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Are Conservatives Uneducated?

Are Conservatives Uneducated?

  • Total voters
    80
CentristFascist said:
The fundamental problem is you are all like this essentially...
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Some definitely more than others. If you want to know which, just ask outside third parties that troll us for a living.

This sleepy riverside town in Macedonia is home to dozens of website operators who churn out bogus stories designed to attract the attention of Americans. Each click adds cash to their bank accounts.

The scale is industrial: Over 100 websites were tracked here during the final weeks of the 2016 U.S. election campaign, producing fake news that mostly favored Republican candidate for President Donald Trump...

"I'm posting about Hillary, Bernie Sanders maybe sometimes, but I just don't get paid enough for that," Mikhail said. ■

https://money.cnn.com/interactive/media/the-macedonia-story/
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itsforthekids said:
EVERY one of you lefters believe in EVERY lie that your leaders tell you. From the climate change lie to barrycare...you're uniquely gullible. The new "truth" is that the unemployment numbers are low because "everyone have 2 jobs!"...that newest misinformation will make its rounds and already has Pocahontas parroting it...i'll soon be hearing it from my lefter friends. Pure stupidity.

and that's just one example.
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Oh, wow.

It's like he paid you to come onto the thread in order to help him make his point about you. Do you know how to use the three sea shells?
 
I think this type of question is immature and makes it look like the opposite
 
Instead of insulting each other and demonizing the opposition we should recognize that each side has some valid points. Neither is inherently wrong, mostly just reflect different world views. I have liberal friends who feel differently on issues than I do but we can have some great discussions because we're respectful of the other person. But right now politics is a blood sport. Winner take all, do not give nor ask for quarter, take no prisoners. No tactic is too low. And the focus is on the most radical positions on each side, trying to tag everyone on that side as a radical, when in fact most of the conservatives I know are neither Nazi's or racists, and the liberals I know are neither communists nor anarchists. So it ends up talking past each other, not really listening, just waiting for their turn to talk.
 
Waddy said:
Instead of insulting each other and demonizing the opposition we should recognize that each side has some valid points. Neither is inherently wrong, mostly just reflect different world views. I have liberal friends who feel differently on issues than I do but we can have some great discussions because we're respectful of the other person. But right now politics is a blood sport. Winner take all, do not give nor ask for quarter, take no prisoners. No tactic is too low. And the focus is on the most radical positions on each side, trying to tag everyone on that side as a radical, when in fact most of the conservatives I know are neither Nazi's or racists, and the liberals I know are neither communists nor anarchists. So it ends up talking past each other, not really listening, just waiting for their turn to talk.
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Good analysis. It may have started out innocently as parties staking out extreme positions to use as barganing chips and then evolved into no bargaining, winner take all.
 
I would not go so far as to say Trump supporters are uneducated. However, they are sorely lacking in critical thinking skills.
 
CentristFascist said:
Why conservatives are more susceptible to believing in lies.
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I think the answer has more too do with general intelligence and a predilection for anger and fear. More precisely the psychological reaction to fear. As your article pointed out the more educated conservatives were the more they tended to fall for obvious lies. This is mainly because their education gives them confidence and helps them figure out how to make excuses for why their zany beliefs are still true despite what the data says.

Intelligence is all about pattern matching. When faced with new scenarios we tend to try and draw from past experiences to try and figure out how to handle them. You meet a new person, and your tendency is to compare them to another person you've met before in order to try and understand how you should interact with them. Less intelligent people tend to be able to form less complex patterns, and worse yet many of their patterns take shape early in life and once they're formed can be virtually impossible to shake.

There was a study I was reading about a while back about the difference between people who are book smart vs common sense smart. What scientists have noticed is that when you're very young your brain is very soft and palatable. It's literally like a sponge. But then as you get older your brain begins to harden and become more ridged. What scientists have also noticed is that different people's brains tend to harden at different ages. Some harden very early in life, while others harden much later in life. They've also notice that people who tend to be very book smart, but low in social intelligence in high school tend to have brains that take longer to harden, whereas people who are high in social intelligence and common sense smart in high school tend to have their brains harden much sooner.

