One thing has puzzled me for a while. It has to do with what really constitutes social conservatism. It is perfectly logic that people who are anti-gay would often also be anti-immigrant, anti-abortion, favouring punishment over prevention, etc. Basically just classic tribal conservatism.
But what about the environment and the climate?
If you meet a climate denier, said person almost inevitably seems to be from the hard social conservative right. I'm talking about the real climate deniers - the ones who think it is a hoax - not the business conservatives who know that climate change is real but just don't want to do anything about it.
But why? What is the inherent logic behind this? Any takers?
"The politicians and media sources I trust to agree with me on socially conservative issues say it is a hoax, and it would cause cognitive dissonance for me to trust them on social conservatism but not on climate change, so I have to believe climate change is a hoax, and I'm too science-ignorant (like most people, including most people who agree climate change is real) to be able to form a coherent thought on the issue by myself."
