How many times have you heard the verifiably false argument that women make less than men for doing exact same job? Since the 1970’s, the left has been making this argument. Also, since the 1970’s, there has been statistics that prove that this is simply not true. Yet, when browsing YouTube last week, I came across a video of a young woman making the very same argument to Ben Shapiro. Ben immediately retorted with a bevy of facts that disputed the woman’s claim such as different job occupations, hours worked, etc. After Ben’s quick fact ridden response, the women didn’t have much of an argument and simply said that she didn’t believe Ben’s statistics. People began to boo as she shuffled off defeated. However, it was something that someone shouted over the booing that really struck a chord with me. The person yelled out in the young lady’s defense, “at least she’s standing up for something.”
This was very strange to me because I couldn’t understand why standing up for something that is completely false should be considered heroic. What’s so great about people who stand up for false or evil things, even if they think they are brave and right? Is someone who argues for eugenics moral because they think they it is good?
Other people will argue that even though the girl was wrong, what she thought she was doing was right and therefore brave. They believed that her ignorance was the only flaw in an otherwise good human being.
To a certain extent, the people are good but ignorant argument is correct. There are plenty of good people that make arguments for more government, gun and speech control, higher taxes, that are doing so because they are relying on false assumptions. Hell, that’s what most of the left is made up of.
Yet, I believe there is a point that ignorance is no longer a defense for morally reprehensible behavior. There’s a line that people cross that makes them just as culpable for evil acts as the people in the know.
In my opinion there are two tiers of ignorance that cross the threshold.
The first tier is people who make open and loud pushes for policies but have not done adequate research on their policies and facts. These people cross the moral line because they are making potentially dangerous calls for policies changes and are too lazy or suffer from too much cognitive dissonance to research the potential ramifications. For instance, the newly elected, crazy 28-year-old progressive Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently tweeted that there have been 195 mass shootings this year. This is easily verifiably false yet Ms. Cortez uses fake statistics like these to try and get people to form the opinion that guns should be illegal. The truth is that the statistics show that the removal of guns from the citizenry not only takes away people’s rights to defend themselves from the public and the government, but the data also suggest that violent crime actually increases with the removal of guns. If Ms. Cortez just had these opinions but kept them to herself, that’s fine because you can’t know everything. However, her ignorance definitely crossed a line when she tweeted fake data in order to call for a policy that she clearly doesn’t understand the potential consequences of.
The second and much more sinister tier of ignorant sinner is the willfully ignorant. These are the individuals who have a world view and will intentionally deprive themselves of or refuse to acknowledge any facts or data that negates their view. These people are dangerous and evil because no evidence or facts will ever have them change their mind. These are the types of people who will call for socialism and refuse to acknowledge the hundreds of millions of deaths it has caused. The types of people who call for gun bans and will refuse to talk about Mexico, Chicago, Venezuela and other places that have banned guns, only to see a significant uptick in violent crime.
Bernie Sanders is a brilliant example of this type of ignorance. The man, who honeymooned in the Soviet Union and the man who once said that the Nicaraguan food lines with starving people is superior to America’s system were everyone was well fed, has a particular worldview. His worldview is that everyone is equal and if there is anything but equal outcomes, the individual or country that has the better outcome only has only achieved this by suppressing others.
Time and time again Bernie has seen the policies that he calls for enacted in countries across the globe only to end up in starvation, dictatorship, and death. He has praised countries such as the Soviet Union, Nicaragua and Venezuela because they governed as he would like, only to see all of them crash and burn into horrible dictatorships that starve their people. Yet, today he has made no adjustment to his beliefs and still calls for the same policies that he always has, despite the clear data. When asked about the atrocities occurring in Venezuela today or the Soviet era of the past, he refuses to talk about it because acknowledging that would be having to acknowledge there is something wrong with his worldview.
The book, “The Gulag Archipelago” mentions individuals who supported the Bolshevik revolution that ended up in the Siberian prison camps. Often, these individuals refused to acknowledge that what they had supported was actually a heinous evil idea. Instead they would just believe there was some sort of mistake and continue to support Stalin, despite the clear evidence of what socialism truly was.
The psychology behind someone who has trouble coming to grips with the fact that their worldview is flawed is understandable . Yet, it’s evil and narcissistic for someone to refuse to change any of their thoughts no matter what, because it can lead to dire consequences for millions of people.
One must look at it this way. If Hitler or Stalin came back to life and ran for President of the US, it’s going to be evil to vote for them or support them even if you didn’t know about their murderous pasts. It’s evil because you can easily look up their histories and see their horrible atrocities. If you didn’t bother to do the research because you are too lazy or you don’t want your worldview changed, then you are just as guilty as someone who supported them that knew about their evil pasts.
Don’t vote for people who you haven’t researched and don’t advocate for policies until you know all the history and statistics that will allow you to have a true understanding of the potential consequences. Because if you stand for evil you cannot hide under the I didn’t know excuse.
