Why can't conservatives spell?

[ProfessorPlum]

There is a PhD in neuroscience awaiting the person who can figure out what the link is between the spelling centers in the brain and being an asshole.

[FakeNoose]

1. It seems a lot of liberals have the same problem

I've learned not to get worked up about it though. Murdering the english language is the least of our worrries.

[ProfessorPlum]

4. not on signs, though. there is a stark difference between

things written for public consumption by conservatives and progressives.

[Hortensis]

6. Otoh, the occasional "Lets eat grandma" issues could be a problem.

Wondering what this Republicans nonsense is, but won't go search. Rampant political bigotry could just murder our democracy.

[mnhtnbb]

2. That's a good question! My brother, a rabid Republican, is an MD PhD and can't spell

worth a damn. Never has been able to spell.

I gave up trying to appeal to his science background to get him to support Kerry against Bush.

And Trump? Both he and his wife--one of the sickliest sweet "I'll pray for you" phony Christians you'll ever
meet who will turn around and stab you in the back if it means she gets some material possession in
the family--have been ardent Trump supporters.

Recently someone who went to middle school with my brother contacted me through LinkedIn wanting to know
if I was his sister. I sent this guy the link to my brother's LinkedIn profile, and damn if he doesn't have glaring
spelling errors on it!

[dhill926]

3. They're stoopid...

[maveric]

42. You mean stoopit.

[CottonBear]

5. One generally has to read extensively to be able to spell and write well.

Good readers become good writers and thus good spellers.

Unfortunately, many people rarely read actual books, newspapers or non-popular culture magazines and journals.

[ProfessorPlum]

10. Ok, that's a great first answer - I'm interested in a more subtle phenomenon, though

Imagine you are making a protest sign, and you are writing something out. There must be a moment's hesitation as you come across a piece of grammar or a word you aren't completely sure about how to spell.

Progressives seem to stop and go to a reference book. Conservatives seem to just soldier on and not worry about it.

[pangaia]

19. "Progressives seem to stop and go to a reference book."

"Progressives" ponder.

Conservatives, not so much.

How many conservative concert pianists are there? I would be, very, very few.

[hlthe2b]

12. I also note that many good spellers are "visual learners" as opposed to those who learn best from

auditory cues and phonetics. This is certainly the case for me and so-called "photographic memory" got me through all my degree programs. Had I been among those youth condemned to "hooked on phonics" as the tool to learn to spell, I doubt I'd be particularly literate--even while it works for many.

[paleotn]

31. I suppose I'm an exception..

I read voraciously and have since early childhood, but still can't spell worth a damn. For some of us, I think it's variations in neural wiring. I do know of a few conservative types who've not cracked a book in years. I just can't fathom that and I'm still amazed at their lack of intellectual curiosity. Symptoms of something much deeper driving conservitive thinking, I guess.

[marybourg]

38. I have not found that to be true in my family.

Both my mother and one of my daughters never read a book after high school, yet are excellent spellers, while I have been a voracious reader, with top of the chart reading comprehension scores, since very early childhood who had to have her spelling of several simple, everyday words corrected, embarrassingly, by college professors. "Spell Check" has been a goddess-send to me.

[hlthe2b]

7. ...too arrogant to care?

Certainly everyone makes spelling errors and typos... But, it seems to be true that non-Trumpists, non-conservatives take pains to spell-check important documents, protest signs, and even tweets meant for wide distribution.

I see no efforts to do so among many conservatives.

[ProfessorPlum]

11. yes, that is the thing that I'm wondering about. Why is that behavior connected to conservatism?

weird

[pangaia]

20. #32-Fear of the unkown....

[Generic Brad]

30. Why make an effort to spell when you think you already know everything?

It takes a high level of certainty and faith to behave like that. If a person assumes their opinion is always correct, I suspect they apply the same logic towards their spelling skills.

[ProfessorPlum]

36. this feels like the kernel of the explanation - no self-checking

[elehhhhna]

8. Bye there spelling yee she'll no them

Use it. It's a useful tell.

[pangaia]

22. tru, veree tru

[PoorMonger]

9. Another Thing About Bad Spelling

I notice on Twitter some hashtags trend with mispellings. Today for instance HurracaneIrma is trending. There seem to be a lot of mean spirited comments associated with it too. Comments about how people who didn't get out are dumb and stuff like that. I honestly wondered if it might be generated by those bot farms in Russia. Later to be used in memes about how left leaning people are heartless or 'just as mean as alt-nazis'.

[FakeNoose]

15. Good observation

I think you're onto something. The bad spellings (*at least some) are committed by those who speak english as a foreign language. Maybe they're appealing to Americans who are poorly educated. (?)

I have many friends who are born in Germany or other parts of Europe but they're living here in the US for many years. So these friends are quite intelligent and educated, however they do make english spelling errors from time to time. I find this entirely understandable and I would never belittle someone for a spelling error (maybe tease a little bit, but only in fun.) There's no political hay there.

On this thread we're talking about "unfriendlies" who seem to make spelling errors on purpose or at least knowingly, and make no attempt to correct the errors. I think that might be the OP's original point (?)

[marylandblue]

13. Dunning Kruger effect

They think their spelling is already correct, so they never check a dictionary.

[mnhtnbb]

14. That's a very interesting explanation. Over confidence and lack of knowing one's weakness.

[pangaia]

23. They never learned to question what they 'know.'

[Kleveland]

16. It fits the mentality...

Very much like the "Kill them all, and let God sort it out" attitude.

They will just write it, and let the pieces fall where they may.

Our English language is too full of education, multi-cultural influences, history and tradition. Those are things they seem to know nothing about, or care about.

As some of the learned among my friends often say when faced with such ignorance, "Words is hard!"

[Demit]

17. They don't think it's important. It's the "you knew what I meant, didn't you?" syndrome.

[LakeArenal]

18. DU has plenty of folks ready to find every misplaced apostophe....

Also, common even here, I've seen: "the amount of people" "Less people are going" "Where're you at". So, I wouldn't be so cocky.

However, when people are speaking from the heart, are in a moment of passionate expression, I think it's rude to correct the spelling or grammar or worse, punctuation. The message is the matter.

OOOPs misspelled apostrophe... See...

[DFW]

25. Misplacing an apostrophe is one thing

Sticking one in a word where English never used it before is another matter entirely. Republican posts often use an apostrophe to form a plural, which is something English just doesn't do. "The Clinton's" "Those evil Nazi's" "Against the rule's" etc. Making up grammar like that is a sign that the Republican war on education is making good progress.

Advance rules from a future grammar guide to Republicanese:

EXCERPTS FROM THE OFFICIAL DICTIONARY OF REPUBLICANESE

In Republicanese, many words that sound alike may be spelled differently at random. A few prominent examples:

In Republicanese, the following words may be spelled at random using any of the three ways given:

A.) Two, Too, To
B.) Their, They're, There
c.) Your, Yore, You're

The Republicanese version of Robin Hood therefore starts with "In days of you're...."

The only rule is that the correct use of them as in English is never permitted twice in a row.

Words with single letters that change meaning when a letter is doubled must never be used in correct English context. The classic example is “lose” vs. “loose.” In Republicanese, if you do not win an election, then you “loose” that election. Conversely, if your (Republicanese: you’re) belt is too tight, you need it more “lose” in order to be comfortable. Another example would be the Republicanese, “I met Donald Trump, and he was rudder than I imagined,” vs. “I grabbed the ruder and was able to steer the boat to shore.”

In Republicanese, an apostrophe is used to form a plural, but it must be done at random, never systematically. For example, Bill and Hillary are "the Clinton's," but Bill, Chelsea and Hillary are "the Clintons." The other way around is also correct. In Republicanese, either form is correct as long as it is not spelled the same way twice in a row.

[Heartstrings]

29. I've gotten called out here on du

For a misplaced apostrophe on a humorous op....totally uncalled for.

Blatant misspelling is annoying and seems to be a trump supporters standard, but do we really need a du "grammar, spelling police" for our postings here on du? More important things to worry about imho...now maybe, just maybe I misused those apostrophes, I don't care! I take into consideration the content of the message, not looking for inaccuracies in grammar.

But that's just me.....

[Archae]

21. I used to be on a message board...

On the old Fidonet, there was a guy there named Goldlberg, very liberal, very intelligent, but since he typed about 300 words a minute, his posts were riddled with typos.

We ended up calling a typo a "Glodbreg," and Godlberg got a good laugh from it.

[procon]

24. A learning disorder, like Dyslexia, or the way our brains are wired?

There are several scientific studies that indicate Dems and Rs use their brains differently. If the brain science is right, conservatives’ brains have larger amygdalas, the so-called "lizard brain", than the brains of liberals. The simplistic lizard-logic governs “primitive” emotions like fear, flight or fight, so there is less importance placed on actual intellect or the curiosity to explore and learn new things... like spelling.

[samnsara]

26. because english is their second language ( russian being their first)

[DFW]

27. Not consrvatives. Republicans.

There is a correlation between the party that wants to defund education and the inability of their party members to write in coherent English (see Republicanese grammar excerpt above).

[Wounded Bear]

28. It's a clever defense mechanism...

they know that when people are checking their spelling/grammar, maybe they are not checking their facts.

[paleotn]

33. good point.

[dembotoz]

32. Folks rely on spell check

And sometimes that is not available.

Had a conversation with the owner of a sign company about just that.. seems sign layout machines do not support word docs and they do not have spell check.. figure out how to do that and make a killing

[Wounded Bear]

34. I spell a lot better than the typical spell-checker...

mostly because I know context. Spell checkers can't tell when the proper homonym should be used.

[Dreamer Tatum]

35. you might want to tread lightly

I can have you a list of 10 flagrant misspellings on DU by end of day, without much effort required.

[Kleveland]

37. I am in agreement with this point, somewhat amusing......

But, I would also offer this:

Do a Google/Duckduckgo search on this text - republican brains wired differently

A surprising number of hits pops up!

Again, somewhat amusing!

Cheers, and of course thoughts and prayers go out to the hurricane assailed citizens of the world.

[ProfessorPlum]

43. mostly talking about hand-made signs

but thanks for the warning.

[L. Coyote]

39. There's a big bundle of money awaiting the writer of "Why Republican Brains Don't Work as Well"

We certainly have the full cast of characters on the stage now.

[JHB]

40. oooh! Easy PhD! Colossal sense of entitlement.

"I'm a REAL American, so don't give me any of that crap about 'making a good impression,' that's for lesser beings. It's up to those people to make a good impression on me. You know what I mean, and it's my right to be heard, so don't try to weasel out of answering me because I wasn't all elitist and fussy about how I said it."

[SharonClark]

41. Link? Example?

[ProfessorPlum]

44. they abound