I've written before about testable differences between the brains of liberals and conservatives. It explains some things; maybe even excuses the poor folks: they can't help it. But then I read something like this, and I think, nope, there are some things that they should be able to control, no matter their cross-wiring. Maybe it's just that they're assholes.
UCLA economists Dora Costa and Matthew Kahn analyzed the impact of an energy-conservation program in California that informed households about how their energy use compared with that of their neighbors. While the program succeeded in encouraging Democrats and environmentalists to lower their consumption, Republicans had the opposite reaction. When told of their relative thrift, they started cranking up the thermostat and leaving the lights on more often.
It may well be futile to attempt reasoning with those for whom facts don't matter, and who lack even a basic sense of shared future. I think there's a word for people like that...
I'm sure you'll tell me what my logical error is in Latin but here me out......
ReplyDeleteYOU'RE an "A-Hole Word"..So you must be Conservative???
and if you refute that...
YOU'RE a SURGEON, there ALL "A-Hole Words" even the nice ones, its all those Sunday 3am Peri-rectal abscess I&D's...
Hey, do you know how many Americans were killed in Iraq/Afghanistan this month?? Guess thats one way to "Bring the Troops Home"
Sorry if that makes me an A-Hole.
Gotta go make some Tea,
Frank
If conservatives are already ahead of the game, then you've got a selection effect: when you're already ahead of the game, there will be a tendency to relax. They didn't compare (in the article, I didn't read the paper) the Repubdickans to Democrats who were already well ahead of the game, did they reduce their consumption?
ReplyDeleteI think that there's some hope to be gleaned from the fact that the conservatives were already conserving more than the liberals (there's some irony to the labels there). The thrifty aspect of environmentalism ought to resonate with actual conservatism, even if climate research funding, and government limitation of industry do not.
Timmyson:
ReplyDeleteI get cold, I turn thermostat up.
I get hot, I turn thermostat down.
OK, actually my wife does, but you get the picture.
Fuel Gage gets near "E" I fill car up.
When I change my Oil I dump used Oil in ground,(thats where it came from)
and y'all don't have any credibility till that fatty AlGore gets under 300lbs and gets a mansion with under 20 toilets...
Frank "I'd rather be Waterboarding A-rabs" Drackman
Seriously? People are supposed to conserve when the spokesman for Global Warming (Al Gore) uses electricity faster than Obama breaks campaign promises and smokes cigarettes? If anything, thats evidence conservatives have better B.S. meters than liberals.
ReplyDeleteHere's some "facts" for you (should you choose to accept them).
Al Gore's Electric Bill:
http://blog.american.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/gore.jpg
A lesson from Dr. George Carlin:
Al Gore vs. GWB's Sustainable Homes:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/bush/house.asp
And a few chuckles, courtesy of Climate Scientist Dr. George Carlin:
http://nofrakkingconsensus.blogspot.com/2009/08/george-carlin-on-saving-planet.html
Regards,
PrecordialThump
p.s. Did you know polar bears could swim over 300 miles (400 if they are swimming after an Eskimo)?
PrecordialThump - Thank you for providing that info about President Bush' house and VP Gore's house. I had never heard that before and certainly never read about Bush' amazing house. Very interesting.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised the media didn't give him some favorable recognition for going green in such a big way.. she says facesiously.
Wouldn't mind having one like it .. but in the north east. Our utility bills are KILLING our budget!
It's just too bad that these things are so expensive. So many people are living paycheck to paycheck ..if they are fortunate enough to have jobs that is.
I will print and give to my sons.
Most interesting.
Thanks again! :)
AlGore just bought another house on the LeftCoast...
ReplyDelete$8,875,000 5 Bedrooms, 9 Baths, 6 Fireplaces, cause you know it gets so cold in Southern California, Swimming Pool, Spas, Fountains(Low Flow/Natch) on 1.5 Acres...
His Carbon Footprints gonna be almost as big as his regular Footprint...
Frank
Good idea, Seaspray. Because it's certainly the basis on which to judge the energy issues.
ReplyDeleteOr so Fox "news" and the RWS™ would have you believe.
Oh, and, uh, any of you right-thinkers want to speculate on the meaning of the study, which was, you know, the point of the post?
ReplyDeleteSid, might wanta get YOUR brain tested...before its just one big Neurofibriallary tangle..
ReplyDeleteYOUR the one who said Blacks, I mean Liberals and Conservatives have different Brains, you know, just like they used to say about Blacks back in the early 1900's you know, when you went to medical school...
OK, OK, the Study, so AlGores Green 9-Fireplace house proves what???
I think he just can't stand Tipper...
Frank
Dr Sid - No response because I don't appreciate being called an a-----e. Don't worry though because I know how right you and the progressives are ...always are.. so maybe there is hope for me yet to cross over to the dark side.
ReplyDeleteI have to say it warmed my heart to have read that President Obama is having the Federal Government appeal Judge Crabbs decision about the National Day of Prayer and plans on making a proclamation about it sometime this year.
Good for the President! Although I suppose that gives him 1 for being an A_____E ..by your ongoing definitions.
