Comments on: The psychology of Psychology Today (about those liberals and conservatives)

By: Ymar

Ymar — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 20:29:25 +0000

I came to the same conclusion, Danny. I also said around here that socialism, nazism, and communism were more alike than different, regardless of who they hated.

By: Danny Lemieux

Danny Lemieux — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 17:46:59 +0000

Ymar – the only reason that Hitler was tagged with the term “Far Right” is that he was so tagged by the Left…AFTER he attacked Russia. Hitler was a SOCIALIST – he just instituted “National” Socialism as a different brand of socialism. Same thugs, different gang colors. This is a classic case of socialists perverting language and the meaning of words to further their cause.
“Right Wing” is a term that emerged after the French Revolution – it refers to where representatives that were not affiliated with the revolutionary party were seated in the assembly. Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin were all Leftists. Also, fascism refers to strong centralized authority, as symbolized by the Roman fasces. This term is not the anti-thesis of Socialist or Communist – all non-democratic societies (incl. communist dictatorships) are, by definition, fascist.

By: Not Quite Pseudonymous

Not Quite Pseudonymous — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 05:22:57 +0000

Of course this post will be challenged, but don’t expect a response. I just can’t afford to waste this much time. I’ve sworn off this community god knows how many times, but this time (fingers crossed) it’s final.

Translation: “I won’t answer if I’m seriously challenged.”

This from someone who writes a 42-paragraph comment in which they explain that they’re “much too busy” to elaborate on a point, and “have a real life”.

Niiiice.

By: Swede

Swede — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 21:43:02 +0000

John,

No doubt. The article about fearful conservatives is a classic example of starting a project with a belief and then constructing an argument to support it. Shameful.

By: John

John — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 21:03:43 +0000

True, and it would be interesting to see a future Psychology Today artice on liberal versus conservative fear vs. rationality ratings in terms of climate change and concerns about global warming. My guess is the magazine would come to the opposite conclusions and decide that, in contrast to post-9/11 emotions, fear is the rational course to take on this topic.

By: Swede

Swede — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 20:53:07 +0000

I would suggest that fear is an important, but not exclusive, motivation for every one of us – liberal and conservative alike. Where we differ is in what we fear.

By: J. Peden

J. Peden — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 10:56:48 +0000

” What is suspiciously absent in the whole discourse of Jost et al, is rational arguments that enforce people adopt one or other political philosophy. They assume that there are predominantly emotional causes for such decisions.”
Sergey

Thanks to anon’s link, I just read the first 3 pages of “Jost”, thinking, “My God, they can’t be really saying this!” – making one’s total thought process conveniently deterministic, regardless of ideology, but thus even negating the rationality of their own article.

And so on.

Nice one on “projection”, too, Sergey.

I read Iron Shrink’s analysis, and thanked him for doing it. Someone had to do it.

By: Ymar

Ymar — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 04:07:44 +0000

Another humorous look by the Left on the Right

By: armchair pessimist

armchair pessimist — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 02:27:30 +0000

In my little corner of the business world people are addicted to fancy graphs, charts and arrays of numbers. Whole forests are sacrificed to make their endless research reports. It’s all bunkum of course, just draping our petty-bs in the robes of scientific rigor.

One day a few of us decided to kill time by cooking up our own methodology to the end of proving mathematically that people think water is more flavorful than beer. As I recall, we generated several dozen pages of the fanciest bar graphs and such to support this proposition. It started as pure make-pretend, but as we built this edifice of nonsense we became bewitched by our own creation. While we never exactly believed it, it was so pretty; who cared whether it was true or not?

Luckily, we had no training or expertise in this sort of thing, and, unlike those earnest PT researchers, had the attention span of gnats. So when it was 5 o’clock we went home and forgot all about it.

But Ihaving briefly heard the song of the sirens of quantification, you may be sure I stop my ears to all such stuff, in PT or anywhere else.

By: troutsky

troutsky — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 23:26:43 +0000

I hate studies that disagree with my conclusions as well, and often denounce them.Just keep studying till you get it right is my motto.