I plan to read this in its entirety later. Some interesting ideas.
I agree totally about liberals not using logic in a debate. This has been my greatest frustration when trying to have an honest and open discussion with them. Regardless of how the debate unfolds, 90% of the time it ends when they run out of arguments, then play their trump card: “You’re mean.”
Translation: You, personally, are not mean, but your ideas are. Why? Because I don’t like them. So by extension, all Republicans and Conservatives are mean. So they are bad people. I’m not one of them. So I’m a good person. So now I feel good about myself.
If I am correct in what I have observed, it is not only about feeling good about themselves, but it is also about winning the argument, not by logic, but by socially out-grouping you as mean.
In the link on dopamine, they looked at people’s brains as they completed tasks. High dopamine function was task oriented, as in using logic to search for truth. Low dopamine function was active in much different areas, areas associated with perceiving self, and maneuvering socially.
The Liberal portrays you as mean, to make others ally with them, against you. If you actively seek to ally others with you, against them, and they detect this, they back down, rather than get out-grouped.