Right wingers less intelligent

[taffboy gwyrdd]

One notable thing about stupidity is the amount of arrogance and certainty with which a stupid person often expresses an argument.

A current example is the bizzare tendency to liken national debt to household debt.

More generally, and generational is the whole Friedman nonsense about the economy. Very simple principles relating to supply and demand, and not a little social Darwinism, appeal to simple minds who then espouse them as if they were irrefutable truths. There's plenty of intelligent right wingers out there of course, and they often tend to be more liberal at least. But the collective instinct to appease market gods no matter what the obvious consequences speaks of a legion of people who believe any old voodoo. It's certainly what won Reagan 8 years and probably persuaded Clinton of the need for all that "triangulation" which brought us to the final capitulation of the Labour Party over here.

 

[butchersapron]

One notable thing about stupidity is the amount of arrogance and certainty with which a stupid person often expresses an argument.

A current example is the bizzare tendency to liken national debt to household debt.

More generally, and generational is the whole Friedman nonsense about the economy. Very simple principles relating to supply and demand, and not a little social Darwinism, appeal to simple minds who then espouse them as if they were irrefutable truths. There's plenty of intelligent right wingers out there of course, and they often tend to be more liberal at least. But the collective instinct to appease market gods no matter what the obvious consequences speaks of a legion of people who believe any old voodoo. It's certainly what won Reagan 8 years and probably persuaded Clinton of the need for all that "triangulation" which brought us to the final capitulation of the Labour Party over here.

Yes. Not capitalism and it's global imperatives The intellectual capture of the passing person in the role of US President. That's how it went down.

 

[shagnasty]

"it was in The Daily Mail, so it must be true"

Who in turn heard it from a bloke down the pub

 

[stavros]

I think we're dodging the important issue here, which is of course how this links to the elf and safety brigade in Brussels which effecting house prices for Muslim single mother lesbians.

 

[Zabo]

Brooker being very funny.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/feb/05/daily-mail-calls-rightwingers-stupid

 

[krtek a houby]

Brooker being very funny.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/feb/05/daily-mail-calls-rightwingers-stupid

On and on the comments went, turning a rather stark write-up of a daft-sounding study into a sublime piece of live online performance art. A chimps' tea party of the damned. The Mail has long been a master at trolling lefties; now it's mischievously turned on its own readers, and the results could only be funnier if the website came with free plastic lawn furniture for them to lob at the screen. You couldn't make it up.

 

[ExtraRefined]

Since when did "right wing" become synonymous with "socially conservative"?

And how does everyone feel about The Bell Curve these days?

 

[Roadkill]

Brooker being very funny.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/feb/05/daily-mail-calls-rightwingers-stupid

Yes, Brooker was on good form there.

 

[Jeff Robinson]

"If there is one person I can not stand and that is a snob who thinks they are intelligent because if they were intelligent and educated they wouldn't be snobs," argued Liz from London. Once you've clambered over the broken grammar, deliberately placed at the start of the sentence like a rudimentary barricade of piled-up chairs, there's a tragic conundrum at work here. She claims intellectual snootiness is ugly, which it is, but unfortunately she says it in such a stupid way it's impossible for anyone smarter than a steak-and-ale pie not to look down on her. Thus, for Liz, the crushing cycle of snobbery continues.

 

[William of Walworth]

George M has his say on the subject

Just putting it up for you to say what you want about it ....

(Can't be arsed to do that myself, being a lazy leftie )

 

[William of Walworth]

One notable thing about stupidity is the amount of arrogance and certainty with which a stupid person often expresses an argument.

There's a lot in this.

But there's a variation on it too. A much loathed (by me) colleague at work is in fact, as I know, far too intelligent genuinely to believe the utter right wing kneejerk Mailoid shite she constantly comes out with. The arrogance and certainty of her own correctness is definitely there all the same.

 

[discokermit]

that brooker thing was shit. is that what he does for a living these days? selecting mail comments for ridicule?

 

[goldenecitrone]

that brooker thing was shit. is that what he does for a living these days? selecting mail comments for ridicule?

And he's shagging whatsherface. The jammy cunt.

