There are many here in the US that see the demise of democracy, as we like to call it,…..both on the Left and Right are predicting the end of democracy…..
I have been bitching about this for many years…..I blame it on the laziness of the American voter…..this article addresses those concerns and explains it where we all can understand this complex situation…..
Henry A. Giroux | The Spectacle of Illiteracy and the Crisis of Democracy.
We are in the middle of an election season and it is so far been nothing but a bust….the only people that have any ideas on the country have left the race….and we are left with a maniacal egotist and a guy with the personality of a nondescript rock…..which leads me to the meat of this post….the dumbing down of America…..
Stephanie Pappas of livescience.com has written piece that gives us three ways that this cycle is for low info voters…..
Brains and bias
Earlier studies have found links between low levels of education and higher levels of prejudice, Hodson said, so studying intelligence seemed a logical next step. The researchers turned to two studies of citizens in the United Kingdom, one that has followed babies since their births in March 1958, and another that did the same for babies born in April 1970. The children in the studies had their intelligence assessed at age 10 or 11; as adults ages 30 or 33, their levels of social conservatism and racism were measured. [Life’s Extremes: Democrat vs. Republican]
In the first study, verbal and nonverbal intelligence was measured using tests that asked people to find similarities and differences between words, shapes and symbols. The second study measured cognitive abilities in four ways, including number recall, shape-drawing tasks, defining words and identifying patterns and similarities among words. Average IQ is set at 100.
Social conservatives were defined as people who agreed with a laundry list of statements such as “Family life suffers if mum is working full-time,” and “Schools should teach children to obey authority.” Attitudes toward other races were captured by measuring agreement with statements such as “I wouldn’t mind working with people from other races.” (These questions measured overt prejudiced attitudes, but most people, no matter how egalitarian, do hold unconscious racial biases; Hodson’s work can’t speak to this “underground” racism.)
As suspected, low intelligence in childhood corresponded with racism in adulthood. But the factor that explained the relationship between these two variables was political: When researchers included social conservatism in the analysis, those ideologies accounted for much of the link between brains and bias.
A study of averages
Nonetheless, there is reason to believe that strict right-wing ideology might appeal to those who have trouble grasping the complexity of the world.
“Socially conservative ideologies tend to offer structure and order,” Hodson said, explaining why these beliefs might draw those with low intelligence. “Unfortunately, many of these features can also contribute to prejudice.”
In another study, this one in the United States, Hodson and Busseri compared 254 people with the same amount of education but different levels of ability in abstract reasoning. They found that what applies to racism may also apply to homophobia. People who were poorer at abstract reasoning were more likely to exhibit prejudice against gays. As in the U.K. citizens, a lack of contact with gays and more acceptance of right-wing authoritarianism explained the link. [5 Myths About Gay People Debunked]
Simple viewpoints
The researchers controlled for factors such as education and socioeconomic status, making their case stronger, Nosek said. But there are other possible explanations that fit the data. For example, Nosek said, a study of left-wing liberals with stereotypically naïve views like “every kid is a genius in his or her own way,” might find that people who hold these attitudes are also less bright. In other words, it might not be a particular ideology that is linked to stupidity, but extremist views in general.
“My speculation is that it’s not as simple as their model presents it,” Nosek said. “I think that lower cognitive capacity can lead to multiple simple ways to represent the world, and one of those can be embodied in a right-wing ideology where ‘People I don’t know are threats’ and ‘The world is a dangerous place‘. … Another simple way would be to just assume everybody is wonderful.”
Prejudice is of particular interest because understanding the roots of racism and bias could help eliminate them, Hodson said. For example, he said, many anti-prejudice programs encourage participants to see things from another group’s point of view. That mental exercise may be too taxing for people of low IQ.
“There may be cognitive limits in the ability to take the perspective of others, particularly foreigners,” Hodson said. “Much of the present research literature suggests that our prejudices are primarily emotional in origin rather than cognitive. These two pieces of information suggest that it might be particularly fruitful for researchers to consider strategies to change feelings toward outgroups,” rather than thoughts.
Although this is NOT by any means conclusive….it still points to the possibility…..and after a long look to a state with a very bad educational record….it is more accurate than not…..
