What do my fellow skeptics think about this one...

[ZombieHorde]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002225033#post26

I want to believe it, but...I don't know.

[Warpy]

1. While it's largely true, bigotry of various types

being shortcuts for low IQ people trying to make sense of a world that's too complex for them, some of the worst bigotry I've heard has come from executive suites and board rooms, not always bastions of the plutocrat's dim bulb relative who needed a job.

In other words, it's like a lot of statistical norms, there are some pretty glaring outliers.

[Ron Obvious]

2. It's not that all conservatives are stupid...

... It's that all stupid people are conservative!

FWIW, I self-identify as moderately conservative, but in modern parlance that places me to the left of Obama...

[HuckleB]

4. Alas, I have anecdotal evidence the indicates that some stupid people are liberals.

It's disheartening, I know. Well, OK, it helps at the ballot box, but...

As for labels, in general, language is always in transition.

[Ron Obvious]

5. Yeah, sadly, so do I...

There are a lot of members of -- particularly -- the anti-science left, who come to their opinions through the same, uncritical acceptance of those they deem to be authorities the way conservatives do.

I agree Liberal/Conservative aren't necessarily the best labels to use. Maybe something along the line of Authoritarian vs. Independent thinker? There would at least be some overlap there.

[Odin2005]

3. I think this relates to the Openness paramater of the personality Big 5

Openness is correlated with intelligence.

[MicaelS]

6. I spend time on various computer hardware forums and tech websites

And the number of educated people with IT degrees, including advanced IT degrees, on these websites who are either Conservative Or Libertarian is as high as 75%.

They strongly support Ron Paul and his beliefs. They have a passionate hatred for Unions. They believe anyone who has a blue collar job and "just turns a wrench" is ignorant, stupid, and too lazy to go to college. Some of them do not have the least shred of mercy or compassion for anyone. Their attitude is best described as:

"As long as I have mine fuck everyone else."

[cbrer]

7. Bigotry is a specific form of hatred

Hatred is said to have developed in humans as a defensive mechanism. The things we don't understand. Typically unfamiliar things, or things that shake a traditional view of reality. Or things that we have to rationalize in order to be able to perform them.

There are way too many examples. And nothing is sacred in terms of subject material. And then we have to cope with the "You hate me, so I hate you" reaction.

Insight becomes possible when we FORCE ourselves to act out of line with these so called "instincts". Only when we make the true effort required for real growth, and stick to our behavioral guns, can we start to make a change, grow, and become a catalyst for growth for others.

Much easier to type these words, than really live that way. Uh Oh, started to sound like Jesus's preaching there.

In terms of the specific question in the other thread, hatred is emotionally based, and therefore removed from the intellect. Simple biology and sociology (simple-HA!). Lots O smart folks out there. A trifling few have no built in hatreds.

[LeftishBrit]

8. I think there are problems of correlation and cause here

There is lots of evidence that education is correlated strongly, whether as cause or effect or probably both, with IQ. There is also evidence that education is inversely correlated with prejudices. So the association between low IQ and prejudice is to be expected.

More cynically, it may also be that more intelligent people realize that the socially acceptable way to answer these questionnaires is to deny prejudice; and that people with low IQs are less alert to this.

As regards conservativism: some of the right-wing messages explicitly pander to prejudice, which is not to say that ALL right-wingers are susceptible to these prejudices.

I think what is most likely is the following:

People of any IQ level may be Conservatives, but often for different reasons. For many reasons, that operate in both directions, IQ is correlated with occupational success, which is in turn correlated with earnings. Those people with high IQs, who are Conservatives, are therefore most likely to be so due to economic self-interest: they are often fairly high earners, and may be reluctant to pay taxes to help poorer people. People with lower IQs tend to be less occupationally successful, and, unless they come from well-off families, are therefore on average poorer. Therefore, if they are Conservatives, it is less likely to be due to economic self-interest, and more likely to be due to prejudices, to which they are extra-susceptible due to their lower education, and to which the Right tend to pander in order to get their vote.

[fightforfreedom123]

9. Well

Bigots have been shown to have a mental illness based on their brain waves.

But I don't know about this new idea.

I remember reading a scientific journal stating research that showed after age 12, individuals of our species became imbeciles. Tell that to Albert Einstein.

I'm not Albert Einstein because my brain isn't as big. In really it is because I don't have as many neural connections.

Some bigots have high IQs ie George Wil, Newt Gingrich, etc. They are afraid. To cover that fear they need to lie to themselves and others. To do that they need high intelligence.

[laconicsax]

10. FWIW, Newt is something of a moron.

He may be an educated moron, but a moron nevertheless.