Comment by nickff

7 months ago

>"Common sense is the most widely shared commodity in the world, for every man is convinced that he is well supplied with it." -Descartes

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nickff

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thomassmith65  7 months ago

The phrase "common sense" actually is a pet peeve of mine.

In politics, it's a red flag because it is often used to defend bad policies that only appear good when one doesn't have the fortitude to understand the better policy.

  • username332211  7 months ago

    And the rejection of common sense is often used to defend ideas so bad that one has to put serious intellectual effort to create arguments for them.

    A lot more "intellectuals" defended Pol Pot and Milosevic compared to ordinary chums. The denial of the Cambodian genocide was known as the "Standard Total Academic View on Cambodia".

    • thomassmith65  7 months ago

      There's some truth to that, but I'm not sure it's an argument for the phrase 'common sense'.

      I can't think of a position on anything that someone couldn't twist into an appeal to 'common sense'

      There are different cheap rhetorical devices that some intellectuals use. I don't like that either.