Or…..Do They All Have Alzheimer’s?
I recently wrote a post about my representative, Gene Taylor (D-MS-4) and his defeat by an unknown quantity in one Palazzo…I wrote:
in office….. What makes this all the more moronic is that Taylor is a conservative Dem and voted like on on many issues…however he got a great rating by the group that watches middle class issues and also by the ARA a group that watches votes by Reps and then grades them on senior’s issues….For instance, 100% rating from the National Right To Life Committee, 76% rating from the Christian Coalition, given an “A” rating by the NRA, a 90% rating by the Association of Retired Americans, 100% by the Citizens For Tax Justice, 92% by the US Border Control for a sealed border, all the issues that the conservs and especially the Tea Party stand for……his ONLY crime was that he was a Dem in the House that was controlled by Pelosi…
I attacked the people of my district for their moronic vote…that it showed a serious lack of knowledge about the candidates….after all my district is a conserv district because of the amount of military and retired people….and Taylor was a Blue dog (conserv) Democrat……and even though he voted the way that his district wanted he still loss his bid for re-election……
I now need to apologize to the people in my district for chastising them for their vote against Taylor…it is NOT them that is the morons…..it is the whole senior voting block…nationwide!
Politico has an article written by Bryan Tau……
Voters over 65 favored Republicans last week by a 21-point margin after flirting with Democrats in the 2006 midterm elections and favoring John McCain by a relatively narrow 8-point margin in 2008.Concerned by changes to Medicare and compelled by a Republican Party that promised a return to America’s glory days, seniors played a crucial — and often understated — role in races across the country. They were unswayed by ubiquitous Democratic warnings about Republican changes to Social Security. And they put a series of campaigns out of reach for DemocratsRead more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/44802.html#ixzz14hSxQK6O
“A CNN/Gallup Poll released Monday revealed that a vast majority of registered male voters would have strongly supported a naked woman in the 2010 midterm elections.”
From the VOMITORIUM
From time to time there are some things that happen in the political world that can be best described as a………..BLOWJOB! And now it has Florida on its knees…..(pun intended)
It seems that Florida’s governor, Charlie Crist has a new idea:
Gov. Charlie Crist authorized property appraisers Wednesday to calculate lost real-estate values caused by the Gulf oil spill, so homeowners and businesses can send the tab to BP.
The governor signed an executive order authorizing property appraisers in 26 counties under threat from the oil spill to give property owners an updated assessment on their homes and businesses if they believe they have lost value because of the spill. Property owners could use the document to file a claim for damages against BP, although they wouldn’t necessarily have their tax bills lowered.
“It is logical to predict that the oil spill will result in declining property values,” Crist said at a news conference. “Businesses and families of the Gulf Coast did nothing to warrant this loss, but they bear the burden of it.”
State law requires property to pay taxes based on the value of their property in January. But in many cases — particularly for hotels and businesses dependent on the beach — their property values have dropped as much as 30 percent since then.
His action drew approval from some affected property appraisers, although staff time and cost of reappraisals will be tough on cash-strapped counties.
This is a helluva idea, right?
This is just plain stupid! It is just another political ploy to gain votes in Crist upcoming election against Rubio. This will probably never happen….why? Florida has suffered much from the economic meltdown…how does one prove that the oil spill is the cause of loss of value?
If you read my stuff you know that I think that BP should be held accountable for their damage because of the oil spill….but this idea is just plain moronic…..does that mean that I can sue AIG or Goldman-Sachs for the loss of value of my property because they gambled with my money?
This is all so much political theater….after all, he has an election to win.
From the VOMITORIUM
The Teabaggers are getting more and more air time during the present cycle of elections and primaries……and all their lunacy keeps coming out and out and the Low info voter keeps licking it up by the jug full…….
Take Nevada when the darling of the Tea Party won her nomination as the Repub candidate…..she wants to abolish Social Security, bow out of the UN, just to mention a few of her quirky little stands….but does it stop there?
Hell NO!
Since she won the nomination more and more of her extreme right and extreme crazy ideas keep coming forth…..
