Congratulations America

[Dill]

(11-13-2016, 12:12 PM)PGMDino Wrote: What I think is it is funny to see all the people who voted for Trump get their panties in a wad over "less educated".

College education doesn't mean squat if you want to be a welder or a plumber.

Having a degree doesn't make anyone smarter or better than anyone else.

It's just  a simple truth that a vast majority of those without a degree or with less education voted for Trump.

That does not equate to "dumb people voted for Trump" but the people who did vote for him have taken it as an insult.  

I think that says more about them than it does the stat itself or the people reporting it.

I don't know what sort of factual reference terms like "smarter and better" can really have with regard to politics and voters, though I do have some idea of how they get deployed in US political discourse.

The very existence of politicians, pundits and other educated "elites" may create anxieties in some demographics who feel devalued for life choices that didn't include college, and may buy in when candidates from down home present opponents as members of that college-educated "smarter and better" elite.  (Then they may feel devalued again when pollsters point out that their candidate won with the non-college vote.)

That's why US politicians schizophrenically strive to appear competent, confident and knowledgeable--but no way no how "smarter and better."  They can openly brag about most anything--being rich or athletic or beautiful or great with the ladies--but not smarter and better, at least due to education.

It is relatively non-controversial to claim that people trained as plumbers know plumbing better than people not so trained. And it would be an odd plumber who was extremely careful to avoid appearing smarter and better because he was a plumber (though a very rich plumber might indeed put on smarter-and-better airs for being rich.) And it would sound very odd to hear someone arguing that just because you are a plumber, that doesn't make you smarter or better.  

Similarly, it might be relatively non-controversial to claim that people who study US/World history, foreign policy, government and the economy beyond high school know more about such subjects than people who don't study those things. And it may even be non-controversial to add that studying those subjects might better help one assess a presidential candidate's policy proposals than, say, plumbing.

And yet, it appears to be somewhat, or very, controversial to suggest that folks with post high school degrees may, as a group, have more resources for evaluating many presidential policy proposals than people who don't have such degrees. 

The just-concluded presidential campaign has probably heightened already existing anxieties about "smarter and better" educated folks, since the high school demographic broke so strongly in Trump's direction and that was widely reported.