DU POLL: Do you think the GOP is morphing into some form of the KKK, Nazi Party, Supremacist Power or

[KY_EnviroGuy]

147. Thanks, Hortensis - well said.

I, like you, had to know why people carried a Republican mindset that was so hard-cast as in concrete. Being plagued with an unyielding curiosity about everything, I had to know, and found good psychology references on the web. Unfortunately, I lost all my web bookmarks early this year due to a hard drive crash. Thank you - you've helped me to start rebuilding that library. The Altemeyer article is one of the best summary ones I've seen on the topic and should be read by any serious progressive.

Another factor I learned about is how young people acquire cast-in-stone attitudes and beliefs. Some experts say this happens at ages between late teens and mid-twenties, on the average. That time slot also determines if we'll be open-minded or more closed-minded throughout our lives, and they say that those raised by strict authoritarians are highly likely to be close-minded in adulthood. In addition, they will likely carry their parent's hard-core beliefs with them, such as racism, religion, and authoritarianism. Therefore, when we mix that type of personality with genetic psychopathy - and give them lots of money - we have a very dangerous human.
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With all this knowledge in hand, it's much easier to see how people can be so damned hard-headed and difficult to reason with, but it is depressing when I realize there's little that can be done to change them once they've reached full maturity.

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