News flash - Americans more gullible than ever

I had to laugh when I found this page on the web. (It's author seems amazed by the number of hits he/she has gotten and complains that the site may have to come down. If it does, I have archived it and will post it on my blog.) It's "proof" that liberals are smart and conservatives are stupid. (Once the page showed up, you had to know that a refutation would shortly follow.) Of course, generalizations like this are always useless, but in this case the generalization itself is based upon faulty evidence.

The data aren't really useful anyway. For example, this page supposedly "proves" that IQ distribution does not correlate with political party voting patterns. However, if you look at the underlying data you discover that some states had such small samples that no useful conclusions could be extrapolated from the data anyway. Furthermore, the deeper you delve into these "studies" the more curious the data gets.

The first article also attempts to prove that the "family values" issue of the Republican party is a hypocrisy because the divorce rates are supposedly higher in red states than in blue states. Even if it were true, all it would prove is that people divorced more frequently in red states. The causes of divorce are so varied that without any further information, it's impossible to derive any "meaning" from these statements. For example, some states make it easier to divorce than others (no-fault divorce, for example). Religious reasons may depress divorce rates in one area more than another. One study shows that divorce rates are affected by the custody laws of the state in which the divorces take place.

None of this, however, has any relevance to "family values" (whatever those are) anyway. What, for example, do divorce rates have to do with desiring a political candidate who tells the truth or appears trustworthy? Or with one's opinions with regard to gay marriage? Does a divorce disqualify one from having opinions? Or somehow make those opinions less valid?

Personally I think all of this simply proves that, no matter what your political persuasion, you are probably surrounded by many gullible fools.