"Why Liberals Are More Intelligent Than Conservatives" - Psychology Today Magazine

reply to post by skepticconwatcher


Please dont waste your time. Go on and do your superior thinking. After all. The current liberal President is doing so great at his job. He may need a little bit more liberal thinking, since every liberal policy he has put into place has failed.
How is that hope and change working out for you?
And to think, you actually thought Obama's speach about change was new slogan, a new idea! That is to funny.

Originally posted by ollncasino
So young liberals are apparently more intelligent than young conservatives?

Wait, who said this? I missed this? I know I may have implied exactly the opposite, me.

reply to post by The Revenant


If Liberals are more intelligent than Conservatives, how come Liberals are on average poorer?



Source: Wall Street Journal

The amount of unintelligence with the Islaimic world especially with liberals is even more frightening.There is not one single arab nation on the entire planet ever that has sided with Israel or the jews ever.Who is pushing for a Palestine State and does not understand the evil that muslim governments pose towards jews.Progressive liberals and the progressive government machine.Why do real conservatives and mostly libiterians views warn about this stuff, but liberals just shrug you off like your worthless and are stupid.

Originally posted by Skyfloating

Originally posted by The Revenant
That school of psychology sounds like a rational field, worth exploring.

Having an Evolutionary Psychologist judge what political systems have more merit is like having a fundamentalist Christian judge which Religion has the most merit. You couldnt have chosen a more biased source to "prove" your point.

I don't have a problem with evolutionary psychology - it's fascinating and probalbly useful, but the usefulness is what we should question

When people start using information that isn't proven, or even provable - as a tool...

There should be red flags everywhere on this one

This is what would be the more interesting discussion - what can or can't be proven in the field of psychology/psychiatry to begin with?

Also, if there are some very basic differences (at all) in each of our brains, and if those differences do produce some rigid and measurable differences in personalty, political leanings, what have you - who or what is to say that those differences aren't necessary to a functional society?

The benefits are in the mix - no one is superior - we are all part of the deal. Balance.

Evolution maybe isn't working towards producing a superior human - but humanity is on a forward march regardless

a long winded way of saying - I agree Sky

:-)

Now if only we could escape bias - but I'm not sure that's possible. It's so human.

I haven't read through the entire thread... too icky.

But, on the premise, even if this were true (which I doubt it is), the ability of a well crafted propaganda campaign to effectively work a ruse on both lefties or righties, is an entirely different subject matter, and one that makes the premise irrelevant.

Given how many Americans still believe the Right/Left dichotomy is real and not a facade to conceal an ulterior motive, one could could presume folks who self identify with either are not very smart...

...just sayin

Anyway... intelligence is a pretty useless indicator of savvy. Intelligence just means qualified brain ability.

It's amazing to see how dumb some "intelligent" folks are when it comes to applied problem solving. There are a lot of brilliant folks who work in academia... that said, there a lot of super intelligent folks who work in academia who are GLAD they work in academia... because they can't find their way out of a paper sack without someone's help. They would never get a job outside of academia... they aren't competent enough.

My point being, intelligence means very little practically, beyond test scores

Originally posted by Spiramirabilis
This is what would be the more interesting discussion - what can or can't be proven in the field of psychology/psychiatry to begin with?

I posted a link a couple of days ago about "Schizophrenia has yet to be shown to be a proven disease."
www.abovetopsecret.com...


If this is true, then psychiatry could very well be scoured to the foundations and still be found lacking in factual evidence.

Go make a thread for that purpose, and see how long it takes to drift into complete chaos.

-ponders-

Social liberals are more intelligent than social conservatives. This I am positive about due to statistical information, and also just talking with a social conservative.
You quite often feel like your talking to someone a bit brain damaged.

Now, a social liberal does not translate into democrat. Hell, Ron Paul (considered fringe conservative hard right) is also a social liberal.

Most republicans have social liberal viewpoints overall for many if not most issues. I am actually not sure why people identify themselves with being left or right based on fiscal considerations though considering neither party seems to truely walk their talk.

As far as home values, I personally, for my own dwelling, am a bit socially conservative...this is my stance, my area of my domain...for the nation as a whole, social liberalism is the only way though as it allows for maximum libertys without harming others...values is something identified from home to home, not by a federal government...

Originally posted by kellynap43
reply to post by skepticconwatcher

 

Please dont waste your time. Go on and do your superior thinking. After all. The current liberal President is doing so great at his job. He may need a little bit more liberal thinking, since every liberal policy he has put into place has failed.
How is that hope and change working out for you?
And to think, you actually thought Obama's speach about change was new slogan, a new idea! That is to funny.

Obama is not a liberal, he is a conservative democrat...actually far more conservative than Bill Clinton overall (whom was also a conservative).
I am actually not even sure who the last liberal POTUS was...perhaps kennedy. Before that, you must go back quite a ways to FDR

Originally posted by ollncasino
reply to post by The Revenant

 

If Liberals are more intelligent than Conservatives, how come Liberals are on average poorer?

