Richard Dawkins
Genius Stupidity
His name is Clint, he calls himself Richard but to me he’ll always be a Dick. He might be a professor but Richard ‘Dick’ Dawkins is not very bright when it comes to his stance on Brexit. He displays all the intellectual depth of a puddle in the Sahara when he talks about how stupid the population were to vote for Brexit. The argument he puts forward is that the average person shouldn’t be able allowed to vote on something so complex, something apparently you need a PhD in economics to understand. He also claims that you need a two thirds majority on something so significant as Brexit.
So let’s think about this. Is it difficult to understand? Is it scientific? Quantitive or qualitative? He doesn’t have a clue. Certainly economics is extremely complicated but, like the vote itself, it’s colored by the prevailing ‘mood of the people’. Everyone knows about supply and demand and that something is worth ‘what someone will pay for it’ don’t they? Apparently not Dick. No. He thinks you can just ‘know enough’ to have the right answer. Why aside from the obvious - what about all the predictions of a meltdown pre-Brexit by the great and the good? Open your eyes Dick! OK, make the excuses. It hasn’t happened yet, etc. Sure. I heard all these qualifications pre-vote when tempering the fear with any reasonable considerations would not really ‘work’ would it? Nope, not a dickie bird. The fact is you can create very complicated models to try and predict the future but ultimately it comes down to people, just like the stock market. You can make more informed guesses of course but Dick would be able to make a fortune in his imagined world of economic certainty. This is self evident.
Secondly many economists with PhDs saw the benefit of Brexit for economic reasons alone, although it isn’t just about economics anyway. Quality of life comes into the equation and more widely issues of sovereignty that you cannot factor into any economic model. You’re a clever chap aren’t you Dick? Did you really think it was only about the complex economy? Is that all you thought about when making your arrogant proclamations? Back to those pessimistic economic models too. Whenever you run a model you have to make assumptions about a huge number of factors. Your point of view will have a HUGE impact on the the results you get. One of the main models that predicted assuming that the government would do nothing to respond to anything that happened in the economy and created a recession on the back of two consecutive quarters (I think it is) of negative growth of just 0.1%. The smallest possible margin. Basically making the model say exactly what you want and believe and then tweaking it to make the result appear as bad as it could possibly be. A minute tweak somewhere and recession would not enter into the equation. It’s not to say that any model can’t work and the assumptions cannot be fair and reasonable but they will be the result of the opinion of the person making them, however qualified. Dick Hawkins is supposed to be clever but he clearly hasn’t got a clue about the basics of economics and as for democracy…
Despite all his reservations about the requirement for qualifications to be able to make a decision on a very complex matter on purely economic terms what is his solution? That if there was a 3/3rds majority it would be OK? Seriously? So if there are enough stupid people then your initial point is moot? What an idiot. He can’t make the most simple point without putting forward two totally contradictory arguments. He certainly shouldn’t have voted leave. He lacks the balls, common sense or ability to consider the bigger issues of the day and the sentiment of the people. He’s an old enough person to have had time to figure this out for himself but he’s obviously a bit slow in addition to having a complete lack of self-awareness.
Lord protect us for simpletons like Dick Dawkins. Stick to what you know Clint. Whatever I think about your views on Brexit you picked the perfect name out of all those available though Dick.
So let’s think about this. Is it difficult to understand? Is it scientific? Quantitive or qualitative? He doesn’t have a clue. Certainly economics is extremely complicated but, like the vote itself, it’s colored by the prevailing ‘mood of the people’. Everyone knows about supply and demand and that something is worth ‘what someone will pay for it’ don’t they? Apparently not Dick. No. He thinks you can just ‘know enough’ to have the right answer. Why aside from the obvious - what about all the predictions of a meltdown pre-Brexit by the great and the good? Open your eyes Dick! OK, make the excuses. It hasn’t happened yet, etc. Sure. I heard all these qualifications pre-vote when tempering the fear with any reasonable considerations would not really ‘work’ would it? Nope, not a dickie bird. The fact is you can create very complicated models to try and predict the future but ultimately it comes down to people, just like the stock market. You can make more informed guesses of course but Dick would be able to make a fortune in his imagined world of economic certainty. This is self evident.
Secondly many economists with PhDs saw the benefit of Brexit for economic reasons alone, although it isn’t just about economics anyway. Quality of life comes into the equation and more widely issues of sovereignty that you cannot factor into any economic model. You’re a clever chap aren’t you Dick? Did you really think it was only about the complex economy? Is that all you thought about when making your arrogant proclamations? Back to those pessimistic economic models too. Whenever you run a model you have to make assumptions about a huge number of factors. Your point of view will have a HUGE impact on the the results you get. One of the main models that predicted assuming that the government would do nothing to respond to anything that happened in the economy and created a recession on the back of two consecutive quarters (I think it is) of negative growth of just 0.1%. The smallest possible margin. Basically making the model say exactly what you want and believe and then tweaking it to make the result appear as bad as it could possibly be. A minute tweak somewhere and recession would not enter into the equation. It’s not to say that any model can’t work and the assumptions cannot be fair and reasonable but they will be the result of the opinion of the person making them, however qualified. Dick Hawkins is supposed to be clever but he clearly hasn’t got a clue about the basics of economics and as for democracy…
Despite all his reservations about the requirement for qualifications to be able to make a decision on a very complex matter on purely economic terms what is his solution? That if there was a 3/3rds majority it would be OK? Seriously? So if there are enough stupid people then your initial point is moot? What an idiot. He can’t make the most simple point without putting forward two totally contradictory arguments. He certainly shouldn’t have voted leave. He lacks the balls, common sense or ability to consider the bigger issues of the day and the sentiment of the people. He’s an old enough person to have had time to figure this out for himself but he’s obviously a bit slow in addition to having a complete lack of self-awareness.
Lord protect us for simpletons like Dick Dawkins. Stick to what you know Clint. Whatever I think about your views on Brexit you picked the perfect name out of all those available though Dick.