began not to sit well with me when everyone black or white became a white supremacist or white privileged when they opposed the leftist narrative.

    Because black people, former slaves were either not shown or written about as behaving as such? They were. But it wasn't polite or politically correct to say so. It was racist.

    Actual equality would dictate that there are bad actors found in all races, and ethnicities, wouldn't it

    But the fact remains you adopt or influenced the attitudes of those who 'raise' you. Slaves had to emulate their owners or else. The excuse for plantation owners was always, these are my people, they live under my domain and they will follow my lead. They will speak as I do as opposed to African or Islander dialect, they will worship as I do, they will adopt the same moral code and get drug along to hold the pistols for tomorrow's early morning duel. They will be children and my scape goat. They will do the chores on the home front and be grateful. They will bear arms in our defense. History shows it over and over again.



    But it's taboo to criticize anyone who behaves in a destructive manner today.

    We all see what Sowell has described in America today even among non-blacks. Like what you see in Antifa. Or woke people. You cannot have a serious adult secular conversation about anything without them going off the theological deep end because their beliefs assume a quasi religious quality. But they don't know their beliefs have entrenched them in quasi-religious ideology because they think they have eschewed religious concepts.

    With the caveat that I personally view left and right as a psychological divide and not a political one before I even encountered Sowell. Some people may not see it that way.

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    Quote Originally posted by Catsquotl View Post
    Not trying to be flippantly dismissive.
    But I do wonder if he clarifies what he(TS) describes as " hard work" somewhere.
    Good question but because he's an economist he's probably touched on it somewhere. Labor and economics are bound up together the way economics and race are all bound up together.

    And your question brings up a bunch of perspectives in America about white collar and blue-collar work across all economic classes and races. Who is doing actual work and who isn't. It's what American labor unions were based in. What is anyone's definition of work or labor?

    I haven't looked at all his works though. I am not sure if you mean that Sowell himself ever had to endure hard work or not to get a subjective view of it. Regardless of if he flexed the elbow grease, achieving what he did in the days of segregation means he invested some sort of effort and endurance getting where he landed? But today's America hates success stories.

    For some reason hard work = conservative when the majority of labor unions are liberal. I'll just let that sit there.

    When I mean hard work is subjective I mean that some people might prefer hard physical labor and think of it as more of workout which saves on gym costs where others don't have the constitution for it. The type A and type B personality meme is somewhat indicative of that. Some people think intellectual, academic, or philosophical pursuits are as exhausting as hard physical labor because thinking and the use of reason is hard work and emotionally exhausting for some people. And I have observed while some people avoid hard work, they expect out of others what they are not willing to do themselves pretty consistently.

    So hard work is subjective.

    I'm not referring to forced labor where you are only motivated with the knowledge that you either work or die and knowing you won't get anything out of the fruits of your labor.

    And America is very very hypocritical where labor is involved. Like Child labor of any sort is a no no, a taboo, and even child abuse and it's divided along political parties. But America doesn't mind profiting from off shore child labor where its political interests depend on it. Like with the redevelopment of electric vehicles.

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    Quote Originally posted by Aianawa View Post
    By crikey, you will have the shire Antifa on you soon with this data stream >

    What follows is a two-part video series which comes from a tremendous Thomas Sowell book, Black Rednecks and White Liberals. Sowell explodes a whole lot of common narratives in that book, but most notably he makes the case, which this pair of videos captures the essence of, that “black culture” is by no means wholly a product of slavery and segregation. In fact, Sowell says, and passes along scholarship to document it, that what we know as ghetto culture today isn’t racially derived at all.

    It’s a fascinating case. Sowell says, in fact, that “black culture” comes from southern white culture, which came from the rural, underdeveloped areas of southwestern Great Britain where most poor southern whites immigrated from.

    Annddd

    mainly dentured from memory. >

    Speech patterns and language, personality traits, economic and moral behavior and other things we now commonly associate with urban blacks are exceptionally similar to those observed in southern whites – particularly poor southern whites – before the Civil War. And those same things were observed in the early and mid 20th century when those poor southern whites migrated to large cities in the North, interestingly enough to endure discrimination by Northerners who weren’t accepting of the typically rowdy and often lawless behavior of “hillbillies” and other southern white migrants.

