Are Liberals REALLY More Intelligent Than Conservatives?

reply to post by seabag


I would like to share some love and as stated I said that it was an interesting post. You showed yourself capable of analysis and intelligence but then descended into lazy, blanket statements about liberals.
I hope that your reference to 'so called' independents is not a further attempt to polarise and manipulate people into supporting the corrupt 2 party system in the US.

reply to post by seabag

Are Liberals REALLY More Intelligent Than Conservatives?

In answer to your OP, I'd have to say no.

I'll explain.



I honestly don't think any true study would find data that was statistically significant towards leberals or conservatives. Ideology has as much to do with upbringing and social interactions as actual schooling. Schooling (IMHO) is more "read and regurgitate" anymore. The impetus to question authority, a concept, an ideology, is ingrained in a person and has very little to do with IQ's.


I think conservatives ask more questions than liberals. Conservatives aren't satisfied with the "status quo".

How that could be quantified? I don't know.

But S&F for providing a forum that doesn't carry a bias in the OP.
*cheers*

There is so much meat on this thread (Sorry, vegans.), it would take at least half a dozen posts to do justice to it. But let me start by clearing away some brush.

A very common "sophisticated" position on ATS is that there is no difference between Republicans and Democrats. This allows the professor of these views to present himself as superior and enlightened, and it allows the side benefit of not requiring the speaker to know anything about either party.

Further, if they're the same there's no sense talking about it so we can ignore the "fictional" world of American politics and spend time discussing how the aliens have started thirteen bloodlines which will require the killing off of billions of people by flouride. The remaining people will be kept as food animals and delivered to their city under the surface of the earth, now that's reality.

All right, I can see the comfort that such a position holds out. But when someone says they're is no difference between Left and Right, you know you're listening to someone who, at the moment, is "Rationality Deprived."

There is no sense in allowing this thread to be side-tracked into a discussion based on the premise that Liberal and Conservative are identical political beliefs.

Why not explore things like "More schooling brings more specializtion and more inhumanity." Or "Having overwhelmingly liberal professors (or conservative ones) is like intellectual incest, with the same mental results." I will watch with interest.

reply to post by sonnny1


I don't dispute his right to an opinion. What I do take issue with is any attempt to divide or making name calling generalisations about one 'group' above another. Fine if there is a concrete case being made to prove that liberals are 'brainwashed, intellectually dishonest' etc, make it but this isn't in the rant section, its a discussion about intelligence and political support.

The polarisation because of Obama... have you just woken up or something? US politics has been polarised for years. To be honest you sound a bit like a victim of one of the supposed two ideologies the politicians expect US citizens to support.

reply to post by freethinker123

I would like to share some love and as stated I said that it was an interesting post. You showed yourself capable of analysis and intelligence but then descended into lazy, blanket statements about liberals.

Well…just because I may have demonstrated the intelligence and the capability of analyzing the situation doesn’t mean I don’t subscribe to one side or the other!

I’m a conservative (bordering on libertarian – or as Ventura says, “libertarian-lite”).

I hope that your reference to 'so called' independents is not a further attempt to polarise and manipulate people into supporting the corrupt 2 party system in the US.

I define independents as those people who refuse to subscribe to one side or the other. These people claim to somehow be ABOVE it all, which amounts to a copout in my book.

But HEY…To each his/her own, right?

reply to post by Cosmic911


Those liberals who go around saying Conservatives hate women and children and push grandmas off cliffs?

More intelligent my arse.

Originally posted by Cosmic911

I wouldn't say Liberians are more intelligent than Conservatives. I would say liberals are more intelligent than hate-mongering people pretending to be good Christians.

There are a lot of liberal Christians,

Take Obama for example,



Oh and almost all of our liberal democrat congress and house,

hee

I have worked in the public opinion arena and come from a lineage of surveyors. I never believe polls or survey results anymore. They are purposely skewed for political and financial agendas.

Public opinion gatherers are marketers, marketing is sales. Anyone who buys into a sales pitch without research is either lazy or easily dazzled. This is the problem with surveying extremes. Left, right, Religious, atheist, anyone polling from extremes is not to be trusted.

ALL racists are stupid? NOT true; many are intelligent, yet ignorant.

ALL conservatives are stupid? NOT true; many are intelligent. Some are ignorant, some are not.

ALL liberals are stupid? NOT true; many liberals are intelligent. Some are ignorant, some are not.

What more is there to say?

Some of us ARE ignorant!
Some of us ARE stupid!
Some of us ARE racist!
NONE of us can be pigeonholed by a study!

reply to post by Stormdancer777


Ok, this is what I should have said....I believe anyone is smarter than hate-mongering people pretending to be good Christians.

reply to post by Stormdancer777


I got to disagree with him being a Christian he is the messiah of the divine government knows best and we don't know jack and Goverment is the resurrection and the life everlasting.

reply to post by charles1952


Charles, I think the idea is not that there are no 'differences' between Dems and Reps,clearly they posture differently, but for me rather it is the idea that does it really matter in the big scheme of things.

