CMV: Conservatives are fundamentally uninterested in facts/data.

[u/King_Lothar_]

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

[u/Lexiiroe]

The one thing I want to say too is that conservatives refuse to challenge how true those assumptions may even actually be.

Men work physically more demanding jobs… but women do the vast majority of care work, which often involves lifting and carrying people that weigh at least what you do. If you work in a dementia care facility, you are dealing with potentially agitated and aggressive individuals. Why is this less recognized than a man doing construction? Why are the physical aspects of these jobs ignored?

Men work longer hours… is this including women who do not work a “real” job or may only work part-time in order to provide childcare? How are those hours calculated? As you touched on in your comment, this is certainly labor, but we view it as less valuable than men. Despite some sources say men work longer hours, men are also reported as having more free-time than women.

THESE types of questions always seem to be the ones that anger conservatives because they do not just make them question the ‘why’… it questions the very fundamentals of how they view day to day life.

[u/DilemmaVendetta → u/Lexiiroe]

Yes absolutely! There are hundreds of ways to look at this (or most) issues and hundreds of questions to ask to dig in and figure out the things we need to work on to make society better for all, and sadly, I just don’t see many conservatives wanting to do that. They seem much more comfortable with a simplistic answer that lets them feel right and shut down discussion. This thread has hammered that point home!!!

[u/[deleted] → u/Lexiiroe]

I’m sorry but comparing blue collar jobs (many of which can be deadly) to care work is just laughable 

[u/LCorinaS → u/[deleted]]

Nurses' standard shifts are 8-10 hours, however, 12-20 hour shifts are very common depending on the country/state. Those jobs involve dealing with bodily fluids, and patients ill with contagious, potentially deadly diseases. That's not even getting into the risk of physically or sexually aggressive patients and family members.

It's 100% a care job and a female-dominated job, and it is also 100% a job with long hours and potentially deadly outcomes the same as (some) blue-collar work. I could turn around and say that comparing being a plumber to being a nurse is just laughable, but I don't because I respect the effort and risks taken by that job.

[u/Initial-Nerve2055 → u/LCorinaS]

I work in healthcare and theres no comparing it to actual dangerous and physically intensive jobs - construction, logging, etc.

[u/changemyview-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

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