{"id":55862,"date":"2026-10-04T15:36:29","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T15:36:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/?p=55862"},"modified":"2026-10-04T15:36:29","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T15:36:29","slug":"cognitive-ability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/2026\/10\/04\/cognitive-ability\/","title":{"rendered":"Cognitive Ability"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Intro]
\n[Low Bass Drone \/ Organ \/ Sparse Electric Guitar]<\/p>\n

Think…
\n(Before you blink)
\nWhat makes us believe…
\n(You can conceive?)<\/p>\n

Cognitive ability
\n(Showin’ off its fragility)<\/p>\n

[Verse 1]
\nThere’s a world of information
\n(Coming through the door)
\nBut more information
\n(Doesn’t always mean more)<\/p>\n

You can know the facts
\n(And still deny)
\nYou can see the evidence
\n(And ask why?)<\/p>\n

Simple little stories
\n(Can be easy to believe)
\nComplex little systems
\n(Are harder to perceive)<\/p>\n

Feedback loops
\n(And probabilities)
\nLong-term trends
\n(And nonlinearities)<\/p>\n

[Refrain]
\nNot simply ignorance
\n(Often it’s more)
\nLacking any tolerance
\n(Preferring blood and gore)<\/p>\n

Cognitive ability
\n(Lacking sensibility)
\nChristian nationalism
\n(Lacking humane vision)<\/p>\n

[Verse 2]
\nA thermometer says one thing
\n(A politician says another)
\nA scientist shows the evidence
\n(Nature is our mother)<\/p>\n

Trust becomes the battlefield
\n(Who do you believe?)
\nThe institution gets rejected
\n(Because you don’t agree)<\/p>\n

[Pre-Chorus]
\nIf the story fits the identity
\n(The evidence can wait)
\nIf the evidence threatens identity
\n(It becomes something to hate)<\/p>\n

[Refrain]
\nNot simply ignorance
\n(Often it’s more)
\nLacking any tolerance
\n(Preferring blood and gore)<\/p>\n

Cognitive ability
\n(Lacking sensibility)
\nChristian nationalism
\n(Lacking humane vision)<\/p>\n

[Bridge]
\n[Beat Drops \/ Distorted Organ \/ Whispered Vocals]<\/p>\n

Less capacity…
\n(Complicates complexity)<\/p>\n

Lacking cognition
\n(Void of any wisdom?)<\/p>\n

[Instrumental]
\n[Fast Psychedelic Guitar \/ Bass Pulse \/ Drum Fills]<\/p>\n

Think!
\n(Before you blink)<\/p>\n

Question!
\n(Your education)
\n… or lack thereof<\/p>\n

(And what about love?)<\/p>\n

[Pre-Chorus]
\nAnd that’s where intuition
\n(Can lead you astray)
\nBecause complicated systems
\n(Don’t always behave that way)<\/p>\n

[Refrain]
\nNot simply ignorance
\n(Often it’s more)
\nLacking any tolerance
\n(Preferring blood and gore)<\/p>\n

Cognitive ability
\n(Lacking sensibility)
\nChristian nationalism
\n(Lacking humane vision)<\/p>\n

[Breakdown]
\n[Half-Time \/ Spoken Vocal]<\/p>\n

Cognition…
\nWhat can you process?
\n(More or less)<\/p>\n

Recognition…
\n(Of what you possess)<\/p>\n

Cognitive ability
\n(Showin’ off its fragility)<\/p>\n

[Final Bridge]
\n[Band Builds \/ Crowd Vocals]<\/p>\n

Think beyond the tribe!
\n(Think to what you proscribe!)<\/p>\n

Think beyond the certainty
\n(… till you find clarity)<\/p>\n

[Final Refrain]
\nNot simply ignorance
\n(Often it’s more)
\nLacking any tolerance
\n(Preferring blood and gore)<\/p>\n

Cognitive ability
\n(Lacking sensibility)
\nChristian nationalism
\n(Lacking humane vision)<\/p>\n

[Outro]
\nNot simply ignorance
\n(If it’s on purpose)
\nNot simply intelligence
\n(If you choose to lose)<\/p>\n

Cognitive ability
\n(Needs humility)
\nReasoning without reflection
\n(Can become a weapon)<\/p>\n

[Organ \/ Guitar Feedback \/ Fading Drum Beat]<\/p>\n

Cognitive ability
\n(Showin’ off its fragility)<\/p>\n

[Final Whisper]
\nCognitive ability…
\n(Needs humane vision.)
\nFace-to-face reality
\n(Moral of the lesson)<\/p>\n

\n
\n \"Cognitive
\n <\/a>
\n<\/figure>\n

About the Song
\nCognitive Ability, Christian Nationalism & Climate Change Denial<\/p>\n

A 2026 study by sociologist S. L. Perry finds a significant negative association between verbal cognitive ability and Christian nationalist beliefs in the United States.<\/p>\n

That finding raises an important question:<\/p>\n

What does cognition have to do with climate change denial?<\/p>\n

Climate science is extraordinarily complex. Understanding it requires processing interconnected systems, probabilities, feedbacks, long-term trends, and evidence that cannot simply be evaluated through everyday experience.<\/p>\n

This creates several pathways toward climate skepticism:<\/p>\n

\ud83e\udde0 Intuitive thinking can favor simple narratives over complex scientific evidence.<\/p>\n

\u271d\ufe0f Christian nationalist ideology can reinforce distrust of secular scientific and academic institutions.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udee1\ufe0f Motivated reasoning can allow people with substantial cognitive ability to construct sophisticated defenses of beliefs that are deeply connected to their political, religious, or cultural identity.<\/p>\n

The result is a paradox: Less cognitive capacity can make complex science harder to process. Greater cognitive capacity can make existing beliefs harder to dislodge.<\/p>\n

The problem is therefore not simply ignorance.<\/p>\n

It is the interaction of cognition, ideology, identity, institutional trust, and reasoning.<\/p>\n

Cognitive Ability, Christian Nationalism, and Climate Change Denial<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

From the album “Present Tense<\/a>“<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Intro] [Low Bass Drone \/ Organ \/ Sparse Electric Guitar] Think… (Before you blink) What makes us believe… (You can conceive?) Cognitive ability (Showin’ off its fragility) [Verse 1] There’s a world of information (Coming through the door) But more information (Doesn’t always mean more) You can know the facts (And still deny) You can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55862"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55883,"href":"http:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55862\/revisions\/55883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}