The Dogged Stupidity of the Left

January 13, 2002

by Charles E. Perry

In my last column, I dealt with the evil of the left. In this column, I thought I might deal with their dogged stupidity, since I ran across such a fine example of it in yet another chat room. You know how it goes; the liberal spouts some piece of liberal propaganda and then, when confronted with facts which contradict it, doggedly continues to insist they’re right. It can be cute in a five year old. In an allegedly intelligent adult, it’s frightening.

This particular discussion began with a liberal complaining about "corporate welfare," that is, giving tax breaks to corporations. To begin with, I’m amazed that someone could think letting anyone keep more of the money they earn could be classed as welfare. That’s a bit like a mugger who allows you to keep cab fare from your wallet claiming that he’s giving you the money. In any event, corporations don’t really pay taxes, and so I informed the liberal.

The liberal reacted in the usual manner; claiming that I didn’t know what I was talking about, so I patiently set out to explain it. Corporations treat taxes as just another cost of doing business, like the rent they pay or the cost of materials. So the corporate tax burden is factored into the price they charge for the goods and services they sell. So who really pays corporate taxes? You, the consumer, pay them. Every time you buy a product or use a service, a portion of what you pay for it has already been set aside for the corporate tax burden. Corporations are not taxpayers. They are, in reality, unpaid tax collectors.

The liberal had nothing to counter these facts with, so instead she just said that I expected corporations to cut prices if they got tax breaks and finished with a hearty laugh. This got us into a discussion of supply and demand, and an explanation of how corporations that charged more than people were willing to pay soon found themselves out of business. I also pointed out that corporations were constantly seeking ways to produce their goods at lower cost to help keep prices down in the range that people were willing to pay, and that, consequently, new products often went down in cost as time went by.

Once again, the liberal had nothing to counter these facts, so she loudly proclaimed that I was just wrong, and that corporations were greedy, and therefore evil. She made specific mention of the drug companies. I asked her if she knew how much drug companies had to spend on research. No answer. I asked her if she knew how much it cost to get a new drug approved. No answer. Finally, I asked if she knew that those "evil" drug companies had programs set up to give free drugs to people who needed them but couldn’t afford them.

That got an answer. She was sure I was just lying. So, I gave her a toll-free number for one such program, and suggested she do some research on the web since the companies maintain websites about the programs. Taking a new tack, she asked why, if the drug companies gave free drugs to the needy, did Bush propose help for Seniors in his campaign? Once again, she had no rebuttal for the facts, so she tried to divert away from them.

Shortly after, I ended our conversation since it was obvious she didn’t want to hear any facts that contradicted her world view. She wasn’t going to learn anything because of her utter refusal to accept facts, and I certainly wasn’t going to learn anything from her continued shouting of liberal propaganda. I suggested she study the issue in greater depth, and come back when she had facts to present.

She won’t, of course. She has likely been fed the liberal mantra since childhood, and she clings to it with an almost religious fervor. In other times, I am sure she would have had me burned at the stake for blasphemy. Some liberals show a distinct aversion to questioning their core beliefs at all, or even questioning peripheral beliefs. Some liberal hero has told them that it is thus and so, so it is thus and so and that’s that.

Such dogged stupidity may give them comfort, I suppose, but it gives me the willies.

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Charles E. Perry is a freelance writer living in Michigan. He has done a variety of things in his life, including Ward Supervisor at the State of Michigan's Maximum Security Mental Facility. His degree is in accounting, but he discovered writing and now spends his time hunched over a keyboard, hollow-eyed, looking for just the right word. Perry is the author of "How Government Should Work: A Look at the Federalist Papers and the Constitution of the United States," currently pending publication.

Send the author an E mail at Perry@ConservativeTruth.org.

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