Let’s back up for a second. What exactly is the objective here? To correct liberals’ faulty thinking? To make them abandon their position against their own convictions? Or to merely shut them up?
“Let’s back up for a second. What exactly is the objective here? To correct liberals’ faulty thinking? To make them abandon their position against their own convictions? Or to merely shut them up?”
That’s a great question that can get lost in the scientific jargon and argument presented above. I am not the author of this piece but I interpret the objective to be making liberals experience fear of embarassment and isolation from their social support. If they feel they don’t fit in with the libs, they may seek to belong within conservative society.
Fear of harm or loss of security is shown in the research cited as an influence on adopting conservative views. This may indicate that the fear forced a lack of fit to liberal views and, not wanting to be without a group to feel a part of, the frightened individuals adopted a more conservative orientation. This is somewhat different from the more rational interpretation that fear of danger knocked some sense into those liberal fools and woke them up to the logic of conservatism.
Of course, I am just interpreting the author’s work and am not familiar with the arguments presented. I hope the author can clarify and I apologize for any misinterpretation.
Honestly, I’m not entirely sure myself. Evidence shows individuals go Conservative on questionaires, when shown images of threat. I suspect they are adapting their thought process to be more Conservative reflexively, since Conservatism is more adaptive under such conditions. But I can’t rule out they are just taking cover, and hoping not to get hurt in the coming melee. Maybe some are one and some are the other. My feeling is, either way, it means less Liberalism, so why look too closely?
My opinion only.
In a conversation with one of my brothers just yesterday we touched on this very topic. In the course of the discussion I used the old saw that begins, “You can lead a horse...” as a prelude to a long held belief - that post-modern leftists don’t (can’t?) argue using reason - they rely on emotion.
When you couple that with another phenomena peculiar to the left - the complete and utter lack of shame - you have people that you can neither reason with nor appeal to their sense of honor.
That leaves me with but one alternative - fear of consequence. “Get away from me or I’ll kill you” Perhaps an oversimplification but the principles at play are accurate.
The direct answer to you question is “merely shut them up”. They are welcome to think (feeeeeeeeel) any cockeyed notion they want - as long as they keep it to themselves. Make them contemplative of the fact that if they choose to act out there will be painful consequences for them.
IMHO