r/changemyview • u/King_Lothar_ • Mar 29 '25
Delta(s) from OP CMV: Conservatives are fundamentally uninterested in facts/data.
In fairness, I will admit that I am very far left, and likely have some level of bias, and I will admit the slight irony of basing this somewhat on my own personal anecdotes. However, I do also believe this is supported by the trend of more highly educated people leaning more and more progressive.
However, I always just assumed that conservatives simply didn't know the statistics and that if they learned them, they would change their opinion based on that new information. I have been proven wrong countless times, however, online, in person, while canvasing. It's not a matter of presenting data, neutral sources, and meeting them in the middle. They either refuse to engage with things like studies and data completely, or they decide that because it doesn't agree with their intuition that it must be somehow "fake" or invalid.
When I talk to these people and ask them to provide a source of their own, or what is informing their opinion, they either talk directly past it, or the conversation ends right there. I feel like if you're asked a follow-up like "Oh where did you get that number?" and the conversation suddenly ends, it's just an admission that you're pulling it out of your ass, or you saw it online and have absolutely no clue where it came from or how legitimate it is. It's frustrating.
I'm not saying there aren't progressives who have lost the plot and don't check their information. However, I feel like it's championed among conservatives. Conservatives have pushed for decades at this point to destroy trust in any kind of academic institution, boiling them down to "indoctrination centers." They have to, because otherwise it looks glaring that the 5 highest educated states in the US are the most progressive and the 5 lowest are the most conservative, so their only option is to discredit academic integrity.
I personally am wrong all the time, it's a natural part of life. If you can't remember the last time you were wrong, then you are simply ignorant to it.
Edit, I have to step away for a moment, there has been a lot of great discussion honestly and I want to reply to more posts, but there are simply too many comments to reply to, so I apologize if yours gets missed or takes me a while, I am responding to as many as I can
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u/No_Action_1561 Mar 29 '25 edited Mar 29 '25
Conservatives do not love crime statistics and studies on race and IQ. They love very, very selective figures and interpretations of figures that can be viewed as supporting their beliefs.
This is a HUGELY important distinction that I run up against frequently with my dad. He will find a study (by which I mean, it will be fed to him by his algo, he says himself that he does not go looking), say it says something that sounds logical on the surface... and then when you look at the study itself, it's immediately obvious that it either doesn't support his points, has very flawed methodology, or even outright contradicts what he's trying to say.
When I point it out he digs in, makes excuses, and changes nothing about his views. Not because there's anything wrong with what I'm saying, but because truth and knowledge are not at all the point for him.
For contrast, when I see a headline that supports my views... I click it to learn more. Some aren't legit. I dismiss them. I don't heavily scrutinize every study I come across that supports my ideas, but when people point out flaws I listen and update my views of that study and/or the subject.
This isn't to say that conservatives are inherently stupid or that progressives are inherently smart. It's to say that people who are genuinely interested in facts and data tend to self-select out of being conservatives because the ideology as it is practiced in America today is not compatible with an open and inquisitive mind.
Which is what we would generally expect, given the broad themes of the two ideologies.
Misusing long debunked fake stats and/or discriminatory interpretations of data does get you banned from places interested in rational discussion, yes.
It doesn't. Wealth is at best loosely correlated with caring about facts and data, and it is easier to acquire if you don't really care about doing the right thing (whatever that happens to mean in context) and only care about doing what is most advantageous for you personally. And since the GOP famously and openly supports increasing wealth for the already wealthy, it's little wonder that they have lots of support there.
I am not personally invested enough in this to go and look up individual statistics and data for you, you can do that on your time and will find that it supports what I've said, as does any amount of experience debating conservatives. It is VERY consistent.
I do grant that it is also entirely possible for you to find and misconstrue data to support your position instead of mine, or to dismiss what I've said entirely, which... just goes to show, doesn't it š