i don't think we fully appreciate the power of foxnews.

[Sarg]

47. I call it "inverted skepticism"

It largely originated in white evangelical and Southern churches in the 1970s. The foundation of this mentality is that fundamentalist Bible-believers are correct about everything, in and out of politics, and anyone or anything that believes otherwise are communists, or influenced by communists, "cultural Marxists," atheistic Jews, ivory tower elitists, etc. "Liberal" is equated with "communist." So if you propose a state-run health care system, for example, they have a quote from Marx or Lenin ready in support of such an idea, and a quote from a Reagan or Goldwater type about how awful and dangerous "socialistic" healthcare is.

They are deeply skeptical people. But they direct all their skepticism toward reality-based ideas, facts, statistics, proposals, and solutions. They are skeptical of science, medicine, clinical research, etc., but entirely non-skeptical toward miracles, supernaturalism, religion, etc. Once that type of thinking is inculcated, they have no more real critical thinking skills. It all originates in the church.