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8 - Orono Weekly Times Wednesday, June 2 2010 Basic Black by Arthur Black Clowns to the right of us... Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservative. John Stuart Mill Question of the week: are U.S. right wingers -- and I mean the wingtip right wingers -- collectively dumber than the back side of a ditch? The evidence is persuasive: the Birther nutbars; the pack-a-pistol-to-Starbucks clowns. And of course, the ultra-right spokesmouths -- Glenn 'Bonkers' Beck, Sean 'Howler Monkey' Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, aka 'The Loony Loofah'. And hey, on behalf of gender equality: Michelle Bachmann, Sarah Palin and the Queen of Cracker Crazies: Ann Coulter. How is it possible, in any gathering this side of a neoNazi rally, that this lastnamed creature can draw houseflies, let alone a paying audience? She calls Muslims "insane savages," claims that Jews should be "perfected" and says of the weaselly, pasty-faced coward who killed 168 civilians in the Oklahoma City mass murder: "My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is that he did not go to the New York Times building." Ann Coulter ought to be standing at a crossroads in Roswell, New Mexico wearing a sandwich board and an aluminum foil beanie and screaming about intergalactic Space Lizards taking over the earth. Instead, she's making a tidy living speaking to enthusiastic audiences across the continent. Go figure. In the 1860's, philosopher and economist John Stuart Mill took a long look at the blue end of the British political spectrum and concluded the quote that this column began with. A new study conducted by the London School of Economics seems to concur. Satoshi Kanazawa, an evolutionary psychologist at LSE, produced research showing that young adults who identified themselves as 'very liberal' had an average IQ of 106; young adults who called themselves 'very conservative' had an average IQ more than ten points lower. What's more, says Kanazawa, it makes sound biological sense. "We are designed to care only about people we associate with," he says. "Liberalism -- caring about millions of total strangers and giving up money to make sure those strangers do well, is evolutionarily novel." As for conservatives, Kanazawa proposes that they are simply hard-wired to be less philanthropically inclined. "Conservatives tend to act on their evolutionary instincts and tend to favour the interests of their own 'tribe.'" And if you think these are the ravings of an ivory tower Marxist academic, guess again. Kanazawa calls himself "a libertarian with a strong distaste for liberals". But, he says, he's also a scientist, and bound to report the facts as he finds them. In any case, the U.S. right seems to be intent on bleeding to death from repeatedly shooting itself in the foot. Moderate voices have been mum for years and stupidity reigns. A recent poll of Republicans showed that the biggest beef of 87-percent was that federal politicians "think they are smarter than the rest of us." Well, duh. They're supposed to be smarter than the rest of us. That's what being one of 'the elect' means. It does explain however, why Sarah Palin, who is so demonstrably not smarter than the rest of us, remains the front runner for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012. Has she got a chance? "Sarah Palin isn't intellectual enough to be president." That from Jeb Bush, brother of you-know-who and u n d o u b t e d l y an expert in presidential intellectual unsuitability. Conservative pundit George Will says bluntly: "She is not going to be the president and will not be the Republican nominee unless the party wants to lose at least 44 states." David Frum, exspeechwriter for George W., says "I think she has pretty thoroughly proven that she is not up to the job." Them's the facts, but no one on the far right is listening. A hundred and fifty years ago, right wingers didn't take kindly to JS Mill's dissing of conservatives either. So much so that Mill wrote a letter of explanation: I never meant to say that the Conservatives are generally stupid. I meant to say that stupid people are generally conservative. I believe that is so obviously and universally admitted a principle that I hardly think any gentleman will deny it. Alas, we live in an age when reasonable Conservatives -- and gentlemen -- are equally scarce. reliable · responsible · recyclable YOUR OFFICE SUPPLY STORE INKJETS · LASER · RIBBON CARTRIDGES COPY & PRINT CENTER 410 TORONTO ST., NEWCASTLE · 905-987-4781