    Much of that southern white culture has melted away as a result of urbanization, social mobility, mass media and other factors, but you can certainly still see it in the more backward and rural areas, particularly in Appalachia. It’s commonly quite striking how similar you’ll find the culture of poor urban blacks and poor rural whites to be.

    Sowell says that’s because it’s the same culture. Blacks were brought as slaves to the South, and there they mingled not just with white slaveowners but poor white farmers and others, and as those slaves weren’t imported in the typical way immigrants are – families and clans didn’t immigrate; they were caught, sold into slavery, and brought to America mostly as individuals – they didn’t really bring all that much African culture with them.

    Instead, they inherited the culture of poor white people.

    Cheers , looks an interesting ride
    Sowell tackles it again in this Youtube video. The Origin of Black American Culture and Ebonics


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FT4NQ9D0M6w

    But, for political leverage and race division to exist this paradigm MUST BE RACIALLY derived even if it's not true. If you get my drift here.

    He also tackles it with: Is it Discrimination or Disparity?

    Or is it discrimination to acknowledge cultural, ethnic habits and tendencies or is just the disparity between culture and ethnicities. It's not anything that you get to talk about much because someone will get triggered, and rush over and stamp it out screaming such discussions are racist and everyone is exactly the same, exactly the same, damn you!

    And then trip all over themselves gabbling on how we should embrace cultural differences. Everyone should celebrate Kwanza, eat authentic Mexican food. Sounds fun. But it also sounds like people are not exactly the same. So you do and then the same people scream in a rage that you are appropriating their culture. . Anything to keep the division rolling even if it means contradicting your previous premise. And that's not even politicians, that is the insane matriarchy at work throughout society. But as long as it's not an insane patriarchy it's okay.

    And honestly Sowell's perspective here is not new. Europeans and people in other nations in forums such as these and elsewhere are always commenting how loud, aggressive and obnoxious, war mongering and violent Americans are. They have been for years.

    Yes?

    The US Is the bully of the world?

    Yes?

    And then ignore their own nations have become proxy nations of the US.

    How did people come to that conclusion and insist its true so why should it be suddenly suspect or even controversial now that Sowell has isolated the element that gives rise to that meme? He's really isolating that certain segments of America have always been obnoxious, violent and easily triggered even before they reached American shores and that has influenced the behavior of other demographics of America. Not all of them. Some of them. America didn't become violent simply because someone planted a flag pole here and gush of violence spouted up like a wild cat oil field. Who planted the flagpole. The British? The Spaniards? It was brought here from abroad with the people that came to colonize the joint.


    Throw some morphic resonance on the topic and it will really start to burn rubber

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    Senior Member Fred Steeves's Avatar
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    Quote Originally posted by Diabolical Boids View Post
    Sowell is what he appears to be. If you rewind back forty years you'd think you were looking at the typical a moderate liberal, perhaps even a toned down Malcom X, not a ideologically fronted conservative. Current political shifts have shoved him over to the right like it has most moderates. Or maybe you had to be a moderate liberal at one time to notice that.

    Economists are nearly always moderates, because extremism cannot exist in sound economics. We are beat over the head continuously that economics and sociological issues are entwined. You can't comment on one without the other. Then or today. It's not ideological its just life. Then it gets uncomfortable and we back pedal from it.
    You’re covering a lot of ground here, and it’s a worthy issue; but before we get too deep into the weeds, it’s important to clear up exactly where Sowell stood in the political realms. The man was as conservative as it gets, the small government/pull yourself up by your bootstraps ideology is the same now as it was back in the 80’s and 90’s. Hell, going back to even the 70’s, we can see it in caricature form with Archie Bunker.

    Seriously, saying Thomas Sowell could be seen in hindsight as Malcolm X light, you may as well say the same about Clarence Thomas, George Will, or Rush Limbaugh. Right wing is right wing, and even though it’s gone to Crazyville as of late, at its roots it’s about as far from Malcolm X as it is Martin Luther King Jr.

    Speaking of ole Rush, he didn’t speak glowingly of anyone to the left of Genghis Khan.
    https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2...test_fear/amp/
    The unexamined life is not worth living.

