Tea Party Smarter than you think

[kia75]

Uhh... that says the Tea Party knows more about science then other Republicans. It doesn't say the Tea Party knows more about science then Democrats. It goes Democrats> Tea party > Republicans.

Reading anything other then the average Tea Party member probably knows a little more about science then the average Republican is reading too much into it.

 

[xBiffx]

Uhh... that says the Tea Party knows more about science then other Republicans. It doesn't say the Tea Party knows more about science then Democrats. It goes Democrats> Tea party > Republicans.

Reading anything other then the average Tea Party member probably knows a little more about science then the average Republican is reading too much into it.

Not that is matters much but I think you need to read it again.

Yale law professor Dan Kahan posted on his blog this week that he analyzed the responses of more than 2,000 American adults recruited for another study and found that, on average, people who leaned liberal were more science literate than those who leaned conservative.

However, those who identified as part of the tea party movement were actually better versed in science than those who didn’t, Kahan found. The findings met the conventional threshold of statistical significance, the professor said.

Nowhere is he differentiating the people who identified as part of the Tea party from the rest of Republicans from this description. Actually he is differentiating those who identify with the Tea part with those who didn't. Meaning Tea Party vs the rest of conservatives and liberals.

Edit: If this is incorrect then Polictico's editors suck. Neither would surprise me.

 

[OverVolt]

Liberals love science maybe they should listen to the Yale professor.

While Kahan cautioned against thinking the results can be used to explain deep ideological fights over climate change and other politically relevant science, and he said the results wouldn’t change his negative views of the tea party, he did say he will no longer make assumptions about the level of knowledge on his opponents’ side.

He knows its just a correlation that meets statistical significance. Its not really all that meaningful. Leave it to the liberals to go 100% blind faith once they read "Yale professor" and "study" in a news article, lol.

Basically he had the data sitting around and was playing in excel.

 

[OverVolt]

Uhh... that says the Tea Party knows more about science then other Republicans. It doesn't say the Tea Party knows more about science then Democrats. It goes Democrats> Tea party > Republicans.

Reading anything other then the average Tea Party member probably knows a little more about science then the average Republican is reading too much into it.

This article doesn't actually clarify much about the original data or method. This is why you don't get science from news articles. Your SWAG is as good as mine (Scientific wild ass guess).

 

[dank69]

Liberals love science maybe they should listen to the Yale professor.



He knows its just a correlation that meets statistical significance. Its not really all that meaningful. Leave it to the liberals to go 100% blind faith once they read "Yale professor" and "study" in a news article, lol.

Basically he had the data sitting around and was playing in excel.

Damn those liberals for noticing that correlation equals correlation!

 

[xBiffx]

Damn those liberals for noticing that correlation equals correlation!

Missed opportunity at using a relational operator there. I'm disappointed.

 

[dank69]

Missed opportunity at using a relational operator there. I'm disappointed.

If it can't be compared to an animal, I can't understand it.

 

[Phokus]

The Tea Party is so smart, they had absolutely no plan for the shutdown, rammed their head into a wall, and now lost their leverage/political capital and are even more unpopular than ever.

 

[First]

I always laugh when I here the ideologues on this site call the TEA Party people anti science and stupid. Well, one liberal professor did a study and found that TEA Party people are actually smarter than non-TEA Party people in terms of science, that would include you libs and moderates by the way.

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/10/tea-party-science-98488.html?hp=r3

I bet most of you haters fall into the same category as the prof, you don't know any TEA Party people and trash them purely due to your ideology.

I'm sure a lot of libertarian-leading Tea Partiers who are Ron Paul supporters are very pro-science. But what about the anti-libertarian strain of Tea Partiers who support nuts like Sarah Palin and the like? I'd be interested in a further breakdown of political affiliation, frankly. But yes, mildly surprising.

 

[shira]

I question the finding of any study like that. When someone starts out with a specific goal in mind they will find a way to get the results they want, liberal or conservative.

Um, this particular researcher got back results that were the opposite of what he expected.

“I’ve got to confess, though, I found this result surprising. As I pushed the button to run the analysis on my computer, I fully expected I’d be shown a modest negative correlation between identifying with the Tea Party and science comprehension,” Kahan wrote.

But then, you're a Tea Party sympathizer, so the fact that you didn't understand what this article was reporting is not surprising. And you provide a perfect explanation for what the study found:

Tea Partyers can parrot facts, but they can't UNDERSTAND the facts they've memorized. The brain of a Tea Partyer is like a large memory system that isn't connected to the CPU.