Oh ..and I read about President Obama's visit to Billy Graham first in the Huffington Post, THEN read another newspaper account of the visit and got the REST of the story. I don't recall ..I think it was a southern Newspaper but anyone can google to find it.
And I am curious ...are the tea partiers all dumb,red neck, militia, dangerous, illiterate, racist,nazi,astro turf,Christian folk that even Nancy Pelosi stated progressives have things in common with ...or now are they all white, educated, angry, racist Christians with upper incomes? These polls are causing me to have an identity crisis and I don't know who I am anymore! What's a girl to do???!
It is just awful ..AWFUL I TELL YOU ..having to have my identity defined by the progressives who change with the blowing winds ..dependent upon the label du jour that works better for the progressive propaganda/agenda at any given moment in time?
And you gotta love the reporter who asked the black man if he is uncomfortable at a tea party with mostly white people.
It wasn't the black man that was the a_____e in that interview... and Oh NO! ..he was actually a ...(inhale quickly at the shock of it) a b-l-a-c-k man ... a conservative ..and BLACK at a mostly white tea party as pointed out by the reporter. The black man was the *class act* and stated he wasn't uncomfortable "No ..these are my people ..AMERICANS."
http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/brent-baker/2010/04/16/white-nbc-reporter-confronts-black-man-tea-party-rally-have-you-ever-fe
Can you imagine that? The black man had the audacity to think he was just like all the other Americans at the tea party rally... AMERICANS! Why ..HE *the black man* did not even care about the color of his fellow AMERICAN"s skin! But the reporter just needed to point that out.. just in case he didn't know it.
When are the progressives just going to accept people for being people and stop trying to use and incite people with their errant ideologies and false propaganda?! OOps! I'm sorry ..I was just having a lucid moment...or is it deranged moment ..to think it's even possible?
You said, "Or so Fox "news" and the RWS™ would have you believe."
LOL! PREDICTABLE!! But I know it helps you feel better to believe it.
I never heard the story about Bush' eco friendly home..anywhere and is why I thanked PT. Maybe it was reported ..but if it was it must've been a page 34 deal. It certainly wasn't big news. I'm just thinking with all the Green initiatives ..they would want to bring this to the forefront. Well not Gore of course. He apparently talks the talk but doesn't walk the walk.
Give me an "H"!
Give me a "Y"!
Give me a "P" !
Give me an "O"!
Give me a "C"!
Give me an "R"!
Give me a "I"!
Give me a "T"!
Give me an "E"!
WHAT'S THAT SPELL??!
AL GORE!!!!!!!
Another perfect one, Seaspray. Missed point, ignored point, took the "asshole" comment personally (it applies if you increased your energy use when you found out it went down...) And, of course, focusing, just as trained to do, on Al Gore as if it makes any difference to the environmental issues we face as a nation. Nice.
ReplyDeleteBut, as the study shows, conservatives seem to have a me-first, screw the rest of you attitude and Al Gore's energy use is the perfect excuse. Not that they to need one, evidently.
And, no, it doesn't make me feel better to point out how brainwashed you are. It depresses me greatly that you spout everything the RWS™ do, while arguing that you don't. Because you're a good barometer of the country at this point: mad as hell, misinformed, and poised to bring us all down with you.
So, no, it doesn't make me feel better one damn bit.
Dr. Sid,
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry that your thread about how conservatives are the gateway through which feces enters our world went off track. It was certainly framed for an insightful discussion.
The fatally flawed study has a serious confounding factor. The fact that conservatives don't adjust their behaviors to conform to a theory in which they don't believe proves nothing.
A real scientist would find an issue in which conservatives believe as strongly as liberals believe in environmentalism/global warming and THEN base a study around that issue. This would provide some useful data for comparison.
It's kind of like if we ran a study showing that private ownership of firearms saved more lives than they took on a yearly basis and then we gathered data on how many liberals went out and bought a gun and then wrote on our blog that liberals are a$sHO/_@s when we realized that they didn't buy many Glocks.
Regards,
PrecordialThump
Well, PT, at least you addressed the study, which is nice. I don't read it as having anything to do with believing in climate change. I read it as showing that when environmentalists and liberals were told how their energy use compared to others, and they were doing better, they continued to do so.
ReplyDeleteWhen conservatives found out they were using less than their peers, they began to use more. Why would that be? Since I find it puzzling -- particularly because I take pride in reducing my energy consumption year after year -- I proposed an explanation: assholery. It's a hypothesis which, so far as I can tell, fits with the facts at hand. I don't claim there can't be others.
Perhaps a better way to express it would be to say that it's consistent with the "I want it all and I want it now" aspect of the current crop of "conservatives." But it's a lot to write. A serviceable shorthand is... well... assholery. It simply wouldn't occur to me to use more energy because my neighbors were. But, you know, I'm a liberal. Looking out for the greater good, doing my part. Whatever else that might be, it's not assholery.
However, I DO claim that your Glock analogy is so far off the mark that I can't find my way through it at all.
But, again, thanks for addressing the actual subject, even though at first you seemed to think Al Gore's energy use was pretty relevant, which got the echo machine quite het up.
I could add that your irony meter is a bit low on batteries, vis รก vis the location of my tongue when I chose that word in the first place. I'd have thought the picture was a clue.