This isn't just ‘leftist’ rhetoric or a gag. It is real science developed by behavioral scientists, neurologists, sociologists, linguists, and historians.
And the diagnosis for the conservative American mind is an ‘Authoritarian Personality’ which researchers have declared a precursor to a pathological behavior called FASCISM.
After WWII, psychologists turned their studies to figuring out what personality traits led to large populations accepting the inhumane fascism of Franco, Mussolini, and Hitler. What they discovered was something they termed 'The Authoritarian Personality' which, in a nutshell, is fearful, prone to seeking security through pack identity (virulent nationalism), attacking other identity groups (like Jews, blacks, Gypsies, gays, Muslims, etc.), and revering cruel dictators (the strong father as Fuhrer) who promise to kill the boogiemen in their minds.
All that ugly behavior because of intentionally exaggerated fear inflaming their amygdala, that primal lizard part of the brain that is vigilant against possible threats and responds quickly without using the rational left-brain thought process that people like the...say...'liberal elitists'...might use to think for themselves instead of blindly accepting the things they are told by authority figures and media propaganda.
Millions of years ago, the amygdala was the most important part of our brain that kept us from getting eaten by other animals. We have since evolved more sophisticated brain systems that allows us to be social and rationally discern who wants to harm us and who just wants to have the next dance. The amygdala responds quickly without using the rational left-brain thought process that people such as 'liberal elitists' might use to think for themselves instead of blindly accepting the things they are told by authority figures on TV. Since vision has been our species’ most important tool for identifying friend from foe, television has been a brainwasher's dream tool for instilling propaganda into the American psyche.
Look at this analysis of the 'conservative' personality:
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2003/07/22_politics.shtmlTake a look at this 1950 questionnaire used to determine 'Fascism Personality Receptivity' or F-factor.
http://www.anesi.com/fscale.htmNow look at the 14 symptoms of Fascism.
http://empirewatch.org/pages/_archives/fascism/pages/14_symptoms.htmlNow look at this article about the lessons learned about the power of the 1938 'War of the Worlds' radio broadcast and deliberately exploited with omnipresent television culture, the propagandists dream invention.
http://www.mackwhite.com/tv.htmlAnd look at this site looking into the science of affecting how people think and behave or brainwashing:
http://www.hermes-press.com/brainwash1.htmBesides the primal element of fearful brain control, there is also another primal element of human identity at play in our family experiences projected onto the world at large and used to pick our leaders and judge those in our group. Read linguist George Lakoff's work on 'framing' issues in words that appeal to those originally family-based emotions.
He claims that we tend to model our sense of what is appropriate behavior on either the Republican's 'Strong Father' dictator model or the Democrat's 'Nurturing Mother' teacher model and the WORDS we use have built in judgemental emotions that frame how we respond. He's advised Howard Dean and John Kerry on how conservatives have been using this technique for 30 years with stunning success.
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2003/10/27_lakoff.shtmlThe power of words is also explained in this analysis of a George W. Bush State of the Union speech where the mechanics of verbal abuse and manipulation are explained in detail.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/130534_focusecond13.htmlThe personality of George W. Bush is explained in this British psychologist’s psychological profile based on family history shown to include abuse and leading to alcoholism, anti-intellectualism, cruelty, and the dreaded fascism-prone ‘Authoritarian Personality.’ Read this and understand just why that man is doing what he’s doing and why so many Americans are applauding him for it. Read this article called ‘So George, How Do You Feel About Your Mom and Dad?’
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1033904,00.htmlA film illustrating the way corporations perfectly mimic a destructive psychopath shows how that common and dominating structure leads good people to do terrible things:
“While the corporation has the rights and responsibilities of ”a legal person”, its owners and shareholders are not liable for its actions. Moreover, the film explains, a corporation's directors are legally required to do what is best for the company, regardless of the harm created. What kind of person would a corporation be? A clinical psychopath…”
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0120-03.htmThe psychology of an abused child or battered wife is also in play. Americans identify with their government as they would a parent and they are heavily committed to defending it's actions as virtuous and well-meaning. Think of the sad phenomenon of ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ where helpless captives come to identify with and empathize with those who they are most vulnerable to, their very own captors. The status of being dominated induces a regressive embrace of the aggressor into ‘protector’ and their own status into ‘child.’ The power relationship is the sado-masochism that Hitler utilized to build the Nazi party in post-WWII Germany and wrote about in his book ‘Mein Kampf,’ fully aware how he was exploiting people’s emotions, just like Leo Strauss, Lee Atwater, and Karl Rove.
Amnesty International has compiled a list of the 8 common techniques used to break the minds of prisoners by interrogators of all kinds. It is called 'Biderman's Chart of Coercions' and has been accepted by abuse counselors as relevant to interpersonal abuse of women, children, and entire populations on an economic level. It is a template for a fascist culture and the propaganda that maintains it. It also represents how every child is treated by larger adults in order to instill social controls for later in life. The abuse tends to traumatize children and many grow up with the dreaded Authoritarian Personality that leads to Fascism Receptivity as a result.
http://www.actabuse.com/chartofcoercion.html
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