Reason: Giving the Right Weights to Arguments

Reason, also known as logic, is the sufficient finding and creating of premises and conclusions on some specific issue, plus weighing of those premises with sufficient care and accuracy to figure out which conclusions are best supported by good premises, that is, most likely to be true. Both premises and conclusions are called claims. Anything that is logically insufficient, that should be ignored when weighing arguments, is called a fallacy. Combinations of premises and conclusions, the argument, in informal logic, most everyday reasoning, are degrees of strong or weak, depending on how well the premises support the conclusions.

Argument:
The moon no longer exists (conclusion). I looked outside the last three nights and it was gone (premise).

Counterargument:
The moon still exists (conclusion). It's been cloudy for over a week (premise). Only a dummy could think it's gone (premise). One hundred percent of astronomers believe the moon still exists (premise). Just because you watched the sky one night doesn't mean garbage (premise). The problem is the way your brain is wired (premise).

The conclusion in the second argument is better supported, that is, more well-reasoned despite the fact that it contains three glaring fallacies.

The cloudy and sufficient expertise of astronomers premises outweigh the premise in the first argument. The "dummy" abusive ad hominem premise, the straw person "one night" premise, and the circumstantial ad hominem "your brain is wired" premise should be ignored, treated as worthless. Those three fallacious premises are also irrelevant to the specific issue, so it doesn't matter to this issue whether they are true or not.

There are dozens of types of fallacies beyond false claims, ad hominems, and straw persons.

Individuals make fallacious claims because they want to persuade or because they're making a joke or because they don't know any better or because they know better but regard persuasion as more important than giving an audience logically sufficient claims. It is common for professional opinion makers to glibly reject arguments by saying, "I'm not persuaded." Being persuaded or not is irrelevant to the value of an argument.

It is also common in everyday life for an individual to reject or otherwise under weigh an argument because some claims offend them or some claims are fallacious. This is wrong. What matters is how good the conclusions are and how well the good premises support them. It is often ethically wrong to use abusive ad hominem attacks and carelessly use other fallacies, but that doesn't tell us how well-supported the conclusions are.

Reason is often dismissed as linear, uncreative thinking, but it requires a large amount of creativity and resourcefulness to find or brainstorm the best premises and conclusions. Most arguments omit the best premises and conclusions.

What Mr. Spock does often in Star Trek is not logic, as the show states. He spits out intuitive claims without arguments.

Reason is not the slave of passions, nor should it be. Differing cognitive states can help or harm our reasoning abilities, for example, our arguments might come out worse when we are bored, but our passions when creating arguments are irrelevant to their worth.

Science is one branch of reason. Ethics, technology, art criticism, and many other human endeavors also use reasoning.

Good reasoning is the only legitimate way to find out how likely claims are to be true. A true claim accurately describes something. Because many promoters of tyranny claim to be men or women of reason and science does not make reason to blame. Such individuals reek at reasoning and are throwing out reason and science as empty buzzwords to attach prestige to their horrendous plans. The ability and willingness of most human beings to reason well is extremely, extremely poor. Many individuals with prestigious degrees are abysmal at reasoning outside their areas of expertise. Some lawyers, physicians, professors, and other professionals are terrible at reasoning in every field. They managed to become professionals because they are smart, good memorizers, and hard working, not because of the quality of their their reasoning.

There is far more to the reason story, and those stories can be found is logic texts, ethics works, scientific reasoning writings, etc.

Learning from Abortion, Infidelity, and Legalized Bribery

I didn't follow much of the Roy Moore saga, but from what I remember, it consisted of certain mass media rampantly screeching that Moore was a pedophile and that his voters were depraved supporters of pedophilia. The position of Moore's supporters was more nuanced: Moore was guilty of statutory rapes, not pedophilia, the latter an attraction to or sex with pre-pubescent children. In their view, supporting Moore was defensible because the alternative to Moore was support for what they consider mass baby killings. It didn't matter to Moore's supporters that Doug Jones, Moore's opponent, was labeled "middle-of-the-road." In today's Washington speak, middle-of-the-road means stealthy support for Randism, neoconservatism, and cultural Marxism.

Jones supports neoconservative Mike Pompeo and "has voted with President Trump's position 63.6% of the time." Other Moore supporters were immigration patriots.

Research suggests a large percentage of pro lifers are single issue voters, who readily adopt the worldview of politicians on other issues as long as the politicians are pro life or pretend to be pro life.

Now we learn Donald Trump or Elliott Broidy, a Wall Streeter and former deputy finance chairman of the Republican National Commitee, had an affair with Playboy Playmate Shera Bechar, resulting in a pregnancy and abortion. Broidy paid Bechar at least $1.6 million in hush money, over ten times what Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal were each paid. Maybe Bechar is a better negotiator than Daniels and McDougal, but more likely, abortion accounts for the difference.

