I know of several just blatantly wrong ideas that are predominantly held by conservatives: rejection of evolution and disbelief in global warming for example. I was under the impression that being anti-vaccine was the liberal side of this, but this article seems to say it is evenly spread across ideological lines.
I know we have a stupid liberal idea thread, but that seems to be mostly populated by individuals doing dumb things. What factually wrong ideas have a much bigger pull with liberals than with conservatives? Note that I am not looking for things that partisans might think are stupid but where there is a valid other side to the issue(Raise the minimum wage? You must be crazy!), but things where a rational person will realize they are full of shit (Humans never landed on the moon.).
I imagine general woo would fall into this category, but if possible I would like specific ideas, and for the gold a good poll that shows that it is primarily liberals who believe it so that we don’t incorrectly fall to the same misconception I had about anti-vaxers.
Starting off: Crystal or magnet healing, the danger of GMOs.
I know of several just blatantly wrong ideas that are predominantly held by conservatives: rejection of evolution and disbelief in global warming for example. I was under the impression that being anti-vaccine was the liberal side of this, but this article seems to say it is evenly spread across ideological lines.
I don't think most conservatives do believe the things you stated they believe, That is a stupid belief of many liberals.
It is. It’s good for the simple reason that if we have nothing to compare our own views, cultural beliefs, and religious values to, we have a significantly harder time examining our own and fall into the habit that because we believe it or because our world is this way, it is therefore inherently right. It is good because it gives us more answers and more ideas to draw upon when we face challenges.
[ul][li]Free trade hurts the poor.[/li][li]Spending on preventative medicine saves money overall.[/li][li]The Social Security trust fund represents an asset and not a debt. [/ul][/li]Regards,
Shodan
I sure wish the conservatives who recognize the Theory of Evolution as valid and anthropogenic global climate change as currently happening would get a little louder then.
That all corporations are endless money machines that can pull money out of their asses to do whatever the liberals find important. Living wage+ healthcare + pensions + clean environment + supporting charitable causes + providing affordable products + supporting US businesses and not outsourcing + job security in a downturn + … all this out of the CEOs 10M payday and the .02 dividend they pay to shareholders. (I’m a liberal, I also know enough about corporate finance to know a lot of companies are not endless money machines - in fact, many go bankrupt).
Then perhaps the stupid idea is “Some diversity is good, therefore all diversity must be good”. I don’t think anyone with more brain cells than fingers thinks all diversity is bad; the disagreement is over how much is good. Conservatives tend to believe in free markets, which are analogous to diversity in some ways.
I consider myself a liberal, but there’s something some other self-described liberals do that really gets on my nerves. It’s not an idea so much as a lack of thought. Some people have clearly been brought up with liberal ideals, but without thinking much for themselves. The result is people who will defend a popular piece of liberal doctrine, seemingly to the death, but are unable to arrive at liberal conclusions themselves. One example is the “liberals” who are sure racism, or sexism, or “pro-life”, etc. is bad, but their way of dealing with it is to act like a fascist towards those with opposing views, perhaps shouting them down, or destroying signs. Another example is those who are incapable of seeing the hypocrisy in the vast difference between their reactions to female and male rape victims.
I am not sure this is one. There are some benefits to diversity. It seems that deciding it is inherently good is an effect weighing the value of those benefits vs any costs. You would have to take the belief to a strawman extreme for it to be wrong enough to be just factually untrue.
I did not say most. I am saying it is more predominant among conservatives. For example, if 20% of conservatives bought into it, but only 5% of liberals, that would count. Actually, looking it up, I see that 43% of Republicans (which will have to be a stand in for conservative because this is the poll I found) believe in evolution of some form, while 48% do not believe in it in any form. So, while not “most” of them believe in it it is damn close.
It would be nice to find issues where around half or more of liberals are on the incorrect side, but I will take issues where it is morel likely for liberals to get it wrong.
Nuclear power is a great one, and I mentioned GMOs. The evil corporations and protection from risk are a bit wishy washy and hard to nail down as actual issues. I agree on the gun one.
Would you have some evidence to support these? The first seems to be contentious political fight with data on each side, the data I have seen suggest the second is actually true, and I do not know much about the third issue.
I will add another of my own: Belief in homeopathy.
That community values/protecting the children is more important than free speech. The same reasoning comes up with gun control, GMOs, etc. The us vs them mentality.
Liberals are just as likely to censor books as conservatives, just for different reasons. Argh.
I’m pretty liberal, but my family has owned a business since before I was born so I lean a bit right when it comes to business politics. I have a friend who crapped all over a (national) business’ facebook page when they closed up about half of their locations. Pissing and moaning about how they put all (she had a specific number, probably from an article) these people out of work. If I was confrontational and wanted an argument, I’d ask her what she wanted them to do. What she hoped to gain from them keeping those stores open. Did she understand that if they kept the money pits open, that if they kept pumping money into the stores that were losing money that eventually they’d all close and everyone would be out of a job. I promise, they didn’t close so the owner could make money, if they were making money they’d stay open, they closed because they were losing money.
Also, no matter how much you don’t like it, (most) people don’t start businesses to provide you with a job, they start a business to make money…or at least to make more money than they could if they were working for someone else. If you don’t like what they’re doing, try starting you’re own company and maybe you’ll get a feel for why they do things the way they do.
This is the second time something like this has been mentioned. What, exactly, are you referring to? I don’t see this. If anything, I would have marked this one down on the conservative side.
This would be something I would like some evidence for, as I have never heard that before.
If I am reading that right it still says that the proposed focus on preventative health care will save money, just much less than is predicted, and goes on to mention that the savings can be much higher if the focus is on the right kind of preventative care. This only seems to count if you expand your statement to, “All Spending on preventative medicine saves money overall.” You do not seem to have a winner here.
Firstly, I only read quickly, but if I’m not mistaken, that is saying that preventative medicine as a whole and as currently used is not cost effective, but it makes clear that many aspects of it are. That means there are improvements to be made, and few would argue with that. It doesn’t mean preventative medicine is always more expensive.
Secondly, do liberals who advocate preventative medicine only do so because they think it’s good value for money? Improving and saving lives would seem to be the main benefit.