Is Ben Carson a savant?

[Stinky The Clown]

He was a truly capable (dare I say great) pediatric neurosurgeon. But he's little more than a fucking idiot when it comes to politics. He's really delusional about a whole lot of governmental facts, issues, procedures, traditions, and even history.

[randys1]

1. I said this out loud to myself in the car yesterday, I wonder myself.

[valerief]

2. It's amazing to listen to him, isn't it? Maybe it's just not that difficult

to be a brain surgeon.

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

3. Fact check his work

I've heard bad things about outcomes and sponges left in someone's head.

[Gman]

5. That happens to the best of surgeons in general

Not defending him as a candidate. Just those things in and of themselves don't make him a dumb ass

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

14. OK I did more reading. My bad.

Treated like a god at Hopkins. Lead to hubris. Then people who admired him became aware of his goofy ideas for the first time, along with the rest of us.

[ScreamingMeemie]

13. While I think Carson is just an idiot, neurosurgery is prone to bad outcomes.

It's delicate work and many, many cases are last ditch attempts

[Gman]

4. That has crossed my mind before

He really is a gifted person in several ways. But he has no grasp of other things. That's characteristics of a savant. He may even be somewhere on the autism spectrum disorder. Im not saying that's a bad thing. I'm saying its remarkable that's he functions as he does.

[Funtatlaguy]

7. Something isn't right.

He always looks down or away or rolls his eyes.
ADHD probably along with some type of autism.

[hunter]

6. Most of U.S. politicians are grifter-savants.

They're dumber than a pile of shit in all fields but hoodwinking voters and prostituting themselves to billionaires.

[DirkGently]

8. Intelligence comes in many forms.

I could no more accomplish what Ben Carson has achieved as a physician than I could fly to the moon in a paper cup.

But most children I have met have a better grasp of the basic realities of our world than this man.

Brilliance in one area is apparently no guarantee of even basic competence in others.

[BillZBubb]

10. That's the answer. This fact leads to a great danger too.

People who are narrowly gifted like Carson tend to believe their intelligence extends into all areas. They think themselves infallible. So, they think they know best for everyone else in every sphere of life and never doubt their beliefs.

The other facet of this is that many other people are so in awe of that person's success in one area that they falsely extrapolate that intelligence to other areas--especially if it confirms their pre-existing biases.

[pnwmom]

9. You don't have to be brilliant to be a surgeon. You have to have a big enough

ego to cut into people, and a steady hand.

[BillZBubb]

11. Getting a medical degree requires a good deal of intelligence.

But it is a narrow type of intelligence. Primarily, you have to be able to memorize a huge amount of material in a short amount of time.

Having a good memory, however, doesn't make one a particularly deep thinker.

[ScreamingMeemie]

12. No, I think he's just garden variety stupid.

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. I know people hate republicans wiht a passion, but this sugestion is well,. insulting to actual

real Savants. Now if you want to be scared, the level of political knowledge for Dr Carson is well average, or actually above average, he is running, than the average american.

Jesus, some of these things are real well insulting. Not surprising, but insulting.