The peculiar ideology of Sharron Angle, the Republican nominee challenging Sen. Harry Reid in Nevada, is perhaps no better illustrated than by her embrace of the patriot group Oath Keepers, whose membership of uniformed soldiers and police take an oath to refuse orders they see as unconstitutional — including enforcement of gun laws, violations of states’ sovereignty, and “any order to blockade American cities, thus turning them into giant concentration camps.
According to the SPLC, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, a former staffer for Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) warns his followers against “a coming dictatorship” that will happen if “our brothers in arms go along and comply with unconstitutional, unlawful orders.” An extensive report on the group by Mother Jones in March suggests supporters of the movement believe they’re living through the first steps of the shift away from constitutional freedom. Members of the group — many of them in the armed forces — share the “belief that the government is already turning on its citizens, they are recruiting military buddies, stashing weapons, running drills, and outlining a plan of action [to stop it],” the magazine reported.
Early in her career, if we can call it that she had the John Birch ideas about Communist plots……
Nevada GOP Senate candidate Sharron Angle earlier in her career spoke out strongly against fluoride, the substance known alternately for improving dental health and as a Communist plot to undermine Western democracy.
Poor thing, she just cannot catch a break….the mainstream media is after her butt or she could be just plain….CRAZY!
This next part has little or maybe nothing to do with Angle….but is just as crazy and just as much the Tea Party as the woman above…..
From Newser’s website:
Think the Tea Party rhetoric is getting a little overwrought? Then get a load of this video from Alabama House candidate Rick Barber, in which he has a kind of war council with various founding fathers. Barber calls for President Obama’s impeachment, then launches a mostly nonsensical rant about the IRS, which is making us “spy on ourselves” by asking us to report our income. “I can’t stand by while these evils are perpetrated!” Barber cries. “You gentlemen revolted over a tea tax. A tea tax! Are you with me?” To which fantasy Washington replies gravely, “Gather your armies.” Which is kind of funny because, as David Weigel of the Washington Post points out, Washington instituted the nation’s first federal tax in 1791—on whiskey—and organized a militia to forcibly collect it from anyone who resisted.
All this would be all the more humorous, if it was not so damn scary…….scary in the sense that there those out there that believe all this equine fecal matter…..and anyone with half a brain would be scared at the popularity that all these NUTS are receiving……
Do you watch the news? You know all those Medicare reciepients that are biutching about a government take over of Health care….or all those macho little pricks with their guns worn in public…or maybe elected officials that are spouting fears of socialism or out right lying to stir up the people in opposition to any Dem health care agenda coming out of Washington.
I know….I know all that is old hat….so what is new?
Since most schools have eliminated the teaching of Latin and I do not want my reader to have a brain aneurysm trying to decipher the title of this post….let me help out….”argumentum ad populum”…..In Logic, a proposition to be true because many or all people believe it; it alleges, “If many believe so, it is so.”
Just where am I going with this? Right? Good question and hopefully you will get your answer.
The idea has many names: appeal to the masses, appeal to belief, appeal to the majority, appeal to the people, argument by consensus, authority of the many, and bandwagon fallacy,
See what I am saying? The GOP is plying this tactic in the health care debate. That is to use every tactic available to sway a mass amount of people that will make the case for them. It is a fallacious argument at best…but it is effective if one figures in the rational ignorance effect. (for definition, go to my page with the same name).
How about a little clarification?
The argumentum ad populum is a red herring and genetic fallacy. It appeals on probabilistic terms; given that 75% of a population answer A to a question where the answer is unknown, the argument states that it is reasonable to assume that the answer is indeed A. In cases where the answer can be known but is not known by a questioned entity, the appeal to majority provides a possible answer with a relatively high probability of correctness.
It is logically fallacious because the mere fact that a belief is widely held is not necessarily a guarantee that the belief is correct; if the belief of any individual can be wrong, then the belief held by multiple persons can also be wrong. The argument that because 75% of people polled think the answer is A implies that the answer is A fails, for if opinion did determine truth, there be no way to deal with the discrepancy between the 75% of the sample population that believe the answer is A and 25% who are of the opinion that the answer is not A. However small the percentage of those polled is distributed among any remaining answers, this discrepancy by definition disproves any guarantee of the correctness of the majority. In addition, this would be true even if the answer given by those polled were unanimous, as the sample size may be insufficient, or some fact may be unknown to those polled that, if known, would result in a different distribution of answers.