Scientists believe that when your brain is soft it works more like an insulator and it's very good and absorbing electrical signals, but not as good at conducting them. As it get's harder as you get older it gets better at conducting the signals outwardly and across hemispheres, but it becomes more difficult to absorb and store new signals. The result is that some people at an early age can make much better usage of the information they've obtained up to that point in their life. They tend to mature faster and show signs of social intelligence earlier, but the tradeoff is that they struggle a bit more with newer concepts.

The book smart people conversely struggle with social intelligence early but have a much easier time with new concepts. Later on, in life, their brains eventually do harden, and their social intelligence develops, but they now have access to a lot more information to draw on and are therefore more aware.

I tend to think conservatives fall primarily into the first camp of people who's brains harden earlier on in life. These are people who more or less peaked in high school, and have a high opinion of themselves because their early social skills gave them a bit of an advantage. But as they get older and some of their core beliefs get challenged they simply cannot adjust well. In their minds, those core beliefs have served them well and never led them astray yet, and admitting that they're based on bad information is virtually impossible. Any crazy argument that's presented which allows them to continue clinging to what the know will be accepted while anything that contradicts it must be rejected.
 
I'm sure some are uneducated, others are likely highly educated.
 
Moderate Right said:
Good analysis. It may have started out innocently as parties staking out extreme positions to use as barganing chips and then evolved into no bargaining, winner take all.
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I think there are two main factors that have driven politics to such a high pitch. First is 24/7 main stream media which hypes every issue, and has become very partisan about it. Hype produces ratings, good news doesn't. So promoting conflict has become the mainstay of MSM news on both sides. This constant drumbeat can be overwhelming. In this environment no politician can make compromises because they will be accused of "caving in" to the other side, so few will work with the opposition any more. They have to be confrontational or be eaten alive by the MSM pundits.

The second reason is that more and more issues have been taken over by the national government rather than state or local control. A hundred years ago most people had no idea what the federal government did beyond defense and some taxation. Most issues were under local or state control, at least the ones that affected their everyday lives. Education, abortion, women's rights, environment, civil rights, labor laws, etc., were mostly local issues. There was no federal income tax. There was no federal Secretary of Education, EPA, etc. So there was very little, if any, awareness of federal power. Today the federal government is in every aspect of our daily lives. Almost every issue has been federalized to some extent. Every group knows it must have a powerful lobby in Washington. That means a lot more money in politics. That means politics is now a high stakes game. You're either in big or you get run over. And it means big money has the advantage.
 
Waddy said:
Instead of insulting each other and demonizing the opposition we should recognize that each side has some valid points.
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https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/middle-ground

Waddy said:
Neither is inherently wrong, mostly just reflect different worldviews.
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Nope. Sorry. Not this time. The modern Republican party has crossed a threshold where it can only be described as evil. Racism, tribalism, sexism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, homophobia, authoritarian nationalism... these aren't valid perspectives. They can be objectively demonstrated to be fallacious thinking.

They are all forms of the Genetic fallacy and the fallacy of hasty generalization. They can be objectively demonstrated to be invalid beliefs using formal logic.
https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/genetic

Waddy said:
when in fact most of the conservatives I know are neither Nazi's or racists
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In 1930's Germany they had a term they used to describe people who supported Adolf Hitler not so much because they hated the Jews and wanted to kill them but because they thought he might bring about economic prosperity by Making Germany Strong Again, and putting German's First. They called these people Nazis. It didn't matter what excuse they came up with for why they supported Hitler they still did it. The same is true of anyone who supported Donald Trump. I don't care why you thought that was a good idea, it wasn't a good idea, and if you couldn't figure that out before you did it then you're a ****ing moron who shouldn't be voting.

America is no longer the Leader of the Free World. Donald Trump will go down as the single worst president in American history, and he will go to prison. You can bank on that. If you doubt it for one second then there is something seriously wrong with your mind.
 
Waddy said:
That means a lot more money in politics. That means politics is now a high stakes game. You're either in big or you get run over. And it means big money has the advantage.
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And remind us who is responsible for that? Can you name the judges who sided with the majority in Citizen's United(the decision that classified money as speech and made it impossible to regulate)? Can you tell us which parties presidents nominated those judges?
 
