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Conservative Think Tank? Isn't that an oxymoron?

But in all seriousness. I'd be making fun of a liberal think tank too. Logic and Truth are not liberal or conservative, they just are. When a organization claims to be a think tank based on "Traditional American Values" Then you've already admitted you're biased and should be disbanned or at the very least, laughed out of the room for calling yourself a think tank.

You don't take an ideology and then try to back it up facts. That's backwards. You learn the facts first, then make policy off that.

Another example of this backwards thinking is Christian Science.

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I was wondering where QM was getting his latest rants from.

Here's an article I came across yesterday about this very topic:

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2011/08/heritage_poor.html

Of course, that's a link to a post from a left-wing think tank.

@VoodooV re: "You don't take an ideology and then try to back it up facts. That's backwards. You learn the facts first, then make policy off that."

I'd object to the use of the word "ideology" here. The key ideological differences between the left and right have to do with moral philosophy, which isn't really something science can give us answers about.

That results in divergent goals for society -- I want to minimize suffering for everyone, and if government can help do that, I'm all for it. Right-wing people are more concerned about making sure that suffering hits the people they perceive as deserving it, and that government interceding to relieve suffering on the deserving is morally wrong, especially if it means taxing the righteous.

So obviously there are going to be divergent policy positions, because there are divergent goals. Hence, you have right-wing and left-wing think tanks, working on divergent policies, but still attempting to use logic and facts to craft policies that meet their goals for society.

That said, not all think-tanks are created equally. Heritage has a bad habit of lying to people about things. There's probably some honest way to make the case that wage stagnation for the middle and working class has still resulted in some significant increases in prosperity for the middle and working classes. But saying "poor people have microwaves, so they don't need assistance anymore" is just silly.

>> ^VoodooV:

Conservative Think Tank? Isn't that an oxymoron?


Welle someone has to be thinking pretty hard to figure out how to turn all that nonsense into a semi-coherent political "philosophy" without making them look like a spoiled kindergartner.

>> ^NetRunner:

Here's an article I came across yesterday about this very topic:
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2011/08/heritage_poor.html
Of course, that's a link to a post from a left-wing think tank.
@VoodooV re: "You don't take an ideology and then try to back it up facts. That's backwards. You learn the facts first, then make policy off that."
I'd object to the use of the word "ideology" here. The key ideological differences between the left and right have to do with moral philosophy, which isn't really something science can give us answers about.
That results in divergent goals for society -- I want to minimize suffering for everyone, and if government can help do that, I'm all for it. Right-wing people are more concerned about making sure that suffering hits the people they perceive as deserving it, and that government interceding to relieve suffering on the deserving is morally wrong, especially if it means taxing the righteous.
So obviously there are going to be divergent policy positions, because there are divergent goals. Hence, you have right-wing and left-wing think tanks, working on divergent policies, but still attempting to use logic and facts to craft policies that meet their goals for society.
That said, not all think-tanks are created equally. Heritage has a bad habit of lying to people about things. There's probably some honest way to make the case that wage stagnation for the middle and working class has still resulted in some significant increases in prosperity for the middle and working classes. But saying "poor people have microwaves, so they don't need assistance anymore" is just silly.


Well I'll grant you that everyone has some sort of ideology that at least motivates them to learn new things. But when it blatantly colors every aspect of your analysis, then you're a joke. I checked out their website when QM made his latest rant. They don't even put up a front that they care about their analysis more than their ideology.

Quite honestly, IMO, anyone who claims be a scientist should be apolitical. science should be above politics

If you redefine things to suit your argument it makes it easier. The problem is not everyone accepts this but your readership does so when others argue with you about your study they're not using the facts that your readers are familiar with and therefore they must be lying.

>> ^VoodooV:

Well I'll grant you that everyone has some sort of ideology that at least motivates them to learn new things. But when it blatantly colors every aspect of your analysis, then you're a joke. I checked out their website when QM made his latest rant. They don't even put up a front that they care about their analysis more than their ideology.
Quite honestly, IMO, anyone who claims be a scientist should be apolitical. science should be above politics


Well, think tanks are more like engineers than scientists. They have problems they want to solve, and so they do research and use scientific findings to try to build something that will solve their problem.

Again, some think tanks go about this properly, and try not to delude themselves or others about the nature of reality. Others consider deception a valid tool to use in their toolbox.

Which is to say, having an opinion on how things should be does not automatically make someone dishonest. I don't really understand why people buy into the propaganda telling you otherwise.

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