 

[discokermit]

And he's shagging whatsherface. The jammy cunt.

she's an idiot as well. i trod on her foot deliberately once.

 

[goldenecitrone]

she's an idiot as well. i trod on her foot deliberately once.

That badge will be worth a lot one day.

 

[Citizen66]

Since when did "right wing" become synonymous with "socially conservative"?

Ah yes, I forgot about those socially liberal Tories championing gay rights, decriminalising weed, encouraging techno parties in fields and rocking up to Stonehenge to enjoy the solstice.

 

[ExtraRefined]

Ah yes, I forgot about those socially liberal Tories championing gay rights, decriminalising weed, encouraging techno parties in fields and rocking up to Stonehenge to enjoy the solstice.

Since when did "right wing" become synonymous with "member of the Conservative party"?

 

[Citizen66]

Since when did "right wing" become synonymous with "member of the Conservative party"?

Well it didn't. But as they are the only right wing party to wield any power in the uk over the last 90 odd years (aside from new lab) then there they're the only ones with any relevance in this context.

 

[faux pas]

One notable thing about stupidity is the amount of arrogance and certainty with which a stupid person often expresses an argument.

A current example is the bizzare tendency to liken national debt to household debt.

More generally, and generational is the whole Friedman nonsense about the economy. Very simple principles relating to supply and demand, and not a little social Darwinism, appeal to simple minds who then espouse them as if they were irrefutable truths.

Was Friedman stupid then?

 

[Jeff Robinson]

Was Friedman stupid then?

Evil genius. Or perhaps evil 'fairly intelligent person who's beliefs just happened to dovetail with the conjuntural interests of global economic elites'. Like I've said many a time, there are two categories of rightwingers: thick cunts and evil scum. Friedman falls into the second category.

 

[faux pas]

Evil genius. Or perhaps evil 'fairly intelligent person who's beliefs just happened to dovetail with the conjuntural interests of global economic elites'. Like I've said many a time, there are two categories of rightwingers: thick cunts and evil scum. Friedman falls into the second category.

You don't know if he was a 'genius' or a 'fairly intelligent person'

I asked it because taffboy could well be suggesting it, which would seem an odd adjective to describe him.

there are two categories of rightwingers: thick cunts and evil scum.

Aren't you being guilty of the kind of thing that is often accused of the right by the left - crass oversimplifications.

 

[butchersapron]

Are you going to out yourself as a libertarian now as well as a ickette faux pas?

 

[pogofish]

*Daily Mail in recycled crackpot science shocker*

And here is the original study from 2007:

http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/v10/n10/abs/nn1979.html

 

[Blagsta]

Was Friedman stupid then?

He was a bastard, that's for sure.

 

[butchersapron]

And here is the original study from 2007:

http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/v10/n10/abs/nn1979.html

That appears to be a different paper in a different journal.

 

[pogofish]

With much the same conclusions and already news also, appears there are other similar studies from 2000 and 2005.

 

[butchersapron]

With much the same conclusions and already news also, appears there are other similar studies from 2000 and 2005.

But not the same study.

Also, the title of that one highlights one central problem with this sort of stuff:

Neurocognitive correlates of liberalism and conservatism

I know plenty of conservative left-wingers and liberal right-wingers - they don't map directly onto left and right.

 

[faux pas]

Are you going to out yourself as a libertarian now as well as a ickette faux pas?

Why, you want to call out the cowardly squad for another group attack, and then feel all big and chuffed with yourself as you're such a brave little man.

 

[Gmart]

Right wingers just have different priorities. They might concentrate on the markets plunging rather than the suffering this causes. Everyone turns a blind eye to suffering to some degree while making up simplistic stereotypes who are 'the problem'.

I see it as similar to the bible question: "Am I my Brother's keeper?". A right winger would think of themselves as living by the law of the jungle (safe with their job and assets), while the left winger would argue for community and everyone pulling together to help one another.

The answer is of course that everyone is a balance of selfish and selfless, with no saints or devils anywhere. Everyone has the right to enjoy life even if there is suffering, while everyone should remember their neighbours and community because they are you as well.

 

[pogofish]

But not the same study.

Either way, not news any more.