As a scientifically minded person. The propensity for the left to go for "woo"...

[thesquanderer]

42. Why shocked at woo on the left?

re: "As etherealtruth points out this really is a bipartisan issue. I think what I'm getting at is I'm simply more shocked at the anti scientific side on the left. "

Why? I think a scientific bent vs. let's say a more spiritual/metaphysical bent, is not something that necessarily aligns with politics. One's thoughts about how society should take care of the less fortunate, or civil liberties, or gun control, or tax policy, or whether we should go to war, have very little to do with whether you put stock in any kind of "non proven" beliefs, whether it's Jesus, astrology, some alternative medicine practice, or anything else. I think you're on to something with your post further down about observer bias, in the sense of seeming to think that those who think the way you do in some respects should logically think the way you do in others.

And I think "new age" thinking has always been common on the left, at least going back to the hippies. Maybe it was all the drugs. But also there is a fundamental philosophical orientation, I think, that "conservative" people believe in the "tried and true" while "liberal" people are "open to possibilities" - and this perspective, I think, might support the presence of "woo" on the left.