Sounds about right. Those who easily handle and even embrace change vs those who want things to never change. And with the rate of change in everything around us increasing daily, sounds like for the US to continue, conservatives must decline in power and numbers while those who can easily adapt to change (liberals) must take over and increase. If not, we are in for a downward slide into oblivion since the changes that are happening in the world won’t stop for the conservatives.
Study finds left-wing brain, right-wing brain
Exploring the neurobiology of politics, scientists have found that liberals tolerate ambiguity and conflict better than conservatives because of how their brains work.
In a simple experiment reported today in the journal Nature Neuroscience, scientists at New York University and UCLA show that political orientation is related to differences in how the brain processes information.
Analyzing the data, Sulloway said liberals were 4.9 times as likely as conservatives to show activity in the brain circuits that deal with conflicts, and 2.2 times as likely to score in the top half of the distribution for accuracy.
Sulloway said the results could explain why President Bush demonstrated a single-minded commitment to the Iraq war and why some people perceived Sen. John F. Kerry, the liberal Massachusetts Democrat who opposed Bush in the 2004 presidential race, as a “flip-flopper” for changing his mind about the conflict.
Based on the results, he said, liberals could be expected to more readily accept new social, scientific or religious ideas.
In other words, being a ‘flip-flopper’ is a good thing. Means flexibility in dealing with complex issues as situations change requiring new thinking and action. Rather than ‘stay the course.’ Sounds like an interesting way to examine Presidential candidates.
#30
Slander and disruption are political tactics utilized by both sides. The use of either doesn’t preclude being open minded, in fact the consultants hired to dream up these schemes seem to be very open minded and creative.
#29 Cinaedh
The Corporation aired on TVO here in Canada. It’s an excellent production, I second your recomendation.
If you’re not put off by strange performance art style documentaries you may enjoy Corporate Vampires by Rich Zubaty. It used to be on U-tube but is probably gone now, c’est la vie.
#29 – Cinaedh,
Thanks for the tip. I returned it to netflix on 5/17 rated 5 stars.
From thesaurus.com:
Liberal: advanced, avant-garde, big, broad, broad-minded, catholic, detached, disinterested, dispassionate, enlightened, flexible, free, general, high-minded, humanistic, humanitarian, impartial, indulgent, inexact, interested, latitudinarian, left, lenient, libertarian, loose, magnanimous, not close, not literal, not strict, permissive, pink, radical, rational, reasonable, receiving, receptive, reformist, tolerant, unbiased, unbigoted, unconventional, understanding, unorthodox, unprejudiced
Conservative: bourgeois, cautious, constant, controlled, conventional, die-hard, fearful, firm, fogyish*, fuddy-duddy*, guarded, hard hat*, hidebound, holding to, illiberal, inflexible, middle-of-the-road*, not extreme, obstinate, old guard*, old-line, orthodox, quiet, red-neck, right, right-wing, sober, stable, steady, timid, traditional, traditionalistic, unchangeable, unchanging, uncreative, undaring, unimaginative, unprogressive, white bread*
Oh, sure. Conservativism is just a brain disorder, i.e. “they can’t really help it”.
Whatever happened to personal responsibility?
Developing story: Rep. Ike Skelton has announced that the “tolerant” “enlightened” moonbats that plan on disrupting the testimony of General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker will now be prosecuted under D.C. law. Oh yes.
Being a former Republican, now Libertarian, but leaning Conservative, I find it hilarious when Libs make themselves out to “tolerant, progressive, open-minded.” That is such a joke, because any non-lib, be they conservatives, moderates, etc. living in an area such as the SF Bay Area know that Libs are all the things they claim to be — when you think EXACTLY like them. Any difference in core beliefs is met with severe objection.
Basically put, those leaning far left (for the most part, because I would be wrong to completely generalize), are complete hypocrites.
#33 – nightstar
Thanks for the recommendation for ‘Corporate Vampires’. I’ll look around to see if I can find it.
RE: post 17, Mis. Scott, and others,
One of the things that many folks misconstrue about libertarians is what has been described as “wanting to return to 1890 style capitalism”. While a fair number of folks who call themselves libertarians (small or large “L”) miss is that limited liability corporations are a protectorate of the state.
“Real libertarians” believe that freedom and responsibility go hand in hand. The owners of corporations are specifically exempted from full liability (responsibility) for their actions, except to the extent of loss of their investment. That is what makes the whole corporate ball game work, and most libertarians to whom it is explained will agree.
Back when I was in my 20s, I was a hard core libertarian who thought I could change the world. Now that I’ve celebrated my 39th birthday a few times, I realize that I’ll be dust long before any sort of libertarian revolution happens, so I’m more focused on promoting freedom as much as practical while working within the system. I know that taxes won’t end, wars will continue to be waged, innocents will be jailed, personal liberties will be challenged, and so on. The game plan is to try to lessen these things where possible. There is hope for progress on for example the war on drugs and other victimless crimes, and maybe, just maybe the United States is finally learning to mind its own business internationally. There is not much hope of smaller government overall.
Peace!
David
#36 – Max Bell
“Whatever happened to personal responsibility?”
Yes, ye olde “personal responsibility” Repug talking point.
Translated into non-right-wing English, it translates to “I got mine, Jack.” đ
Roget’s Thesaurus…stinks of French and reeks of Moonbat droppings..
Golly, no bias there, eh kids? Parlez vous FUBAR’d?!
38, you have hit the nail right on the head. The funny thing is most of neo-libs on this forum will have no idea what you are talking about.