Being for promoting equal liberties, is much more common amongst minorities. As members of majorities tend to take advantage of it. Minorities are on average poorer, due to factors outside their control.

Also, otherwise poorer people, have two things. One is obviously supporting a system that involves helping the lower and middle class. The other is that poorer peoples social situations generally make them less attached to conventional thought, which leads to more progressiveness.

~
The poorer is a good example of a 'lesser demographic' adjusting the numbers. Liberal does attract some poor people simply because they're poor. Conservative attracts the unintelligent, because on average(not all of them), that's what the religious people they attract are like.

It's halfway an Ad Hominum though. You shouldn't just look at the weakest links of a belief system to determine it's worth. The real test is how good the strongest links are.

I don't see the validity in the test. I would have to absolutely see the sampling. And just so you'll know, Psychology Today isn't typically read by psychologist/mental health professionals. It's designed to sell magazines to the general population. In no way is it a professional journal/publication.

It likes to stir the pot once in a while, like any other magazine. To boost sales.

I think the first reply to the OP says it all. In my experience, Conservatives are far wiser to the world than Liberals, but intellect is another matter. How can one define intellect based on political persuasion?

To me both have pros and cons, a Conservative may possibly be somewhat negative, they may pigeon hole the world and they may believe in a quest for accumulated wealth above all else. However, there is much truth in their perceptive world; there is good and bad, to accumulate wealth should generally be in line with a person's work ethic and by definition to conserve is to keep, in all manner of life. Liberals on the other hand are naive, they view the world with a sense of delusion, they wish to alleviate personal responsibility and any wealth accumulated should be redistributed to include those who not only do not work for it, but have no desire to work at all, does that make sense to me? Absolutely not!

From all these general traits, can we define the intellect of a person? No. The ideal political persuasion is somewhere in the center and I think you'll find that it is those people who are the most intelligent, but I have no basis of fact to place this on, just as the OP has none but an opinion from a propaganda machine!

Obviously, Liberals are more intelligent than Conservatives. Why?

Well, here's an example:

Conservatives believe the Federal government should stay out of their personal lives with the exception of same sex marriage. Conservatives believe the Federal government should prohibit human beings from getting married because THEY disagree with civil liberties.

Hypocrisy? Yep.
Moronic? Yep.
Intelligent? LOL.

reply to post by SeventhSeal


I'm sorry but how does that show a person's general intelligence?

If I go against something that you believe in, would I say that you are of low intelligence because you believe in it? No, because you may have a very valid reason as to why you believe in it. The level of intelligence should be shown in the ability to discover reason from all sides, in all arguments and all opinions. However, just because a person may accept a counter argument on an issue, does not mean that they are willing to sacrifice their own belief to follow it. I really cannot see how a person's intelligence can be based simply on political persuasion.

BS! LIBERALISM IS A MENTAL DISORDER!

The very proof that this theory is incorrect is located right in the O.P.

Liberals do control the media, or the show business,

The very idea of equating control of the media with intelligence is, in itself, unintelligent.

Two and a Half Men
Doogie Howser
The Greatest American Hero
Baywatch

Enough said.

Everyone duped into the us vs them mentality is a fool

They'll happily keep you dimwits at each others throats convinced THOSE OTHER GUYS are the problem so you'll never deal with the actual problems.

oh oh we HAVE to vote for this scumbag because WE CANT LET THOSE GUYS WIN
We cant vote for a 3rd party because of the possibility THE ENEMY will win
so you all end up duped into voting for two sides of the same cpoin, played for fools

I don't have a serious problem with the idea that liberals are more intelligent but intelligence isn't everything. Stalin was probably more intelligent than most Americans but he was a repulsive mass murderer. Just because somebody is intelligent doesn't mean you want them running everything. And frankly, the extremes on both "sides" scare the hell out of me. But liberals have really been showing their asses lately. If they're supposed to be more intelligent than conservatives they sure aren't showing it with maturity. Most of the stuff on MSNBC is just as vile and unwatchable now as anything on Fox News ever was.

Today's liberals are the ultimate hypocrites. Why?

Because, if they really practiced what they preach, they would all be singing kumbaya naked and unarmed in the forest, gnawing on some twigs, just before the wolves and bears ate their wimpy little behinds.

So, I'm not feeling too threatened by their little theories of how smart they are.

Another way to look at intelligence trends=

95 and below - rely on common sense and basic logic. Thus, practical and resistant to change.
96-110 - think they are a lot more intelligent than they really are, thus they tend to be liberal psuedo-intellectuals
110+ - wide range of perspectives, depends on how broad the individuals education is, as people in this bracket tend towards highly specialized educations and vocations. However, I would suspect a significant trend towards concepts of freedom, liberty, and self-reliance, no matter the influence their education might have on their specific perspectives.

Obviously, I'm being somewhat silly here, but my point is that the data means nothing. The peak IQ range on that graph isn't exactly an overwhelming intellect, but it is around the point where a lot of people start to think themselves much more intelligent than they are, and take on an arrogant air of intellectual superiority, which trends very far to the left. More telling data would be if you started to really get into exceptionally intelligent people, not just those who believe themselves to me.