MrWonka said:
And remind us who is responsible for that? Can you name the judges who sided with the majority in Citizen's United(the decision that classified money as speech and made it impossible to regulate)? Can you tell us which parties presidents nominated those judges?
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You're part of the problem. Rabid partisan. You do realize that, don't you? No, I think not. Your type usually never does. A lack of self-awareness I guess.
 
Waddy said:
You're part of the problem. Rabid partisan. You do realize that, don't you? No, I think not. Your type usually never does. A lack of self-awareness I guess.
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He's correct.

As for the thread: Conservatives have the minds of a fifth grader who flunked third grade, twice.
 
calamity said:
He's correct.

As for the thread: Conservatives have the minds of a fifth grader who flunked third grade, twice.
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I see you're a member of the club. Good for you.

BTW; You do know what it meant to have "the calamity" in the Old West, right?
 
MrWonka said:
https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/middle-ground


Nope. Sorry. Not this time. The modern Republican party has crossed a threshold where it can only be described as evil. Racism, tribalism, sexism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, homophobia, authoritarian nationalism... these aren't valid perspectives. They can be objectively demonstrated to be fallacious thinking.

They are all forms of the Genetic fallacy and the fallacy of hasty generalization. They can be objectively demonstrated to be invalid beliefs using formal logic.
https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/genetic


In 1930's Germany they had a term they used to describe people who supported Adolf Hitler not so much because they hated the Jews and wanted to kill them but because they thought he might bring about economic prosperity by Making Germany Strong Again, and putting German's First. They called these people Nazis. It didn't matter what excuse they came up with for why they supported Hitler they still did it. The same is true of anyone who supported Donald Trump. I don't care why you thought that was a good idea, it wasn't a good idea, and if you couldn't figure that out before you did it then you're a ****ing moron who shouldn't be voting.

America is no longer the Leader of the Free World. Donald Trump will go down as the single worst president in American history, and he will go to prison. You can bank on that. If you doubt it for one second then there is something seriously wrong with your mind.
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Where's the kool aid drinking emoji
 
Waddy said:
You're part of the problem. Rabid partisan. You do realize that, don't you? No, I think not. Your type usually never does. A lack of self-awareness I guess.
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Why won't you answer the question? Tell me which Democrats are equally to blame for the fact that there is so much money in politics? As I recall President Obama(a Democrat) scolded the Supreme Court for the decisions in the following State of the Union address. Obama, who by the way graduated from Harvard Law, and for a time actually was a professor of Constitutional Law recognized the damage it would cause, and why it was a terrible ruling that was not based on anything in the constitution.

So please, do tell us. If the biggest problems in our country are money in politics, and Democrats are exclusively against Citizen's United while is is exclusively Republicans who are to blame for it how exactly can that be a problem that is caused equally by both parties?

Just because you're having a hard time understanding who is right and who is wrong doesn't mean we're all equally right and wrong.
 
Uneducated? No. I have politically conservative friends with Doctorate degrees. Others with minimal education.

Without doubt the education Bell Curves of conservatives and liberals are quite similar.

I exclude Trumpers from the conservative family. I no longer consider them as political conservatives in the Reagan mold.

I view most Trumpers as Alt-Rightists, romantic-nationalists, corporatists, cultists, or an assorted combination.

IMHO, the American electorate writ large is politically ignorant, issues-lazy, and easily trolled.
 
Rogue Valley said:
Uneducated? No. I have politically conservative friends with Doctorate degrees. Others with minimal education.

Without doubt the education Bell Curves of conservatives and liberals are quite similar.

I exclude Trumpers from the conservative family. I no longer consider them as political conservatives in the Reagan mold.

I view most Trumpers as Alt-Rightists, romantic-nationalists, corporatists, cultists, or an assorted combination.

IMHO, the American electorate writ large is politically ignorant, issues-lazy, and easily trolled.
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All Bell curves have exactly the same shape. That's what makes them Bell curves.

Some curves are bell-shaped but only normal distributions are Bell curves.

IQ likely falls on a Bell curve. Education doesn't. It isn't even bell-shaped. It's more of a function of economic opportunity.

I submit that a study of grammar usage on this site would tell you all you need to know about the premise of this thread.
 
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The first question that should be asked is: Are Trump fans conservatives?
 
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