this post was submitted on 05 Apr 2024
285 points (95.8% liked)

politics

19241 readers
1979 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Burn_The_Right@lemmy.world 78 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (6 children)

Is it a coincidence that every nation's least intelligent people tend to be conservatives? And that the less intelligent they are, the more conservative they are?

[–] surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 30 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Fear of the things you don't understand leads to fear of change. That's it. That's the entire thing.

[–] aceshigh@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago

You just solved a problem I’ve been working on for a while. Many thanks!

[–] Aeri@lemmy.world 30 points 8 months ago (3 children)

You know I genuinely noticed something quite alarming about politics: Conservatives' stances are eerily close to my first draft uneducated analysis of a situation... when I was still a child.

When I was the age to get "The talk" I inquired as to why people who didn't want to get pregnant didn't just not have sex, and it was calmly explained to me why that was dumb as hell.

We're dealing with people who have the political leaning of a child with no compassionate education.

[–] RGB3x3@lemmy.world 14 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

They're all just reactionary. They see a headline that says "algae farms being used to fight climate change" and think "dumb liberals using algae to do what algae does and thinking it's going to save the planet." That's as far as they go with their analysis.

Or they see headlines about DEI programs and think "that's actually racist against white people by giving minorities an advantage" without considering the underlying problems of inherent minority disadvantage in the numerous interconnected socioeconomic systems.

Conservatives are reactionary, not smart enough to be analytical, and unwilling to learn. Problems are literally too complicated for them to understand.

[–] Burn_The_Right@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago

I can definitely see that. Good observation!

[–] aceshigh@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago

a child

It’s full of people who throw temper tantrums

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 17 points 8 months ago (4 children)

No it’s a conspiracy. They’re putting lead in the water that’s turning the conservatives stupid and violent

[–] Socsa@sh.itjust.works 7 points 8 months ago (1 children)

These people legitimately believe that shooting 1000 rounds of shit surplus ammo per week is perfectly normal. These people are very likely contaminating their entire lives with lead residue unless they are taking precautions, which we all know they are not.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago

Idk about lead exposure from shooting, but I do know that lead exposure makes you prefer guns to other shooting sports.

[–] dirthawker0@lemmy.world 5 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] aceshigh@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago

Of course not. Why would they? Just cost extra money. Fuck the lives of our citizens.

[–] mojo_raisin@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

My new conspiracy is that the popularity of fishing and hunting in right wing areas exposes the youth to lead in fishing weights and projectiles. The double whammy of lead from the environment due to gas in past decades (which mostly affected everyone but poor people even more) combined with lead from fishing and hunting exposure caused whole regions to have lower intelligence.

Then because of how dumb and backwards the area is, pretty much anyone with a head on their shoulders wants out ASAP exacerbating the problem and we end up with whole regions ripe for activating into an idiot army. This fact is taken advantage of by Republicans (not the dumb ones, the grifter ones that were rich and not exposed as much) with the way the U.S. senate works giving power to land instead of people. Republicans then keep those regions dumb and scared to help them keep their grasp on power.

[–] vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Dude if when you get hunted or fished meat and it has lead in it, take it back and get a refund. Bullet fragmentation is a well known factor and if someone is losing enough fishing weights that its increasing lead exposure they need to stop fishing.

These are probably some of the lowest on the totem factors ya could bring up which is rather impressive since fishing and hunting may have an effect, problem is that said effect is cultural. People have been hunting with lead projectiles since the fucking bronze age if not earlier, you can handle lead perfectly safely, just dont lick it, aerosolize it, smelt it, or fucking drink it and you should be fine.

Fuck if you said mercury poisoning from eating too much fish was a factor you may have been fucken onto something.

[–] mojo_raisin@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago

Dude if when you get hunted or fished meat and it has lead in it, take it back and get a refund.

I'm talking about regions where it's not uncommon to hunt and eat what you shot, not going to Albertsons.

you can handle lead perfectly safely, just dont lick it, aerosolize it, smelt it, or fucking drink it and you should be fine.

  • Or eat a sandwich without washing your hands after setting up your fishing rig.

How many people wash their hands immediately after handling fishing gear or projectiles and then go on to itch their eye, pick their nose, etc. There are many vectors for lead in your hand to get into your body. And if you do this often and are young, it could conceivably have an effect.

[–] Burn_The_Right@lemmy.world 0 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)
[–] Etterra@lemmy.world 7 points 8 months ago

I read once that the most accurate definition of their mindset boils down to "You don't get to tell me what to do; I get to tell you what to do."

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 5 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Is it a coincidence that every nation’s least intelligent people tend to be conservatives?

Its more often that media likes to fixate on the biggest freaks. Flip over to some Ben Shapiro ass news coverage and you'll get plenty of "Blue Haired College Student Literally Shits Herself On Camera When Asked To Define The Word Woman".

Should be noted that the Alex Jones gang used to be a 9/11 Truthers and a anti-surveillance libertarians. They had more in common with the Austinite Fruits-and-Nuts liberals than Trump conservatives. But old liberal Austin money dried up and new right-wing tech billionaire money flooded the state, so Jones (and a bunch of others like New Atheist Sam Harris and journalist Glenn Greenwald) made the jump to follow the money.

Conservatives dominate conspiracy theories for the same reason they dominate terrestrial radio and cable news and country music and Twitter. That's literally just where you go to get paid.

[–] aceshigh@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago

The empathy factor..