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This Machine Can Tell Whether You're Liberal or Conservative
Mother Jones/Drudge ^ | 4 Apr 2014 | Chris Mooney

Posted on 04/05/2014 7:23:32 AM PDT by shove_it

Thomas Jefferson was a smart dude. And in one of his letters to John Adams, dated June 27, 1813, Jefferson made an observation about the nature of politics that science is only now, two centuries later, beginning to confirm. "The same political parties which now agitate the United States, have existed through all time," wrote Jefferson. "The terms of Whig and Tory belong to natural, as well as to civil history," he later added. "They denote the temper and constitution of mind of different individuals."

[...]

It all adds up, according to Hibbing, to what he calls a "negativity bias" on the right. Conservatives, Hibbing's research suggests, go through the world more attentive to negative, threatening, and disgusting stimuli—and then they adopt tough, defensive, and aversive ideologies to match that perceived reality....

(Excerpt) Read more at motherjones.com ...


TOPICS: Philosophy; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: conservatives; liberals; negativitybias
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To: AnonymousConservative

Liberalism won’t be destroyed, only temporarily defeated.

It has been around since immediately following the Garden of Eden, and will be with us until the end of earth.


41 posted on 04/05/2014 10:02:12 AM PDT by Balding_Eagle (Want to keep your doctor? Remove your Democrat Senator.)
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To: shove_it

It must measure brain waves. Lack of such waves and your Liberal.


42 posted on 04/05/2014 10:03:03 AM PDT by stillfree? (I am the Tea Party)
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To: marktwain

“This article is pure propaganda”

It’s Mother Jones.

Everything in it is propaganda.


43 posted on 04/05/2014 10:06:19 AM PDT by ifinnegan
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To: AnonymousConservative

Well, this thread may get real interesting now.


44 posted on 04/05/2014 10:10:37 AM PDT by shove_it (my real nickname is Otter)
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To: AnonymousConservative

Thanks for the great info.


45 posted on 04/05/2014 10:25:37 AM PDT by meatloaf (Impeach Obama. That's my New Year's resolution.)
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To: Balding_Eagle

But this is a powerful weapon for the battle now. Liberalism requires a certain degree of social acceptance, for Liberals to openly advocate on its behalf, mainly because Liberals are very shame-averse (I suspect an outgrowth of fear of confrontation/competition). Reagan did a number on the image of Liberals with his humorous denigrations, and they went scurrying. This is kind of like that, but it will persist longer, because the evidence behind renders it a longer lasting truth, and the way in which it mingles with our naturally competitive natures will give it power. Who want’s to be a rabbit?

That said, you are probably right. I think if we did eradicate Liberalism completely, the nation would enter such a boom of productivity, and produce such extraordinary levels of free resources, that it would eventually see a rise in rabbits all over again. It is tough, when everyone is filthy rich and mindlessly happy, to get people angry enough to stand up to leftists, and their incremental pushes towards totalitarianism and redistributive theft. Sadly, Leftists won’t constrain themselves, without some such threat from our side, so the cycles will probably continue.

I do think this might attenuate their magnitude though. Even honest leftists who see it pause, because they realize logically, that they may actually be bringing back the very Lord of the Flies scenarios that they are so poorly adapted to survive.


46 posted on 04/05/2014 10:35:11 AM PDT by AnonymousConservative (Why did Liberals evolve within our species? www.anonymousconservative.com)
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To: shove_it

I hope. It is killing me, knowing leftists hate this so much, and not seeing it everywhere.


47 posted on 04/05/2014 10:37:34 AM PDT by AnonymousConservative (Why did Liberals evolve within our species? www.anonymousconservative.com)
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To: meatloaf

We’re a team effort. Which is good, given what is coming.


48 posted on 04/05/2014 10:41:43 AM PDT by AnonymousConservative (Why did Liberals evolve within our species? www.anonymousconservative.com)
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To: shove_it
It all adds up, according to Hibbing, to what he calls a "negativity bias" on the right. Conservatives, Hibbing's research suggests, go through the world more attentive to negative, threatening, and disgusting stimuli—and then they adopt tough, defensive, and aversive ideologies to match that perceived reality....

Which is why Liberals try to personally destroy those who disagree with them, and crap on cop cars at Occupy rallies. Makes sense to me!

49 posted on 04/05/2014 10:55:22 AM PDT by Cymbaline ("Allahu Akbar": Arabic for "Nothing To See Here" - Mark Steyn)
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To: AnonymousConservative

It will become painfully clear to leftists on judgement day. As you say, it’s a pity they don’t see it in their daily lives. Freedom is God’s gift that they do not accept or try to take from others.


