Political Memes

I always find that people that are unflinchingly rigid in their beliefs always seem to be incredibly happy.

I believe that this stems from their inability to ever have to face the things that they hate being true, but accept that they are.

I’m dismissing any facts you are commenting that contradict this post.

indoctrinated people don't care if you think they're smart. in fact, "smart" is a pejorative to them, unless the adjective is applied to dear great leader, who's the only one allowed to claim the title, and the only one from whom information can be accepted as true

indoctrination indeed. GOP is a fucking cult

This is not entirely true though. Beliefs and opinions are heavily influenced by a lot of factors. Even educated people are not free from such errors. Like the backfire effect (Nyhan and Reifler (2010)): situations where people become more entrenched in their views when confronted with contradictory evidence.

Other studies have found that when presented with data, individuals with more education can sometimes be more divided in their beliefs, particularly when the topic is politically charged. For instance, some educated individuals may use their knowledge to selectively interpret data in ways that support their pre-existing views, a phenomenon known as "motivated reasoning." Confirmation bias relates to that. This has been observed in areas like climate change, where political and ideological factors heavily influence opinions. (See for example: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1704882114 )

In other words, no matter how educated or smart you are, you can still fall into ignorance and stubbornness. The key is to train your ability to think critically—especially when it comes to your own beliefs and opinions. Doing so can help you become more aware of biases and avoid common pitfalls in cognitive decision-making.

I'd much rather confirm whether new information is accurate before adjusting my world view. Not all new information is equal.

hot takes are already incoming, so just as a reminder: Sayings like this have assumptions that are necessary to be aware of before nitpicking details.

The saying is just saying that smart people are open minded to new ideas and information and indoctrinated people are taught to be close minded. It doesn't mean every new piece of information is immediately believed by the smart person or that smart people are immune to confirmation bias, just that they are generally open to new information supported by evidence and indoctrination teaches people to reject new information whether it is supported by evidence or not.

It is a generalization about a primary difference, not a hard and fast rule.

I think this makes it seem a lot more black and white than it really is. Defaulting to information that agrees with your word view is a natural human bias. We all suffer from it and it's important to actively try and work against that

Smart people can be stubborn and would dismiss facts sometimes too