Whoever had the affair with Bechar, Broidy has motive to pay a large sum. It the potential child were his, Broidy avoids millions in child support and an awkward family situation. If it were Trump's, the indirect bribe helps Broidy's unethical business dealings through the Trump Administration--and helps Trump avoid the wrath of pro-lifers, not to mention saving Trump child support and family problems.

Since the 2016 election, an election Trump could not have won without nonmulticulturalists, Trump has betrayed nonmulticulturalists hundreds of times, yet nonmulticulturalists cling to him, with some exceptions. Because of this, Trump has little incentive to protect his nonmulticultural flank, other than reducing refugee numbers (while at the same time increasing the number of guest workers).

Trump dares not throw screw pro lifers with as much vehemence. Pro lifers will get pro life judges from Trump.

Trump's main agenda remains the agenda of his largest donor, Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire casino owner (a business that should be illegal). For $25 million, a comparatively small sum, Adelson was able to excessively influence Trump, billions of lives, and a roughly $20 trillion US GDP. Most comically, movement conservatives, many unable to even find Jerusalem or Tel Aviv on a map, were suddenly urged to care deeply about moving the US embassy to Jerusalem. Adelson keeps Republicans loyal by promising more in the future. Sure enough, Adelson just gave another $30 million to the GOP a few hours ago. But tiny sums from nonmulticulturalists are treated as money with no strings attached by politicians who dare not even meet with nonmulticulturalists. It's shocking how much destruction tens of millions in legalized bribes can cause the formerly greatest nation on earth.

The lesson: Until nonmulticulturalists get more organization and more big donors, they will keep getting screwed, as they have for generations.

Satirical Headlines Unlikely to Appear in The Onion

Irish Import Nonwhites to Atone for Their History of Being Persecuted by Brits and Africans

Gentrifier Makes Sure to Buy Iron Window Bars from Corporation Committed to Diversity

Nonwhites Demanding Rule Over Whites Call Whites Wanting to Be Left Alone "Supremacists"

"I'm Tired of People Judgin' Me by My Skin Color," Says Man with 78 IQ and Long History of Crimes

Hate Crimes Up 201 percent According to Organization with No History of Rigging Research Whatsoever

If a Muslim Had Committed Toronto Van Attack, There Would Be Wall to Wall Media Coverage Say Muslims Who Committed Thousands of Unreported Jihad Acts

Germany Successfully Assimilates Millions of Africans and Southwest Asians Onto Welfare

Diverse Team of Scientists Impresses Everyone by Calling Themselves a Diverse Team of Scientists

Seventy-Two Virgin Goats with Anal Seepage Await Latest Suicide Bomber

Aggressive Descendants of Genocide Practicing Migrants from Cameroon Say Whites Have No Right to Live in Zimbabwe and South Africa

"There Is No Gay Agenda," Remarks Activist Professor of LBGTQ Studies

U2's Bono Applies for Handicapped License Plate, Declaring Himself Cognitive Dissonance Impaired

School Desegregation Plan Praised for Wrecking the Lives of 4,991 Local Working Class White Children While Improving the Education of Six African-Americans

Writer Obsessed with Russian Influence Calls Millions of Harmful Influences by Israel, Turkey, Mexico, and Saudi Arabia "Conspiracy Theories"

Humorist Made Famous for Making Faces in Front of Millions of TV Viewers Should Be Trusted for His Policy Expertise

White Man Divorced from Two Asian Wives Plans to Marry Another Because "Asian Women Are More Affectionate and Family Oriented"

George HW Bush Visits Pearly Gates, Becomes First Man Sent to Hell for the Acts of His Sons

Teenager Contemplates Whether to Continue Living in a Society Where Millions Casually Use the Word Maroon Without Being Aware She Considers It a Slur

Alzheimer's Victim Chuck Woolery Spends Final Years of Life Giving Progressives a Straw Person to Attack

Black Converts to Judaism Feel Discriminated Against by Jews Worried About Intermarriage: "We Ain't Gonna Marry None Them We Inseminate Anyway, at Least Not for Long."

Local Hitler Supporter Does Not Believe DNA Tests Suggesting Hitler Was Part Jewish or Berber: "How Could Der Fuhrer Be Part Carpet?"

