benjamindavidsteele

It says a lot when someone laughs in ignorance at another's knowledge. Nothing I stated can't be easily confirmed by doing a quick web search through the scientific literature. But knowledge can't be forced on those who fear knowledge.

I'm literally gobsmacked that someone is gobsmacked by the idea we should base our views on the available scientific evidence. And then at the end of their comment admit they don't know what is scientifically known.

Here is the eternal problem of modern science, in terms of WEIRD bias. There is almost no where in the world that has not been impacted by Western culture, technology, diet, politics, economics, military, etc. Only a handful of isolated populations remain in the world. Over the centuries, most of the hundreds of thousands of distinct cultures that once existed were genocidally eliminated, entirely assimilated, or fundamentally altered. There are no control populations to control for confounding factors. There is no second earth to test alternative paths of development. Consider that Joseph Henrich argues that one of the central forces creating the WEIRD mentality and culture is mass literacy of linear written text. But, besides oral cultures, there were those like the Incas and Aztecs, among the largest and most complex societies at the time, that had a non-linear method of recording knowledge using quipu (with the knotting of colored strings), more similar to the hyperlinks of the internet. Imagine how different development might have gone with non-linear thought. For certain, they would've been less likely to have formulated simplistic linear developmental theories. Think about a developmental theory that branches off in multiple ways, sometimes converging back again but sometimes not.

I'm not sure why anyone would laugh at facts that can be verified with a quick perusal of scientific research and public polling. It would be more meaningful, respectful, and intelligent to respond with rational and evidence-based counter-argument. One is forced to assume that one who laughs in such a manner is inadvertently admitting that they are not capable of doing anything else, indicating the weakness of their position and the weakness of their intellect. For example, look at the many years of data on public opinion. Poor people in the US voting Democratic while supposedly being 'conservative' is because they aren't really all that conservative. Part of the problem is one has to understand the vast difference between symbolic ideology and pragmatic ideology. Most Americans, when given a forced choice, will choose the label of 'conservative' over 'liberal'; although, if given multiple choices, they'll choose 'progressive'. That is mostly the result of the Wirthlin effect. Republicans long ago realized how easy it is to manipulate through culture war, class and racial anxiety, and identity politics. But what can't be so easily manipulated is the growing left-liberalism in the population. Consider that the majority of Americans stated support for same sex marriage at a time when the DNC elite (e.g., Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama) were still using triangulation to woo far right voters by promising they wouldn't support any policies for same sex marriage. None of that is anything to laugh about. These are simply facts. The rest of my claims can be easily verified as well. Just do a web search about ideology and size of brain structures or parasite load. A ton of research papers and popular articles will come up in the top results. It's not hard to do for anyone with an ounce of curiosity and self-honesty. Just do it. Look at the evidence for yourself. I triple dog dare you! Even Jordan Peterson, the darling of many on the political right, agrees about the correlation of parasite load and conservatism. https://benjamindavidsteele.wordpress.com/2014/01/15/wirthlin-effect-symbolic-conservatism/ https://benjamindavidsteele.wordpress.com/2020/11/08/fox-news-americans-are-the-left-wing-enemy-threatening-america/ https://benjamindavidsteele.wordpress.com/2021/04/07/american-leftist-supermajority/ https://twitter.com/jordanbpeterson/status/1371600746517499906 https://www.google.com/search?q="parasite+load"+OR+"parasite+threat"+OR+"parasites"+OR+"pathogens"+OR+"pathogen+avoidance"+OR+"infectious+disease"+"conservative"+OR+"conservatism"+OR+"authoritarian"+OR+"authoritarianism" https://www.google.com/search?q="liberals"+OR+"conservatives"+"amygdala"+OR+"prefrontal+cortex"+OR+"neocortex"+OR+"anterior+cingulate"

The political right is correct that there is a problem. And so they correctly criticize those on the political left for often not taking this problem seriously. But few on the political right correctly understand the problem, it's causes, and it's significance. https://benjamindavidsteele.wordpress.com/2020/12/12/real-issues-behind-regressive-identity-politics/

People tend to vote conservative when they are dealing with stress, fear, anxiety, threat, etc. For example, research has shown that rates of social conservatism and authoritarianism increase with higher parasite load. Also, consider that, compared to liberals, conservatives on average have a larger amygdala (mammalian brain involved in emotional regulation) but smaller neocortex, prefrontal cortex, and anterior cingulate (involved in executive control, critical thinking, unique problem solving, pattern recognition, cognitive empathy, etc). As expected, stressful conditions such as poverty tend to increase the amygdala at the expense of these other brain structures. But what makes the US poor different in the US is that they are less poor and living under less desperate conditions. Many years of polling show that most Americans are fairly far left-liberal. For all the problems of the US, we have resolved or lessened many of the worst public health issues (infectious diseases, dirty water, heavy metal toxicity, malnutrition, etc). Relative to poorer countries, even American social conservatives are far less socially conservative. Think about how American conservatives will sometimes claim to be classical liberals but almost no American will identify as a classical conservative. Basically, we Americans are all different varieties of liberals at this point.