The Top Vlog: Stupid Sarah Palin Thing of the Week (HuffPo's Bob Cesca)

[ihavenobias]

Run time: 01:31 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s6b3KbL5dY   Posted on YouTube: August 04, 2010 By YouTube Member: thetopvlog Views on YouTube: 1716   Posted on DU: August 06, 2010 By DU Member: ihavenobias Views on DU: 1135

 
Note: This is a video from a new vlogger channel, The Top Vlog, just launched by TYT Network. There are other great vloggers from Huffington Post, Daily Kos, Firedoglake, Think Progress, Brave New Films and more!

http://www.youtube.com/user/thetopvlog

Bob Cesca (Huffington Post contributor) debunks Sarah Palin's idiotic remarks about the Bush tax cuts.

Read more at www.bobcesca.com and subscribe to the Bob & Elvis Show podcast on iTunes!

[ElsewheresDaughter]

1. Dunning–Kruger effect

The Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which an unskilled person makes poor decisions and reaches erroneous conclusions, but their incompetence denies them the metacognitive ability to realize their mistakes.<1> The unskilled therefore suffer from illusory superiority, rating their own ability as above average, much higher than it actually is, while the highly skilled underrate their abilities, suffering from illusory inferiority. This leads to the perverse situation in which less competent people rate their own ability higher than more competent people. It also explains why actual competence may weaken self-confidence: because competent individuals falsely assume that others have an equivalent understanding. "Thus, the miscalibration of the incompetent stems from an error about the self, whereas the miscalibration of the highly competent stems from an error about others."<1>

The Dunning–Kruger effect was put forward by Justin Kruger and David Dunning. Similar notions have been expressed–albeit less scientifically–for some time. Dunning and Kruger themselves quote Charles Darwin ("Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge")<1> and Bertrand Russell ("One of the painful things about our time is that those who feel certainty are stupid, and those with any imagination and understanding are filled with doubt and indecision."<2><3>). The Dunning-Kruger effect is not, however, concerned narrowly with high-order cognitive skills (much less their application in the political realm during a particular era, which is what Russell was talking about.<4>) Nor is it specifically limited to the observation that ignorance of a topic is conducive to overconfident assertions about it, which is what Darwin was saying.<5> Indeed, Dunning et al. cite a study saying that 94% of college professors rank their work as "above average" (relative to their peers), to underscore that the highly intelligent and informed are hardly exempt.<2> Rather, the effect is about paradoxical defects in perception of skill, in oneself and others, regardless of the particular skill and its intellectual demands, whether it is chess, playing golf<6> or driving a car.<2>

more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning_kruger_effect

[Aristophrenia]

2. Great post -

Dunning Kruger needs to be part of everyones every day vocab - it explains SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much.

Especially the need for weather reporters to make assertions regarding the climate - they dont even REALISE the difference.

There is another word for Dunning-Kruger - republicans.

[bjobotts]

4. There is also this actor-object theory that says when one evaluates

their own success it is because of their personal abilities but when one evaluates one's failures it is due to outside influences ((like other people or society etc). But when one evaluates another's successes it is because of outside influences that they succeed but if they fail it is the fault of their personal abilities.

To me it's just the ego at work.

And in the Kruger effect it is just being too stupid to see how stupid you are because your ego prevents you from acknowledging your stupidity (or incompetence to be polite)

[The Wielding Truth]

3. Corporate welfare does not help the common good it propagates the

the corruption of a just democracy. It is so obvious. That is why Republicans fight for it. They want democracy to fail so they can privatize everything and embezzle public funds. Look around you. It's what they crave and have been doing. It has brought us to this low point and will continue to cause our collapse.

[mwb970]

5. I have observed three characteristics shared by all conservatives.

1. Strong opinions.
2. Absolute certainty.
3. Total ignorance.

Whenever you find these three together, you've got yourself a conservative!

[Enthusiast]

6. I guess this is why their

heads exploded after the results of the 2006 and 2008 elections.

I listened to the first Limbaugh show after the 2006 election results were in. The Republican world was in turmoil. He was blameless, of course. And he blamed other Republicans for not being conservative enough. He was tired of 'carrying their water'. Their 'absolute certainty' was crushed. And after the 2008 results, their 'absolute certainty' was further eroded. Their response has been to ramp up their strong opinions, their absolute certainty and their total ignorance. We are watching it unfold before our eyes.

[mwb970]

7. My favorite example comes from the 2008 election.

Just before the election, there was a thread on FR asking the Freeps "Who will win the election?". It had hundreds and hundreds of posts. Every single poster said that McLame would win. Some said it would be a landslide ("Obama won't even take his own state!"), others thought it would be close ("Libtards always cheat in elections!"), but every damn one of them said that McLame and the Airhead would win. This was at a point when national polls showed Obama in the lead by 10-15%.

Strong opinions. Absolute certainty. And apparently total ignorance, since they were all completely wrong. To me, this pretty much sums up modern conservatism, although I guess the single word "worthless" will do as well.

[Enthusiast]

8. In the run up to the 2008 election

I turned on Fox News to see what they were predicting. Dick Morris was pontificating. He said that McCain would win in a huge landslide. He said, "Oh, Obama will get 'some' votes, but not many." :rofl:

[mwb970]

10. That was probably the source of the wrong opinions on the FR thread.

Monkey hear, monkey say.

[Turborama]

9. K&R for a great vlog and the excellent discussion it's engendered n/t