Public health disparities provide an important lens for understanding social and political change in the USA. Using individual-level medical data and death records, this study shows that conservative Americans experienced worsening health and higher mortality than liberals during the 2010s. Here we find evidence consistent with two potential mechanisms. First, demographic realignment within political coalitions brought less healthy individuals into the conservative camp. Yet by the 2020s, demographic change, public policy and COVID-19 do not fully account for the widening gap in mortality rates. Public opinion data are consistent with a second mechanism: declining trust in medical professionals among right-leaning individuals, including lower willingness to seek care, follow clinical advice or believe in medication effectiveness, even for issues unrelated to COVID-19. These patterns suggest that growing ideological divides in health behaviours are leaving conservative Americans increasingly vulnerable to preventable health risks. Using individual-level medical data and death records, this study finds that conservatives in the USA experienced worse health and higher mortality than liberals during the 2010s. No significant gaps in biomarkers or mortality were present before the 2010s.
…reality isn’t something that can be bound to any one idea or perspective. Reality for, say, a cow is going to be a hell of a lot different from reality for any human being, and neither perspective is any more or less valid than the other
I’m reminded of the anecdote of Samuel Johnson’s reaction to the assertion that idealism could not be refuted - he kicked a large rock and said, “I refute it thus.”
When I said that reality has a left-wing bias, I meant reality. Not the beliefs or subjective experiences that all too many erroneously promote to the position of nominal facts, but actual, demonstrable facts.
Like, for instance, vaccination prevents disease. Climate change is real. Doctors are not part of some international conspiracy to fool you into wasting your money while keeping you away from the miracle cure Ivermectin. Trump lost in 2020. Transgender people are going to continue to exist no matter what your personal opinion of the matter might be. Society is healthier, stronger and more stable when the gap between rich and poor is narrow and everyone is guaranteed food, shelter and medical care. And so on.
In all of those cases and many more, the left wing position corresponds with the actual, demonstrable facts, while the right-wing position does not.
That’s exactly what I meant, and all that I meant.
Leftist beliefs align more nicely with reality as opposed to rightist beliefs, it doesn’t mean that reality itself adheres strictly to leftist beliefs. Reality governs itself independently of all thought, no matter what patterns and similarities we can interpret between the two. It would be far more appropriate to say that leftism has a reality bias as opposed to the other way around.
I’m reminded of the anecdote of Samuel Johnson’s reaction to the assertion that idealism could not be refuted - he kicked a large rock and said, “I refute it thus.”
When I said that reality has a left-wing bias, I meant reality. Not the beliefs or subjective experiences that all too many erroneously promote to the position of nominal facts, but actual, demonstrable facts.
Like, for instance, vaccination prevents disease. Climate change is real. Doctors are not part of some international conspiracy to fool you into wasting your money while keeping you away from the miracle cure Ivermectin. Trump lost in 2020. Transgender people are going to continue to exist no matter what your personal opinion of the matter might be. Society is healthier, stronger and more stable when the gap between rich and poor is narrow and everyone is guaranteed food, shelter and medical care. And so on.
In all of those cases and many more, the left wing position corresponds with the actual, demonstrable facts, while the right-wing position does not.
That’s exactly what I meant, and all that I meant.
Leftist beliefs align more nicely with reality as opposed to rightist beliefs, it doesn’t mean that reality itself adheres strictly to leftist beliefs. Reality governs itself independently of all thought, no matter what patterns and similarities we can interpret between the two. It would be far more appropriate to say that leftism has a reality bias as opposed to the other way around.