    Socrates

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    Senior Member United States Diabolical Boids's Avatar
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    Quote Originally posted by Fred Steeves View Post
    You’re covering a lot of ground here, and it’s a worthy issue; but before we get too deep into the weeds, it’s important to clear up exactly where Sowell stood in the political realms. The man was as conservative as it gets, the small government/pull yourself up by your bootstraps ideology is the same now as it was back in the 80’s and 90’s. Hell, going back to even the 70’s, we can see it in caricature form with Archie Bunker.

    Seriously, saying Thomas Sowell could be seen in hindsight as Malcolm X light, you may as well say the same about Clarence Thomas, George Will, or Rush Limbaugh. Right wing is right wing, and even though it’s gone to Crazyville as of late, at its roots it’s about as far from Malcolm X as it is Martin Luther King Jr.

    Speaking of ole Rush, he didn’t speak glowingly of anyone to the left of Genghis Khan.
    https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2...test_fear/amp/
    What?

    Let Thomas Sowell self admittedly reassure you that his background was rooted in Marxism. My inference to Malcom X toned down? Sowell toned down the Marxism he didn't entirely lose the liberalism. Where conservatives say capitalism, Sowell says free market instead of blood sucker: https://www.socialist.net/malcolm-x-...loodsucker.htm You know... a moderate view. Economists take a conservative view because its mathematics are essentially conservative not liberal. That he is SERIOUS about social issues doesn't make him a conservative. I concur he's not screaming, or triggered.


    https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q...tail&FORM=VIRE

    Around the 24 minute mark.



    I do wonder what Sowell said that reflects crazy right-wing politics?

    But this happened to Bill Maher too. Is he or was he ever a crazy right-wing nut job?

    Well he is now.




    https://www.dailykos.com/stories/202...Been-Cancelled

    Canceled. For not daring to criticize the left's ideology because he perceives there is a problem and the left is imploding. Not because he morphed into the right overnight.

    That. Because of something like this:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0q2ZR4nBuE

    Maher at a couple points, exclaims "Jesus." Does that make him a religious conservative?

    Cancelled by social justice warriors composed of this:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dMOfwUP0F0


    Why? Because Sowell like Maher exhibited a return to some common sense and conservatives applauded that.

    So now he's in the enemy camp.

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    Senior Member Fred Steeves's Avatar
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    Quote Originally posted by Diabolical Boids View Post
    Let Thomas Sowell self admittedly reassure you that his background was rooted in Marxism. My inference to Malcom X toned down? Sowell toned down the Marxism he didn't entirely lose the liberalism. Where conservatives say capitalism, Sowell says free market instead of blood sucker: https://www.socialist.net/malcolm-x-...loodsucker.htm You know... a moderate view.
    Thomas Sowell didn't say anything in that piece, it was all about Malcom X. I know he started out a Marxist, but so what he changed after challenging its principles (good for him!), it happens.

    Quote Originally posted by Diabolical Boids View Post
    Economists take a conservative view because its mathematics are essentially conservative not liberal. That he is SERIOUS about social issues doesn't make him a conservative. I concur he's not screaming, or triggered.
    There are liberal economic theories (Keynesian), and conservative economic theories (Austrian), they can both make the numbers work to their given cause. Just like stats.


    Quote Originally posted by Diabolical Boids View Post
    I do wonder what Sowell said that reflects crazy right-wing politics?
    I never said he's crazy right wing, he's straight down the line conservative, or in some cases libertarian conservative. And I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, being conservative is a perfectly legitimate political position, just calling an apple an apple here for definition purposes.


    Quote Originally posted by Diabolical Boids View Post
    But this happened to Bill Maher too. Is he or was he ever a crazy right-wing nut job?
    Well, the dems are right leaning now too, they certainly did leave him behind.



    Anyway, don't take it from me. Can we put this to bed and move on?

    RIGHTWINGNEWS

    The 20 Most Politically Influential Black Conservatives


    ...

    10) Thomas Sowell: The legendary economist, columnist, and author is retired and not putting out a lot of new material these days or he’d be much higher on the list.
    https://rightwingnews.com/column-2/t...conservatives/



    The enigma of Thomas Sowell

    Until 1991, when Clarence Thomas was nominated and then confirmed to the Supreme Court, the most prominent black conservative in America was likely Thomas Sowell, the Chicago-trained economist and polymath.
    https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/p...-thomas-sowell


    White Supremacy Vs. Negro Ineptitude: Sowell’s Myths Of Economic Inequality

    One of the best parts of my life is knowing so many well-rounded and brilliant folks who regularly share articles, books, videos and documentaries of various ideas, often leading to great dialogue.

