I don’t understand
Ever read something that so confuses you that it feel like your brain is going to blow? Maybe it’s just getting late, but this did it to me. What on earth does this mean?
Among college-educated poll respondents, 19 percent of Republicans believe that human activities are causing global warming, compared to 75 percent of Democrats. But take that college education away and Republican believers rise to 31 percent while Democrats drop to 52 percent.
It left me feeling like this.
Apparently what it means is that college degrees close our minds. People with college degrees are only willing to listen to the opinions of and science supported by “their” candidates. Meanwhile, the uneducated, unwashed masses are more open to other viewpoints and thus are more objective.
Or, it means that figures lie and liars figure.
It could also mean that the people running the poll were complete idiots and were performing a completely unscientific poll that included only 5 people from each group that were all inside of one coffee house at the same time.
“Figures lie and liars figure” has been proven numerous times elsewhere. In the original post, the phrase “take that college education away” (and the numbers change) is very misleading — you can’t, of course, take an education away, you are either getting a response from someone with or without an education.
The facts about the human contribution to global warming are conclusive, and there really is no objective, scientific doubt left. This poll shows how ideological belief trumps college education, and how college education can supply the “skills” of sophistry to further illogical belief.
More proof of the way hardened ideological beliefs that are shown in U.S. partisan politics is in this article: http://tinyurl.com/4d2eu9 , which contains data from several legitimate polls.
One finding, for example, is that 65% of Republicans actually approve of George W. Bush’s handling of the economy, against 1% Democrats and 15% Independents. When 85% of Independents join 35% of Republicans (in raw numbers - Ind. and Rep. only - the count is 368 people disapprove, 248 approve), you have to be pretty sure that the 65% of Republicans are holding to an idea that makes no sense.
Michael Shermer’s essey “Why Smart People Believe Weird Things” basically said something very similar. Most people are not very open minded; an education, and an improved ability to argue a position, merely give us the tools to find information that supports the position we already held, and dismiss information that doesn’t.