Why are Right wingers so gullible?

[raccoon]

They’ll believe any dumbass forward that comes along. Lately I’ve run into two right-wingers who believed the following forwarded emails:

Windfall profits

(Taxing retirement to provide a decent lifestyle for illegal immigrants and others)

http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/pelosi.asp


Social Security for Illegal Aliens

http://www.snopes.com/politics/immigration/socialsecurity.asp


If somebody sent ME an email saying Bush or Cheney said, “Let’s just go over there and bomb them back to the Stone Age,” I’d at least check the veracity first…

[rucky]

1. Because they were taught at home not to question authority...

and nothing's more authoritative than a mass email.

[raccoon]

2. You said that right,

"nothing's more authoritative than a mass email."

:sarcasm: But a lot of people, IMO, believe that!

[Echo In Light]

3. Simple, large print slogans w/easy to digest messages, centered around internal/external enemies

[jaksavage]

4. They are scared

little children.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

5. Why are fish so wet? -nt

[MindPilot]

6. They are so afraid that a couple of bucks might go to help Mexicans

but don't mind at all that trillions have been stolen from them and given to Iraq/Israel/Saudi etc.

[Brigid]

7. They also believe . . .

that Barack Obama is a Muslim. They must be from a different planet or something. :banghead:

[NewJeffCT]

8. Because they hear the same thing on Rush, Savage, Boortz, or similar

and this just re-affirms things for them.

[lpbk2713]

9. Because they drink the RW Media Hatemonger Kool-Aid

[alfredo]

10. they lack critical thinking. Stupid white guys still believe the hoax

emails.

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/05/hoax-anti-obama.html

[LeftinOH]

11. Their sources of information- Limbaugh, Beck, O'Reilly, etc. don't rely on facts, so

why should they???

[elizfeelinggreat]

12. I believe

someone did say that.


“The intelligence director told me that said, ‘Be prepared to be bombed. Be prepared to go back to the Stone Age’,” President Musharraf said. “I think it was a very rude remark.” The claims come at the end of a week in which relations between the US and Pakistan have sharply deteriorated, and days ahead of the publication of President Musharraf’s memoir, In the Line of Fire, which will be serialised in The Times from Monday.


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article647188.ece


edited to add : I agree with your OP, I just remembered this and wanted to cite it.

[OnyxCollie]

13. They are ignorant, self-centered, xenophobic, gullible, lack critical thinking skills,

watch/listen to extremely biased sources that repeat incessantly the talking points that support their misguided beliefs, and rationalize anything incongruent to their fantasy world to maintain the illusion.

They are defective.

[Marr]

14. I think it's because they *want* to believe these things.

When someone wants to believe a thing, they tend not to be very skeptical in their appraisal. The story you referenced there feeds into that broad, undirected anger that the Conservative movement cultivates.

Have you read What's the Matter with Kansas? The author briefly talks about how Conservative politics can be comforting for a certain type of person. It tells them that they're the salt of the earth; the only true Americans. It also tells them that they have done everything right, and that all their failures are the fault of un-American liberals, minorities, etc.

This story is a good example.

[tom_paine]

15. That is a complex question with a complex answer.

http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/

And we must remember that just because we see through this particular bullshit, that we ourselves are NOT immune to gullibility.

[scrinmaster]

16. Check out the September 11 forum here.

Plenty of liberal :tinfoilhat: in there. Gullible people come in all political stripes.