What percentage of voters do you think are intellectual?

As Marx wrote, the intellectual in our society is still a minor.

What he means by that is this: in bourgeois culture, or the dominant ideology, intellectuals are made to seem "childish" and "immature," while anti-intellectuals are made to appear "mature" and "responsible."

Thus, people are prompted and rewarded for shutting down thoughts as soon as they enter the brain, so that they do not encounter any painful contradictions between what they see happening and what they are told to believe is happening.

This thought-stopping device is not necessarily chemical in origin (not necessarily pharmaceutical although sometimes it is), but it always becomes a chemical process in the brain. Thoughts are by-passed in favor of shopping, eating, watching TV, or just about anything to squelch thought--to the point that people soon fail to recognize a thought if they have one, and are trained to think and tell others that such ideas are simply crazy.

Thus people who think and report on their thoughts are readily denounced and treated as "witches" were by the Puritans.

This is how the status quo is maintained in consumer capitalist society where people are worker-consumer bees.

I think it's safe to say a full 65% of voters don't really follow the issues closely. They get the surface details and run with that. This is why Kerry got defeated in 04. Some folks only pay attention to the one Presidential race. It's obvious that in this election, people were paying attention to the candidates and watching their every move. But if you asked some of the voters what each of the candidates advocated on their respective platforms, I'm pretty sure they'd only know a few of the topics.

As for Prop 8, I'm gonna have to blame that one on the supporters of the bill. They didn't take their case to minorities. You'll have to remember that this is somewhat of a religious issue as well. The churches all lobbied for a no vote on Prop 8. This is a civil rights issue. Who better to understand civil rights issues than minorities. Because the supporters of the bill didn't educate the black and hispanic voters about this bill they didn't get any of those votes...it's a shame.

The Prop 8 thing bothers me on more than one level. You need to put it in context with Prop 2. Prop 2 provided for better conditions for chickens. And it passed handily. Prop 8 removed the Rights of citizens of the United States based on who they choose as a partner. The voters in California, my home State, found it acceptable to treat animals well, but not their neighbors. For some reason I find that confusing. Those promoting Prop 8 financially were members of the Mormon Church, The Knights of Columbus, and an organization of Catholic priests. Hardly paragons of virtue or marriage experts yet they claim this issue to be about the morality of a man and a woman only being allowed to lay claim to a word, "Marriage".

Numerically, I would consider only the top 5% as intellectuals. How many actually vote is a mystery.

You're assuming that a religious belief is shallow. A belief is a belief. And if it can't be proved scientifically/mathematically, there need be no logic to it. I think whomever voted for prop 8 thought that 1) gay marriage is wrong and the government should do something about it or 2) gay marriage is just fine and/OR the government should have nothing to do about it.

Many people cannot look at the larger outcome of their decisions. When I was younger, I believed that everyone should get paid the same amount. Why should doctors have more than my electrican Dad? They work just as hard. But, my dad explained that if you give everyone same pay, NO ONE would work hard. Or very few would. You'd have no motivation. But yet, there are still many who believe what I did when I was nine.

Um...answer to your question....50% both sides.

I dont have a percentage for you because i dont want to judge. However i believe many voters were mostly interested in voting for the president. Many might of overlooked the propositions and did not take much interest in them which might of caused the results we got today. As it has been announced that many new voters were brought in to vote for the president.

I am with you on that. I havent quite looked at the statistics on the voters who voted for prop 8 but i am discouraged about it because i believe in equal rights. People have their own life to live and no one should take their rights away.

<< 1%

Great question!

Personally, I think the vast majority of all voters are, as you put it, "sheep" that do whatever the status quo in their area is, or vote based on outside appearance, not based on actual policies and beliefs.

If I were to put a number on it, I would say maybe only 25% of all voters or less could actually identify five reasons why they voted the way they did.

Think of at least 10 friends how many fit? No more then 1-2% I'd bet.

All this crap we talk about here isn't even significant. Again think of all the people you know, how many care about partisan crap? Probably none.

Prop 8 isn't about civil rights it's about a tiny minority trying to redefine America and Americans and America said go "F*** yourself."

Honestly, I'd say a *slightly* higher percentage of voters fit a true and throrough description of intellectual (smart, love to learn, strive to learn, view the world through curious eyes) than the general American populace.

I'd put voters at about 20% intellectual.

As for the general public? Roughly 5% - and I think that's generous.

-stan

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To "IWIU": "If you *want* to be gay"??? "Keep it private"??? You are certainly swimming in the shallow end of the gene pool, and are surely among the "not so intellectual".

To your question, I'd say 50/50.

To your comment, I'd say you've got a he11 of a lot of nerve.

For some reason, you feel that whites are more entitled to a Christian opinion than Blacks because we happened to be slaves once upon a time, but let me tell you something buster, whites and blacks read the same bible. What a racist, shame on you.