Belief in Science: A partisan issue?

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Zute
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Belief in Science: A partisan issue?

Post by Zute »

http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2 ... isan-issue
This chart, as part of a study from Gordon Gauchat, made the rounds yesterday, and with good reason. It shows the trend over the last four decades of Americans' trust in science, as broken down by political ideology. The results are hard to miss: conservatives' trust in science is in sharp decline.
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Formerly known as Panamah
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Tudamorf
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Re: Belief in Science: A partisan issue?

Post by Tudamorf »

"Conservative" today means a fat, uneducated, bible-thumping, racist Christian fanatic in the South. That's not what it meant in 1982, or 1974, so it's little wonder that opinions among "conservatives" have changed over the years.

If you look at the same people who called themselves "conservative" in 1974, today, I doubt you'll find that trend.

Also, even "conservatives" today who claim to distrust science will openly embrace it when it suits their needs, like dialysis machines for their inevitable diabetes or new weapons to kill Muslims.

It's a meaningless study.
AbyssalMage
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Re: Belief in Science: A partisan issue?

Post by AbyssalMage »

Tudamorf wrote:Also, even "conservatives" today who claim to distrust science will openly embrace it when it suits their needs, like dialysis machines for their inevitable diabetes or new weapons to kill Muslims.
/agree

They believe it when it works for them and denounce it when it doesn't.
It's a meaningless study.
Not meaningless, just reinforces the mountain of evidence that conservatives are lemmings.
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Zute
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Re: Belief in Science: A partisan issue?

Post by Zute »

Conservatives use low-effort thinking: Think less and become more conservative.

Which is kind of obvious when you think that fear seems to be the chief motivator for (many? most?) conservatives.
The less time or mental effort a person puts into thinking about an issue, the more likely they are to espouse a politically conservative perspective. That's according to a new study by Scott Eidelman and his team, who stress that their point is "not that conservatives rely on low effort thought" but that "low effort thinking promotes political conservatism".
Formerly known as Panamah
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