We all know liberals and conservatives are different, broadly speaking. They disagree about immigration, global warming and health care. They consume different brands. The stereotypes tell us liberals eat arugula and drive hatchbacks, while conservatives prefer pork rinds and pickup trucks. These two political classes are so dissimilar that people like to joke they are “wired differently.”
But it turns out that might literally be true.
Fascinating stuff.
nope…they are indoctrinating every kid in school….it’s nurture
So change for the sake of change. Full ahead flank, damn the torpedoes.
vs
How can I avoid killing myself today?
I think we’re boned.
A succinct way to phrase it, Kevin. I’ve been trying to come up with a slightly broader explanation. The difference is how one views risk, punishment for failure, and reward.
Any time we face something new or sufficiently different from our everyday we have to choose between several approaches to the problem. Two of the wide descriptions of how we can look at it are “I can change this, I can make it better” and “If I change this, it could make things worse”. This can also be seen as an aspirational approach versus a conservative approach.
Those who work with their hands, or are in harm’s way (military, police) feel direct negative consequences from making things worse. This doesn’t just apply to life-changing events, but also on the small scale. If you’ve tried a different grip or angle on a wrench and it’s slipped, resulting in bruised knuckles, you know what I mean. If there is no punishment for getting things wrong on the small scale, you’re more likely to be on the left.
As we grow older we learn more, and most of us learn from our mistakes. The weighting of “I could make this worse” becomes higher, while the allure or “I could make this better” becomes jaded after many iterations of trying new things and not having the results be what I expected.
There are places where unexpected results doesn’t mean bodily harm – like politics and academia. Those places are more likely to remain convinced of their own ability to positively change the world and make things perfect. At the same time, those who have broken knuckles, lost a finger to an auger, or been shot at in the past are much more likely to adopt an attitude of “even if it’s not perfect, it can be a lot worse if I monkey with it, so it’s not worth the risk.”
Those who can learn from the mistakes of others are more likely to be conservative. Those who aren’t self aware enough recognize or learn from their own mistakes are more likely to be progressives.
This also partly explains why so many city-ots are progressives. The protective cocoons prevent them from making non-fatal mistakes that have negative consequences. If you don’t skin your knuckles, why not use a two-finger grip on the wrench?
“We all know liberals and conservatives are different, broadly speaking. They disagree about immigration, global warming and health care.
Bullshi……oh, sorry. Didn’t see the small L, small C.
Liberals and conservatives start out the same.
Except conservatives grow up.
Watto, yes, SOME conservatives grow up, others become trough hogs just as bad as the liberals And once either gets that capitol L or C, they become members of an exclusive club that exists to maintain the status quo, at the expense of the great unwashed masses.
In Ottawa,the main reason the Liberals are the Party of corruption in government is because they’ve been in government a lot longer than the Conservatives, so have had that much more practice.
Scoundrels know no political principles, only go L or C depending on where the opportunity presents itself at any given time.
We mature and take control over our dopamine-fueled decision making. Or at least, older conservatives come to recognize when an impulse isn’t in our best interests… we’ve learned how to see the shiny new car and the interest rates in the same frame.
“If you are not a liberal when you are twenty, you have no heart. If you are not a conservative when you are fifty, you have no brain.” I don’t know where that quote comes from, but I love it.
Churchill was the one, but forty was the age for conservatism. We have seen the Greeks, the Irish, the Venezuelan’s, Italians …ad nauseum go financially, socially and politically tits up but they still try to excuse failure after failure. “it just wasn’t implemented properly” That ‘s the definition of crazy, trying the same thing over and over expecting different result.
I was referring to the small “c” and “l” Don. I don’t believe that many conservatives become corrupted by power to become Conservatives though. I believe it is far more common that liberals put on conservative masks to rise to power.
The old Hegelian dialectic requires control of both sides. In Alberta, we had “conservative” Special Ed, followed by “conservative” Allison Redford. Neither they, nor almost anyone in the party was conservative. Through controlling both sides however, the populace was dragged quickly to the left. When the conservatives appeared to be in power, the slide was slow. When the liberals gained power, it went full bore.
That was my thought after reading. I would assume that dopamine receptors are more abundant through childhood and into adolescence, that would be required to learn and grow and have a healthy curiosity. Perhaps moving into adulthood removes some of that as we finish “growing up”. I would love to see this study repeated on defined age groups. Maybe liberal thinking is somewhat of an eternal childhood.
Hegelian Dialectics…depends which propaganda one listens to…the conflict of controlled opposites produces a controlled synthesis.
Jer 17:5 Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.
