Comments on: Liberals vs. conservatives, smart vs. dull

By: Razib Khan

Razib Khan — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 04:28:32 +0000

#11, shut the fuck up. i’m usually gentle with the obviously low IQ or ignorant. my frustration is generally with the lazy or presumptuous.

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 03:52:40 +0000

@10 LAG
Don’t take it personally. Razib is confrontational with many of the responders. Many times he gets very upset over someone’s simple misunderstanding. Either he thinks it’s a personal attack on him or he just doesn’t like people with an IQ lower than his.

By: LAG

LAG — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 00:19:53 +0000

I see you’re open to discussion. So ban me. I’ll survive. But logically your claim that you didn’t say it, just used it to underscore you thesis, is a distinction without a difference.

By: ziel

ziel — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 23:06:02 +0000

What about libertarians? I predict they are be smarter than both conservatives and liberals.

Yes, and no doubt .0011% of them would agree that “trade took away American jobs”

By: Eugenick

Eugenick — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 21:53:23 +0000

What about libertarians? I predict they are be smarter than both conservatives and liberals.

By: Razib Khan

Razib Khan — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 17:24:09 +0000

but what you’re really saying is that people who take liberal positions have greater verbal facility.

no. i didn’t say that. don’t put words into my mouth, or i’ll ban you (though other data do point to that).

By: LAG

LAG — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 15:21:01 +0000

I get the correlation you try to make to IQ, but what you’re really saying is that people who take liberal positions have greater verbal facility. I guess my response is, so what?

And please don’t tell me you’ve proven liberals are smarter.

By: Razib Khan

Razib Khan — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 04:30:02 +0000

#3, the upper classes are united in their economic class interests…to some extent….

By: Razib Khan

Razib Khan — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 04:28:50 +0000

#2, don’t ramble so much. if you want to, you can start a blog

By: ziel

ziel — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 04:18:47 +0000

That only 11% of both liberal and conservative smart people think that trade “took away American jobs” is I think quite telling.

By: Dwight E. Howell

Dwight E. Howell — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 03:48:22 +0000

Those you selected as being smart appear to be atheistic/progressives and support atheistic progressive causes such as the all powerful nanny state and one world government. It may also be that those who are deemed smart or not dull are also most closely tied into institutions of higher education which are dominated by people who are progressives/neosocialist and share a common set of beliefs.

How does this match up with your own personal beliefs? From whom did you acquire those beliefs.

I do agree with the previous poster that this group has undergone massive selection against in the past. Isn’t passing reproduction now and is apt to undergo a major contraction in the future at the hands of the followers of Allah. What is most peculiar about this is that the progressive neosocialists of the west are aiding the devote to acquire the power to terminate them.

This is not rational but is demonstrable fact.

I have drawn two tentative conclusions about this.

It is interesting to note that both groups seem to want an all powerful world government. I suppose it could be that the two groups have more in common than it seems and that the biological bases of the drive for an uber state is the same.

It may be that genes which in isolation enhance reproductive success diminish it in combination.

By: Randall Parker

Randall Parker — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 23:41:09 +0000

Interesting results Razib. Thanks for the analysis.

So then a lower percentage of smart conservatives went to college as compared to smart liberals. I am guessing controlling for sex would reduce that gap somewhat. Women are more liberal and spend more time in school.

Gotta say, atheists and agnostics are really outliers, even at higher levels of smartness. Right wing atheists and agnostics are especially outliers. I wonder what genetic variants help give us outliers a greater capacity for skepticism and rationality. My guess is we are being selected against.