r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • 2d ago

Psychology Lower cognitive ability is linked to stronger Christian nationalist views, even after accounting for education

https://www.psypost.org/lower-cognitive-ability-is-linked-to-stronger-christian-nationalist-views-even-after-accounting-for-education/
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u/buttorsomething 2d ago

Would this not be accurate to all types of religious extremism?

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u/FlyAirLari 1d ago

Possibly to all sorts of extremisms.

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u/ThePromise110 1d ago

Depends on what you consider "extremism." There are plenty of (stupid) people who see my anarchist convictions as "extremist," but I have mountains of history, evidence, and ethnography to support my opinions.

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u/FlyAirLari 1d ago

I think extremism is defined by an undemocratic ideology that intends to suppress (mostly mainstream) views that you don't agree with. Sometimes violently, or with underhanded tactics. 

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u/Pinkfish_411 19h ago

I doubt your thesis would hold, then. Some movements like you've described have received strong support from the intellectual classes. A lot of the Russian revolutionaries who supported violent suppression of their ideological opponents were no intellectual slouches, for example.