psychology and conservatism

[Alejandro C]

I recently read an article in my local independent weekly which claimed that a group of scientist just published a study about the psychology of politics. The paper claimed that the study would actually suggest that people grow into their political ideology not because of their morals or principals but because of the way their were psychologically effected as children. a small excert:

Continues Berkeley News: “Four researchers who culled through 50 years of research literature about the psychology of conservatism [?!] report that at the core of political conservatism is the resistance to change and a tolerance for inequality, and that some of the common psychological factors linked to political conservatism include: Fear and aggression; Dogmatism and intolerance of ambiguity; Uncertainly avoidance; Need for cognitive closure; Terror management


this brings to a head something that i've noticed in the year and a half or so that i've been on this site and that is most of us not only have the same ideologies (or at least somewhat close) but the same personalities. we like a lot of the same kinds of music, have eerily similar senses of humor, and even talk and write similarly. I would wager that if we were all evaluated we would have similar results- i'm sure they would probably include feeling ostracised due to slightly higher intelligence, strong creative instincts, also deep and long lasting hatreds, as well as lonliness and problems with parents. what has everyone else noticed?

I haven't been able to find the exact article but i'm sure it would be damn interesting to read. I know that all of the really hardcore repulicans that i know (4) were made fun of a lot as children and 3 of those 4 admitted to me that they had to go to counseling because of it. would this suggest that conservatives can be 'cured?' from their insecurities and blossom into another ideology. for some reason that seems like it hits the nail right on the head, even though it must sound a little like brainwashing. also for some reason i think that if conservatives were to be helped psychologically they would have ideologies very similar to ours. maybe we are all just psychologically healthy conservatives. !

(i put this in this forum so i could be yelled at by cappies, who feel threatened)

[Vinny Rafarino]

There is definite relevance to this topic. Human bevaviour can be predicted (with a good degree of accuracy) based on two things, genetic disposition and environment. The "comfort" instinct will drive us to form bonds with likeminded individuals to give the subject an overall sense of "gemutlichkeit". You may also notice that each political group will have it's very own sub-group of more "disturbed" individuals that have the same "fanatical" or "extremely radical and irrational" views. These can usually be attributed to very specific neurological disorders leading to similar "real life" manifestations in political choice among those who experience a similar environment. (home life, childhood etc.)

Couple these neurological disorders with severe amygdalic disorders and you will get individuals with what's known as the "hitler complex". These individuals tend to be the "stand out" leaders of these extreme political sub-groups.

Examples;

KKK grandwizards, Louie Farrakhan, David Duke, Pinochet, Duvalier, Franco, Pol Pot etc.


Sorry, I think I went beyond what the intention of the topic was. I know you kats are not interested so I'll shut up for once.

Cheers


EDIT:

Apologies, I forgot about the topic at hand;

Yes, they indeed can be fixed.

[Dark Capitalist]

You know whe orginally published that report? Huh, do you? It was the American Psychological Association. The same organization that declassified homosexuality as a mental disorder in 1973 under pressure from gay rights activists.

Yeah, that APA.


And now they want to tell us that "conservatism" is a psychological disorder? Fuck you!