Many conservatives have a loose relationship with facts. The right-wing denial of what most people think of as accepted reality starts with political issues: As recently as 2016, 45 percent of Republicans still believed that the Affordable Care Act included “death panels” (it doesn’t). A 2015 poll found that 54 percent of GOP primary voters believed then-President Obama to be a Muslim (…he isn’t).
Why are conservatives so susceptible to misinformation? The right wing’s disregard for facts and reasoning is not a matter of stupidity or lack of education. College-educated Republicans are actually more likely than less-educated Republicans to have believed that Barack Obama was a Muslim and that “death panels” were part of the ACA. And for political conservatives, but not for liberals, greater knowledge of science and math is associated with a greater likelihood of dismissing what almost all scientists believe about the human causation of global warming.___
Because being conservative is directly caused by being a gullible moron.
Can confirm, many “conservative atheists” I knew in the beginning of 2010’s (they almost all became christian if they didn’t leave conservatism itself) were conservative due to some combination of “we need conservative representation within atheists” and the “they told me I would eventually grow out from liberalism, I’m just doing the unavoidable”.
Yah even as a man of science and research, even I got about 3/4 through the article and started rolling my eyes.
This is a lot of over-explanation for the common state of stupidity that comes from having shit parents, shitty school and living in a poor, shitty area. Some people rise above their adversity and insecurity, through whatever arcane and secret paths one’s thought streams follow, others become defined by their stupidity and fear and insecurity and find a community that lets them validate such feelings.
You’re never going to get rid of the stupid segment of your population, and in fact if you want to mitigate the damage they can do, as a leader you should provide for them and make sure they’re not suffering like the rest of us, because it’s not the stupid themselves that are the problem, it’s what they become when they’re desperate and how easily they can be manipulated to serve others.
As far as I’m concerned we should just admit they’re gullible and want to blame someone for their failings. Let’s take that and manipulate them to our ends. Blame the billionaires, call them thieves, keep rattling the cage and provoking them. Tell them they’d have a Ferrari if Bozo and the rat didn’t steal from them. Sure it’s gross, but it’s what you’d do with a child refusing to take their medicine. It’s ultimately for their own good.
Gullible yes, probably motions too. You can be extremely intelligent and still have massive blind spots. My mom and Grandpa are both conservatives but I’d consider them intelligent. I was able to have discussions with them and convince them a lot of conservative policy is unnecessarily cruel and short sighted. Got both to promise me they wouldn’t vote for Trump, but they’re fiscally conservative because they’ve got money.