Many conservatives have a loose relationship with facts. The right-wing denial of what most people think of as accepted reality starts with political issues: As recently as 2016, 45 percent of Republicans still believed that the Affordable Care Act included “death panels” (it doesn’t). A 2015 poll found that 54 percent of GOP primary voters believed then-President Obama to be a Muslim (…he isn’t).
Why are conservatives so susceptible to misinformation? The right wing’s disregard for facts and reasoning is not a matter of stupidity or lack of education. College-educated Republicans are actually more likely than less-educated Republicans to have believed that Barack Obama was a Muslim and that “death panels” were part of the ACA. And for political conservatives, but not for liberals, greater knowledge of science and math is associated with a greater likelihood of dismissing what almost all scientists believe about the human causation of global warming.___
Wait so we are going back to thinking it’s feigned ignorance?
At this point if time I was sure it’s maliciousness and they know exactly lies it involves as long as it suits their white America.
Considering it straight up malice is also excessively reductive, because while assuming it is a good way to predict their actions it’s not quite what’s going on. They have certain (bigoted, obviously; I’m not trying to whitewash conservatism) axioms in their brains and their beliefs will freely change to suit those axioms.