In a return to our popular series, "Conservatives Are Stupid," an article, "Do Racism, Conservatism, and Low I.Q. Go Hand in Hand?," subtitled, "Lower cognitive abilities predict greater prejudice through right-wing ideology"gand published by Goal Auzeen Saedi, Ph.D. in Millennial Media and reprinted in Psychology Today, gives us more scientific input into the sad fact that Conservatives are, well...quite stupid compared to the rest of us:
"However, what struck me most about this image posted above was the Facebook page it came from, 'Too Informed to Vote Republican.' I wondered about this, recalling an old journal article I’d come across when studying anti-Islamic attitudes post 9/11. The paper referenced a correlation between conservatism and low intelligence. Uncertain of its origin, I located a thought-provoking article published in one of psychology’s top journals, Psychological Science, which in essence confirms this.
"...it may not be surprising that people with less cognitive capacity will be attracted to simplifying ideologies.""What this study and those before it suggest is not necessarily that all liberals are geniuses and all conservatives are ignorant. Rather, it makes conclusions based off of averages of groups. The idea is that for those who lack a cognitive ability to grasp complexities of our world, strict-right wing ideologies may be more appealing. Dr. Brian Nosek explained it for the Huffington Post as follows, 'ideologies get rid of the messiness and impose a simple solution. So, it may not be surprising that people with less cognitive capacity will be attracted to simplifying ideologies.' For an excellent continuation of this discussion and past studies, please see this article from LiveScience.
"Further, studies have indicated an automatic association between aggression, America, and the news. A study conducted by researchers at Cornell and The Hebrew University (Ferguson & Hassin, 2007) indicated, 'American news watchers who were subtly or nonconsciously primed with American cues exhibited greater accessibility of aggression and war constructs in memory, judged an ambiguously aggressive person in a more aggressive and negative manner, and acted in a relatively more aggressive manner toward an experimenter following a mild provocation, compared with news watchers who were not primed' (p. 1642). American 'cues' refers to factors such as images of the American flag or words such as 'patriot.' Interestingly, this study showed this effect to be independent of political affiliation, but suggested a disturbing notion that America is implicitly associated with aggression for news watchers.
"Taken together, what do these studies suggest? Excessive exposure to news coverage could be toxic as is avoidance of open-minded attitudes and ideals. Perhaps turn off the television and pick up a book? Ideally one that exposes you to differing worldviews.
"*Please note comments that are offensive, defamatory, discriminatory, racist, sexist, homophobic, or otherwise inappropriate will be automatically removed by the author’s discretion.
"References
"Furguson, M.J. & Hassin, R.R. (2007). On the automatic association between American and aggression for news watchers. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 33, 1632-1647.
"Hodson, G. & Busseri, M.A. (2012). Bright minds and dark attitudes: Lower cognitive ability predicts greater prejudice through right-wing ideology and low intergroup contact. Psychological Science, 23, 187-195."
Stupidity hurts, and for the People, Conservative stupidity hurts the most. As cheerleaders in the Class Warfare that the Conservatives have been carrying on for hundreds of years, the Conservative Sheeplets have endorsed every act that their leaders have thought of, no matter how stupid.
And how stupid can people be? The main answer is here, at "THE BASIC LAWS OF HUMAN STUPIDITY," by Carlo M. Cipolla --> (http://www.ecotopia.com/webpress/stupidity/), and over 60 articles from our series on proving that Conservative Stupidity is a scientific fact can be read at your leisure here --> (http://www.criminalizeconservatism.com/search/label/conservatives_are_stupid).
A sad state of affairs for all of us as the Sheeplets that continue on their blind obedience to their leadership. If "Excessive exposure to news coverage could be toxic as is avoidance of open-minded attitudes and ideals," when Conservatism is criminalized, part of the rehabilitation of the Conservative Sheeplets will be the initial elimination of all news shows and panel discussions regarding current events.
Like an alcoholic attempting to quit drinking, only after they are cognizant of their stupidity will the Sheeplets be ready for some classes in critical Thinking, and hopefully new scientific discoveries will help remove some of the stupidity to enable the Sheeplets to exit the Re-eduation Camps (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reeducation_camp) and re-enter a civilized and democratic society.
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“When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to
have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how
much he had learned in seven years.”
Mark Twain
Mark Twain
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