Conquer Club

A new study by the Pew Research Center finds that the GOP is alienating scientists to a startling degree.

Only six percent of America's scientists identify themselves as Republicans; fifty-five percent call themselves Democrats. By comparison, 23 percent of the overall public considers itself Republican, while 35 percent say they're Democrats.

The ideological discrepancies were similar. Nine percent of scientists said they were "conservative" while 52 percent described themselves as "liberal," and 14 percent "very liberal." The corresponding figures for the general public were 37, 20 and 5 percent.

Among the general public, moderates and independents ranked higher than any party or ideology. But among scientists, there were considerably more Democrats (55%) than independents (32%) and Republicans (6%) put together. There were also more liberals (52%) than moderates (35%) and conservatives (9%) combined.

"These results were not a complete surprise," said Scott Keeter, Director of Survey Research at Pew, in an interview with the Huffington Post. He said they can be mostly attributed to "the difference between Democratic and Republican parties with respect to issues."

Juan_Bottom wrote:Does this mean that reality has a liberal bias?

Juan_Bottom wrote:Does this mean that reality has a liberal bias?

Night Strike wrote:It's not a surprise when new scientists are taught by those who live and breathe big-government liberalism as that's how they get funded to do their "research". Poll only scientists who work in the private sector and have to actually use their knowledge to develop marketable products and there will be a LOT more emphasis on free market principles.

Night Strike wrote:It's not a surprise when new scientists are taught by those who live and breathe big-government liberalism as that's how they get funded to do their "research". Poll only scientists who work in the private sector and have to actually use their knowledge to develop marketable products and there will be a LOT more emphasis on free market principles.

Night Strike wrote:It's not a surprise when new scientists are taught by those who live and breathe big-government liberalism as that's how they get funded to do their "research". Poll only scientists who work in the private sector and have to actually use their knowledge to develop marketable products and there will be a LOT more emphasis on free market principles.

Metsfanmax wrote:

Night Strike wrote:It's not a surprise when new scientists are taught by those who live and breathe big-government liberalism as that's how they get funded to do their "research". Poll only scientists who work in the private sector and have to actually use their knowledge to develop marketable products and there will be a LOT more emphasis on free market principles.

Why do you place research in quotation marks? Are you implying that most scientists do not get funded to actually learn things about nature?

saxitoxin wrote:61% of High School Dropouts are Democrats - http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010 ... marsh.html

looks like they've nailed both extremes - idiots and the intelligentsia

Juan_Bottom wrote:I would hypothesize that because drop-outs make less money, even for the same work, that it would make good sense for them to support Democrats. Overall the Democratic party is far more pro-labor than the Republican party. You'll also notice that according to those graphs, as a person's net worth goes up, they are more likely to support the republican party. It think it's all related.

Night Strike wrote:

Juan_Bottom wrote:I would hypothesize that because drop-outs make less money, even for the same work, that it would make good sense for them to support Democrats. Overall the Democratic party is far more pro-labor than the Republican party. You'll also notice that according to those graphs, as a person's net worth goes up, they are more likely to support the republican party. It think it's all related.

Correct. That's what happens when people realize that they want to actually be able to choose what to do with the money they earned instead of handing more and more of it over to the government without any choice.

BigBallinStalin wrote:The study was a sample of 2500 from the AAAS...

Juan_Bottom wrote:

Night Strike wrote:

Juan_Bottom wrote:I would hypothesize that because drop-outs make less money, even for the same work, that it would make good sense for them to support Democrats. Overall the Democratic party is far more pro-labor than the Republican party. You'll also notice that according to those graphs, as a person's net worth goes up, they are more likely to support the republican party. It think it's all related.

Correct. That's what happens when people realize that they want to actually be able to choose what to do with the money they earned instead of handing more and more of it over to the government without any choice.

There's also a correlation between wealth hoarding and impoverishing those people who have none. For example, does anyone really believe that the three Waltons actually earn 400 billion dollars a year while their workers are on food stamps? I hope not.

Juan wrote:I've dated single moms before, and I wasn't sitting there holding their hands while also judging them the whole time. That stuff doesn't bother me, because it reveals character.

macbone wrote:So what are the implications here? That being a Republican is unscientific? So then 6% of scientists are also unscientific? I'd be curious to see a breakdown by specialty.

What about other political affiliations? Greens? Anarchists? How many refuse to associate themselves with any political party altogether?

In the 1968 election, Richard Nixon won the votes of 31 percent of physicists, 42 percent of biologists, 52 percent of geologists, and 62 percent of agricultural scientists (compared with 43.4 percent of the popular vote).

Juan_Bottom wrote:

saxitoxin wrote:61% of High School Dropouts are Democrats - http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010 ... marsh.html

looks like they've nailed both extremes - idiots and the intelligentsia

I'll defend them. Just because someone drops out of school that doesn't make them stupid. Everyone makes mistakes, but it's how you react to them that make the person. I've dated single moms before, and I wasn't sitting there holding their hands while also judging them the whole time. That stuff doesn't bother me, because it reveals character. So for the same reason I wont judge someone that I don't know simply because they dropped out.
Dude, 2Pac was a drop out. 2Pac.

I would hypothesize that because drop-outs make less money, even for the same work, that it would make good sense for them to support Democrats. Overall the Democratic party is far more pro-labor than the Republican party. You'll also notice that according to those graphs, as a person's net worth goes up, they are more likely to support the republican party. It think it's all related.