I went on to say, "of course, it's fine to have views and express them without specific qualification or even experience". But the author himself is the one who suggested that progressives lack the conservatives "deeper grasp of the world's complexity" - you'll note I put that in quotes. My comment was specifically addressing the unreasonable assertion of the author by presenting a valid reason why they would most likely not be a position to possess that very quality in great degrees. I went on with evidence and commentary, but you've dismissed it out of hand and out of context. That's somewhat ironic, no?
I'm far from elitist and very much normal and I'm pretty middle of the road overall, but generally would be considered fiscally conservative and socially progressive, but not much in either direction. On specific issues or topics, of course, that can and does vary. The point, though, is that I'm hardly what you would label as a liberal/progressive overall.
This author, a young Uni student in Queensland, seems very well spoken (written) and intelligent and I have no doubt he is. But he's hardly in a position to suggest to anyone else that they don't have a deeper grasp of the world's complexity given his distinct lack of experience, at least to the point where others are holding his point up as authoritative. Even more so given the article provides nothing more than a couple of anecdotes in support of its argument.
And, yes, the Wright brothers figured out flight. Despite your claim, the vast majority of such advances are the exception, rather than the norm, and are typically the result of a specific field of invention rather than an overall doctrine or philosophy which typically take more time and experience to develop by their very nature. Again, I conceded immediately that anyone can have a view and they could make valid points, but this article was just hot air, personal anecdote, and a heap of confirmation bias. Given that the site in question is normally quite factual and only moderately right sided (as opposed to being extreme, an issue I discussed in my post), it was disappointing to find what really amounts to a right-wing puff piece.
Given I did raise many more points than just this, would you care to comment on them or will you leave it with an incorrect assertion of ad hominem on my part?
I wrote a rather quick response and decided to delete it and write something a little more thought out.
In regards to what is now in bold, I never made the claim all, or even suggested the majority of, discoveries came from those without advanced degrees. I was merely providing a counter example to your ad hominem attack on the author which you suggested that since he did not have experience nor advanced degrees, his argument is less valid.
In logic and reason, you only need provide one counter example to disprove a statement. I provided my example, disproving your statement.
Furthermore, your first paragraph in your original statement was an ad hominem argument. Instead of beginning by providing counter arguments to the article, you brought up a specific quality of the author to use against the argument, which is an ad hominem attack by definition. Yours may lack the audacity of calling someone a racist or something else as offensive, but it still is an ad hominem argument. And with this response, it appears you are doubling down on it.
Now, you may have provided legitimate counters to the article afterwards, but you kind of destroyed the credibility of those counters since you started off with a fallacy.
Insofar as me providing reasons as to why I may agree with the article or your counters, I did not read the article. To be honest, I could care less one way or the other, I was just pointing out the fallacy of your first paragraph.
In English we have a proverb that "wisdom comes with age." It doesn't. The Germans more correctly say that "we gain intelligence from our successes and wisdom from our failures ...", and I like to add, "but only if we choose to learn from them." Although experience may have a lot to do with wisdom, it does not necessarily mean you gain any, especially if you choose to ignore your failures.
