Comments on: Conservatism: A Correctable Mental Disorder

By: LarryK

LarryK — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 16:54:38 +0000

I’m no neuroscientist, but I became interested in the subject about five years ago and read a couple dozen neurosci books of different degrees of complexity/academic rigor. I’m a little rusty, but I remember enough to know that the part of the brain Don is referring to is called the amygdala. Maybe it’s a typo, but I tend to discount the scientific speculations of people who can’t state basic anatomical terms correctly.

By: Daniel Crandall

Daniel Crandall — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 12:53:39 +0000

Interesting theory, Don. So what defect of the brain (I presume “an enlargement of the amygdale” is a defect) makes the “Ultra Liberal political movement” so effective?

By: Don

Don — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 16:27:38 +0000

I have a similar theory. Xenophobia (fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners or of anything that is strange or foreign) is a general human genetic trait. Fear and hatred of those perceived as outside your social group. Some people have a stronger tendency toward xenophobia, which may well be connected to an enlargement of the amygdale. This xenophobic trait evolved as an important survival mechanism in our long hunter/gatherer period when a tribe on the other side of the mountain represented real danger.

This is not a joke, though I admit the illogical results can seem stunningly humorous. I think there is a serious coloration. Of course, this does no mean everyone with this stronger xenophobic tendency becomes a Tea Party Conservative. It may manifest itself in other ways, from benign family loyalty to psychopathic bigotry. What makes the Ultra Conservative political movement so effective is its skill at exploiting this innate tendency, which we all share to some degree.

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 01:02:02 +0000

stupid article

By: Nate

Nate — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 21:49:57 +0000

It’s amazing how, with your very own blog post, you’ve just completely fulfilled your diagnosis, and yet you remain completely unaware of it.

By: Rav

Rav — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 07:09:43 +0000

You generalize, and then use anecdotal evidence to counter cherry-picked sentences from an actual scientific study. You’ve obviously missed the entire point of the study, which was more psychological in nature than you imply. Conservatives volunteer at far higher rates than liberals? Yeah, good luck finding a credible source of information for that one. Just because one of your conservative blogger friends typed that up on his or her website does not make it fact.

And what is this “liberal mind” nonsense? You are essentializing millions of people as having a uniform (and in your opinion, inferior) mind – the very same nonsense that Nazis did to Jews, as propaganda. You’ve become the very thing you’re whining about! This is some really awful stuff. Please don’t write anything like this ever again. I think you have some serious emotional issues, and you ought to try to understand science or journalism a little better before you bother attempting either of them.