It's official: bush supporters are hopelessly ignorant.

[milkyway]

Just posted at Salon.com:

The blind leading the blind

Even if they don't like to say it out loud, lots of Democrats think that George Bush's supporters are a horde of ignoramuses. Now comes evidence that they're right! A remarkable new report titled "The Separate Realities of Bush and Kerry Supporters" from PIPA, the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland, suggests that rank and file Republicans are more benighted than even the most supercilious coastal elitist would imagine.

Analyzing data from a series of nationwide polls, the report finds that a majority of Bush supporters believe things about the world that are objectively untrue, while the majority of Kerry supporters dwell in the reality-based community. For example, Bush backers largely think that the president and his policies are popular internationally. Seventy-five percent believe that Iraq was providing "substantial" aid to al-Qaida, and 63 percent say clear evidence of this has been found. That, of course, would be news even to Donald Rumsfeld, who earlier this month told the Council On Foreign Relations, "To my knowledge, I have not seen any strong, hard evidence that links the two."

Though its language is dispassionate, the report lays responsibility for this epidemic of ignorance at the White House's door. "So why are Bush supporters clinging so tightly to these beliefs in the face of repeated disconfirmations?" it asks. "Apparently one key reason is that they continue to hear the Bush administration confirming these beliefs."
<snip>

And while "The Separate Realities of Bush and Kerry Supporters" may be perversely satisfying to Democrats in its confirmation of blue-state prejudices, it carries a pretty disturbing question for all rational Americans: How can arguments based on fact prevail in a nation where so many people know so little?

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/index.html

http://www.pipa.org/OnlineReports/Pres_Election_04/html/new_10_21_04.html#1

Unfortunately, many of bush's supporters are so far gone that there's no reasoning with them. Like an alien horde, they are trying to impose their kool-aid induced hallucinations onto the rest of the world.

[Cha]

1. What I say about the b/c yard signs

in my area is that ..those people are advertising how stupid they are. And they're too stupid to know they are doing that.

[SiouxJ]

4. Oh exactly! When I see neighbor put up a Shrub sign I

immediately lose all respect for them. This whole campaign season has opened my eyes to just how stupid the people I come into contact with on a daily basis are . It has really been a learning experience for me. I am starting to see just how gullible people I know are. I guess I gave them too much credit before.

[jimshoes]

6. There's an old saying....

You'll never know how stupid you are until you begin to see how stupid you are. This describes repigs to a tee.

[Selatius]

2. Lay the blame on the media too

When all the corporate networks do is simply sit there and transmit what the White House says without critically analyzing it, you get this junk. As a result, a lie transmitted takes up as much space as a truth because the implication is that both the lie and the truth are somehow on equal footing and are equally deserving of time when that is simply not the case.

A good news outlet knows when to call people on the bullshit regardless of party affiliation, not act as a megaphone. Of course, If I expect the corporate owned networks to do better, I'm probably expecting too much because that would mean questioning the stuff coming from corporatist think tanks and foundations.

[milkyway]

7. You're right about the media, but some of the blame has to go to

the people themselves. Some have preconceived ideas set in stone early in life and willfully ignore all evidence to the contrary. There are large segments of our society who place little value on thought and reason. Combine these people with the media you described, and you end up with george bush as president.

[Mechatanketra]

11. The media is part of a one-two punch.

Part of the problem is, indeed, that the media softballs right-wing dishonesty (when it isn't just being actively complicit in it). But this is reinforced by the fierce non-stop kneejerk condemnation of "the liberal media" for 20 years straight. So we get a beautiful combination of unconscious cherry-picking and cognitive dissonance: anything (i.e. GOP spin or even outright lies) that agrees with the underlying preconception ("Republicans like and look out for hard-working patriotic Joes like me") which fuels Joe Dittohead's mistaken beliefs is allowed to filter in, while anything that would force them to abandon that preconception is safely sealed in a "liberal media bias" box and dumped from their brains.

I've watched this process in action while talking to a (sadly) pro-Bush IRC-pal from West Virginia -- one of the nicest guys I ever met, except that he swallows everything the VRWC shovels onto his plate. I can eventually convince him that 2+2 might equal 4 like all the math books agree even if Bush said once it's 7 -- given several hours and a couple other of our friends on my side; the stubbornness he shows is just unreal. (Real example: when my brother tried to explain to him that the EU has over half again America's population, he retorted that my brother's atlas was "biased".)

[timezoned]

3. This one I can't possibly believe...

For example, Bush backers largely think that the president and his policies are popular internationally

??

That is simply not possible.

<head between hands, forehead on table>

[hobbit709]

5. The blind leading the blind

is one thing, but the blind leading the lame and the halt is more like it.

[CrispyQ]

8. There's a reason why Question Authority is a good rule to ...

live by! Even if you question something & determine it's valid, at least you questioned it! These people won't even do that.

Being willing to evaluate your belief system takes courage, because you may find your current beliefs lacking. Then you have to either change your behaviour to reflect your new belief system or admit that you are bogus.

[porphyrian]

9. Incompetence

"It is one of the essential features of such incompetence that the person so afflicted is incapable of knowing that he is incompetent. To have such knowledge would already be to remedy a good portion of the offense. ( Miller, 1993 , p. 4)"

Here's a great article on incompetent people:

http://www.apa.org/journals/psp/psp7761121.html

[indigo32]

10. Its the land o denial

very very sand and scary