I have been doing some research of late on the nature of the conservative brain. Know thy enemy as they say. And as a random choice of references to a book just ready for reading on this topic I randomly selected this from the Daily Kos:
The Conservative Brain
by hannahFollow .
So, Chris Mooney is publishing a book on the conservative brain, linking it with the Republican party and the denial of the theory of global warming. But, as usual, he's looking at results and looking for causes that, from where I sit, are merely correlations.
Well, I think we need to understand three points in order to understand why conservatives act this way. And I will list them here, before going into them in more detail:
1.Conservatism is a Defensive Ideology, and Appeals to People Who Want Certainty and Resist Change.
2. "Morality" Impels Climate Denial -- and in particular, conservative Individualism.
3.Fox News is the Key "Feedback Mechanism" -- whereby people already inclined to believe false things get all the license and affirmation they need.
And what I'd argue is that the people who have found a home in the Republican party are people who suffer from some sensory deficits. That is, they are lacking most, if not all, of the following:
sense of time
sense of direction
sense of order
sense of connection
sense of surroundings
sense of place
sense of sequence
sense of temperature
sense of rhythm
sense of situation
They exist in the center of the universe, looking out and, if they don't see something, it doesn't exist. So, since they can't see themselves, their sense of self is missing, as well.
Why have these sensorially deprived people found a home in the Republican party? I suspect it's because, being endemically uncertain about their situation and insecure, they appreciate having a leader to tell them what to do and that's what the "re" in the word Republican stands for, a "rex" or leader of and from the public.
=============
Another study in England suggests that the fear part of the brain is larger in conservatives, which all ties in.
It seems clear to me that if the conservative brain is out of whack and irrational, we need to do something to to try to prevent defectives from running the show. The first issue is that because paranoids are control freaks, they are going to invest huge amounts of energy to resist this.
Now just as it's challenging to get a drunk into rehabilitation, it is going to always be preferable that folk go to the doctor themselves.
So how do we inform folk who are defective in their vision to see that themselves? Is there any way we can help them to help themselves?
Some thoughts I have:
Suppose their brains really are defective when it comes to political thinking and they tend to vote paranoid schizophrenic. They are not going to want to see it if we call it as a disease. Denial is going to kick right in. Folk are fearful of having something wrong with them. So surely there are conditions in which it is evolutionary beneficial to be defective and we need to look for them. The paranoid may sometimes maybe function like geese, warning of impending danger. We know also that just because you're paranoid doesn't mean folk aren't out to get you. But we don't want the geese in control of nuclear weapons.
As stated above, one of the characteristics of conservatives is that they don't see themselves. I tell them this all the time and they say they don't see it. Well duh.
So I thought as my theme for this thread I would go with the following idea:
We can ask ourselves how we came to think as we do. My guess is that conservatives won't have given that matter very much thought at all and that what they think is what they have been told to think. But that's a terrible place to be because you could have been told anything. This means that a conservative has no more idea that what he believes isn't as absurd as the garbage some suicide bomber that grew up in a madrassa believes.
So what I thought is that we can ask ourselves how we came to believe what we believe. Are we questioners, self examiners, self critics or have we just always known what we know. Recognizing that you have never really looked at what you believe, torn it apart from within, could begin to indicate to those like that they are blind and don't really know anything.
Did you have to destroy everything you were taught as an inculcated delusion that couldn't hold up under honest self scrutiny? Have you ever been plagued by doubt? Are you still have a literal belief in the religion you grew up in?
Take a look around. Aren't those others out there you fear just like you and isn't it you they are afraid of? Why would anybody want to really be like that, deny reality because you are afraid. This is a well known psychological phenomena. It's called the ostrich with its head in the sand. Wouldn't it make you proud of yourself to grow up past that?
The Conservative Brain
by hannahFollow .
So, Chris Mooney is publishing a book on the conservative brain, linking it with the Republican party and the denial of the theory of global warming. But, as usual, he's looking at results and looking for causes that, from where I sit, are merely correlations.
Well, I think we need to understand three points in order to understand why conservatives act this way. And I will list them here, before going into them in more detail:
1.Conservatism is a Defensive Ideology, and Appeals to People Who Want Certainty and Resist Change.
2. "Morality" Impels Climate Denial -- and in particular, conservative Individualism.
3.Fox News is the Key "Feedback Mechanism" -- whereby people already inclined to believe false things get all the license and affirmation they need.
And what I'd argue is that the people who have found a home in the Republican party are people who suffer from some sensory deficits. That is, they are lacking most, if not all, of the following:
sense of time
sense of direction
sense of order
sense of connection
sense of surroundings
sense of place
sense of sequence
sense of temperature
sense of rhythm
sense of situation
They exist in the center of the universe, looking out and, if they don't see something, it doesn't exist. So, since they can't see themselves, their sense of self is missing, as well.
Why have these sensorially deprived people found a home in the Republican party? I suspect it's because, being endemically uncertain about their situation and insecure, they appreciate having a leader to tell them what to do and that's what the "re" in the word Republican stands for, a "rex" or leader of and from the public.
=============
Another study in England suggests that the fear part of the brain is larger in conservatives, which all ties in.
It seems clear to me that if the conservative brain is out of whack and irrational, we need to do something to to try to prevent defectives from running the show. The first issue is that because paranoids are control freaks, they are going to invest huge amounts of energy to resist this.
Now just as it's challenging to get a drunk into rehabilitation, it is going to always be preferable that folk go to the doctor themselves.
So how do we inform folk who are defective in their vision to see that themselves? Is there any way we can help them to help themselves?
Some thoughts I have:
Suppose their brains really are defective when it comes to political thinking and they tend to vote paranoid schizophrenic. They are not going to want to see it if we call it as a disease. Denial is going to kick right in. Folk are fearful of having something wrong with them. So surely there are conditions in which it is evolutionary beneficial to be defective and we need to look for them. The paranoid may sometimes maybe function like geese, warning of impending danger. We know also that just because you're paranoid doesn't mean folk aren't out to get you. But we don't want the geese in control of nuclear weapons.
As stated above, one of the characteristics of conservatives is that they don't see themselves. I tell them this all the time and they say they don't see it. Well duh.
So I thought as my theme for this thread I would go with the following idea:
We can ask ourselves how we came to think as we do. My guess is that conservatives won't have given that matter very much thought at all and that what they think is what they have been told to think. But that's a terrible place to be because you could have been told anything. This means that a conservative has no more idea that what he believes isn't as absurd as the garbage some suicide bomber that grew up in a madrassa believes.
So what I thought is that we can ask ourselves how we came to believe what we believe. Are we questioners, self examiners, self critics or have we just always known what we know. Recognizing that you have never really looked at what you believe, torn it apart from within, could begin to indicate to those like that they are blind and don't really know anything.
Did you have to destroy everything you were taught as an inculcated delusion that couldn't hold up under honest self scrutiny? Have you ever been plagued by doubt? Are you still have a literal belief in the religion you grew up in?
Take a look around. Aren't those others out there you fear just like you and isn't it you they are afraid of? Why would anybody want to really be like that, deny reality because you are afraid. This is a well known psychological phenomena. It's called the ostrich with its head in the sand. Wouldn't it make you proud of yourself to grow up past that?
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