Cross-posted on Norman's Spectator
Re: Tuesday's THE COLUMN I WISH I'D WRITTEN: The Globe and Mail's Margaret Wente is onto smart Canadians and dumb Americans
I normally enjoy the selection of columns very much. But this one's logic is so twisted that it qualifies neatly as what Professor Harry G. Frankfurt called bullshit.
I'll give you two examples.
At the beginning of the review, Norman quoted her as saying:
Are Canadians more intellectually sophisticated than Americans? We like to think so. And now there's scientific proof. It's called "intelligent design."
In other words, she was either saying that
"Intelligent design" is scientific proof that Canadians are more intellectually sophisticated than Americans.
Or,
"Intelligent design" is scientific proof that [we] Canadians like to think that we are more intellectually sophisticated than Americans.
Neither statement, however, makes much sense scientifically, to say nothing of her illogical attempt to equate part (Canadian or American) with whole.
The real twist came at the end of her column. She concluded:
To me, that [Canadians belief that "U.S. foreign policy" poses the same risk to Canada as "terrorism."] is as weird as believing in intelligent design.
So, the implied conclusion is that Canadians are no more intellectually sophisticated than Americans, according to her previous logic.
The point is that there is no point at all in her column. I guess she does not really care about making any point. And that just qualifies her as a bullshitter.