 

[Tom]

There's nothing remarkable about a group that's skewed in favor of a privileged class, testing better than a standard population sample.

 

[Schmide]

Take half a random sample from one group and add the remainder to the other and you're bound to get a shift in both groups opposite to the original skew. What the dude didn't show that he should of, and this would be good science, if you take the conservatives that are not tea party and compare them to the rest of the sample, does it skew 5% in the other direction. I bet not. Or edit...

Edit: The only number that really matters is the following: How does the tea party compare to the the total conservative group. This is good math.

 

[Matt1970]

Um, this particular researcher got back results that were the opposite of what he expected.



But then, you're a Tea Party sympathizer, so the fact that you didn't understand what this article was reporting is not surprising. And you provide a perfect explanation for what the study found:

Tea Partyers can parrot facts, but they can't UNDERSTAND the facts they've memorized. The brain of a Tea Partyer is like a large memory system that isn't connected to the CPU.

Once again, you have no clue what I am talking about and for that matter what most anyone else is talking about.

 

[Thebobo]

Most tea partiers I know are engineers. Most liberals I know are on welfare.

Most tea party types I know are the worst workers always complaining about any slight and always worrying about comparing how much they are doing compared to others.

 

[GTaudiophile]

My dad is a Tea Party member if you will. He and those like him are well educated. He has two MS degrees. They have had at least one career or are self-made. My dad was in the military for 23 years and then at Delta for another 10 or so. They have worked hard. They have saved and paid their taxes and have played the game as honestly as possible and they are sick and tired of it all being pissed away by greedy politicians and free loading idiots.

 

[justoh]

My dad is a Tea Party member if you will. He and those like him are well educated. He has two MS degrees. They have had at least one career or are self-made. My dad was in the military for 23 years and then at Delta for another 10 or so. They have worked hard. They have saved and paid their taxes and have played the game as honestly as possible and they are sick and tired of it all being pissed away by greedy politicians and free loading idiots.

Dumb parents, dumb kids.

 

[zanejohnson]

My dad is a Tea Party member if you will. He and those like him are well educated. He has two MS degrees. They have had at least one career or are self-made. My dad was in the military for 23 years and then at Delta for another 10 or so. They have worked hard. They have saved and paid their taxes and have played the game as honestly as possible and they are sick and tired of it all being pissed away by greedy politicians and free loading idiots.

and here you see the entire thread summarized.


your status, your, title.................. does not mean intelligence, or gullibility.

i guess it's not "fair." or whatever......

but that's the truth.. you think all these democrats, out here, really have any faith in the "system?"

no. we're LIBERAL... understand

liberal with everything, our money, our thoughts, or actions..

we understand it's a free for all.. and that nothings fair.. we game the system. yes. we do it with intellect.

you know i'd say it takes more brainpower to game the system, and live comfortably, then to go get some degree, and work your ass off for your life, and die unhappy, a SLAVE.

and if you do it by gaming the system you dont have to work, and you can do blow (most of the time not on your dime!) and bang hookers (and be liberal about it!)

also, i understand all the hate against obama now.... it comes from people who dont see what is REALLY happening... he paved the way for MORE GAMING THE SYSTEM!!! which is awesome, if you're liberal........

if not...... get smarter!

 

[mchammer187]

Sorry but I have to question the intelligence to anyone whose leaders are Eric Cantor and Ted Cruz and formerly Palin and Bachman.

Obama may not be the greatest but compared to them his ability to lead is several orders of magnitude greater.

 

[trenchfoot]

Sorry but I have to question the intelligence to anyone whose leaders are Eric Cantor and Ted Cruz and formerly Palin and Bachman.

Obama may not be the greatest but compared to them his ability to lead is several orders of magnitude greater.

IMO, it's not so much what the Tea Partiers don't like about Obama. It has more to do with what they hate about themselves. They hate that they're a minority in the body politic. They hate that some among themselves aren't as pure of thought as "they" are. They hate the fact that they're not powerful enough or convincing enough to make the rest of the nation see how "right" they are about hating Obama and hating every accomplishment he's been given accolades for. They hate themselves for not being clever enough or conniving enough to force the Repub Party to refrain from giving anything, ANYTHING in exchange for EVERYTHING.

