Researchers help define what makes a political conservative (Mega-Barf Alert!)

UC Berkeley ^ | 7/22/02 | Kathleen Maclay, Media Relations

[TheAngryClam]

Just when I thought I managed to avoid taking my alma mater seriously, they manage to infuriate me again.

[TheAngryClam]

Super California Barf Alert

[Dan from Michigan]

These researchers are f'n idiots, and that's not my opinion. That's a fact.

Why am I a conservative?
Simple. I know what is best for myself, not government.

[Chad Fairbanks]

Hey researchers - project much?

[OpusatFR]

Was published in the APA?

Yeah, that really lends it credibility. Right along with NAMBLA endorsements and other forms of behavior I find impolite to discuss.

[muawiyah]

The study is totally bogus. If you select your samples the way they did you can prove anything you wish.

This was not random sampling of opinion out of a large universe. Rather, it involved pre-selection.

Adolph Hitler indulged in this sort of research for the purpose of justifying his own prejudices. The fact that the nutcases at Berkeley would indulge in Hitlerian analysis is no longer surprising. Even anti-semitism is once again in vogue with the leftwing. These guys will be justifying the resurrection of human sacrifice before long, and this will all look like small potatoes in retrospect.

[Mo1]

Disparate conservatives share a resistance to change and acceptance of inequality, the authors said. Hitler, Mussolini, and former President Ronald Reagan were individuals, but all were right-wing conservatives because they preached a return to an idealized past and condoned inequality in some form. Talk host Rush Limbaugh can be described the same way.

Did I read that correctly?

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Studies were also done on what makes people liberals. Findings include:

cowardice

delusions of grandeur

dog-in-the-manger spitefulness

lust for power . . .

[TheAngryClam]

Yes, you did.

This needs a freeping of biblical proportions.

[Mo1]

That research is nothing but a complete joke

Oh and one thing these idiots didn't learn .. conservatives would never waste taxpapers money with this kind of BS

[Billthedrill]

The researchers said that conservative ideologies, like virtually all belief systems, develop in part because they satisfy some psychological needs, but that "does not mean that conservatism is pathological or that conservative beliefs are necessarily false, irrational, or unprincipled."

On the contrary, that was, in fact, the founding premise of the entire study and the consistent subtext of this embarrassing simulacrum of scientific analysis. I should like to counter with, say, a similar study of the root belief systems of psychology faculties, their ideological makeup, and the proportion of them who managed to pass such benchmarks as freshman calculus, but then I'm afraid that study might end up being...judgmental...

[Freedom4US]

Yes, you read it correctly - these types engage in the literary equivalent of group masturbation.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Liberals think they got us "figgered" out *ping*... Guess again...

[fieldmarshaldj]

"While most people resist change, Glaser said, liberals appear to have a higher tolerance for change than conservatives do."

Single funniest line. Most liberals are opposed to ALL positive change. Take a look at their stance on education reform/school choice for starters... Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, and on and on... These are the most IN-tolerant people I've ever met, well except for tolerating perversion and criminality. Gotta make your bones for earning your ACLU membership cards.

[MagBas]

The researchers said that conservative ideologies, like virtually all belief systems, develop in part because they satisfy some psychological needs, but that "does not mean that conservatism is pathological or that conservative beliefs are necessarily false, irrational, or unprincipled."

Whew! I'm so glad these "researchers" were able to inform me my thoughts and beliefs aren't the result of some disease...but wait, what if their findings were biased or judgemental?...

They also stressed that their findings are not judgmental.

Oh, looks like I was worried for nothing.

[muawiyah]

Be careful there ~ someone might think you are a Liberal dropping out into that sort of name-calling.

Remember, Conservatives are ALWAYS polite. Liberals are incapable of being polite. In fact, Liberals let their drool get in the way of their words ~ no doubt if we ever did hear what they really were saying we would despise them even more.

[RLK]

This is not new. It is a recapitulation of the studies started under the direction of Adorno et al more than 60 years ago which defined conservatism as a form of mental illness. They went so far as to develop the California F scale mental test which measured the extent of that illness. The system devised a frame of reference built upon elaborate manipulation of language. Subscription to the communist party would get one a score of 99% healthy. The movement and smear continues to this day.

[TheAngryClam]

"The Totalitarian Personality," right?

[RLK]

It's more omplicated than that. Some years ago I published a piece that can be found here -- http://freedom.orlingrabbe.com/lfetimes/socialism_rlk.htm which begins to explain it.