By my reckoning, the solidly reality-based are a minority, maybe a third of us but almost certainly fewer than half. ... Only a third strongly disbelieve in telepathy and ghosts. Two-thirds of Americans believe that “angels and demons are active in the world.” ... A quarter of Americans believe in witches. Remarkably, the same fraction, or maybe less, believes that the Bible consists mainly of legends and fables—the same proportion that believes U.S. officials were complicit in the 9/11 attacks. ... In the late 1960s and ’70s, the reality-based left more or less won: retreat from Vietnam, civil-rights and environmental-protection laws, increasing legal and cultural equality for women, legal abortion, Keynesian economics triumphant. ... [W]e’re splitting into two different cultures, we in reality-based America—whether the blue part or the smaller red part . . ..
Kurt has it exactly backwards (I'm shocked, shocked I tell you). It's your average Democrat or independent who is more likely to believe in loopy, not Republicans.
Democrats believe in reincarnation, yoga, astrology, spiritual energy and the evil eye 176 to 87 for Republicans in a Pew Research study from 2009, a ratio of 2:1. So-called independents aren't far behind at 163 to 87, for a ratio of 1.87:1.
And when it comes to being in touch with the dead, ghosts and fortune tellers, the story is similar. Democrats outstrip Republicans 163 to 81, also a ratio of 2:1. Independents beat Republicans 143 to 81, for a ratio of 1.76:1.
Apart from the greater prevalence of wacky beliefs among Democrats and independents generally, the results indicate that the much-vaunted independents are much more like the Democrats than they care to admit.
If someone really wanted to understand what accounts for America's turn toward the insane, go there.
If someone really wanted to understand what accounts for America's turn toward the insane, go there.
I compiled the data above from the Pew findings, found here.