LOL, the people calling themselves “liberals”, are pushing tyrannical government. Proof? Visit Zombie’s site. Check out how many times so called “liberals” shout down or physically attack those who disagree with them.
Most of the people the “liberals” are calling “conservatives”, are old fashioned isolationist liberals.
The “neo-cons”? Old fashioned global activist liberals.
#40 – DaveW,
Please explain your paragraph below:
âReal libertariansâ believe that freedom and responsibility go hand in hand. The owners of corporations are specifically exempted from full liability (responsibility) for their actions, except to the extent of loss of their investment. That is what makes the whole corporate ball game work, and most libertarians to whom it is explained will agree.
I can’t tell whether you mean that corporate officers should or should not be personally liable for the actions they take under the corporate letterhead.
Does this mean that employees that get laid off because management has moved their jobs overseas should be able to sue for that? I’m confused by your post.
Uncle Dave seemed to forget detached, disinterested, dispassionate, high-minded, impartial, indulgent, inexact, loose, magnanimous, permissive, radical, unconventional, and unorthodox as other synonyms for Liberal by Roget’s. Liberals have warts as well.
You say those like they’re insults…
“Detached, disinterested, dispassionate, high-minded and impartial” says “objective, fair and idealistic.”
“Loose, magnanimous, permissive, unconventional and unorthodox” says “Believing in freedom and generosity and opposed to dogma and authoritarianism.”
Sounds pretty virtous – and American – to me…
Do you folks REALLY want to see change in the Government??
Washington DC was built in a slum…
LETS pay them Min wage for their jobs..And transportation costs, and a SMALL cost of living in washington(at the YMCA)..
THEN, and only then, will you start getting people WHO want the job to FIX things, rather then those WHO WANT THE MONEY.
Higghawker,
Thanks for your link to “Uncle Jay”, in #7.
You’re right, its great stuff.
Hi Scott,
” I canât tell whether you mean that corporate officers should or should not be personally liable for the actions they take under the corporate letterhead.”
Not the officers necessairly. The owners should be responsible, just like they are in any other business. The officers are just employees, though in many cases, in the real world, they may hold a large amount of stock.
“Does this mean that employees that get laid off because management has moved their jobs overseas should be able to sue for that? Iâm confused by your post. ”
Er, no. Why would one be able to sue for being laid off? Your services are no longer needed. Unless of course you had an employment contract of some kind, in which case you could sue for breach of contract.
But, for just one example, the folks downstream who are subject to your waste products should damned well be able to go after the stockholders personally, if the corporate coffers are insufficient to cover damages.
#48 – Didn’t the Congress originally get next to no pay at all? That way, only the rich could take the job… keeps the riff-raff out of office.
http://slate.com/id/2108561/
I think Lawrence Summers revealed just how tolerant and open-minded liberals were, and that was at the enlightened place that is Harvard. They ran him out of the college for suggesting maybe men and women were interested in different fields, with one professor saying she became faint at hearing this. Then asking to have affirmative action help up to empirical testing made them even more hysterical.
#51 – now they get rich in office. Even St. Paul Wellstone the self-proclaimed poor college professor left behind a 2 Mil estate after 1 term in Congress.
Not that I really believe this, but it is funny:
Liberal: To be found protesting at Congressional hearings, or carrying signs protesting on the sidewalks everywhere.
Conservative: To be found working at their jobs.
Well, there does seem to be a lot of bullshit definitions of liberal in this thread… as one should expect. I guess its easy to take a caricature of the wacky liberal hippy tree-hugging loonbat and pretend that is what liberals are… and I do it with knuckle dragging monosyllabic conservatives…
But reality is that you are all full of crap (except for those of you I agree with).
The BS about “tax and spend” liberals hasn’t been true in many years, if ever. We don’t want to have live sex demonstrations for your fourth graders and we don’t want to to make cattle ranchers defend theirs against wolves with slingshots. We aren’t crazy. But we are thoughtful… and that seems to drive some of you batty…
That said, it isn’t fair to malign conservatives because there really aren’t that many left. These jackbooted homeland security loving Xian Bible thumpers aren’t conservatives. They are just fascists (and I don’t give a fuck if that invokes some variation on Godwin’s Rule, that’s what they are) and real conservatives respect individual liberty and a separation of church and state and privacy.
“real conservatives respect individual liberty and a separation of church and state and privacy.” – Add respect for private property to that and you’re 100% correct. I would hope that amended definition also applies to true Liberals, since the amended version is my core definition of a real American.
#54 – Not that I really believe this….”
Yes you do.
#57 – I’m well aware that idiots like John Edwards, Algore, John Kerry and retards like Cindy Sheehan and Michael Moore and pure evil like Hillary don’t represent mainstream “liberals”. But it’s still funny.
This “study” would make good justification in a Humanist, France-style revolution for killing all the conservative rich and bourgeous as unfit.
Just preparing for Hillary’s presidency.
#56, 58 – iGW,
What political group does not respect private property? The American Sociopathic Party?
You call Hillary liberal? Based on what? More so than Bill who wasn’t? Actually, she may be socially liberal. I doubt she’s fiscally liberal. As first lady, she did make that play for health insurance, but hasn’t made any serious motions in that direction since.
Did anyone read the article? There is a lot of extrapolation based on some college students pressing “W” or “M” on a keyboard. This simplistic test is being used as a rational for Bush going to war and sticking by his decision as well as why Kerry is deemed a flip-flopper?!?
WTF! They act like this is the Holy Grail of political psychology. Amazing. Sanity check, please!