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1. nickff+(OP)[view] [source] 2025-06-24 19:29:07
>"Common sense is the most widely shared commodity in the world, for every man is convinced that he is well supplied with it." -Descartes
replies(2): >>thomas+z1 >>heikki+G2
2. thomas+z1[view] [source] 2025-06-24 19:36:05
>>nickff+(OP)
The phrase "common sense" actually is a pet peeve of mine.

In politics, it's a red flag because it is often used to defend bad policies that only appear good when one doesn't have the fortitude to understand the better policy.

replies(1): >>userna+C8
3. heikki+G2[view] [source] 2025-06-24 19:40:45
>>nickff+(OP)
Why is such a rare thing called common sense? - myself
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4. userna+C8[view] [source] [discussion] 2025-06-24 20:16:07
>>thomas+z1
And the rejection of common sense is often used to defend ideas so bad that one has to put serious intellectual effort to create arguments for them.

A lot more "intellectuals" defended Pol Pot and Milosevic compared to ordinary chums. The denial of the Cambodian genocide was known as the "Standard Total Academic View on Cambodia".

replies(1): >>thomas+if
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5. thomas+if[view] [source] [discussion] 2025-06-24 20:58:35
>>userna+C8
There's some truth to that, but I'm not sure it's an argument for the phrase 'common sense'.

I can't think of a position on anything that someone couldn't twist into an appeal to 'common sense'

There are different cheap rhetorical devices that some intellectuals use. I don't like that either.

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