2 Thessalonians 2:10-11
(10) And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
(11) And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
Romans 11:8-10
(8) (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day. (Isaiah_29:10)
(9) And David saith, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumblingblock, and a recompence unto them:
(10) Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back alway.
I don’t see anything in that piece that addresses that most far Leftists are suffering from some form of mental illness…which they are.
-safe spaces
-ignoring biology
-decrying fascism by acting like a fascist
-sever lack of critical thinking as an individual.
But HEY… IT’S GOT ELECTROLYTES!!!!
To put it another way, liberalism is a form of insanity caused by a chemical disturbance in the brain.
Knowing this is the first step towards a cure.
Anti-psychotics allowed sufferers from relatively less destructive mental illnesses like schizophrenia and manic-depression to live outside institutions. One day modern pharmacology may be able to ensure a place for recovered liberals in civilized society outside a prison.
Quote: “Progressivism, the pursuit of progress, is, by definition, the pursuit of change, of new things. So, we might expect to see progressive ideology in people with more active dopamine circuits.”
Vacuous nonsense. To suggest that liberal vs. conservative political leanings are a function of brain dopamine levels is a gross over-simplification of biology and of politics. Woolly-headed and incomplete thinking worthy of phrenology or modern-day climatology at its best. And the opening line, that “progressives” desire change by definition is equally meaningless: progressive philosophy has changed dramatically over the last 50 or so years, becoming increasingly intolerant and fascist even as it anoints itself in an ever-intensifying miasma of social justice and identity politics to hide its true intent.
If anything, it’s conservatives who look for change in the increasingly narrow and ossified confines of “progressive” thought. Pass the dopamine.
Quote: “Progressivism, the pursuit of progress, is, by definition, the pursuit of change, of new things. ”
Socialism&communism are old failed concepts. lots of history and dead bodies as data.
Defining progress as failed deadly ideology- is plain stupid. is that how brains differ?
Progressivism: faced with the infallible evidence liberalism aka natural rights, makes people prosperous, safe and harmonious, pretend to improve it by tweeking it with bigger government, but stealthfully from the Marxist limit.
IOW pluralistic Marxism. What do people think will happen? Destroying political opponents. Hmm, sound familiar?
It depends on what movie you’re watching as some say. Here’s my trailer.
A smart guy wrote a book called “the Trouble With Canada,” and noted something like this:
Wants become needs, which become rights, which become claims against the state.
That of course is antithetical to natural rights because one’s rights can never be another’s obligation.
Equality nay. Egalitarianism they say (confusing language is best here).
Grievance is the oxygen of cultural Marxism, in place to ensure political Marxism.
After a while as the transactions of decline pile up, they have to ditch pluralism too, aka Venezuela.
The beast is the same, the only difference is their pace as they say in football (the round ball kind).
If they could figure out a way to kill the sheep while continuing to get wool they would do it.
Power does corrupt, absolutely. Marx was clueless on that. Lenin was a master of it, tilling the killing fields immediately.
What fist dwells under the velvet glove is the question deplorable voters must ask themselves; and a few more people.
But Progressives are sure that they’ll get it right this time, because they will be the ones implementing it.
Being Progressive means never having to say “I learned something today…” And therefore not learning from the past.
If a conservative has what they think is a winning idea, they go out and sell it and try and get people interested. If nobody is, the idea was obviously poor and they fail.
If a leftist has what they think is a winning idea, they go to the government and get them to compel everyone else to praise it and pay for it.
It is this sense of entitlement that I abhor. The paternalistic leftist notion that their ideas are great and that EVERYONE should pay for them. That they are entitled to the receipts of the labours of others.
I have always ascribed this mental deficiency to poor upbringing, bad role models and indulgent western society.
Who knew they were actually just running on WD39 the whole time.
The neurotic dopamine crowd need to be stroked, encouraged and most of all they need applause. Conservatives are content with the effort and the result and prefer anonymity and the satisfaction that honest, hard work dispenses.
Politicians are douchbags.
conservatives hold themselves to account, libtards blame every one else. The author of that study must be poor in math, as they fail to grasp that correlation does not mean causative, until all other possible effects are eliminated. Which then leaves us with the unknown unkowns.
wuz that bull$hit written by the unDork????
If a leftist has what they think is a winning idea, they go to the government and get them to compel everyone else to praise it and pay for it.
…no buying or selling unless everyone sings the proper tune…you know, like tariffs paid for by taxpayers while praising the same…a synthesis of opposites.
A foreshadowing of this…just a type, though.
