Being Conservative is a mental illness

[margotb822]

Well, I guess we should lock them all up! Turns out, they are in fact, totally nuts!

Study of Bush's psyche touches a nerve

[Duke Newcombe]

1. That comes really close to mirroring...

...the Michael Savage meme of "Liberalism is a Mental Disorder"...

Interesting.

Duke

[margotb822]

2. Link

Do you have a link to that article?

[Duke Newcombe]

3. I do...

I'll have to research it further--I don't think the article adequately explains it. If I were to rely solely on it for form an opinion, I'd say that correlation does not indicate causation. But thats just me, the statistics nut.

Wonder if that makes me...gasp..._conservative_? :shrug:

Duke

[margotb822]

4. Doubt it

Only people who care rely on statistics. If you try to back up your argument with valid statistics, you must be trying to do something right. Therefore, you aren't conservative.

[Duke Newcombe]

5. funny...

that's what conservatives say THEY do to back up their arguments.

Funny, sometimes, I think we're like the Corsican Twins. As much alike as different, and interconnected in strange and terrifying ways...

:shrug:

Duke

[margotb822]

6. Statistics...

can be deceiving. One can manipulate those however they want. I do think that many people want what's best for America, they differ on what it takes. I also like to think that conservatives are mentally ill...it makes my job easier! I do believe that it is possible for people to reach the same answer by a different path...maybe that's what makes me liberal!

[Duke Newcombe]

8. Recommended.. good points :) eom

Duke

[leftofthedial]

7. and belonging to the GOP is membership in an organized crime syndicate,

making all members complicit in every crime committed by anyone in the gang.

treason, murder and crimes against humanity are all capital offenses.


So, are you suggesting here that all repukes can escape the death penalty by claiming to be insane?

[lapfog_1]

9. Being Conservative is the result of a medical procedure

you have to have your heart removed first, then a lobotomy.

[margotb822]

10. I suppose Dick Cheney

is living proof that this procedure exists, and can keep one 'alive' in the eyes of the people. You saw him at the SOTU...he looked battery operated.

[Perry Logan]

11. I say we herd them all into Utah. The Right can have their own country--where they will quickly die.

[liberalla]

12. Authoritarian Personality Disorder

is discussed at great length in John Dean's book, Conservatives Without Conscience. The Authoritarian Personality is conservative by nature. John Dean writes that authoritarian personalities in the past 20 years have taken over the Republican Party. Dean’s book, Conservatives Without Conscience, is almost exclusively about the authoritarian personality disorder and its predominance among conservative politicians who sought and achieved power through the support of the rabid religious right.

Authoritarian personalities are common enough, and will always be a problem in our society - trying to weasel their way into power. Their willingness to bypass the law and ignore tradition, civility, and fairness is especially apparent in the current a WH administration. They have corrupted capitalism and political life. We can't trust them to save the planet or care for a dying person in pain. Those things are not highly valued by conservatives.

John Dean draws from the Milgram Study. The Stanley Milgram study really explored the limits of the personality type. What wouldn't an obedient subject do when ordered to by the person-in-charge?

Stanley Milgram: "I set up a simple experiment at Yale University to test how much pain an ordinary citizen would inflict on another person simply because he was ordered to by an experimental scientist. Stark authority was pitted against the subjects' strongest moral imperatives against hurting others... The extreme willingness of adults to go to almost any lengths on the command of an authority constitutes the chief finding of the study and the fact most urgently demanding explanation."

For more info on the study, read "The Perils of Obedience" as it appeared in Harper's Magazine. Abridged and adapted from Obedience to Authority by Stanley Milgram. Copyright 1974 by Stanley Milgram.

This Authority Personality description and explanation finally made me understand how bush maintains his approx 25% approval rating. After all the shit we've been through...

HOW can 25% of the population STILL go along with bush and their party?

The answer: Authoritarion Personality Disorder, and the required blind obedience!

[hermetic]

13. Another good read along those lines

THE PSYCHOPATH - The Mask of Sanity

http://www.cassiopaea.com/cassiopaea/psychopath.htm

Explains a lot.

[liberalla]

14. I'll look into that - Thanks for the link!

I find this stuff very interesting.

[Political Heretic]

15. I don't think exaggeration helps. I believe George Lakoff explains more accurately

Read some of Lakoff's stuff. Particularly I found his book on how liberals and conservatives think to be gold.

I think saying conservatives suffer from a mental illness is a kind of reductionism we could do without.

[Duke Newcombe]

16. shhhhh...

...stop that making sense and civility immediately!!! :)

Duke

[TahitiNut]

17. Ironic. So, NOW they complain about government-funded medical research focused almost exclusively

... on right-wing, white males??? For decades they've been the disproportional beneficiaries of such medical research ... and NOW they don't want to take advantage of it??? Ironic.


:evilgrin: