CNN reports on a study verifying what we already knew: Liberals and Atheists have higher IQ's. What's more the data in the study is explained though evolution. The conservatives are sure to hate this, huh? Especially coming on the heels of multiple papers showing how conservatism is like a form of mental illness!
Now let's recap. According to Conservatives:
ACADEMIA, meaning people that study and learn things, has a liberal bias.
The part of the MEDIA that practices anything even resembling actual JOURNALISM, has a liberal bias.
And SCIENCE (climatology, evolution, stem cell research, etc...) has a liberal bias.
That says, pretty clearly, that RESEARCH, STUDYING, LEARNING, and KNOWLEDGE CREATION all have a liberal bias. So it really shouldn't come as any surprise that higher intelligence would be liked to Liberalism and Atheism, since, according to CONSERVATIVES, all the things that support intelligence and come from intelligence ALL have a LIBERAL BIAS!
You wouldn't think they should be so proud of that, but as "Mister Conservative," Glenn Beck himself said: We don't WANT to evolve!
Well, good on you then Glenn, because: you haven't.
Actually, I still think then-Senator Obama said it best, during a 2008 campaign speech: "It's like these guys take pride in being ignorant!" As eloquent and articulate as President Obama can be, I still believe that statement to be the most relevant, prescient, observant, telling and accurate of his political career.
And lest you think this phenomenon is anything new, consider this exchange between Adlai Stevenson and an admirer of his during the 1952 campaign:
"Senator, you have the vote of every thinking person!"
"That's not enough, madam, we need a majority!"
The Right has learned this lesson all too well and, in the decades following 1980, have devolved from a party of Libertarianism, Progressivism and Center-Right Populism to one of hate, bigotry, fear, paranoia, greed, superstition and madness. Obama realized the pride they take in their ignorance but thus far he does not seem to have any ideas how to confront the problem. Nor do I. When it comes to separating the dumb from the Right, I have no idea where to even begin. And don't get me wrong: I only want their votes, not their voice. The Right got their vote by giving these fools actual representation. That was the ultimate example of putting party and personal interests above those of the country. Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large numbers. But there sure are a LOT of them, aren't there? And we can't fix anything if we don't WIN ELECTIONS. So what to do?
For once? I'm stumped. Good luck, America.
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Hey there, Baldric;
ReplyDeleteIt's been a while. Just had to let you know that I wasn't stepping on your toes over at MMFA today. We both quoted Adlai Stevenson's "majority" quip completely coincidentally. It's amazing how often that quote is relevant in today's political climate, along with Groucho's, "Who are you going to believe....?"
I'm going to have to click on your links to conservatism as mental illness now. I'd been considering it a character flaw. Guess I'll have rethink my position in light of more facts coming to light. If that doesn't expose me as a godless liberal, I don't know what would.
On a personal note: What did you think of Ikiru, Throne of Blood, and Rashomon?
Just askin';
ReplyDeleteAny idea why the song, "Gimme That Old Time Religion," kept running through my head as I was reading the CNN article you linked to?
(I know, I ended that sentence with a preposition; deal with it.)
Please, do you really think I'm going to be a grammar-nazi?! LOL
ReplyDeleteRashomon was really cool. Definitely drove home Obi-Wan's philosophy (oft quoted by me) of the truth depending on one's own point of view. Pretty cool how every story could be both "true" even while they contradict.
STILL have't seen Iriku or Throne of Blood yet. They're on my shelf, but DW has recently discovered "Bleach" and we also just finished "Neon Genenis Evangeleon" so it's been Anime more than Film for the past few weeks.
As for the mental illness links... I was trying to find a news report or summary, but all I could find at this point was blogs mocking (or praising) the studies, highly opiniated one way or the other, so I just linked to the studies themselves. And the thing with that is that they're written in Academic-speak. Which means you've got to practically have PhD to get through them. LOL. But I remember savouring the Right's delicious indignation back when they were first published. I'm curious to see what they do with this latest one.
Thanks for commenting!
I actually find it a little scary that there are so many stupid people out there, and a lot of them own guns.
ReplyDeleteI'm not right or left.conservative or liberal.
ReplyDeleteBut I'll tell you this: liberals have destroyed the western world. There's no discipline in schools, no winning on the battlefield, and governments (yours) have debts that they will never be able to pay back which will cause of course, bloody wars.
Now, your Mr. Obama. I feel pity for him. He's just a guy, the guy next door. But the american voter and the swedish academy have turned him into a tragi- comic figure, not a literary figure but a flesh&blood one. It hurts.
On the day of election, liberals like you have displayed an IQ lower than the Dead Sea which is the lowest point on earth. You don't have to argue about it; just wait and see what happens.
Duta,
ReplyDeleteOK... I'll take you down, Point by point...
Destroyed the Western world: Really? Last time I checked the western world was still here. And last time I checked it was still the economic, technological and social forrunner of the entire world, despite you're all's attempts to make it otherwise. I happen to LIVE in the Western World. And I'm not seeing "destruction."
There's no discipline in schools: We can certainly discuss this, and I'm sure we'd find some common ground regarding this CONCLUSION. Where we'd differ is on WHY this problem exsists and WHAT TO DO about it. But it doesn't matter becuase you're exagerating. What's more, I see very little that the conservatives have offered, academically. (Creationism in the Science room? Give that up first, and I'll consider taking them seriously.)
No winning on the battlefield: What the hell are you talking about? This is LIBERALS fault? Are you JOKING? Tell you what, you tell me how W.'s strategy of declaring unecessary wars and writting the enemy's recruitment propaganda for them was going to win the war on terror, and I'll concede the point. (Good luck with that. I'm not holding my breath.)
Governments (yours) have debts that they will never be able to pay back: Go back to my Feb 1 post, "Who's REALLY responsible for our nat'l dabt" and you'll learn that 66% of our debt comes from just THREE presidents, ALL Republican: Reagan, Bush'41 and Bush'43. The Right always talks a good game, at least one that appeals to those who don't understand macroeconomics, but they never live up to it, because they know that if they DID what tthey said they would they'd wreck the economy. So they take the short-term route: Cut Taxes, raise spending, have a great economy, and let SOMEONE ELSE pay for off. See... you don't even have your stereotypes strait: Liberals are "tax-and-spend," remember? REPUBLICANS are "BORROW-and-spend!"
History is not on your side here, my friend.
If you want to WIN the WAR? Vote Democrat. We LEARNED from the last uneccessary war WE stared (Vietnam.) The Right apparently DIDN'T.
If you want to BALANCE THE BUDGET and PAY OFF THE DEBT? For Christ's sake, vote Democrat! The last three Republican's had near record deficits EVERY YEAR, and two of them inherited surpluses! The last two Presidents with surpluses? Clinton (D) and Carter (D).
As for education? Well... I've got my own ideas on that, but I'd need to hear more of yours first. Suffice to say that while I agree that SOME schools lack adequate discipline, Teacher are also underpaid (thanks to anti-union conservatives) which leads to fewer really good teachers. And until conservtives stop trying to put creationism in the Science Classroom and thinking everythign can be solved by a morning prayer, I don't want to HEAR their ideas to fix the problem.
But hey: It's like you said: No need to argue, just wait and see the reults. When we DO however, you owe to yourself to take a good hard look at them, and so some investingating as to WHY they came about. Don't just accept Fox News' version of HOW things are and WHY. They Lie. A LOT.
Oh yeah, and... speaking of IQ? The DEAD SEA is pretty fucking far from the 'lowest point on earth.' That would be the MARIANNA'S TRENCH. I used to LIVE there, but I still thought EVERYBODY knew that!
Thanks for your comment.
Alissagrosso,
ReplyDeleteWelcome. Thanks for your comment.
Thanks for "following" my blog - glad to discover yours! Am adding it to my blogroll. Loved your response to "Duta" above - I was about to answer her myself but you said it all!
ReplyDeleteMaui,
ReplyDeleteAnd Thank YOU for the add! As for Duta, you know... I prefer to debate people who have some idea what they're talking about. But... almost all of THOSE people are liberal, and there's not nearly as much that we disagree on! Oh well. :)
Thanks for your comment, and for the add.
Hey, Eddie, if you're into Akira Kurosawa (and no one can be a film buff without being into AK), he's going to be Turner Classic Movies' Director of the Month in March--they're going to run the bulk of his filmography, starting March 9 and continuing on every Tuesday in the month.
ReplyDeleteAs for the central subject of the article, I'm a bit of a doubting Thomas about this particular study. There is, in all of us, to some degree, an impulse toward primitive (though not in a good way), irrational tribalism. It was there in Bush's huge approval ratings in the aftermath of the terror attacks on the U.S. It's what animates most of the contemporary right. I suppose I'm just not comfortable with the notion that I'm more "evolved" than that. Smarter, maybe. But "evolved" is a different matter.
Hi Eddie. First thanks for your visit and comment at the new location for Politics Plus. I'm sorry it took me so long to return the visit.
ReplyDeleteOn topic, there are a few theists that are pretty bright as well, but we tend to be liberal and not at al theocratic, liken the American Taliban.
Classic,
ReplyDeleteI'm a huge Kurusawa fan, though I've only recently become familiar with his work. Thanks for the tip. I'll be sure to keep my eyes on TCM. As for the study? Aw, I wouldn't take it too seriously anyway. To their credit they did warn against doing EXACTLY WHAT I DID with it: To generalize and then make judgements about individual people. So yeah, I was having a bit of fun with it. OTOH, I have said many times both here and on MMFA that I have less of a problem with WHAT conservatives think than I do with HOW they think. And some of the explanations given support that feeling. That's kind of where the "evolution" thing comes in. And your example shows it beautifully: I think to some extent we ALL rallied around Bush in the weeks, and even months, following 9/11. I know I did. (And I think by now anyone should know just how much I HATE GWB!) But that "tribal" instinct kicked in, and for a few breif, misguided moments, he looked like a real leader to me. I think the difference between Libs and Cons on that front is that we didn't let it cloud our judgement when the really STUPID shit (DHS, Patriot Act, Iraq War) started happening. We were willing to cats off our fear-based tribalism and realize that he was in fact the same stupid redneck that he was on 9/10. But they never let go of it. And now, with someone from a different "tribe" running the show, you can see how so many of those same people have absolutely lost their fucking minds. You can see how utterly batshit insane the right has been made by that situation. (Why else would they let Glenn Beck become their most prominent voice in the media?)
Thanks for your comment.
TomCat,
ReplyDeleteIt's funny you mention it, because just last night I was reponding to Jlarue in my 2/23 post about Bob Marshall how I AM concerned that my frequent assaults on what I percieve as religious EXTREMISM may end up alienating many more moderate religious people, who think I'd be inclined to judge them as harshly.
In truth most of my "real life" friends are not only religious, but conservtaive to boot, as are the bulk of my co-workers. (And yes, these are mostly people I consider intelligent.) There are actually very few liberals in my life and no true atheists that I know of, aside from DW.
But since I spend 99% of my day being diplomatic, like most people I tend not to pull my punches when online. (It's shamefull, I know, but I'm hardly unique in that way!) And since, IMHO, no explanation re life / death / heaven / hell / god / etc... is really any better than any other (including the one that I have come to accept) I really have no problem with anyone believing whatever they want and practicing howver they please. (Whatever good they derive from it, more power ot them.) PROVIDED that (1) they keep religion out of the science classroom and (2) out of our laws. (You'll never get it out the GOVERNMENT, but it should be kept out of any legal and constitutional debate.) Oh, and (3) out of my FACE. Anyone who respects my decision not to believe or practice will recieve the utmost resect of their faith from me in kind.
My problem lies entirely with the religious folks who can't leave well enough alone, and accept that their faith (like everybody else's) is a deeply personal matter, that needs to be kept and respected as such and that everyone's right to believe as they wish, including theirs, means that we can't go around trying to force the world, and everyone in it, to conform to our own beliefs. So when I come accross someone in the "we're not ALL like them" camp, I am very quick to point that my problem is only WITH "them" and not everyone else.
LOL - I'd be a very lonely man indeed if I couldn't get along with ANY churchgoers at all!
Thanks for your comment.
Rightwing nutcases aren't angry at just Academia, science and journalism. Even the Bible is too liberal. Fortunately the inbreds will soon be correcting that problem.
