The caption of this post at Science 2.0, “Conservatives’ Understanding Of Climate Science Is More In Line With Climate Scientists Than Liberals'”, by Hank Campbell seems calculated to make progressives’ heads explode. When you dig into it, however, it’s a lot more commonsensical than that, quotidian in fact:
An interesting survey in Oregon highlighted this issue; the short version of what they found is that conservatives – well, conservative for Oregon(2) – are more skeptical of climate change but when unpacked their views on the science are right in line with…climate scientists.
This is counter-intuitive, right? Not really. The more you know, the more likely you are to see the bigger picture – and flaws.(3) The more you instead believe, the more likely you are to abdicate your thinking to experts. You will take scientists on faith like religious people do priests. One of the authors grew up in a culture that didn’t believe in evolution or climate change, so they are sympathetic to the idea that there are often values issues involved. Coastal liberals aren’t going to share the values of the rural midwest, so condescension about evolution when they don’t know any more about adaptive radiation than religious farmers and just have faith in science rather than a Bible is not superior thinking.
More liberals see climate science and climate change as, in the words of the authors, “certain and simple.” It is not complex (“bro, do you even science?”), models of today will never need to be reconsidered in the future, and they trust climate scientists absolutely. This is a sharp turn from other areas, where liberals have beatified “lived experience” to such an extent that often no data matters and people can claim expertise despite having none.
See? Conservatives in Oregon. What is a conservative in Oregon? I doubt it’s the same as a conservative in, say, Alabama or even Indiana. I would phrase it a bit differently: it’s darned hard to be radical and nuanced and pragmatic at the same time. Seeing the complexities is almost inherently moderate in nature. I may touch on this again in more depth in a later post.
A good argument 20 years ago. I dont think there is that much difference anymore. A conservative is someone who believes in Trump. In opposing anything which liberals want. They dont really seem to have actual principles anymore. Even supposedly scared cows like smaller govt and debt went by the wayside when it would help Trump. Cutting taxes seems to babe the only thing I can really think of and even there it was important to find some way to only cut taxes for people in red states if you could.
Steve
I agree with you to the extent that I think the only thing that all Congressional Republicans agree on is that taxes should be lower. In general I think they have forgotten that “starve the beast” requires cutting or at least freezing appropriations as well.