Stoning Victim Requested Rock You Like a Hurricane for Final Song

The American Eugenics Society Proves the Evil of Eugenics Claims Scholar Surrounded by Billions of Dysgenic Victims

Catalonia's Secession Plan Postpones Date of White Genocide by One Day

Democrats, Progressives, and Republicans Responsible for Genocultural Totalitarianism Strategy Demand Republicans Apologize for Southern Strategy

Area Teachers Boycott Teaching Tenth Amendment Because Judges Ignore It Anyway

Multicultural White Flighter Says She Is Leaving Neighborhood for No Reason She Can Discern

Brexiter Happy to Be Ruled by Anti-White Tyranny in London Rather Than Anti-White Tyranny in Far Away Brussels

Adopted White Twin Reared Apart Envies Twin Sister with Hispanic Last Name and Cushy Affirmative Action Job

Museum of Lynching Reports That Whites Are Incapable of Being Lynching Victims

Globalist Multiculturalist Finally Admits His Ideology: "Fuck It. Everything Is Permissible for Me, Except Opposition to Diversity."

"Everywhere West of Manhattan Is Inhabited by Inbred Mouth Breathers" Reports Endogamy Practicing Wall Street Supporter of Randism and Genocultural Totalitarianism

Multiculturalist Who Never Read a Counter Argument to His Views Unsure Whether an Immigration Patriot Is Someone Who Opposes or Supports Mass Immigration

Philosophy Text Replaces Truth Value with Offended Value

"White Privilege Must Be Fought Everywhere," Reports Millionaire from Ethnoracial Group Off Limits to Mass Media Criticism and Higher Than White Median Incomes

Supporters of Globalism and Militarism Decry the Alleged Nationalism of Leaders Devoted to Globalism and Militarism in China, Russia, and NATO

Devil Plans to Kick John McCain Out of Hell for Having Sins Too Heinous for the Devil to Tolerate

Man with Gold Plated Bathroom Fixtures Whines About the Alleged Whining Everyone Else Does

Dog Is God Spelled Backward Says Supporter of Interspecies Multiculturalism

Man Claiming to be Universalist Admits He Says That Only to Fool Others and Serve His Short-Term Self-Interest

Sheep Reports Halal Meat a Pain in the Neck

Defense Industry Profits Win War on Terror and War on Their Own Poverty in Twilight Doubleheader

Multiculturalism Fails 171,582 Times in a Row, Only Common Sense to Keep Trying It

Job Interview with Last White Person on Earth Turns Awkward When She Reveals No Person of Color Will Give Her a Reference

Generalizing About the Ease of Miseducation

Many blank slate ideas from our thought leaders arise from small sample fallacies: "I took chemistry in high school. It was fun and easy." Or among science teachers: 200 or 300 level "astronomy, modern physics, and quantitative analysis were a breeze." Mr. X can "teach calculus to a spoon," the problem must be merely bad teaching by other teachers or other environmental factors. Ergo, they believe those classes should be not too difficult for most students not in special ed; more low IQ peoples of color should be scientists, engineers, and programmers. I've read and heard hundreds of similar comments extolling the massive power of teaching skill over IQ deficits, even from a psychologist married to a physicist!

Worse, our rulers have no awareness that some math and science classes are many times more difficult than the classes mentioned above.

Despite their ethical failings, our rulers generally have above the mean IQs. They are smart enough to manipulate, but not wise enough to face facts.

My theory differs: If you are smart enough to master many difficult 300 and 400 level classes despite terrible teaching, that's when you are cut out for STEM fields. Bad teaching in difficult classes is a great test of IQ, resourcefulness, and conscientiousness. (Note this is not an endorsement of bad teaching.) The student who can figure out differential equations simply by reading textbooks is more cut out to be a scientist or engineer than the student who passes because of great teaching.

Nearly as important: for most individuals, especially those struggling with subjects, those fields are no damn fun. What was fun for Richard Feynman would be a nightmare for most individuals on this planet. And even more important: lower IQ individuals will contribute little or nothing to scientific advances and some will be a burden on employers fearing affirmative action holy war from lawyers.

Many opinion makers come from fields where few differences in difficulty among 200 level and 400 level classes exist, not to mention graduate coursework, so they generalize from their own experiences.

One study focuses on reducing anxiety about difficult classes. But students sometimes have good reasons for being anxious. Anxiety is a warning that we are engaged in or about to engage in the wrong activities or that we are putting in the wrong effort or that something is wrong with our beliefs. Another study focuses on overcoming perceptions of difficulty. This study is better: It advises students to focus on their "strengths, enjoyments, and needs," though it should do more to emphasize ethics.

If you are reading this article, you are probably aware Bad Students, Not Bad Schools by Robert Weissberg is a classic in demolishing overemphasis on environments.

It is better for students to find out early that they are not cut out for certain fields than to suffer large financial and opportunity costs, then run into intellectual walls. Most teenagers should never see the insides of physics, calculus, and chemistry classes.