ReplyDelete"I'm a huge Kurusawa fan, though I've only recently become familiar with his work."
ReplyDeleteWow, I REALLY envy you on that one, still having AK in front of you. He's the greatest thing to sit in a director's chair since the medium of film began.
"And your example shows it beautifully: I think to some extent we ALL rallied around Bush in the weeks, and even months, following 9/11. I know I did. (And I think by now anyone should know just how much I HATE GWB!) But that 'tribal' instinct kicked in, and for a few breif, misguided moments, he looked like a real leader to me. I think the difference between Libs and Cons on that front is that we didn't let it cloud our judgement when the really STUPID shit (DHS, Patriot Act, Iraq War) started happening. We were willing to cats off our fear-based tribalism and realize that he was in fact the same stupid redneck that he was on 9/10."
I can honestly say I was one of the very few who never lost my head at all. I started my Left Hook site the day after the terror attacks, my very first article being a warning against the conservatives' designs on civil liberties:
http://claslib2.tripod.com/lh/archive.html
I was too young for Vietnam, but I had learned its lessons well. They are, in fact, the same lessons history teaches about all wars, when it comes to their effect on the homefront. I'd watched the entire country go batshit insane during Operation Desert Storm, the same kind of insane it always goes. It's like very suddenly being dropped on an entirely alien planet. It wouldn't bother me if I never had to live through anything like it again. Of course, I said the same thing during Desert Storm, and ended up living through FAR worse with Bush the Junior.
Congressional Democrats didn't keep their head when it came to stopping Bush, either. They fell in line behind every major feature of Bush's efforts to build an embryonic dictatorship. To this day, no one realizes how profound a problem his actions have caused.
"But they never let go of it. And now, with someone from a different 'tribe' running the show, you can see how so many of those same people have absolutely lost their fucking minds. You can see how utterly batshit insane the right has been made by that situation."
The embrace of insanity by the right is a process that's been a few decades in the making. They've taken tribalism to a new extreme, now; much of the conservative base is made up of what I call the Bubble People. The live, to as great an extent as possible (quite a great extent, in practice), inside a bubble of their own puerile political fantasies, and never have more than passing commerce with reality. "Reality," for them, is whatever comes out of Bill O'Reilly's mouth, or whatever comes out of Rush Limbaugh.
Everyone in the sane world became outraged when Republicans, in an effort to destroy health care reform, told their minions the Obama wanted to set up death panels to kill old people. That was the line that packed the health care townhalls with ranting idiots for months. The sane were upset about the fact that this was so blatantly false in every particular. Lost entirely was what I considered the real story, the profound significance of the fact that the right--those within the bubble--were so quick to instantly believe this, to the degree that they were turning up like crazed animals at these townhall meetings. ANY reasonable human being, of any political persuasion, who heard a tale like "death panels" would have laughed. They would reject it as ludicrous on its face. The Bubble People accepted it right away. It perfectly dovetailed with what their crazed brains had been conditioned to think about liberals, and they never even questioned it.
I should also add that the reason what I just outlined is such a problem is that these loons aren't the nut fringe. Every political persuasion has fruit-loops in their ranks, but they're always regarded as just that--fruit loops. No one takes them seriously. They can't poll out of single digits. With the contemporary right, this group has become the conservative mainstream. Birtherism is crackpot crap. In any previous age, something like 2% of the population would buy into it. Today, on the right, it's mainstream. Something on the order of 60% of Republicans entertain it. And that's only one of dozens of issues like that.
ReplyDeleteI find myself writing about this quite a bit recently. I think it's the major problem facing the U.S. for the forseeable future.
Classic,
ReplyDeleteMy hat is off to you, sir. You have superb tastes in film, and a keen understanding of politics and right-wing culture. One that clearly surpasses my own at times, and I don't say that very often to too many people! For my part, I will admit that I DID lose my head a little after 9/11, but I'm not too ashamed of it, considering the circumstances and the fact that I came around eventually, and before most, when so much of the country still hasn't. But you held fast to the principles that made American worth defending (and to the terrorists, worth attacking) right from the start. For that you have my respect and admiration.
Thank you for your comments.