New study/experiment. Uber conservatives now get a diagnosis?
 

http://www.tbo.com/news/nationworld/MGBA1FNEE6F.html



Wow...just wow. I always thought political leanings were due to brain functioning ability and non-ability. I have a friend that has become anything fundamentalist. I knew it had to be biological because she isn't stupid. I think it was because of sustaining some brain damage due to a car accident. Is this right? Hmmmmmm......


Now we can diagnose them and give them meds.? For their political "condition"? That would be awesome. We could start diagnoseing and curing people of their political ridiculousness? Yeah!!!! Or we could reduce it to a brain disorder or damage?

Ok who wants to kick my ass first?

Gosh. In this deeply fractured society, it is now an option to believe that the other side is not just incorrect, not just wrong, not even just stupid, but actually broken.

Believe what you want. And then get ready for the twister.

We can't survive like this. We can't function like this. We can't live our lives believing that everybody else is a broken, sick fuck. It's not gonna work. We can't educate our children, we can't defend ourselves from enemies, we can't help the unfortunate.

Yesterday we had a study showing that almost all adult men avoid lost, crying children in malls. Why: they expect they will be charged with being a pedophile.

We simply can't go on like this. It won't end well.

The people who believe differently than you are perfectly normal people. Someday, you may need to ask them for help. What will be the result? Will they help you? Someday, they may ask you for help. Will you help them?

How are we going to come together? Especially if there comes a time when we really need to?

Is this really what you think and want? Everyone who doesn't think like you should be diagnosed, drugged, and/or considered brain damaged?

I asked Spexxvet to stop with the laundry lists of what those 'others' think and want, and try discussion. If we don't continue to acknowledge our common humanity, our common points of reference, and agree to discuss issues with some courtesy and civility, what will happen to us?

Thank you, UT, for putting it better than I could.

Yeah- just a joke....
This study is just a sign of the times......
What I really think- people will do anything to discredit others this close to election time. Who funded it?

That's what I really think.......
;)

Oh and some of my best friends have very different political opinions from me....that never stopped us from trusting each other's judgement, giving or receiving help, or anything else......

Poking fun....pokes back. Ow!!!

im in ur brainz ..................


................ makin u kunservativez

I now quit stark raving sarcasm....it's too dry and it does not work on the internet. 9 times out of 10.

Guess it's just too close to the terrible truth for some.

Well maybe you should quit doing dirty laundry with abstractions and ideas- try using Tide.

:)

Michael "The Skeptic" Shermer wrote a piece in Scientific American, on Confirmation Bias, specifically: how does it work? They used fMRI to study the brain activity of two groups, representing (based on their self-description) staunch left and right wingers.

They asked each group to evaluate both Bush and Kerry being caught in an obvious contradiction from a previoulsy stated position. Predictably, both groups bent over backwards to excuse their own guy, while crucifying the other.

The fMRI revealed that they did not use the part of their brain that evaluates things with logic and reason. They used the parts of their brain that process emotions, conflict resolution, and moral judgment. There was also a strong activation of their pleasure/reward centers.

Edit:
This "use versus them" mentality has been nagging at me lately. I'm afraid it may be hard-wired into our brains.

At the risk of being slammed as a one-issue fanatic, I really think this is something we all need to talk about, and think about, seriously. What better place than the internet, for different people and opinions to come together? When something is on my mind, it surfaces in the form of song lyrics:

I knew it, I knew it all along.... all you fuckers are defective. All of ya, every one... everyone 'cept me.

That's always been an option.

I wonder if there's a similar sort of test that liberals would do worse on.

The article did at least give a hint of something like that, HM:

Yes, but that "whether you hit M or W" range of behavior says so much about who we are... [/smarm]

I will also risk the one-issue fanatic label and posit that these attitudes are an extension of prehistoric society and capitalism. The perspective is "I must win. Decisively. All others must lose." What better way to improve your chances of survival, and the continuation of your genes? When you enter any interaction with that as your goal, what else, ultimately will happen? You can come up with ALL KINDS of reasons that you should win. Sometimes the reasons aren't reasons at all - like their left half is black and their right half white, instead of the opposite, right way. I would even put forth that the divorce rate is so high because husband and wife each feel that they *must* win.

UT: help each other? Like "from each according to his ability to each according to his need"? The predominent American attitude seems to be to take advantage of those who are need, to try figure out a way to profit from others' misery. Rebuilding New Orleans and Iraq will make millionaires out of some people. Again, it's a case of you lost, now I win.

Until people understand that they can't, shouldn't, and don't have to win, at the expense of everything else, this is the way we'll be living.
:rant:

Bah- when we were doing evacuations, rescue, and donation banks for Katrina victims I saw die-hard fundamentalist right-wingers bend over backwards for the less fortunate. Silent donations of private evacuation planes, buses, whole houses, and cars. We aren't so different. Except they wanted to mask their identities (sometimes), which I found kind of odd.
I was charmed. Renewed my faith in everyone...despite what I previously thought about a segment of the population......I was wowed by what people did despite their political backgrounds. Cicero- of so little faith and cynicism- was put to rights by a small measurement called proof. Yeah-they did something different than they are used to doing, and very well I might add. Not only did they adapt quickly -they kicked some ass.....I was shocked...but happily so.
"You want to donate what?!?" "You are going to to do what?!?"
:)
Well I'll be damned if I didn't see some uptight rich republican white folk go rescue poor black families out of Louisiana theirselves in little Cessna's. Their only requested profile? Make sure the family is small enough that they can fit in the damned thing. Was that illegal at the time? Yes..... Did I let them know that? Yes. Did they care? No. That wasn't the only thing they did sticking their necks out either. They kicked butts with everyone else.

Apparently they too cannot watch Americans die in the streets...no matter what background......

Look it's another cicero anecdote. Who is suprised? Don't ask me what people are going to do when they need to help each other- I've seen it happen. And quicker than CrAZy. Maybe you need to ask yourself because my illusions have been abolished from my reality about that. By the burden of proof.

It's easy to see peoples' humanity when they're in front of you and desperate. The problem comes in when so many people are unable to see, or dismissive of, the humanity of those who are at a distance.