Ideological Conservatism Associated with Lower Intelligence

Tulio: You know what, I do think I recall seeing a study that showed that the more ideologically left someone is the more likely they are to be intelligent (think a Noam Chomsky type). Whereas the more ideologically right someone is, the less likely to be intelligent. Many voters are not strongly ideological and may be voting for simple issues like who they think will give a larger tax cut or be toughest on terrorism, since Republican voters tend to make more money than Democratic voters from what I’ve seen. I’m sure you have to really hash out the data so that we aren’t assuming causation. Republicans tend to be older, and older people tend to have higher income because they have longer work experience. It might also be skewed by a small but disproportionate amount of one percenters who vote Republican for purely business reasons but aren’t all that culturally conservative. When you go further and further right into culture/ideological conservatism, the types who want abortion banned, no gun restrictions, super-religious, homophobic, and racist, I think there’s a good chance that they have lower IQ than someone equally far on the other end of the spectrum. If I can find that study I’ll post the link.

I have also seen that study. It did indeed correlate ideological conservatism with ideological liberalism. And it definitely found that as you go further and further left, IQ goes up. I am very happy for the liberalism of my Black and Hispanic brothers, but most of them tend to be rather mild liberals rather than ideological Leftists, which is just fine. I think as you start moving into the real ideological left types, at least here in the US, they tend to be smarter. Even as Blacks and Browns move further left, they tend to get smarter. Black Leftists are not common, but a lot of the ones I meet are a lot smarter than your average Black. Same with Hispanics. In the US, it is very hard to become a Leftist or in many places even a liberal. The entire media is right-wing. Even the “liberal media” is right-wing. The New York Times, the LA Times, the Washington Post, Time and Newsweek magazines, all are right-wing publications. There are no liberal newspapers in the US. There are no liberal newsmagazines in the US. I will grant that MSNBC is a liberal station in the Democratic Party tradition, which is not very liberal. However, the rest of the TV newsmedia is right-wing, and even MSNBC follows state propaganda on US foreign policy. There is very little leftwing radio in the US. Other than NPR, which is always going on fund drives to raise money while Congress always threatens to cut their funding, there is there is only Pacifica, which is always under threat of going under from lack of funding. My life would have been so much easier if I would have just gone Republican like everyone else. Even when I worked in Beverly Hills, I was considered to be an excessively ideological left-winger. People weren’t against it. They just thought it was a bit odd to be so ideological, even in Hollywood! Being an ideological Leftist has not made my life easier at all. Part of the difficulty of going this way was seeking out the materials to create and back up my viewpoint in the first place. Even today, almost all news, radio and TV I am exposed to is the usual state propaganda or corporate and rightwing lies. I read and listen to all news with an extremely jaundiced ear, expecting that most of the news I am ingesting is a lie in some form or another. I isolate what appear to be the most outrageous lies, even though I cannot prove them to be lies. I read something and I think, “No way is that true! I need to go look that up!” So I go home and look it up on the Net and sure enough, almost 10 My point is, how many people do this? How many people are able to sift through the barrage of US government, corporate and rightwing lie blizzards and figure what’s true and what isn’t? Even worse, how each lie is actually a real lie and what the truthful point of view is instead? Most people don’t even have the time to partake of the news, much less digest them with a fine intellectual toothcomb like that. I think it is because it requires such mental heavyweight lifting to even figure out how you are being lied to by the Right and what the other view from the Left is, that many of the people you see on the Left will be those intelligent and educated enough to do this sort of high-level and fine-grained ideological sifting. Quite a few more educated Whites will be able to do this, but these will often by the brighter ones with at least some college. And of course the only Blacks and Browns who will even have the brain resources to do the sort of hard and difficult work of making these fine distinctions will only be the brighter ones.

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2 thoughts on “Ideological Conservatism Associated with Lower Intelligence”

  1. Well, the really smart aren’t always the most wise. For instance, abortion is wrong! The gay agenda is wrong! Now, racism is wrong – but it’s a fact of life to some extent – but not at the level Nazis portray it as.

  2. I think it is because it requires such mental heavyweight lifting to even figure out how you are being lied to by the Right and what the other view from the Left is, that many of the people you see on the Left will be those intelligent and educated enough to do this sort of high-level and fine-grained ideological sifting. Quite a few more educated Whites will be able to do this, but these will often by the brighter ones with at least some college. And of course the only Blacks and Browns who will even have the brain resources to do the sort of hard and difficult work of making these fine distinctions will only be the brighter ones.

    So do you think voting should be limited by IQ? There could be some truth in that. I mean, what good is a vote from a child? Also, kids would be highly manipulated corrupt politicians.

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