Thanx to wiki for the above definition.
Polls are used in this way….i.e. if the prez has 51% approval down from 56% then the people are losing confidence…..,good work, but that is not necessarily the case. The idea is to make it look as if more people believe in a thing and in doing so, that it is correct and true. Once again , not necessarily so.
People need to check everything they are told…most times it is either misinformnation, taken out of context or an outright LIE!
This is a subject which will get one into a wealth of trouble trying to analyze why some vote one way and others vote another. Polls try their damnedest to predict which way the political winds will blow and a lot of time they are blowinbg in the wind, with no rationale for the direction of their votes.
One of many favorite quotes over the years has been, “Stupidity is the deliberate cultivation of Ignorance”. Unfortunately, it appears that some American voters are cultivating the hell out of ignorance. You think not? Look at the recent Democratic game where one set of Dems lost and they immediately state that they will vote Repub because of the loss. Where is the logic in that? What part of the Repub platform would be appealing to a Dem? I realize that it was just the anger and the hurt of losinbg that caused these statements, but there are still those Dems that will vote Repub. Still working on that one.
A friend has called many American voters as “Moron” voters, I personally like the term “Low Information Voter”. It just seems more polite and will avoid much of the hate mail that one would receive if the term was actually used. Unfortunately, the term fits if you look back at some of the voting patterns of the American people.
To illustrate my point of the “low information” voter. Party affiliation provides a useful cue for voters, particularly the least informed and interested, who can use the party as a shortcut or a substitute for trying to understand the issues that they have little chance of comprehending in the first place. Even the more educated and more involved voters also use the party affiliation because, no one has the time to analyze every aspect of the campaign. Basically, most voters ay that the campaigns are long and hard and that they do not have the time to become fully aware of the totality of each candidate.
The American voter shows little interest in a third party entering into the picture. Why? The two party system makes it easier for the American voter in the polling booth. Why? A coin only has two sides.
This could answer many questions. But if the voter is not looking to understand but rather to reinforce some bias then this is a terrible turn of events.
A new study from the Pew Internet & American Life Project shows Internet technologies that are hot in the world of consumer goods sales are also working for those seeking the Oval Office.
The Pew report found nearly half of all Americans used the Internet, e-mail or mobile text messaging in ways relating to the primary campaigns this spring. Pew also found the percentage of adult Americans who went online daily to get political news or information more than doubled since the last presidential election, increasing to 17 percent from 2004’s level of 8 percent.
The message for Internet-naive candidates: Get onboard and sell yourself via the Web.
Another big online activity among those interested in the campaigns and those doing the campaigning was social networking. Pew figures 10 percent of Americans used sites such as Facebook or MySpace “to gather information or become involved” in the primaries.
Another Pew finding: People have become more comfortable doing money transactions online and that equated, in the primaries, to donating funds to their candidates of choice. Six percent donated online this spring, 4 percent more than in 2004, Pew determined.
Online advertising expert Michael Bassik, VP of interactive marketing at MSHC Partners, said that while the Pew report confirms the 2008 primaries saw extraordinary use of the Internet by interested people, the candidates might have missed the boat when it comes to advertising.
“When you look at the fact that nearly half of all adults got information about the primary through new media and compare that with fact that the candidates collectively spent less than 2 percent of their ad budgets to advertise on the Internet, clearly there is a tremendous disconnect between the amount of information people want to receive from the Internet and the amount of information candidates deliver to these audiences,” said Bassik.
This is good and this is bad–if the voters is truly searching for answer then this is an excellent turn, but if they are just looking to find worthless info that will increase their hatred or their bias–then this is not so damn good. A personal note is that I have done a bit of impromptu polling and I would say that most voters are “low information voters”, which is a polite way of saying something derogatory, but beyond that, I have found that most that I have talked with have been looking for anything that will reinforce their bias.