    One of these brilliant minds recently shared a video with me of Dr. Thomas Sowell, a Black conservative economist, discussing “The Myths of Economic Inequality.”
    https://www.mississippifreepress.org...mic-inequality


    Wealth, Poverty and Politics

    DESCRIPTION

    In Wealth, Poverty, and Politics, Thomas Sowell, one of the foremost conservative public intellectuals in this country, argues that political and ideological struggles have led to dangerous confusion about income inequality in America.
    https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/th...9780465096770/
    The unexamined life is not worth living.

    Socrates

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    Senior Member United States Diabolical Boids's Avatar
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    Sure. The thread can go the way of the spatula and admin can remove it at their discretion.


    No hard feelings on my part.

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    Senior Member Fred Steeves's Avatar
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    Quote Originally posted by Diabolical Boids View Post
    Sure. The thread can go the way of the spatula and admin can remove it at their discretion.
    Really? Talk about Deflection 101. Back your shit up and you won't find need to go there.
    The unexamined life is not worth living.

    Socrates

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    Senior Member United States Diabolical Boids's Avatar
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    Quote Originally posted by Fred Steeves View Post
    Really? Talk about Deflection 101. Back your shit up and you won't find need to go there.
    Anyway, don't take it from me. Can we put this to bed and move on?


    Backing my shit up would be ignoring your request to put the topic to bed wouldn't it? Because this particular topic will actually bring up what you want put to bed over and over.


    Is it not wearying that everyone in the nation has been lured into this trap that every single topic of an alternative nature has to be put through the wash cycle of : "Is it liberal or conservative? Are they liberal or conservative? When someone may simply be expressing what some may recognize as American values shared by both sides of the aisle?

    What if Sowell is expressing multiple attitudes at once?

    Quote Originally posted by Fred Steeves View Post
    Really? Talk about Deflection 101. Back your shit up and you won't find need to go there.
    History:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=schuzjknjYE

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    Senior Member United States Diabolical Boids's Avatar
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    So since you asked me to alternately substantiate my point and put it to rest.

    So what if Sowell is a Libertarian. Basically that means he's NOT a Liberal. He's just a Liberal-ish. That is actually deflection too, says Mr. Pot to Mr. Kettle.

    LIBERTarian.

    LIBERal.

    The Libertarian party is very similar to the classical Liberal party it is inhabited by Green white dudes with dread locks and rifles sharing a space with Tea Party Conservatives, preppers and survivalists and anarchists. Multiple attitudes. Sounds like Standford University.

    Which is a liberal college with a healthy conservative pretense. I can't for the life of me figure out how Sowell could hold tenure at such a place without developing the attitudes of both elements of liberalism and conservatism.

    So instead of what Sowell is, how about what he's not.

    Sowell is more centric liberal than woke.
    He’s more classical liberal than Green.
    He’s more classical liberal than Marxist.
    He’s more classic liberal than socialist.
    He’s not authoritarian of either right or left.
    He’s too conservative to be entirely pro Democratic.
    He’s too liberal to be GOP.
    He’s not part of the Moral Majority.
    His arguments are more secular than religious based.
    He sometimes touches on religious issues.
    He’s more moderate than right of center.
    He’s too moderate to be extreme right wing.
    He’s more liberal than right of center.
    He’s too conservative to be left of center.
    He’s a more socially liberal than socially conservative.
    He’s more left of classical conservatism.
    He’s not Teaparty.
    He’s not a liberal apologist.
    He’s not a conservative apologist.
    He’s economically conservative.
    He’s not Margaret Thatcher nor Malcom X or MLK or Ronald Reagan but has expressed attitudes reminiscent of both.
    He’s not MAGA
    He’s a pundit. He’s not Bill Maher pundit.
    He’s not the Bushes or the Obamas or the Clintons or Trump.
    He’s not a conservative populist.
    He’s not a liberal populist.

    There's a word for people like that.

    Mavericks.

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