Posted on 07/10/2012 4:19:14 AM PDT by lbryce
WHO is happier about life — liberals or conservatives? The answer might seem straightforward. After all, there is an entire academic literature in the social sciences dedicated to showing conservatives as naturally authoritarian, dogmatic, intolerant of ambiguity, fearful of threat and loss, low in self-esteem and uncomfortable with complex modes of thinking. And it was the candidate Barack Obama in 2008 who infamously labeled blue-collar voters “bitter,” as they “cling to guns or religion.” Obviously, liberals must be happier, right?
Wrong. Scholars on both the left and right have studied this question extensively, and have reached a consensus that it is conservatives who possess the happiness edge. Many data sets show this. For example, the Pew Research Center in 2006 reported that conservative Republicans were 68 percent more likely than liberal Democrats to say they were “very happy” about their lives. This pattern has persisted for decades. The question isn’t whether this is true, but why.
Many conservatives favor an explanation focusing on lifestyle differences, such as marriage and faith. They note that most conservatives are married; most liberals are not. (The percentages are 53 percent to 33 percent, according to my calculations using data from the 2004 General Social Survey, and almost none of the gap is due to the fact that liberals tend to be younger than conservatives.) Marriage and happiness go together. If two people are demographically the same but one is married and the other is not, the married person will be 18 percentage points more likely to say he or she is very happy than the unmarried person.
The story on religion is much the same. According to the Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey, conservatives who practice a faith outnumber religious liberals in America nearly four to one. And the link to happiness?
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
There are things that are complex, and require complex thinking. Most things are not, and liberal’s love of complexity stems from their urgent need to deny the obvious that slaps them in their faces every day.
Superiority + Guilt + Hate = Porgressive liberal
So, happiness depend on how you define the term and compare the expectation with the reality.
If I were God looking down on the world, I’d be pretty unhappy with the state of all us sinners.
That’s how liberals see the world. They don’t believe in God. They believe they can make heaven on earth. They think they can move all the chess pieces. If you believe in the perfectibility of man, you will always be saddened, miserable, disappointed and chastened.
They note that most conservatives are married; most liberals are not. (The percentages are 53 percent to 33 percent, according to my calculations using data from the 2004 General Social Survey, and almost none of the gap is due to the fact that liberals tend to be younger than conservatives.)
Very telling! I couldn't imagine being married to a liberal; I guess they're not too good at it either. In the interest of full disclosure, I married a liberal a couple of decades ago but fortunately she grew up.
Big time BUMP!
———>After all, there is an entire academic literature in the social sciences dedicated to showing conservatives as naturally authoritarian, dogmatic, intolerant of ambiguity, fearful of threat and loss, low in self-esteem and uncomfortable with complex modes of thinking.
-————————>Gag me with a spoon!
Exactly! Do these people actually believe the BS they peddle?
Honestly in their hearts I don’t think they do believe it, but characterizing conservatives this way makes then feel superior.
I would say so. One man’s ecstasy is another man’s sorrow. someone’s triumph, is another person’s catastrophe. The state of happiness, of being happy is probably one of the most subjective of human experiences, states of being. What’s happiness, anyway? Nothing but a bunch of neurons combined, aligned a certain way, fleeting, ephemeral.
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