50 posted on 04/05/2014 11:05:53 AM PDT by shove_it (my real nickname is Otter)
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To: shove_it

I agree completely.


51 posted on 04/05/2014 11:39:35 AM PDT by AnonymousConservative (Why did Liberals evolve within our species? www.anonymousconservative.com)
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To: AnonymousConservative
A most thought-provoking post; and one of the best posts I've read on FR in a long while. Thank you for taking the time.

Wish I could see it all ending up positively as you do. Those of us with growing or grown children do not feel encouraged by news of the inevitable collapse and rebuilding, however; as the collapse is likely to inhabit most of the lives of our children and only if we are lucky will the rebuilding be available to our grandchildren.

52 posted on 04/05/2014 12:57:53 PM PDT by Albion Wilde ("The commenters are plenty but the thinkers are few." -- Walid Shoebat)
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To: AnonymousConservative
You may have interpreted my post #36 as dismissive of the study itself. It was not, I was being dismissive of how the resulting data was presented in what I perceive to be a misleading and disingenuous way.

Nonetheless, thank you for the earlier pings, they were insightful.

53 posted on 04/05/2014 1:44:14 PM PDT by Balding_Eagle (Want to keep your doctor? Remove your Democrat Senator.)
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To: AnonymousConservative

Wow! Awesome analysis tying it back to animal behavior in the natural world. Highly enlightening.


54 posted on 04/05/2014 2:32:41 PM PDT by Flick Lives ("I can't believe it's not Fascism!")
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To: Albion Wilde

Thank you for taking the time to read it.

I think the collapse will sort itself out fairly quickly, and the next generation will have the satisfaction of making something great, and the pleasure of being a part of a loyal nation of citizens, who love each other and are loyal to each other first. They will also not have to deal with the tragic and depressing degeneracy we are dealing with now.

There are worse things than being present at the start of your own nation’s Renaissance.


55 posted on 04/05/2014 2:50:20 PM PDT by AnonymousConservative (Why did Liberals evolve within our species? www.anonymousconservative.com)
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To: Balding_Eagle

I understand. Most of the research in the field is couched as being about how Conservatives got to be so backward thinking and dumb. I love it all though, because I have no doubt the biology of r/K Theory is at the center of the Tootsie Pop they are all licking at, and I know how bitter it will be for them. My contribution is to just encourage them to lick faster.

I’m glad you found it interesting.


56 posted on 04/05/2014 2:53:37 PM PDT by AnonymousConservative (Why did Liberals evolve within our species? www.anonymousconservative.com)
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To: Flick Lives

It is even better if you explain it to Liberals. They see it innately, for some reason, and the second you focus them on it, they freak out. It is amazing to see somebody support every aspect of the rabbit’s psychology go nuts when you point out they are supporting every facet of a rabbit’s psychology. Fun fun.


57 posted on 04/05/2014 2:55:53 PM PDT by AnonymousConservative (Why did Liberals evolve within our species? www.anonymousconservative.com)
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To: AnonymousConservative

I try to tell my son that for the past decade; but I’ve been becoming less convincing lately.


58 posted on 04/05/2014 3:19:36 PM PDT by Albion Wilde ("The commenters are plenty but the thinkers are few." -- Walid Shoebat)
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To: AnonymousConservative; PGalt
Nobody should knock this research, because the libtards doing it are unknowingly kicking a hornets nest that will ultimately destroy their own ideology, beginning in the college political science courses where they all want to begin the leftist indoctrination. We must encourage them to kick harder.
Quite an interesting discussion.
Tories were the British conservatives of Jefferson's day, and Whigs were the British liberals.
That would be true, but also very misleading - because the term “liberal” was hijacked by very illiberal people in the 1920s, and if anything they are even more illiberal today.
IMHO T. Roosevelt’s 1910 “Man in the Arena” speech was liberalism in 1910, and would have been liberalism in 1776. But after 1930 “liberalism” has been a term with an inverted meaning - in America, though not elsewhere. If now you invert T.R.’s speech to assert that accomplishment and effort count for nothing, and PR - who gets the credit, and who gets blamed - is all that matters, you will then find yourself sounding exactly like a modern American “liberal.”
And that should tell anyone all they need to know about whether “the media” is opposed to “conservatives” and biased in favor of “liberals."

59 posted on 04/05/2014 3:52:22 PM PDT by conservatism_IS_compassion ("Liberalism” is a conspiracy against the public by wire-service journalism.)
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To: AnonymousConservative

I thought about this article some more. Wouldn’t it make sense that people who overlook problems are the last ones who should be making policy?


60 posted on 04/06/2014 6:08:42 AM PDT by csivils
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