Wingnuts are innately stupid and frightened, so
Republicans know their absurd and mendacious statements will resonate
with their base…
For several years liberals have wondered why any
American would purposely support Republican policies when they are
contrary to their own best interests. It cannot possibly be due to their
racial animosity toward an African American President, or because they
enjoy being an integral part of their own pain and suffering. What also
flummoxes many Americans is why in dog’s name Republican politicians
make absurd, hateful, and blatantly mendacious statements that their
base accepts as gospel truth. One would think that even a half-wit would
use a semblance of intelligence to determine the lack of veracity and
logic of Republican pronouncements, but that never happens and science
explains why.
If the mountain of lies, hate and fear-mongering at
the Fox News Republican pre
tender debate did not convince any
American that Republicans are confident their base is stupid enough to
believe any ridiculous statement, there are several scientific,
peer-reviewed studies reinforcing the belief that Republicans are
inherently stupid. It is not to say that liberals are incredibly smarter
than wingnuts, but it is a fact that Democratic states have
higher graduation rates than Republican-misled states, and that Americans seeking higher education definitely
embrace liberal ideologies. But those facts alone do not tell the whole story; that is the purview of scientific research.
If one wonders why Republicans succeed in openly
supporting and perpetuating white privilege, a study conducted at Brock
University reveals that low IQ, wingnuttery, and racism are intricately
linked. According to the
study titled “
Bright Minds and Dark Attitudes,”
researchers discovered that having lower intelligence as a child is a
reliable predictor of wingnut and racist ideas as an adult. That
low IQ also predicts the wingnut hatred of immigrants,
non-christians, non-wingnuts, and the researchers stated
categorically that coupled with religious authoritarianism, low
intellect driving Republicans’ unwarranted hatred of “
the other”
is expressed through wingnut ideology. The Republican cabal is well-aware of
their base’s low intelligence and it is why they pander to their hatred
to convince them to vote against their own best interests in every
election cycle.
In another
study by researchers at the University of Arkansas, “
Low-Effort Thought Promotes Political Wingnuttery,”
researchers found that the reason Republicans easily convince their
base that all people of color are terrorists, and that all non-European
immigrants should be deported is due to what is called “
low effort thought;” something the scientists concluded leads to “
wingnut simplistic thought.”
The researchers actually performed four different tests to “reduce subjects’ ability to use effortful, deliberate thought”
and they discovered that situations causing low-effort thought resulted
in more wingnut delusions. In one of the studies, researchers even
found that the more intoxicated on alcohol an individual becomes the
more their belief in wingnut ideology increases. It is why normal
human beings believe Republican voters have to be hammered to accept and
support wingnut policies that adversely affect them and their
families personally; or they watch too much Fox News.
It is not a revelation by any means, but there are several
studies proving that watching Fox News makes people stupid. In fact many studies “
suggest
that excessive exposure to false news coverage is every bit as toxic
and avoiding open-minded attitudes, abstract reasoning skills, and
non-wingnut ideals.” It is why Fox is so successful feeding
closed-minded wingnuts who lack cognitive ability to grasp the
complexities of the world gravitate toward lunatic fringe, simplistic, and
concrete ideologies. Dr. Brian Nosek
explained that like evangelical 'christianity', “
wingnut
ideologies get rid of the messiness of having to think critically and
impose a simple wingnut 'solution'. It is not surprising that people
with less cognitive capacity are attracted to simplistic ideologies.”
It is why evangelical 'christianity' and Republican neo-wingnuttery go
hand-in-hand and appeal to frightened and simple-minded people who
support Republicans.
In another study, researchers connected overwhelming animus toward the LGBT community with “
low abstract reasoning skills”
that is yet another affliction rampant among conservatives and
Republican voters; particularly religious Republican voters. Homophobia
is primarily a religio-wingnut disease and although anti-gay
sentiment is not reserved to “
social wingnuts,” it is
incontrovertible that bible-lunatic fringe Republicans express the most
violent homophobic attitudes as evidenced by their never-ending fight
against marriage equality. In a Kent State University
study researchers titled, “
Abstract Reasoning as a Predictor of Attitudes Toward Gay Men,”
the report revealed that people with lower abstract reasoning skills
experience and express higher levels of anti-gay prejudice.
Abstract reasoning involves flexible thinking, creativity, judgment, and logical problem solving. It is why “wingnut religious and authoritarian concepts related to concrete, black-and-white, religious-like edicts”
sate the simple-minded religious Republican voter. Those voters
intrinsic inability to think abstractly, coupled with their deeply
entrenched wingnut ideology, only serves to increase their bigotry
and hatred against gays. Typically, lower abstract reasoning skills are
indicative of very young children who are developmentally unable to
problem solve, think creatively, or solve problems using simple logic.
All of the aforementioned scientific research proves
Republican voters are severely cognitively challenged, but there is
definitive pathological proof that wingnuts are innately stupid,
and frightened, which is why Republicans are confident their absurd and
blatantly mendacious statements will resonate with their base. According
to researchers investigating why being stupid makes one likely to be a wingnut, and why watching Fox News is a path to being dumber than
dirt, one scientific study’s results cannot be attributed to
professional interpretation or liberal bias. The
study, “
Political Orientations Are Correlated With Brain Structure in Young Adults,”
was based on the results of MRI scans on participants and it is
noteworthy that the results of an MRI cannot possibly be biased, but
they can reveal pathological anomalies in the human brain.
The results of the MRI studies show that “wingnut
students had a larger amygdala than liberals. Conversely, the anterior
cingulate cortex of liberal students had more gray matter than wingnuts.” According to biological facts, “The amygdala is
active during states of fear and anxiety, and the anterior cingulate
cortex is the region of the brain that helps humans cope with complexity
and use abstract reasoning.” What that means is that specifically speaking, “Liberals’ brains are biologically more able to handle complex thought, and wingnuts base their beliefs on fear.”
It is why Republicans are so successful stoking wingnuts’ fear of
immigrants, muslims, minorities and anything feeding into their hate and
bigotry.
The study’s authors noted that the neuroscience
clearly demonstrates there are pathological brain deformities in
conservatives that clarifies why they willingly accept bizarre and
self-defeating conservative agendas, and why Republicans lie,
fear-monger, and stoke their base’s hatred and bigotry. The researchers
also said the pathology proves why wingnuts are typically terrified
of change and embrace anti-intellectualism, and why Democrats embrace
changing the status quo to advance the well-being of all Americans. That
“larger amygdala” in wingnuts' brains, that larger center
of fear of everything, is why Republicans are successful calling for
more taxpayer dollars for the war to combat imagined threats and
aggressors, and why the Republican base naturally fears and hates
immigrants, Americans with healthcare, gays marrying, environmental
protections, women using contraceptives and an African American
President; all things Republicans claim make America an extremely scary
place that only they can combat.
It is depressing to learn that there are scientific
studies and mounds of empirical data proving why Republican voters are
so incredibly stupid if for no other reason than there is no apparent
remedy. It is as impossible to debate, or have reasonable discourse,
with wingnut adults suffering from intrinsic low intellect,
inability to reason abstractly, and pathology (brain anomalies) as it is
a newborn infant. Republican politicians are smart enough to take
advantage of that simple fact with every lie and absurd statement they
make whether they are speaking in Congress, on political talk shows, or
during Republicans pretender debates on Fox News. They know their
base is too stupid to ever realize they are being manipulated; something
any normal eight-year-old comprehends unless their low intellect dooms
them to be a wingnut.
