A reader asked me the question above, to which I reply:
Our brains seem to be “wired” in such a way that our political philosophies and other aspects of our character and belief systems are not entirely under our control.
About 10 years ago, I heard a presentation on the results of a university study in which subject participants were hooked up to electronic sensors that monitored the activity in various parts of their brains while they were shown photographs of innocuous things like kittens, puffy white clouds, and the beach, along with occasional photos of things that are potentially dangerous, perhaps an angry dog, a rattlesnake, or a tarantula.
There was a profound difference in brain response between self-described “liberals” and “conservatives.” In particular, the amygdalas, the part of the brain that deals with “fight or flight,” emotional responses including fear, anxiety, and aggression, in the latter group were far more active in response to potential danger than the former group, suggesting that conservatives are somehow “programmed” to have more violent responses to potential harm than liberals.
Additionally, we all naturally gravitate toward data points that corroborate what we already believe.
To me, this explains why conservatives, especially those of the present day, stir themselves into a frenzy with Fox News and Newsmax, while the rest of us content ourselves with the New York Times.
The novel of author/philosopher Ian McEwan “Saturday,” albeit fiction, takes this subject on in a deep and fascinating way.
What Particular Discovery of Science Has Changed the Way You Think About Ourselves and the Universe?
No one with any sense truly doubts the words at left. Caring only about wealthy white men is the GOP brand, like the Nike “swoosh.”
Not only does the Republican party appeal to the uber-rich, but also to wide variety of racists, and people stupid enough to believe that Trump is bringing manufacturing back to the U.S. and that the billionaires are job creators.
What Noam Chomsky says here is spot on, especially with respect to Trump.
What makes Trump so good at this is his facility to invent a new boogieman every couple of days. Communism, Dr. Fauci, Venezuela’s drug boats, Iran, birthright citizenship, democrats, the damage done by previous presidents, the climate hoax, the Kennedy Center, the arch, the vandals at the Reflecting Pool, Black Lives Matter, Antifa, liberals in education, the Hollywood elite, unsafe vaccinations, trans people, a nuclearized Iran, massive voter fraud, Haitians eating our pets, Harvard, the ex-Fed Chairman, NATO, wind turbines, the far-left radicals, the election control people, the list goes on.
Then there are the near-daily outrages:
Turning Gaza into a luxury resort, annexing Greenland, curtailing environmental emission standards, usurping the Panama Canal, refusing to pay E. Jean Carroll, pardoning hundreds of violent convicted felons, accepting bribes for pardoning white collar fraudsters, insider trading, orchestrating deals that benefit his children, targeting Jack Smith, protecting ICE agents who commit murder/manslaughter, and leasing federal wilderness land for oil exploration
The more indefensible the better.
Is her point that there are countries that are even more repressive to women’s rights?
Does anyone disagree with that?
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