Study: Conservatives and racists are stupid
So Joe sent us this link thinking I wouldn’t post it. It’s from NorthwestOhio.com and entitled “Conservatives and racists are actually stupid, study finds” and the title is misleading. What the article actually reports is that the stupid become ideologues;
A new study bound to stir controversy found that people with a low I.Q. are drawn to prejudice, racism and a socially conservative political ideology.
I’ll admit that there are some stupid people who are racists and conservative, but that doesn’t translate to all of us conservatives. In fact, I’ve met more liberal racists than conservative racists. And the article, when it quotes the scientists who conducted this study, doesn’t mention conservatives, it only mentions “ideologies”, not being specific about which one;
The study’s lead author, Dr. Gordon Hodson, told LiveScience that people with lower intelligence scores are attracted to the “structure and order” of these ideologies because they make it easier to comprehend a complicated world.
So apparently, the study says the racist and stupid are attracted to any ideology that allows them to be intellectually vacant – just knee-jerk reactions to any given discussion.
The editor who wrote that title must be a racist and a conservative because he’s obviously stupid.
“Reality is complicated and messy,” Dr. Brian Nosek of the University of Virginia, who was not involved in the study, told The Huffington Post. “Ideologies get rid of the messiness and impose a simpler solution. So, it may not be surprising that people with less cognitive capacity will be attracted to simplifying ideologies.”
Well, which ideology could be simpler than an ideology that involves supporting a government solution all of your problems, and throwing other people’s money at the solutions yet never has there been an instance of government ever solving anything? And still the support never wanes for more government solutions. Or throwing for more money at more problems.
To prove who the stupid ones are, Joe sent me this article without seeing the obvious flaws in it.
Category: Liberals suck, Media
The full text of the study can be found here:
http://pss.sagepub.com/content/23/2/187.full
I haven’t read the whole thing yet but it would appear that Hodson’s biggest problem is he doesn’t adequately frame what he means by “conservative” or even “right-wing”. He has a treatment group of poorly constructed straw men.
i.e.
“right-wing ideologies, which are socially conservative and authoritarian”
“such ideologies are characterized by…the promotion of intergroup inequalities”
He also doesn’t define the spectrum or what he means by “liberal” when he contrasts. He engages in some circular logic about the illegitimacy of socio-cultural viewpoints to reinforce his argument like “Furthermore, compared with liberals, individuals who endorse right-wing ideologies are more fearful and anxious that out-groups will cause the disintegration of societal moral standards and traditions”.
“Well, which ideology could be simpler than an ideology that involves supporting a government solution all of your problems…?”
Here’s one: Government Bad (except when it comes to the military)!
Yeah, the study is a little nebulous, far from definitive, but it should make for some interesting discussions.
“The study’s lead author, Dr. Gordon Hodson, told LiveScience that people with lower intelligence scores are attracted to the “structure and order” of these ideologies because they make it easier to comprehend a complicated world.”
Inferring that people with left leaning or liberal points of view understand this complicated world any better? Not from what I’ve seen.
re #3
Not to mention that the second half of that sentence describes Progressivism.
#2
See Joe, stupid, hyperbolic statements like make having an actual discussion impossible. It’s why people here simpl y alternate between mocking and ignoring you. You’re a troll in Indian country, looking for a one liner to agitate the aborigines. The group of people who define all government as bad with the singular exception of the military is incredibly small and certainly doesn’t define conservatism. Go take your meds and forward that self congratulatory link around to people who are as excited to have their egos stroked by second rate pseudoscience as you clearly are.
Dang Jonn… You DO have a sense of humor… regardless of what others have said.
To be a bit clearer… reading the link that NSOM provided I couldn’t help mentally referring to The “Big Bang Theory” TV show. Sounds like Sheldon writ large!
Typical. If you don’t really like the definitions of words, just change what they mean. If you don’t like where the data leads, change the data. Or the parameters. Or whatever you must do to draw a conclusion which agrees with the original point you hoped to make with the “Study.”
Reminds of a few years ago when the buzz words “peer review” were thrown around with no apparent understanding of what the term meant.
This study got ripped apart a week or so ago. The study’s author’s main mistake was substituting the ability to believe in simplistic concepts for conservative ideas. The politics can be flipped, and so become irrelevant to the study.
But, makes for happy Progressives, and that’s what the study’s author was paid to do.
Most conservatives that I know, know that life is messy and complicated. Even the moderate liberals realize that.
So that leaves only one group who are attracted to an ideology of structure and order, and therefore fit the pre-ordained conclusion of having lower intelligence. . . .
I leave it as an exercise for the student to fill in the blank.
My experience has shown that the overwhelming number of actual racists reside on the Democrat Welfare Plantation.
#2: Well usually we give a cogent argument of why big government stifles creativity, and that generally a strong military will deter aggression.
But lets compare arguments. G-20. Well as to what they’re saying there, I’m not sure but they are very pissed about something. Income inequality. . . ah yes the old favored talking point. But for all the feel good reasons to make sure everyone gets paid based on need, over output, it tends to make honest men beggars and crooks.
