I think a big contributing factor is the articles they read are written in a way to make them feel as though they are "intellectually grappling with" the material and developing "nuance" when really it was just a bunch of keys jangling in front of their face. I read a really good essay at one point about how Scott Alexander (the last psychiatrist guy) structures his essays in this way to make you feel as though you're being really thoughtful while not doing any thinking whatsoever. Malcolm Gladwell also has this style. This is a deep cut but it reminds me of this silicon valley triumphalist tweet from 2015:

Uber, the world’s largest taxi company, owns no vehicles. Facebook, the world’s most popular media owner, creates no content. Alibaba, the most valuable retailer, has no inventory. And Airbnb, the world’s largest accommodation provider, owns no real estate.

Something interesting is happening.

It's all in the end line. "Something interesting is happening" - that is the ultimate vibe of the liberal article. What is interesting about it? What is a tangible conclusion? It just throws a bunch of phenomena at you then does not actually analyze it. But because you learned of all these disparate phenomena then drew conceptual similarities between them you have done a thought. Libs learn that this is what public intellectualism looks like.

They agree with all the experts on TV, how could they be stupid?

Because they believe they have already won. It really comes down to that. "Why would you pick communism, it lost already?" is what they think. Picking the winning sides makes you smart.

Some of them are plenty smart - they got good grades and went to good colleges and have professional jobs. They're engineers, teachers, what have you. And they're probably perfectly good at their jobs, and they think because they've made it that far and see so many people doing worse, they assume they're just better.

As said, "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it."

A lot of liberals can see issues in society, problems. People being oppressed, people unable to afford to live, increasing isolation etc.

But they resist “feel-good” solutions to these problems, that people less educated than them might come up with. Housing too expensive? The answer is clearly not to provide free or subsidized housing. That sounds good, but it would cause untold economic pain, making things worse. Instead we need a 5 year committee exploration into tax breaks for first time home buyers with a small business. This is just rational behavior. Intelligent behavior.

This type of logic can be applied in every situation, where they add “depth” and “complexity” to every situation, so that they can rationalize their slavish adherence to the status quo, and so that they can feel superior to the unenlightened populists.

They only know how to be anti-chud and since they are largely dumb asf you get to automatically feel smartasf with like no effort. It's not about politics it's about dress-up

dunning-kruger effect

Fascists are their only point of comparison, and fascists are stereotyped as rube hillbillies being tricked by Trump or Trump-like oligarchs.

Their treats tell them they are smart for consuming the treats, especially if they emulate the protagonists in the treats.

See the Richard and Mortimer fandom for one example, or for something more (directly) political, The West Wing.

There's a man in a suit on TV telling them they're smart

They think the "marketplace of ideas" is a really smart idea that produces smart solutions and that by believing in the marketplace of ideas they are smart (because that's what a smart person would believe, obviously)

a lot of libs who are ideologically committed to being libs were affluent and got good grades in school. being a liberal isn't a reflection of your intelligence it's about socioeconomic status, there are plenty of 'smart' liberals.

In the same way that conservatives are animated by xenophobia and racism, liberals are animated by condescension and pride.

You see this in the way that urban dwellers often look down on country folk as dumb hicks. They're backwards savages who vote for the red team instead of enlightened intellectuals. It also helps to justify their atrocities without outright racism. By reducing Palestinian lives to a number and framing it as a tough decision, they can justify war crimes and still feel good. They view themselves as the smart intellectuals making hard decisions because the dumb rabble can't.

History ended 34 years ago

If libs were so smart they'd have the sense to appeal to actual succdemmery. You can probably get an extra 50 years out of this dying empire with that.

Because they compare themselves to the dumbest person they know, or the dumbest person they see on tv. They've never heard the adage "If you're the smartest person in the room, find a better room."

Here's an old classic, relevant post: https://hexbear.net/comment/3736815