Left-Wing and Right-Wing Brains (interesting study)

[ardrum]

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la- ... ome-center

[UltraShy]

Sulloway said the results could explain why President Bush demonstrated a single-minded commitment to the Iraq war and why some people perceived Sen. John F. Kerry, the liberal Massachusetts Democrat who opposed Bush in the 2004 presidential race, as a "flip-flopper" for changing his mind about the conflict.

What about libertarians who have a single-minded commitment to freedom? Unlike liberals (and conservatives) I lack the ability to flip-flop on freedom.

[Lyric Suite]

This type of information has been out for more then a century. One only needs to read Sex in History by Gordon Rattray Taylor to understand the psychological differences between liberals and conservatives, which are as old as civilization itself. As always with modern scientists, too little too late. Indeed, the conclusions reached by that study are just staggering in their stupidity and lack of true insight.

[ardrum]

Are you talking about the matrism/patrism (dualistic) explanation?

[daaaaave]

Right wings scare me with their USA chants...I get the feeling they truly want to conquer the world and make Christianity the official religion.

[Mr. Frostman]

Originally Posted by UltraShy

What about libertarians who have a single-minded commitment to freedom? Unlike liberals (and conservatives) I lack the ability to flip-flop on freedom.

What if you don't fall into either category? As if there's only two different kinds of people...

[ardrum]

It appears the classifications were via self-identification. It's interesting that they found statistically significant differences based on this self-identification though, even if their extrapolations are more suspect than the direct results of the study.

[Lyric Suite]

Originally Posted by ardrum

Are you talking about the matrism/patrism (dualistic) explanation?

Aye.

[Lyric Suite]

Originally Posted by daaaaave

Right wings scare me with their USA chants...I get the feeling they truly want to conquer the world and make Christianity the official religion.

Yeah but guess who's going to save your *** when right wings from other cultures march into your area to conquer and convert.

[UltraShy]

Personally, I find the concept of liberal & conservative rather silly.

I see no cohesive underlying philosophy that ties together the hodgepodge of random ideas that are typically called liberal and those that are called conservative.

Sarah Palin, for example, is very pro-gun and very anti-abortion -- a fine example of what is called a conservative. Can anybody explain to me WTF logically connects these two positions? I will be stunned and in absolute awe of anybody who can come up with a logical connection, since as far as I can tell none exists. Conservatives typically prefer more economic freedom though what does that have to do with their frequent preference for more religion? I wonder if even Ayn Rand could have explained that one (seeing how she was very much in favor of free markets and also very much an atheist).

Palin thinks a woman can handle an AK-47, but not her uterus. She'd be fine with teaching a teen all about firearms, but no way in hell is she telling them about something as dangerous as a condom, though I'm pretty sure a .357 Magnum has vastly greater stopping power than throwing a Magnum size condom at somebody.

Liberals, on the other hand, think a woman most certainly can handle her uterus, but no individual is competent to handle guns nor their own money.

Libertarian positions are at least unified by an underlying devotion to freedom (though libertarians do disagree on the abortion issue as you could make a libertarian argument either for or against it.)

[ardrum]

Yeah, the two biggest political parties seem to end up with stances on a hodgepodge of issues that don't seem to have any underlying philosophy beneath it.

I think the reason why they do this is because winner-take-all election systems encourage only two parties to dominate. As a result, they have to fight over a population that is FARRRR more diverse than two parties can adequately represent. So they fight over segments of the population by choosing which sides they'll take on various unrelated issues in order to try to cover as many bases on as many issues as possible. This naturally leads to parties whose platforms are just a bunch of seemingly random stances on diverse issues. It reminds me of a legislative bill that tacks on a plethoria of provisions that are totally unrelated... You have to unfortunately take the entire thing or nothing.

While it's theoretically possible that the Libertarian party could win an election, the odds are so astronomically small due to the winner-take-all system. As one party gets stronger, the only way to beat it is to combine forces with the next biggest rival if there is to be any competition. So these various demographics end up in strange alliances despite probably disagreeing on a lot of issues.

[UltraShy]

^The highest office any Libertarian has ever been elected to is that of state representative (and then only in Alaska -- the most libertarian state in the nation). Not exactly a very high position. I'd bet that most Americans would be unable to name their own state representative as the position is so low that they work in almost total obscurity. I can name mine and clearly it's a lowly position as I personally talked with her one morning when she promptly called right after 9AM in response to an e-mail I sent her the prior evening.

It would probably be reasonable to call Ron Paul a libertarian even though he gets elected to Congress under the Rep label. Anyone who's ever heard him speak has surely noticed that his views on so many issues sound nothing like those of your generic Republican.

[daaaaave]

Originally Posted by Lyric Suite

Yeah but guess who's going to save your @$$ when right wings from other cultures march into your area to conquer and convert.

Mostly poor inner-city blacks hoping to survive and get a free education.

[Lyric Suite]

Originally Posted by daaaaave

Mostly poor inner-city blacks hoping to survive and get a free education.

Bzzz, wrong answer.

[daaaaave]

Originally Posted by Lyric Suite

Bzzz, wrong answer.

Then, enlighten me with the correct answer

[SadRosesAreBeautiful]

Originally Posted by ardrum

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-politics10sep10,0,5982337.story?coll=la-home-center

Very interesting article. I actually saw a news special on this I think on cnn a few weeks ago. It is interesting, but we can't just limit liberals and conservatives to differences in brain function. It's also in how we are brought up, and is influenced by what regions we live in, our friends, and our own perceptions of world events, etc. I am actually a moderate with both very liberal and conservative views. The study is actually very limited (and in my opinion somewhat weak) due to the fact that sociological factors are not taken into account. But it was still an enlightening read.

[SadRosesAreBeautiful]

[SadRosesAreBeautiful]

(triple post in this case, sorry)

[Happyman]

Yeah, adding to that point, a person can change as well. That article seems to imply a cause and effect when in reality, thinking about things a certain way can likely "re-wire" your brain.

[Lyric Suite]

Originally Posted by daaaaave

Then, enlighten me with the correct answer

Inner city black right wingers with guns. Duh.