Tag: conservatives

Conservatives value personal stories more than liberals do when evaluating scientific evidence

The big idea

Conservatives tend to see expert evidence and personal experience as more equally legitimate than liberals, who put a lot more weight on the scientific perspective, according to our new study published in the journal Political Psychology.

Our findings add nuance to a common claim that conservatives want to hear “both sides” of arguments, even for settled sciencethat’s not really up for debate. 

We asked 913 American adults to read an excerpt from an article debunking a common misconception, such as the existence of “lucky streaks” in games of chance. The article quoted a scientist explaining why people hold the misconception – for instance, people tend to see patterns in random data. The article also included a dissenting voice that drew from personal experience – such as someone claiming to have seen lucky streaks firsthand. Continue reading.

The blowback over masks is just the latest faux conservative outrage

AlterNet logoThe bizarre “conservative” idea of “freedom” has struck again.

Margaret Sullivan reported in the Washington Post on a new study that shows what we all intuited: people who get their news from Fox and right-wing hate radio—both promoting the idea that the economy is more important than your health—are less likely to understand the reality of COVID-19 and therefore more likely to get sick and cause themselves and others to die.

This bizarre dynamic of putting profits over public health has played over and over again throughout the years. Continue reading.

Trump’s failure to grapple with the COVID-19 problem is rooted in the hollow gospel of ‘individualism’

AlterNet logoDuring Donald Trump’s daily press conference (and, wait — wasn’t he going to quit those?) on Wednesday, the president was unable to hide his irritation at coronavirus task force member Dr. Anthony Fauci, and pooh-poohed the latter’s concerns about re-opening schools and universities.

Fauci had testified in front of the Senate on Tuesday and was asked about the possibility of educational institutions opening in the fall. He did not actually weigh in on this policy issue, but just observed, “Even at the top speed we’re going, we don’t see a vaccine playing in the ability of individuals to get to school this term.” Without rigorous testing, he said, there’s “a real risk that you will trigger an outbreak that you might not be able to control.”

Trump, who’s always furious at any hint that he actually be working at his job, and is overtly hostile to the concept of expanded testing, became visibly angry about Fauci’s comments. Continue reading.

Conservatives are determined to ‘own the libs’ during the pandemic — even if it gets people killed: GOP pollster

AlterNet logoRepublican pollster Frank Luntz had some blunt words for right-wing media figures who spent weeks downplaying the threat of COVID-19.

In a New York Times interview, Luntz said that many conservatives were so determined to “own the libs” at all costs that they would play down a frightening public health crisis even if it cost people their lives.

The rest of the Times story is a comprehensive overview of the ways that conservative media figures repeatedly told their fans that the virus was not a big deal, that the media was exaggerating its danger in order to score political points against President Donald Trump, and even that medical experts working for the Trump administration were not to be trusted. Continue reading.

Here’s why conservatives really oppose federal aid for the ‘undeserving’

AlterNet logoThere is a singular and profound question that tugs at the sleeve of even the most sober analyst pondering the federal response to coronavirus. To wit, what the hell is it with these people? Although he’s since backed off the proposal Michael Gerson couldn’t figure out why Trump would decide to re-open the nation on Easter:

To be sacrilegious requires some recognition of what is actually sacred — a type of knowledge Trump has never displayed. To him, choosing Easter must have been like selecting Independence Day or Arbor Day or Groundhog Day — a useful date on which to hang a ploy.

Likewise, Paul Waldman is baffled by Lindsey Graham’s attacks on nurses: “You know, the ones who right now are risking their lives to treat coronavirus patients, and are in some cases forced to wear trash bags because their hospitals have run out of protective gear.” Continue reading.

Right-Wing Media Intensify Attacks On Dr. Fauci

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for the past 36 years, is a widely respected immunologist and major public face of the Trump administration’s response to COVID-19. Despite his credibility established over decades as a public health official, right-wing media have begun to launch attacks against “Dr. Doom Fauci,” blaming the medical expert for allegedly harming the economy and undermining President Donald Trump. The New York Times reported that Trump is “losing his patience” with Fauci.

Despite lacking the platform of someone like Fox host Sean Hannity, fringe right-wing media figures and outlets — one of which formerly had a White House correspondent in the briefing room just to troll journalists — can still reach and influence the thinking of Trump, who is exposed to a wide range of ridiculous lies online.

Pro-Trump podcaster Bill Mitchell: Continue reading.

‘Restart the Economy’ is a prayer to a conservative God who demands human sacrifice

AlterNet logoAccording to classic interpretations of the Jewish and Christian Bibles, a Canaanite deity named Moloch demanded the sacrifice of children. There is a long history of writing about this bloodthirsty god spanning the ancient world to John Milton’s Paradise Lost to Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl” to modern social commentators. One recurring point is that the depravity of Moloch was reflected in his insatiable lust for innocent flesh.

How could anyone worship such a monster?

Readers have drawn further connections: human sacrifice marks not only Moloch as evil, but also the population who offers their children to him. This is the biblical justification given for why Israelites should exterminate Canaanites, the worship of their gods, and their customs from the Promised Land.  Continue reading.

The conservative establishment’s nightmare is only just beginning

AlterNet logoRichard Viguerie, the conservative activist who invented direct-mail marketing, once said that “fear and anger are much stronger motivations than support for a cause.”

The Republican Party is now finding that out first-hand as it’s battling a white supremacist insurgency for the hearts and minds of Generation Z.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way.

View the complete November 22 article by Matthew  Sheffield from the Washington Monthly on the AlterNet website here.

Leaked E-Mails Show Links Between Racist Networks And ‘Mainstream’ Conservatives

Much of the racism that comes from the right-wing media uses dog whistles rather outright slurs. But in a report for Splinter News, journalist Hannah Gais addresses the ways in which white nationalist views have successfully infiltrated some right-wing media outlets — and screenshots of leaked alt-right e-mails published with Gais’ article aren’t the least bit subtle in their racism and anti-Semitism.

“Indeed, there is a burgeoning underground network of group chats, message boards and e-mail chains serving as the breeding ground for incubating white nationalist ideas, and as a forum to strategize around how to launder those ideas through mainstream conservative publications,” Gais reports. “And, judging from a large series of messages from one of those e-mail groups obtained by Splinter, it’s working.”

Gais cites some links between right-wing media and white nationalists, noting that in September 2018, for example, The Atlantic reported that Scott Greer (former editor/columnist for the Daily Caller — which was co-founded by Fox News’ Tucker Carlson) had written for white nationalist Richard Spencer’s Radix Journal under the name Michael McGregor.

View the complete August 30 article by Alex Henderson from AlterNet on the National Memo website here.

Here are 11 things the Koch brothers didn’t want you to know

AlterNet logoThe mega-billionaire brothers, David and Charles Koch, stand apart in the world of Republicans.

In 2012, their network of hardcore libertarian political donors spent $400 million on negative campaign ads intended to destroy government safety nets and defeat Democrats. They want to repeal Obamacare, dismantle labor unions, repeal any environmental law protecting clean water and air, roll back voting rights, privatize Social Security, stop a minimum wage increase and more. They don’t care about destroying the checks and balances in American democracy to get their way.

In an updated documentary by Robert Greenwald’s Brave New Films, Koch Brothers Exposed: 2014 Edition, we learn many things the Kochs don’t want you to know, from the origin of their radical agenda to other issues they’ve championed that haven’t made the national news, such as resegregating public schools.

Here are 11 things the Kochs don’t want you to know about them.

View the complete August 23 article by Steven Rosenfeld on the AlterNet website here (the story first ran in May of 2014).