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i5heu 2 hours ago

"common sense" is common sense because it is not "specialised sense" or "expert sense"

So if politicians base their decisions on "common sense", they confess to not being able to use experts that refine their knowledge and position about a topic.

A "common sense" strategy is therefore what is most popular and on the basis of the understanding of laymen without deeper understanding or knowledge.

blaze33 an hour ago | parent | next [-]

For at least a few years, "common sense" has been hijacked by populist politicians, now it just means whatever simplistic idea that fits their worldview, even when it's not complicated to see that said idea is clearly misguided. The original meaning seems lost to me.

bitmasher9 an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Furthermore, using the phrase “common sense” to describe an idea inherently dismisses any individual that will argue against it. They either are too dumb to have common sense, or too much of an elite to have common sense.

reactordev an hour ago | parent | next [-]

This is the word smithing they are known for. By labeling “common sense” means anyone who argues against it is against “common sense” because every argument is a strawman argument.

RobotToaster an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

It's basically become a thought terminating cliche https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought-terminating_clich%C3%A...

icantevenhold 42 minutes ago | parent [-]

It is what it is

throwaway27448 21 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

That was the original meaning dating back to thomas paine. It is a term impossible to deploy in good faith.

ben_w an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

Always meant that, so far as I can see.

smolder an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

"Common sense" might also mean "do the simple thing" which, given how cheap it is to invest in renewable energy sources like solar farms, and how much room we have to build daytime capacity that way without large scale storage, might mean installing a lot more solar.

Don't pretend the current US admin is anything but corrupt and stupid.

throwaway173738 23 minutes ago | parent [-]

Don’t overthink it. Burgum means “don’t disagree with me I’m always right” when he says it.

latch 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

"common sense" is common sense because it is the "sound and prudent judgment based on a simple perception of the situation or facts" (1).

Maybe what you meant to say is that the position isn't, in fact, "common sense", that it is neither sound or prudent?

(1) https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/common%20sense

LodeOfCode an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Keyword being "simple". The common sense solution often turns out to be unsound based on a more detailed perception of the situation

an hour ago | parent | next [-]
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XorNot an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

i.e. "every complicated problem has a solution which is simple, elegant and wrong"

fuzzfactor 11 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

Oh yes, "sound" and "prudent" haven't been in the ballpark nearly as often as they used to be :(

The dictionary definition is in spite of the fact that the phrase "common sense" is more often than ever being used to rebrand what was formerly known as "common lack of sense".

They wouldn't say it if it wasn't false :\

gadders 7 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

There will always be a place for common sense - the Greeks used to call it phronesis or "practical wisdom".

You also need to distinguish between expert opinion and elite opinion. The two are not the same.

StilesCrisis 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

In politics, "common sense" just means that they don't have a real justification. You can just apply it to anything and your base will accept it.

einpoklum 2 hours ago | parent [-]

> don't have a real justification.

Oh, but the ju$tifi¢ation is all too real for having that kind of "common sense".

an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]
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bs38 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

You dont need deeper understanding of knowledge for everything. Ask Grandma whether she needs a chemical engineering degree to bake apple pie.

Then there is the Theory of Bounded Rationality which tells us expertise may exist but resources, time, energy, info, attention etc etc may not therefore bounds and limits of expertise alone must be recognized and solutions reached are satisficable rather than optimal. Aiming for optima when other factors havent been sorted just creates new problems.

PurpleRamen an hour ago | parent | next [-]

> Ask Grandma whether she needs a chemical engineering degree to bake apple pie.

Grandma doesn't bake with "common sense", she is using the specialized knowledge of cooking & baking.

polytely 28 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

grandma's baking knowledge isn't common sense but expertise.

ToucanLoucan an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

> You dont need deeper understanding of knowledge for everything. Ask Grandma whether she needs a chemical engineering degree to bake apple pie.

You've clearly never baked before. Baking is a chemical science. You have to adjust temperatures for your freaking elevation relative to sea level. Granted some recipes are pretty forgiving, sure, but far from all, and some are downright merciless in terms of complexity and effort required.

Even people who do it constantly have items that just don't turn out because it's legitimately hard shit.

Eldt 34 minutes ago | parent [-]

You seem to have conflated a chemical engineering degree with the concept of baking being a chemical process

xtiansimon 19 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> “… without deeper understanding or knowledge.”

Ha! Like the common sense to dam migratory river systems to make hydroelectric power. Good idea at the time, and who cares about salmon. I have a toaster, and a percolator, and a new fangled “ice” box (formerly chilled by ice, now a maker of ice).

S/ My common sense says 1.2B compensation to not do something we otherwise need is bananas as opposed to the common sense—pound salt response. Good thing I’m not in government, yeah. /s

u02sgb 2 minutes ago | parent [-]

We have a hydroelectric dam near us with a salmon leap next to it. Good visitor attraction too.

It'll provide power for decades with little maintenance and not much further in the way of environmental issues now that it's built.

scotty79 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Common sense is the sense of commoners. The entirity of science if a fight against common sense.

In Poland the closest phrase to "common sense" is "na chłopski rozum" which means "according to villager's mind/smarts".

dspillett an hour ago | parent [-]

A significant part of science is plucking the true bits from common sense. A fair chunk of what we call medicine is folk remedies that stood up to rigorous testing.

teamonkey an hour ago | parent [-]

Yes, but the testing bit is what makes it a scientifically-proven method and not a folk remedy.

There are also a lot of folk remedies that have been disproven as medicine. They too were ‘common sense.’

ToucanLoucan 12 minutes ago | parent [-]

> There are also a lot of folk remedies that have been disproven as medicine. They too were ‘common sense.’

"You know what they call alternative medicine that works? Medicine." - Tim Minchin