Rev 13:17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Wait, so does this explain why UnMe has a tail?
No. Does it explain your obsession with me?
I’ll bet 90% of the people reading this have never eaten pork rinds.
I will admit to not even knowing what a pork rind is.
think deep fried bacon fat.
It’s pretty simple really. Philosophy. You have a complete philosophy and you know how to run your life. Logic and acting in your own rational self interest. Someone presents a new idea or something new comes along – you don’t need to think about it – you know what to do. The decision is based entirely on your philosophy.
Most people never develop a complete philosophy and constantly are fighting with themselves trying to decide what to do or what to believe. The former group are mostly classical liberals. The later follow the herd.
Col 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
rudiments = G4747
στοιχεῖον
stoicheion
stoy-khi’-on
Neuter of a presumed derivative of the base of G4748; something orderly in arrangement, that is, (by implication) a serial (basal, fundamental, initial) constituent (literally), proposition (figuratively): – element, principle, rudiment.
G4748
στοιχέω
stoicheō
stoy-kheh’-o
From a derivative of στείχω steichō̄ (to range in regular line); to march in (military) rank (keep step), that is, (figuratively) to conform to virtue and piety: – walk (orderly).
The comments below that article are interesting.
BS being the short version.
Personal responsibility has to be learnt, as with most skills necessary to be a functioning member of society.
Liberals,of the John Stuart Mill variety are now regarded as right wing nut cases.
True conservatives are being treated as untouchables.
Sooner of later the parasites are going to aggravate us hosts beyond all hope of survival.
Human nature is one of the most unchanging aspects of mankind.
“It turns out that that might be true”, excuse me, might be? When you see “might be”, know that what you are looking at is merely opinion, not science. In science, you come up with a guess, make an exact, falsifiable prediction about it, then test it with careful experiment or observation of nature, and if the prediction doesn’t happen, you are wrong. You are either right, or wrong, there is no might be. Saying “might be” takes this out of the realm of science and into the realm of the “new science”, which is the logical fallacy “appeal to authority”, also known as “trust us, we are scientists”.
It turns out, the science has already been done. People looked for one difference between liberals and conservatives, and what they found was…spanking.
Spanking teaches you something, “actions have consequences”. Thus, we see liberals voting themselves free stuff from the government, because they do not understand consequences, that there aint no free lunch, and that the bill will become due. It also teaches the basics of reason and logic, “if A, then B”. That teaches you “delayed gratification”, you must do A to get to B, liberals think they can just vote, or wish, B into existence without doing A. Not learning delayed gratification means you never learn to control your emotions, “I want it now Now NOW!”. Look at one of the liberals favorite pastimes, protest, nothing but a mass temper tantrum.
Spanking causes you to do one thing that the liberal has never done, it teaches you to…
GROW UP!
If we’re born this way doesn’t that mean by their own standards (which I reject) they’re the bigots.
The findings of the study don’t correlate with reality. When I was young, the majority of citizens voted variations of center-right. Now the majority vote variations of center-left. If it was biological, they’d still be voting center-right, and the world would be a better place for it.
I was raised by lefty parents, especially my father who thought communism was God’s gift to humanity. While I never was as extreme as dear old Dad, I did vote NDP as a young man, but as I aged and learned more about human nature and economics, my views changed and I’ve been a conservative for decades. I really don’t think that was a function of my brain chemistry changing.
No, but I bet your bottom line was changing.
Converts to conservatism/libertarianism become so when they have a large enough wallet for the apparatchiks to pilfer.
“When I was young, the majority of citizens voted variations of center-right.”
Highly questionable. Canada is far less on the left than it was in the ’70s. The US too in many ways.
Ploitico:
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Pelosi:
“We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.”
Screw that and anything else they may have to say.
Liberals are fucktards.
wired differently?
I know exactly how I am wired differently.
a form of ‘high functioning autism’ aka aspergers.
it causes me to take things in a hyper literal manner since I didnt even know about ‘body language’ until my 20s and still cannot completely ‘speak’ that dialect.
it hampered pretty much everything I tried and where I was. ostracized for being ‘weird’ and ‘stoooopid’ because I didnt ‘get it’.
that was the down side.
the upside was the beautiful exquisite random chance that put me on the ord *precisely* at a time when logic, math, and technical prowess were de riguer aka the computer revolution.
then it didnt matter about ‘unspoken communications’ because copper and silicon do not use ‘unspoken’ communication.
*THEY* are very VERY exacting and literal the way they communicate.
I learned real early to spot the numerous unconscious assumptions I was making and
it forever changed my approach to analyzing things.