But the one single thing they hate most about themselves is how they realize they are an unpopular fringe group adopted by a diminishing larger party that cannot hammer the nation into their image through the use of hate, fear and pure force of ideology.

That being said, I also give them credit for the passion and resolve they possess to be willing to go to such lengths to change things as they see fit.

 

[dank69]

Once again, you have no clue what I am talking about and for that matter what most anyone else is talking about.

lol I saw your post originally and had the exact same reaction as shira. Matt misreads a simple thread title; thinks the thread is saying the exact opposite of what it is actually saying; doesn't read the source, commentary or any of the thread; and immediately rationalizes how the conclusion must be flawed since it says something he doesn't agree with when the conclusion actually says something he agrees with and specifically states that the findings were the opposite of what the author expected which is the exact opposite of the premise of why Matt thinks the conclusion is flawed. I'm not sure how someone could fail any harder.

 

[Tom]

My dad is a Tea Party member if you will. He and those like him are well educated. He has two MS degrees. They have had at least one career or are self-made. My dad was in the military for 23 years and then at Delta for another 10 or so. They have worked hard. They have saved and paid their taxes and have played the game as honestly as possible and they are sick and tired of it all being pissed away by greedy politicians and free loading idiots.

I know your Dad.(not literally) I bet he considers himself a self-made man ?

Even though he had a government job for 23 years and then a job with a union owned company ?

I'm a man. I know how men think. Men who would join the Tea Party are in denial about why they're successful. It's a man thing, to think they've done it all themselves, and therefore anyone who doesn't is a "free loader".

But for most people, it's not true. We benefit from being part of a society, and we should stop attacking an important aspect of that society, government, and instead cherish and nurture it.

And honor the people who make it work. Like your Dad.

 

[Matt1970]

lol I saw your post originally and had the exact same reaction as shira. Matt misreads a simple thread title; thinks the thread is saying the exact opposite of what it is actually saying; doesn't read the source, commentary or any of the thread; and immediately rationalizes how the conclusion must be flawed since it says something he doesn't agree with when the conclusion actually says something he agrees with and specifically states that the findings were the opposite of what the author expected which is the exact opposite of the premise of why Matt thinks the conclusion is flawed. I'm not sure how someone could fail any harder.

You are still missing the point. Anyone who sets out to try and prove one political side is smarter than the other WILL find a way to get the results they want. They can claim the results aren't what they expected but they are already biased just for having the study to begin with. You can drink the kool aid all you want and think it is good research but I call it bullshit and a waste of time and money. It's the grown up version of my daddy can beat up your daddy. And incase you didn't catch on, I am bashing an article that is trying to make the tea party look smarter.

 

[dank69]

You are still missing the point. Anyone who sets out to try and prove one political side is smarter than the other WILL find a way to get the results they want. They can claim the results aren't what they expected but they are already biased just for having the study to begin with. You can drink the kool aid all you want and think it is good research but I call it bullshit and a waste of time and money. It's the grown up version of my daddy can beat up your daddy. And incase you didn't catch on, I am bashing an article that is trying to make the tea party look smarter.

So how do you explain this author thinking the Tea Party is science illiterate but finding that they are not after analyzing the data and then posting the exact opposite of what he wanted to find? Sorry, Matt, you're just going to have to face the reality that not all people are as dishonest as you. Haha look at who I'm talking to. Nevermind, carry on in your own alternate reality.

 

[ivwshane]

You are still missing the point. Anyone who sets out to try and prove one political side is smarter than the other WILL find a way to get the results they want. They can claim the results aren't what they expected but they are already biased just for having the study to begin with. You can drink the kool aid all you want and think it is good research but I call it bullshit and a waste of time and money. It's the grown up version of my daddy can beat up your daddy. And incase you didn't catch on, I am bashing an article that is trying to make the tea party look smarter.

What you are bashing is the scientific process, which is ironic because the article claims tea party types to be more science literate. I guess you just don't fall into the "norm".

 

[Matt1970]

So how do you explain this author thinking the Tea Party is science illiterate but finding that they are not after analyzing the data and then posting the exact opposite of what he wanted to find? Sorry, Matt, you're just going to have to face the reality that not all people are as dishonest as you. Haha look at who I'm talking to. Nevermind, carry on in your own alternate reality.

God damn you are thick headed. It's not the finding that needs explaining. It's why he did the study in the first place. Trying to see which political party is smarter that the other is Science? Ya, I am the one being dishonest here.