Re: Are liberals dumber than conservatives?

royls_at_telus.net
Date: 08/24/04 

Date: Tue, 24 Aug 2004 17:57:08 GMT

On Tue, 24 Aug 2004 15:46:33 GMT, Socialism is a Mental Disease
<root@localhost.> wrote:

>On Tue, 24 Aug 2004 08:09:02 -0400, "Mark Monson" <m_monson@ztech.com>
>wrote:
>>
>>Because he's afraid of losing a material advantage, the conservative stops
>>questioning his basic assumptions about society. He sacrifices scientific thinking
>>on the altar of vested interest. Working in reverse of the scientific method, the
>>conservative constructs scientific-sounding justifications in support of his
>>perceived self interest.
>
>Personally, I think this description of yours applies equally well to
>liberals. Most people tend to be very fond of their particular
>beliefs, whatever they are.

It's not just a question of people's tendency to get too comfortable
with their beliefs, but of choosing their beliefs about questions of
fact in the first place on the basis of which claims they perceive
(or, very often, misperceive) to be in their own interest. It's the
rare racist who believes another race is better than his own.

>>The progressive uses plenty of emotional language, but his intelligence is more
>>useful for social problem solving because he retains that most essential scientific
>>quality: an open mind.
>
>The problem is not the use of emotional language. The problem is using
>the same tool a reptile uses to make decisions. That is not a good
>thing. According to that study, liberals tend to be more influenced by
>the reptilian brain. That, in my opinion, is not a good thing.

IMO you are reading too much into the term, "reptilian brain." The
notion that the human amygdala is the same as a reptile's brain is
just silly; and even sillier is the notion that greater activity in
the amygdala indicates decisions are being made there. After all, who
actually strikes you as more reptilian in their behavior and demeanor:
Bush or Clinton? What about Cheney vs Gore? Rumsfeld vs Cohen? I
think you get the picture.

>However,
>what is the point of having a high IQ if your reptilian brain is the
>one that controls you?

I don't think you are close to understanding this research.

-- Roy L