It seems to me that neuroscience has recently discovered the conditions that explain the differences we see in this thread, that conservatives and liberals have different kinds of brains and that the differences are in precisely two places the function of which correlate highly with the nature in which those differences express. Here is something from a time when this kind of analysis was getting started:
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Professor Rees said that although it was not precise enough to be able to predict someone's stance simply from a scan, there was 'a strong correlation that reaches all our scientific tests of significance'.
'The anterior cingulate is a part of the brain that is on the middle surface of the brain at the front and we found that the thickness of the grey matter, where the nerve cells of neurons are, was thicker the more people described themselves as liberal or left wing and thinner the more they described themselves as conservative or right wing,' he told the programme.
'The amygdala is a part of the brain which is very old and very ancient and thought to be very primitive and to do with the detection of emotions. The right amygdala was larger in those people who described themselves as conservative.
Colin Firth commissioned the study as a light-hearted experiment but that has now developed into something more serious
'It is very significant because it does suggest there is something about political attitudes that are either encoded in our brain structure through our experience or that our brain structure in some way determines or results in our political attitudes.
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Further research into moral attitudes between liberals and conservatives have shown that conservatives have three to four more areas of moral sensitivity than liberals do, including the reaction of disgust to things unclean, a pronounced tendency to value loyalty and team spirit and valuing the tribe over the individual.
This business of recognizing and feeling disgust toward difference from team norms are behind what folk like Colbert call truthiness, a gut feeling that what a conservative believes is true in and of itself because it would be disgusting if it weren't so. This link between emotional need for security, an absence of the discomfort of feeling, had here we imply disgust, creates an unconscious emotional bias. Thus, not only do conservatives feel they are right, they also feel superior because they are right. In short, the brains of liberals do not act like this because the part of the brain that overrides emotional reactions to things over reasoning is suppressed. The part of the brain that performs this function is more developed in liberals.
The result is that on average liberals can reason and have their minds changed by fact and conservatives can't. Their beliefs are religious and irrational by nature.
The conservative mind, therefore, is at the root of the expression about ostriches sticking their head in the sand and having their asses blown off. The sad part is that they will get all our asses blown off too rather than take a hit to their ego.
What to do about this is the question I think real thinkers have and are pondering. How do we save ourselves as a society that is being taken over by the insane folk who have so altered reality as to become dangerous.
These are folk who have no shame, like xBiffx here, who can argue his imbecility to the end of time and never feel a thing.
I do not know for sure how somebody so dense can be helped but it doesn't seem beyond the pail to me that massive ridicule over years and years could do any real damage. He has no shame because his brain will not let him feel, so maybe he should have shame injected artificially.
One thing is clear. To folk who can reason the unreasoning folk who see out of disgust, make themselves profoundly disgusting and they are sure to be told by somebody. And doesn't tough love, that liberals seem incapable of expressing, seem like just what the doctor ordered. What is wrong with telling folk whose mental condition threatens our survival they are worthless disgusting shit? It's exactly how they see you liberals.
==========================
Professor Rees said that although it was not precise enough to be able to predict someone's stance simply from a scan, there was 'a strong correlation that reaches all our scientific tests of significance'.
'The anterior cingulate is a part of the brain that is on the middle surface of the brain at the front and we found that the thickness of the grey matter, where the nerve cells of neurons are, was thicker the more people described themselves as liberal or left wing and thinner the more they described themselves as conservative or right wing,' he told the programme.
'The amygdala is a part of the brain which is very old and very ancient and thought to be very primitive and to do with the detection of emotions. The right amygdala was larger in those people who described themselves as conservative.
Colin Firth commissioned the study as a light-hearted experiment but that has now developed into something more serious
'It is very significant because it does suggest there is something about political attitudes that are either encoded in our brain structure through our experience or that our brain structure in some way determines or results in our political attitudes.
==============
Further research into moral attitudes between liberals and conservatives have shown that conservatives have three to four more areas of moral sensitivity than liberals do, including the reaction of disgust to things unclean, a pronounced tendency to value loyalty and team spirit and valuing the tribe over the individual.
This business of recognizing and feeling disgust toward difference from team norms are behind what folk like Colbert call truthiness, a gut feeling that what a conservative believes is true in and of itself because it would be disgusting if it weren't so. This link between emotional need for security, an absence of the discomfort of feeling, had here we imply disgust, creates an unconscious emotional bias. Thus, not only do conservatives feel they are right, they also feel superior because they are right. In short, the brains of liberals do not act like this because the part of the brain that overrides emotional reactions to things over reasoning is suppressed. The part of the brain that performs this function is more developed in liberals.
The result is that on average liberals can reason and have their minds changed by fact and conservatives can't. Their beliefs are religious and irrational by nature.
The conservative mind, therefore, is at the root of the expression about ostriches sticking their head in the sand and having their asses blown off. The sad part is that they will get all our asses blown off too rather than take a hit to their ego.
What to do about this is the question I think real thinkers have and are pondering. How do we save ourselves as a society that is being taken over by the insane folk who have so altered reality as to become dangerous.
These are folk who have no shame, like xBiffx here, who can argue his imbecility to the end of time and never feel a thing.
I do not know for sure how somebody so dense can be helped but it doesn't seem beyond the pail to me that massive ridicule over years and years could do any real damage. He has no shame because his brain will not let him feel, so maybe he should have shame injected artificially.
One thing is clear. To folk who can reason the unreasoning folk who see out of disgust, make themselves profoundly disgusting and they are sure to be told by somebody. And doesn't tough love, that liberals seem incapable of expressing, seem like just what the doctor ordered. What is wrong with telling folk whose mental condition threatens our survival they are worthless disgusting shit? It's exactly how they see you liberals.
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