Tell me how your life on a personal level has gotten actually substantially better overall under either one.

I think a better question than who is more 'intelligent' would be which party label really wants to butt OUT of your life and allow you to live ubshackled. Either? No. They simply shackle you in different ways. To me it's like asking do you want to be burned at the stake or dismembered.

Originally posted by neo96
reply to post by Cosmic911

 

Those liberals who go around saying Conservatives hate women and children and push grandmas off cliffs?

More inteligent my arse.

Exactly. We can blame them for 'global man bear pig' too.

They are hysterical.

Edit- And gullible.

reply to post by charles1952

A very common "sophisticated" position on ATS is that there is no difference between Republicans and Democrats. This allows the professor of these views to present himself as superior and enlightened, and it allows the side benefit of not requiring the speaker to know anything about either party.

You’re SPOT ON, Charles1952! I don’t know what they consider themselves but I call this group either pseudo-intellectual or elitist and classify them as independents. It’s funny that they think being SMART is to not subscribe to right or left (FOX’s Bill O’Reilly is a good example).

Why not explore things like "More schooling brings more specializtion and more inhumanity." Or "Having overwhelmingly liberal professors (or conservative ones) is like intellectual incest, with the same mental results." I will watch with interest.

I really don’t see anything wrong with teaching ideology in school, as long as it’s a private school and the parents and students CHOOSE to partake. It becomes disturbing (to me) when an ideology is pushed in public schools on the tax payer’s dime! When this happens it is against the will of many...I certainly don't subscribe to it.

reply to post by Cosmic911


Christians are easy prey, but perhaps you could have said,

I believe anyone is smarter than hate-mongering people pretending to be good _ _ _ _ _ _. fill in the blanks,

Do you think by calling Christian hate mongers, it makes you look like a hate monger?

Originally posted by Stormdancer777
reply to post by Cosmic911

 

Christians are easy prey, but perhaps you could have said,

I believe anyone is smarter than hate-mongering people pretending to be good _ _ _ _ _ _. fill in the blanks,

Do you think by calling Christian hate mongers, it makes you look like a hate monger?

Don't assume I meant all Christians....I said people pretending to be good Christians. There have been plenty of threads here on ATS recently by suppossed Christians that are breeding grounds for hate and ill-will.

reply to post by Cosmic911

threads here on ATS recently by suppossed Christians that are breeding grounds for hate and ill-will.

I must have missed those.

Originally posted by freethinker123
reply to post by sonnny1

 

I don't dispute his right to an opinion. What I do take issue with is any attempt to divide or making name calling generalisations about one 'group' above another. Fine if there is a concrete case being made to prove that liberals are 'brainwashed, intellectually dishonest' etc, make it but this isn't in the rant section, its a discussion about intelligence and political support.

The polarisation because of Obama... have you just woken up or something? US politics has been polarised for years. To be honest you sound a bit like a victim of one of the supposed two ideologies the politicians expect US citizens to support.

I give ALL Presidents a chance to show their worth. I am an Independent,so actually my voting record is quite mixed.

When a man promises to change the status-quo,as Obama did,and falls heavily short,dividing America,with perpetual rhetoric,and faulty policy,that's beyond party lines. That effects the whole of America,regardless of party lines.

The worst President,that I have ever witnessed was Jimmy Carter. Obama's polarization,has given him an edge. Not because hes Democratic. Because he is intelligent,and has squandered his time in the White House,playing the Two-Party "Liberal" agenda.....

reply to post by sonnny1

When a man promises to change the status-quo,as Obama did,and falls heavily short,dividing America,with perpetual rhetoric,and faulty policy,that's beyond party lines. That effects the whole of America,regardless of party lines.

Did you expect anything to change?? I knew things would get worse under Obama and anyone who didn’t wasn’t paying attention. Conservatives are more result’s driven. It makes more sense to run the country like a business; if it works – keep it; if it doesn’t work – scrap it.

That’s not the case for the left.

Liberalism is all about appearances, not outcomes. What matters to liberals is how a program makes them FEEL about themselves, not whether it works or not. Thus a program like Headstart, which sounds good because it's designed to help children read, makes liberals feel good about themselves, even though the program doesn't work and wastes billions. A ban on DDT makes liberals feel good about themselves because they're "protecting the environment" even though millions of people have died as a result. For liberals, it's not what a program does in the real world; it's about whether they feel better about themselves for supporting it.

Liberals got suckered by Obama and the left like they always do. As open-minded as liberals claim to be, the reality is they can rarely be swayed to another way of thinking.

Liberalism creates a feedback loop. It is usually impossible for a non-liberal to change a liberal's mind about political issues because liberalism works like so: only liberals are credible sources of information. How do you know someone's liberal? He espouses liberal doctrine. So, no matter how plausible what you say may be, it will be ignored if you're not a liberal and if you are a liberal, of course, you probably agree with liberal views. This sort of close-mindedness makes liberals nearly impervious to any information that might undermine their beliefs.

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