The difference between Liberals and Conservatives

I think evolutionary modernity gives a very succinct explanation of the difference between the Left and the Right.

You can go down the list of issues, and in virtually all of them we can see the conservative position more closely falling in line with what our evolutionary instincts would want us to do, while the liberal position is often based on some sort of academic or philosophical argument. The latter rarely would've been optimal for producing offspring in a hunter-gatherer society, while the former often mocks "intellectuals" and academia. This distinction is pronounced with social issues; I'm not sure if it exists with fiscal ones.

A few examples:

- immigration. Our tribalistic instincts tend to favor people who exist within our "tribe"; the idea that we should go out and help people from other countries, especially ones that don't look like us, is a rather novel concept.
- traditional values. This one's obvious.
- animal rights. This one's obvious.
- gay marriage. Hunter gatherers wouldn't get much benefit from violating ingrained social institutions or doing something that risks sexual disease and doesn't help produce offspring, so it's not within evolution to stick up for a small minority of people who do something "icky" and against social norms. There's no rational basis for opposing it, but that's a separate question.
- anti-intellectualism. Reading books and studying papers wouldn't make much sense several thousand years ago in the Sahara, so we see lots of denigration of "academics" among conservatives, because academia's arguments are often very abstract and disconnected from intuition.

A big component of this difference may be culture; another may be temperament, .i.e. how much conformity you are inclined to. Intelligence may also play a role; while there's a lot of overlap here, liberals do average noticeably higher IQ's than conservatives*.

In either case, I think this, along with the expanding moral circle, does a great job of explaining the difference. I suspect that the intellectual rigor of the replies will reveal a similar pattern as well. Thoughts?

* Sources:

http://reason.com/archives/2014/06/13/are-conservatives-dumber-than-liberals (makes a case for libertarians being even smarter, although that's a different discussion)

http://theconversation.com/do-smart-people-tend-to-be-more-liberal-yes-but-it-doesnt-mean-all-conservatives-are-stupid-57713 Which does point out the fact that this is a generalization

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/02/26/liberals.atheists.sex.intelligence/

etc. (this is a pretty well-replicated finding)

The main difference right now is that Liberals are butt hurt and conservatives aren't.

Originally posted by The Ellimist
I suspect that the intellectual rigor of the replies will reveal a similar pattern as well.

I do notice a pattern, yes. 🙂

Okay so tell me what we conclude from this. Or rather what you conclude and what you feel others should conclude. If you wanted to describe to someone as quickly as possible what this shows, what would you say?

Originally posted by Surtur
Okay so tell me what we conclude from this. Or rather what you conclude and what you feel others should conclude. If you wanted to describe to someone as quickly as possible what this shows, what would you say?

Your intuition is great for some things, but sh*tty for others, and some people use it for the wrong things.

Originally posted by The Ellimist
Your intuition is great for some things, but sh*tty for others, and some people use it for the wrong things.

I see, so this indeed wasn't another "Liberals are better than conservatives" topic. That is good, some people have done those before and they never end well.

Originally posted by Surtur
I see, so this indeed wasn't another "Liberals are better than conservatives" topic. That is good, some people have done those before and they never end well.

I don't see you complaining about threads calling SJW's mentally ill, or really anything that works the other way.

Originally posted by The Ellimist
I don't see you complaining about threads calling SJW's mentally ill, or really anything that works the other way.

That requires intellectual honesty

Originally posted by The Ellimist
I don't see you complaining about threads calling SJW's mentally ill, or really anything that works the other way.

That's good, because you don't see me complaining about this either.

The hardcore sjw types are mentally ill.

But they're typically not stupid. Your typical SJW has above average intelligence (college student, often from an elite university, etc.). Your typical fundamentalist or hardcore right wing Christian is usually pretty stupid.

(Or is that against forum rules, while calling people mentally ill isn't?)

Why would it be against the rules? Christians *are* stupid.

Also a person could be intelligent and still have some kind of mental illness.

Originally posted by Surtur
Why would it be against the rules? Christians *are* stupid.

Not all of them, but there's a definite correlation if you split it between Christians and atheists.

But I'm just saying that because a thread calling conservatives stupid was closed despite that being a very well replicated finding in psychometrics anyway.

Also a person could be intelligent and still have some kind of mental illness. [/B]

I know, that's why I said "but".

In my opinion they lack the critical thinking skills to actually be intelligent, what they are, are sheep that parrot what they have been told or what they have read. They almost never do their own research to verify what they've read or been told is accurate.

Like I said, it's because these threads don't tend to end well. This doesn't mean I have problem with it, I've just noticed that especially the "liberal vs conservative" thing can lead to flame wars.

Originally posted by Surtur
Like I said, it's because these threads don't tend to end well. This doesn't mean I have problem with it, I've just noticed that especially the "liberal vs conservative" thing can lead to flame wars.

Good thing I'm an independent, although I'm sure certain people will be in here shortly claiming I'm a conservative, neocon or maybe even Hitler.

On the other hand there aren't really that many people left who post in this part of the forum so..it might not turn out so bad. No worse than any other recent thread I'd imagine.

Originally posted by Silent Master
Good thing I'm an independent, although I'm sure certain people will be in here shortly claiming I'm a conservative, neocon or maybe even Hitler.

Progressives say the same thing about Obama, fwiw. 😉

Originally posted by The Ellimist
But they're typically not stupid. Your typical SJW has above average intelligence (college student, often from an elite university, etc.). Your typical fundamentalist or hardcore right wing Christian is usually pretty stupid.

(Or is that against forum rules, while calling people mentally ill isn't?)

I would say they have a high emotional IQ but tend to have a disconnect with other things as they place so much value in themselves.

I realize thats not universally true but SJW's come across that way imo.

I just feel bad for hardcore christians, they are led by something that they may not believe in but feel forced to follow.