The article linked to in this thread reports a study claiming that Fox news viewers are significantly more likely than non-Fox news viewers to believe 8 of the the following 9 falsehoods:
[ul]
[li] the stimulus legislation lost jobs[/li][li] the health reform law will increase the deficit[/li][li] the economy is getting worse[/li][li] climate change is not occurring[/li][li] income taxes have gone up[/li][li] the stimulus legislation did not include any tax cuts[/li][li] Obama initiated the GM/Chrysler bailout[/li][li] that most Republicans opposed TARP[/li][li] Obama was not born in the U.S. (or it is unclear)[/li][/ul]
The author of the article therefore concludes that “Fox news makes you stupid”.
As put forth by Fotheringay-Phipps in post #12 of the aforelinked thread, however, these are all “right wing oriented falsehoods”. So let’s say we wanted to design a study to demonstrate that CNN makes you stupid. What left wing oriented falsehoods should we include in the study to help ensure that we get this result?
In truth, he was impeached for trying to keep it secret from his wife. Which felony was worse? You be the judge, but either was infinitely more damaging to the Republic than Nixon’s burglary and coverup, or Reagan’s defiance of Congress.
Claiming that Clinton wasn’t impeached over a blowjob is nitpicking at best. Anyway, some I’ve run across over the years: #1: The term “rule of thumb” is sexist and derived from a law stating that a man can beat his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb. That myth was debunked as far back as the 16th century IIRC, but it keeps popping up.
#2: Superbowl Sunday has a spike in wife beating.
#3: Women never lie about sexual assault.*
#4: Primitive cultures lived in nonviolent feminist or egalitarian communal societies until the white European imperialists corrupted them.
#5: Only human males rape.
#6: “Sky God” religions are inherently evil, while goddess based religions are not.
#7: Ancient Egyptians were black, and responsible for most or all of the advances of the ancient world but the Greeks stole the credit.
#8: Nuclear power is inherently bad, while solar power and wind power can replace petrochemicals.
#9: There is no inherent human nature.
*I mean, while I don’t know how often they do or not, but never? Come on. We’re talking about human beings here.
Both positions are supported by the Brady Campaign and various Democratic legislators, and while I would characterize them as demonstrably false I’ll be charitable and say that such assertions are not supported by evidence.
And the related “noble savage” myth that our current western food production is inherently wasteful and dangerous while “primitive” cultures lived in a state of “balance with/respect for nature” that was damn near perfect.
In reality, our current food production is efficient in the extreme and feeds us maybe even too well, while starvation, wars over food and water and necessarily grossly inefficient hunting techniques* are common among hunter-gatherers and primitive farming communities. Though I guess you can call that “balance with nature”, it’s generally not what the people espousing the view are thinking of.
my favorite example is the Native American technique of stampeding bison over cliffs, with no possible means of preserving a decent amount of the resulting meat.
I’m liberal and I don’t buy into them. Nor do I consider the Left equally as ignorant or irrational as the Right. That doesn’t mean that I haven’t heard those things all claimed by left wing people.
No WMD were found in Iraq
Bush said Saddam was behind 9-11
Renewable energy is cost effective
The reason education is poor in this country is lack of funding
Health Care outcomes are worse in the US than in most industrialized countries
Minimum wage laws are good for poor people
Campaign contributions determine who is elected
Republicans believe in trickle down economics
Free trade is bad for the economy
Big business is against regulating the economy
I don’t think puddleglum’s list is the “leftwing equivalent” of the list in the OP. The OP’s list consists of things that are either provably false or are, at best, unproven. Puddleglum’s list are all provably true, unproven, or oversimplifications of left wing beliefs.
Some examples:
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[li]It’s not literally true that Bush said Saddam was behind 9-11, but he and others in his administration did their best to imply it without actually saying it.[/li][li]“Health Care outcomes are worse in the US than in most industrialized countries.” I don’t think that’s a common left wing belief. The outcomes for people who receive health care are probably the same or better than in other industrialized countries. The problem isn’t with health care outcomes. The problem is with lack of health care.[/li][/ul]
IIRC, we did find a few rusting shells of expired chemical weapons. But nothing that mattered. And we certainly didn’t find the imaginary fleets of drones, mobile labs and so forth.
I think Truthers are primarily on the left (if not liberal) so something around those lines might work.
"Campaign contributions determine who is elected " is another nitpick. Determine no, influence, yes - unless you are a dope like Meg Whitman, of course.
I think trutherism (is that a word?) seems to be independent of position on the political spectrum. In any case, they are not even a significant minority on the left (or the right) so I don’t think they’d belong on the list.
Check out democraticunderground.com as an example. Most people would consider the membership there to be, on average, left of mainstream Democrats, but management has segregated the truther nonsense to one forum which the majority of members avoid.
