Posted: Sep 05, 2015 8:03 am
Willie71 wrote:purplerat wrote:that's a different issue, of course. the post about "majority of Republicans" refers to regular citizens, not candidates. So, the relevant comparison is between the stupidity of rank-and-file Republicans with the stupidity of rank-and-file Democrats.
BTW, I don't think the comparison is between rank-and-file stupid people. There are dumb people on sides.
What I think the comparison is (or should be) between people willing to believe - at least on the surface level - near anything if it supports their dislike for "the other side". That seems to me to be more of a right wing tendency than anything else. Simply look at the constant stream of just ridiculous lies the right wing comes up with about Obama. I'm not even talking about normal political shit but actual strange and completely incredulous stories which get passed around in right wing circles. Shit that makes Birtherism look sane. And the rank and file right wingers eat it up not because they are convinced of the validity but because it confirms their negative opinion of the other side.
I don't see that happening on the left or with Democrats. But maybe that's because Republicans provide enough ridiculous fodder without having to make anything up.
This will be right up your alley. I've read about 20 of the articles he used for this book, and the results are pretty compelling. Facts and evidence simply are simply irrelevant, which is why many of these threads run on for pages, even after compelling evidence is raised.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Republican_Brain
There is a lot of important info in that, info atheist should understand. It's related to work by Jonathan Haidt and others, it should really be called the conservative brain. It's my idea that conservative brains are, by their nature, prone to delusional thinking, due to a number of things, primarily that they are manichean and can't deal with ambiguity, authoritarian, loyalty freaks, purity/sanctity freaks, and very suspicious of new&different -- not open to new ideas. These qualities make you very very likely to fall into a reality that isn't the one the rest of the world lives in. It's easy to see how that leads to excessive tribalism, letting preachers dictate what you believe, etc etc. Possibly the most dangerous critters on the earth at the moment considering how this enables climate change denial.