Conservatism thrives on low intelligence

This should come as no surprise to anyone with half a brain and a good high school education. Too bad we cannot even get such a rudimentary education these days, given the conservative war on education and teachers so as to keep people from understanding their machinations. From the linked article:

"[A]...Canadian study published last month in the journal Psychological Science...revealed that people with conservative beliefs are likely to be of low intelligence....the study suggests [this] is not unfounded generalisation but empirical fact.


"Importantly, it shows that prejudice tends not to arise directly from low intelligence but from the conservative ideologies to which people of low intelligence are drawn. Conservative ideology is the 'critical pathway' from low intelligence to racism. Those with low cognitive abilities are attracted to 'rightwing ideologies that promote coherence and order' and 'emphasise the maintenance of the status quo.'

"This is not to suggest that all conservatives are stupid. There are some very clever people in government, advising politicians, running thinktanks and writing for newspapers, who have acquired power and influence by promoting rightwing ideologies.... [They] probably don't believe the reactionary and paranoid claptrap they peddle, they cynically feed the worst instincts of their fearful and angry low-information political base."