Joe for all the big forehead reasons you try to come up with to prover you have big foreheads, you tend to only prove your own petulance. You evoke an image of a 6 year old calling someone a stupid head.
#10 Doc Bailey:
Covers it good enough for me, especially his closing sentence.
Fuck Joe.
How’s that for simplistic?
Hey, I said it was nebulous and not definitive, didn’t I? Just thought you’d like to see it.
Hey Joe, I know you’d never say any racial epitaph, but tell us, and be honest. Dem Darkies can’t really take care of dem selves can they? They is needen your help or deys just gonna die.
/sarc
You can deny if you like, but funnily enough thats pretty much what Clinton said while in office (minus the accent).
Ok, so in “Joespeak” the phrase “nebulous and not definitive” can be more easily expressed in the phrase “total horseshit.”
Got it.
Joe? If you want a real definition of what happens when government tries to “make everything equal for everyone” take a look at Soviet Russia and East Germany before the Wall fell. The Communist government tried to state that the wealth should be shared and everyone HAD to work (no welfare over there, it was illegal to be unemployed) and you didn’t get a choice of what work you would do or where you would work. (I know a dr. in what’s now known as the Czech Republic that was told, pre-Tiananmen Square, what city she’d work in and her husband wasn’t allowed to go with her) Oh, and, no one got to share any of the wealth unless it was the upper echelons of that self-same government, the Russian mob or anyone who was a close friend of either one.
You want simplistic? Go back in time and move to a socialist- or communist-run country. You won’t have to think, you just do what you’re told when you’re told and no arguments, thinking or opinions allowed.
Sister, Joey doesn’t care. He’s the living embodiment of the saying, “those who don’t learn from history are condemned to repeat it”.
Besides, he’s firmly convinced that when the revolution finally happens, he’ll watch everyone else stood up against the wall, it can’t happen to him. He’ll always have enough gas, enough heat, enough electricity, the “right” job, because he’s firmly convinced that either, because of his feelings, he’ll be OK, or that he’ll be chosen to be one of the kommisars. He’ll have one of the dachas, he won’t be on the outside looking in.
Wow, I think we better from a committee and discuss this.
UpNorth, yeah, I now. Wastin’ mah breath. Well, someone DID once describe me as an Apologist. Guess I can’t help it 😉
now = know (apparently I can’t spell in a hurry)
Sister…Joe, while trying to contribute, can’t see past the smoke getting in his eyes. Which is okay…Jonn? Did you award him a red star for playing? Roller Dude? You are head of the committee now, LOL!
What should we name this committee. We have to have a super non offensive name. Something only Congress or the Soviet Union could think up.
The Partisan Considerations Subcommittee of the Council of Concerned Internet Users for the Crowd Sourced Analysis of Peer Reviewed Psychoanalytic Prognostications.
Of course.
An example of what the study defines as conservative is “Schools should teach children to obey authority.”
That sounds a lot more like liberals to me… if it was conservative, it would say “parents” instead of “schools”.
So, I guess what the study really proves is that liberals are dumb racists.
So if my room, like reality, is complicated and messy… I should leave it as is, since doing anything to provide a simpler solution (like windex) and structure (furniture) would only be proof that I am of a lesser IQ. I see… I will have to put this into practice and see how long that works.
PCSCCIUCSAPRPP? NSOM, You really need a catchy sounding acronyms, but yes that’s a very PC name.
Well, there was the Obama administration’s new czars all piled into the Office of Managed Government Liability and Organized Lawmakers Winning The Future, or OMGLOLWTF for short.
And Sparky wins the interwebs today.
I don’t really believe the conclusions drawn by that study, too simplistic for sure. Just thought it might stir up some opinions. They say the age of big discoveries is over, now we’re teasing out correlations and connections, and that study was just too black and white. But it doesn’t mean there isn’t a grain of truth. Another study comparing so-called conservatives to so-called liberals arrived at the conclusion most conservatives had a fairly stable, secure upbringing and so on some level feel any change in the basic structure of the family would upset that balance, whereas most liberals had a more troubled and insecure time in their youth and are open to trying different ideas, new arrangements. Probably too simple also, but maybe a little truth?
Much easier to remember and much shorter, Joey. “”Any man who is under 30, and is not a liberal, has no heart; and any man who is over 30, and is not a conservative, has no brains”-Winston Churchill.
Translated: we get cynical in our old age…..
Nope, yet again, epic fail, Joey. As we age, we learn from our mistakes and get smarter.
Translated: I guess we tend to get cynical in our old age…..
You’re incapable of learning, aren’t you?
Network flaky today, double post. Sorry.
I guess I’m a heartless SOB UpNorth
What I see in articles like this is an attempt to shame people into silence. Your opinion either fits the PC model, or you get branded with the new stereotype: Stupid Coservative Racist.
Come to think of it, from what I’ve been reading on the blogs lately, you might have to extend that out to include: Christian Nationalist Warmonger Oil Drilling Environment Hating Imperialist.
Wow! You really took it and ran with it PintoNag.
