The older I get, the less tolerant I am with GOP friends/relatives....

[NAO]

10. the book "The Republican Brain"- scientific studies reveal why Cons deny science and ignore facts

This is the best book to come out in a long time. It explains, using empirical scientific research, why conservatives are so often on the wrong side of "the facts".

Excerpt by the author posted at Alternet:

"I can still remember when I first realized how naïve I was in thinking—hoping—that laying out the “facts” would suffice to change politicized minds, and especially Republican ones. It was a typically wonkish, liberal revelation: One based on statistics and data. Only this time, the data were showing, rather awkwardly, that people ignore data and evidence—and often, knowledge and education only make the problem worse..."

"...Let’s face it: We liberals and progressives are absolutely outraged by partisan misinformation. Lies about “death panels.” People seriously thinking that President Obama is a Muslim, not born in the United States. Climate-change denial. Debt ceiling denial. These things drive us crazy, in large part because we can’t comprehend how such intellectual abominations could possibly exist..."

"...The idealistic, liberal, Enlightenment notion that knowledge will save us, or unite us, was even put to a scientific test last year—and it failed badly. Yale researcher Dan Kahan and his colleagues set out to study the relationship between political views, scientific knowledge or reasoning abilities, and opinions on contested scientific issues like global warming..."

The article is here:

The Republican Brain: Why Even Educated Conservatives Deny Science -- and Reality
http://www.alternet.org/story/154252/the_republican_brain:_why_even_educated_conservatives_deny_science_--_and_reality/?page=entire

other articles by the same author discussing different implications of the research:

The Science of Truthiness: Why Conservatives Deny Global Warming
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-mooney/the-science-of-truthiness_b_1379472.html

Want to Understand Republicans? First Understand Evolution
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-mooney/want-to-understand-republ_b_1262542.html

and the book is here:

Want to Understand Republicans? First Understand Evolution
http://www.amazon.com/The-Republican-Brain-Science-Science/dp/1118094514