Are some conservatives hard-wired to believe big lies

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

By Sid Schwab / Herald columnist

Not all Trumpublicans are brainwashed. Some are the ones doing it. It’s just a question of which came first, the chicken or a horse of a different color.

Many scientific studies have confirmed that liberals and conservatives process information differently: reactions to tense situations; response to facts that disprove beliefs; which parts of the brain light up on scans when seeing stressful images. Consistently, they show that liberals tend to respond more rationally, more evidence-based.

Published in “Science Advances,” titled “Conservatives’ susceptibility to political misperceptions,” the latest such study summarizes, in part, thus: “Results confirm that conservatives … perform worse at distinguishing truth and falsehoods. This is partially explained by the fact that the most widely shared falsehoods tend to promote conservative positions, while corresponding truths typically favor liberals. …” [think climate change, election fraud, adenochrome, vaccines, “fake” vs. fake, BLM (Mercury News: tinyurl.com/2fakeBLM).]

Only hardcore science and statistics nerds will plow through it. Even more improbable is that people who should see it, will; much less give it serious consideration. But, by methods careful and transparent, the findings are well-supported. Given the unabashed preference for spreading and receiving falsehoods that characterize today’s Republican Party, tightly bound to Trumpism, the findings aren’t unexpected. It’s doubtful they’re remediable. Which makes trying for “bipartisanship” a fool’s game (Science Advances: tinyurl.com/consvlibs).

An intriguing enigma remains: Is this democracy-threatening dupability the cause or effect of nonstop disinformation? Did the decades-ago founding purveyors of it, like Newt aping Goebbels, deliberately create gullibility by bombarding their followers with so much untruth that they became unable to distinguish it? Or, like Karl Rove, did they recognize the preexisting defect in certain conservatives’ judgment, then exploit it for power and wealth?

https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/schwab-are-some-conservatives-hard-wired-to-believe-big-lies/

[peppertree]

1. Must be. I've rarely met a Trump voter (or foreign right-winger) who isn't full of fear and loathing

There have been exceptions - but mostly it was people with a co-dependent relationship with a Repug family member (typically an overbearing parent).

[underpants]

3. Small and large it's an abusive relationship

Their “liberal media” is no different than “don’t talk to the neighbors. They’re full of lies”

[peppertree]

4. Kool-Aid drinkers, as it were

[rickyhall]

2. I think they're missing some wires, disconnected, broken, whatever. They're not getting reality.

[kimbutgar]

5. All of the conservatives I have met lack humanity, love, compassion and are short of critical

Thinking skills. Everything is knee jerk and there is little intellectual curiosity.

I go back to them not getting the love thy needed in childhood.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

6. Maybe? According to my oldest brother...

... who is 17 years my elder, our middle sister (out of five) was easily the most gullible among all of us from the time she was a toddler / preschooler.

He said that I was the opposite, instantly skeptical when told, for example, that monsters were hiding under my bed by the other brother.

I knew that "Santa Claus" wasn't real at a very young age too, despite how my family attempted that charade on me for awhile. I was embarrassed about it later because I caused her to cry, but I was flabbergasted by a niece who still believed in Santa when we were about 5 years old. (We were about the same age because of my much older siblings.)

Anyway, I grew up to love science and become liberal-minded whereas the super-gullible sister became the only evangelical Christian among all of the siblings.

The Santa-believing niece, who bawled as a girl after I'd pointed out the obvious contradictory evidence to her, also became a devout Christian and Republican.

Very anecdotal, I know. I'm just sharing that my own family seems to comply with the idea.

If I had much more difficulty discerning fact from fiction, I suspect that the explosion of media disinformation would mostly leave me choosing whatever seemed most pleasant to me personally -- e.g., a paradise awaits me in the after-life, the USA is the greatest country throughout history, etc.

[czarjak]

7. Stupidity has a stubborn streak!. I know the rubes to prove it too.

[lagomorph777]

8. I agree there are two kinds of conservative: Evil brainwashers, and gullible brainwashees.

...the latter might be called "Evilgullible Christians."

[peppertree]

9. Praise the Lawd!

And pass the loot.

[hatrack]

10. It could be that they just want simple answers to everything . . .

And that's worth more than self-preservation, or self-respect.

Thinking - Ow! Hard!

Thinking for yourself - Ow! Even harder!