Actually, I think I left out a few; I’ve seen all of them in blogs over the last three days. Those blogs covered topics ranging from star-gazing to the disappearance/murder of a child. The ones that fascinate me the most are the bloggers at different ends of the spectrum THAT USE THE SAME TERMS TO DESCRIBE EACH OTHER. You’d think that would be a hint or something.
Just a thought that some of us were taught way back in the dark ages – there is a continuum of human beahvior that moves across a base line. Political thought/ideology perhaps can be viewed similarly. There is a center with left and right leanings moving in those respective directions on the baseline. As you get toward the right and left ends, the baseline actually curves to a point where the two lines intersect at insanity, or perhaps for political thought that would be anarchy. The point on that baseline which would be defined as extreme can depend upon a numbers of variables, but one might be based upon the numbers of folks involved.
Oh, did I mention that in the original model, that midpoint of the baseline had a fulcrum at the center? To keep things in balance, extreme behavior was needed at both ends based entirely upon how heavy the other end might have gotten.
(Bonus points for anyone reminding us who came up with that model. I simply don’t remember!)
Joe, let’s face it–if Jonn forbade you the use of the words racist, homophobe, sexist, fundamentalist, or several other -ism words, your entire ability to “debate” (already pathetic) would be reduced to sitting in the corner of your room, drooling over your keyboard.
Something tells me that’s part of your “network flaky today” issue.
I don’t recall using the actual words racist or homophobe, although I may have alluded to them. To really discuss any of this stuff, I’d almost have to go back to first principles and work my way up, but that’s not at all practical in a forum like this.
Joe…word to the wise. If you were to actually start at first principles and work up from there, you’ll either be dog-piled or converted.
The first would be pitiful. The second… PRICELESS!!!!
@Joe, The vast majority of posters on this site are idiots don’t waste your time trying to get them to think.
This from a guy with “DUI” in his name.
Wow. You wound me, sir.
Beat me to it, Sparky. He’s probably either this one, http://www.duidave.com or this one, http://www.facebook.com/people/?Dui-Dave-Peterson/?100001734335559 . My money’s on the second one.
@45 Actually Sparky you’re one of the few posters on this site that I think is somewhat intelligent I don’t agree with you alot but it is clear you’re capable of independent thought which is more than I can say for most on this site. I actually wrote a sociology report about this site I will send it to you if you want.
As for you UpNorth you’re clearly a mouthbreathing idiot so I won’t waste my time with you.
Sparky, I think I hit close to home with my estimation of the DUI.
We were reelly reelly stupid not to use the opportunity to point out something reelly reelly stupid when this topic was current. The thing that we want to point out is how we are all reelly reelly stupid. I have read quite a few times in different places that one 18 Wheeler does as much road damage as 10,000 cars! In my infrequent travels throught the industrialized world I see a lot of 18 wheelers on the road. I would guess one for every 20 cars. That means almost all of the damage to the road system is caused by trucks. Trucking is a huge industry. It provideds a huge amount of jobs. But if we condsider the huge subsidies that the trucking industry recieves we are massively fooling ourselves. The trucking industry is litterally an indusrty of pirates. I am aware that trucks pay fees and taxes on the fuel that they use but considering the damgage that they do both directly and indirectly its ineffeicency is only exceeded by the Military Industrial Complex. Not only do we as a society need to spend huge amounts of money to maintain our roads which would not be neccessary if freight was moved predominately by rail but huge amounts of manhours would not be lost sitting in traffic jams causes by road repairs, nor would the huge amount of gasoline be lost sitting in traffic jams causes by road repairs. Furthermore the cars that we have would need far fewer repairs becasue they would last longer be driven over smooth roads rather than roads filled with pot holes. New road costruction could be cheaper to if roads had to be built only to carry the weight of cargo vans rather than 18 wheelers. The roads could safely be made narrower as well. Our nation needs to revert to the system that we had priot to the interstate highway system. We need to move freight long distances by rail where it will then be off loaded on to small trucks for a short trip to its destination. Finally as the number of… Read more »
America has been brainwashed into being liberal for decades.
1985 interview with ex -KGB agent reveals succesful psychological warfare heavily financed by Soviets:
http://www.crossroad.to/Quotes/brainwashing/2007/bezmenov.htm
Videos in above link:
Yuri Bezmonov on demoralization:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlpODYhnPEo
Bezmonov on Marxists, useful idiots :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&hl=en-GB&v=dE38dLxapVo
Bezmonov on American mass media :
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/k6KUDv1wzraWhwlBt1
Bezmonov on KGB interest in yoga, brainwashing :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&hl=en-GB&v=Srw3YSda1XY
http://theconservativetreehouse.com/2011/10/17/former-kgb-agent-yuri-bezmenov-explains-our-four-stages-the-new-normal/
http://www.rense.com/general32/americ.htm
http://raymondpronk.wordpress.com/2009/08/25/yuri-bezmenov-on-kgb-soviet-propaganda-and-subversion-videos/
http://www.crossroad.to/Quotes/globalism/Congress.htm
Full video :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gnpCqsXE8g