Is it Stupid Conservatives?

- or another Carefully Flawed Study!

A new study has been released by a research team at the University of Arkansas which finds that "conservatism" is a default condition for those who are "cognitively impaired" or have "low brainpower."  The authors of the study suggest that it is likely to offend both the left and the right wings of the political spectrum, but that is disingenuous as best, since the study panders to the left's preconception that those on the right just need to be "educated" to overcome their prejudices.

First of all, the study appears to be based on a definition of conservatism which is obviously not related to conservatism: "an emphasis on personal responsibility, acceptance of hierarchy, and a preference for the status quo." This is mostly meaningless drivel. After all, if you visit nearly any activist group meeting or website, whether conservative or liberal, you can be sure that you will be implored to take personal responsibility and act toward the goals they propound. Just look at Greenpeace or PETA websites. Does that make these groups "conservative"? Not hardly; both conservatives and liberals would be offended by any claim that these are conservative groups.

And "acceptance of hierarchy and a preference for the status quo" as conservative qualities merely express the erroneous built-in liberal assumptions that liberals do not have a preference for the status quo, that they do not accept hierarchy. Both assumptions are demonstrably untrue; look at the liberal uproar that surrounds court cases which seem to imperil liberal institutions like Affirmative Action, or the imposition of Obamacare with its hundreds of Boards, Panels, and Agencies. Liberals actually love the status quo and hierarchy when it's their status quo and their hierarchy.

Second, the study seems to be based on the premise that people fall back on preconceived positions when they are busy, impaired (as by drugs or alcohol), or under stress, and that these positions may be either poorly or not thought through. In accord with the liberal dogma, the assumption is that all conservative positions are poorly or not at all thought through. Yet it would be a surprise if people didn't remain in or fall back to a comfort zone when busy, under stress or impaired. The culture is made up of about twice as many conservatives as liberals, so any random group can be expected to contain conservatives by about a two to one ratio. If a study like this is to be valid, you would have to make a study of self-identified liberals and determine how many become conservatives when they are busy or drunk.

Third, the authors noted that their study subjects were mostly "political centrists". By definition, this is one group that does not strongly hold political ideologies. Even with a reasonable definition of "conservative", which the study clearly did not have, political centrists could not be expected to be reasonable candidates for such a study.

This is clearly just another example of the axiom "garbage in, garbage out." This is a "study" engineered and designed expressly and solely to give liberals a talking point- and nothing else. It is not a case of stupid conservatives, but a carefully designed and deeply flawed study. The authors of the study are correct; both the left and the right should feel offended by the study- as a waste of time and public funds. Beware, however; you can be sure the left-wing academia is busily creating more of these little carefully flawed jewels to influence the uncritical voting public during the campaign season.