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> I dislike this study. It naively picks out a few conservative views to lampoon as examples of irrationality (I say this as a liberal), and then hopes to gener
by KirinDave 8y ago
> I dislike this study. It naively picks out a few conservative views to lampoon as examples of irrationality (I say this as a liberal), and then hopes to generalize this as "controversial topics"
I strong object to this. Having been deeply involved both with this topic, skeptical advocacy, and having been raised deeply conservative: "GMO foods" is not a conservative anti-science issue. It's deeply "liberal", and generally stems from an inability to separate unethical corporate work and interests with the outcomes of technology. Similarly, many anti-vaccination misinformation peddlers are squarely aligned with what constitutes the "left" in American popular culture.
> This is too narrow. We shouldn't pretend that human beliefs are predominantly logical with a few strange exceptions.
Again, I think you're reading into both the study and the article. This is more a study of how people rationalize their beliefs and in some cases, political affiliations inform that. It's an important topic.
> By and large we know incredibly little, most of what we "know" is because authorities have told us about it
Science, of course, neither creates reality nor truly measures it. It can only measure our observations, and we can seek to make our observations ever more reflective of reality. The entire point of that process is for us to convince one another and survive each other's reasonable objections.
Understanding how people work themselves up to reject such a consensus-driven process, and how the mental techniques they use may be addressed. The stakes are quite high.
- jacobolus 8y ago> many anti-vaccination misinformation peddlers are squarely aligned with what constitutes the "left" “Squarely aligned”? Nope, anti-vaxxers are not “squarely aligned” with any broad political movement. Responsible politicians, party officials, pundits, etc. of all parties and ideologies are pro-vaccination. But e.g. the Governor-Elect of Oklahoma is a GOP anti-vaxxer. It is incredibly dangerous when these views start to get legitimized: children will die.
- tomjakubowski 8y agoTrump is another noted anti-vaxxer. It's only anecdata, but all the anti-vaxxers I've known have been wealthy GOP voters.
- KirinDave 8y agoLet's offset him with Jim Carrey, perhaps? It's a very bipartisan issue. People associate it with religious worldviews, but those folks actually make up only one faction.
- sheepmullet 8y agoWhen did Trump become an anti-vaxxer? Don’t forget that Trump was a prominent Dem supporter for decades.
- jacobolus 8y agoTrump in 2012: > A study says Autism is out of control--a 78% increase in 10 years. Stop giving monstrous combined vaccinations Trump in 2014: > Healthy young child goes to doctor, gets pumped with massive shot of many vaccines, doesn't feel good and changes - AUTISM. Many such cases! etc.
- sheepmullet 8y agoYes, but when did he first become an anti-vaxxer?
- KirinDave 8y agoHi, today a noted liberal screenwriter compared the word "anti-vaxxer" to the racist n-word. So if you ever scroll back through this, Google to see how wrong you were about this.