Showing posts with label conservatism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label conservatism. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 9, 2018

Conservatives are Fear-driven with Symptoms of Low Social Mobility

It's easier to digest the Trump enabling conservative mindset when you consider why it is they are so susceptible to the principles of authoritarianism. Why is adherence to the king important to them? Why do they relish in the behavior of petulance and infantilism? Why all the rabble-rousing? Why do conservatives find these toxic virtues appealing? Why are they insecure and emotionally volatile? Why are they intellectually dishonest and why do they engage a topic in bad faith? What are they so afraid of?

Aside from the very obvious observable reputation and behavior of a lifelong scumbag and pathological liar in Donald Trump, allow me to do my best explaining what conservative authoritarianism looks like in the head-space of conservative America. I personally feel that Trumpism has transcended whatever is left of conservatism into something far more dangerous and radical, but for now we will refer to them as conservatives, even though fiscal conservatives or what's left of them voted for Hillary. Regardless, these right-wing concepts and feelings transcend democratic partisanship given the principles of authoritarianism as they relate to what is true and when truth is diametrically opposed to one's beliefs.

As it can be understood, the foundation of social and cultural 'fear' is rooted in hate and modern conservatives typically take a 'Good versus Evil' approach towards that which runs counter to their identity. They often express their beliefs and values exclusively in absolutes and superlatives for this reason, not unlike the linguistic congruence of Trump himself, who literally cannot speak at length about a complex subject and navigate the discourse successfully enough to promote his beliefs and express his points, making him unqualified to comment on matters social, cultural, economic, and political.

A symptom of this 'fear' is a susceptibility to disinformation and propaganda, in which conservatives will immediately come to defense of money-grubbing, fear-mongering oligarchs from the GOP, the right-wing media, and their corporate 'investors', who have worked in tandem to systematically undermine the overall well-being of humanity for personal profit. As we have seen time and time again, trickle-down is still widely accepted despite evidence to the contrary. The GOP is essentially a conduit for fostering a...political ‘Stockholm Syndrome’. These are the same morally bankrupt vulgarians that brought us anti-intellectualism as a virtue and radical identitarianism (see Richard Spencer and Fox News) and are currently moving us towards an ‘illiberal democracy’ akin to the economic and social corruption of Putin’s Russia.

The studies listed below help illustrate the manner in which the brain is susceptible to demagoguery and the principles of authoritarianism. As demonstrated, conservative youths develop more grey matter ('shorter' or preferred neural pathways/behaviors) around their amygdalas (fear processing center of the brain), whereas liberal youths develop more grey matter around the Anterior cingulate cortex (the reasoning center of the brain ). Accordingly, the ACC includes: the anterior region, which is involved in executive function, the dorsal region, which is involved in cognitive processes, and the ventral region, which is involved in emotional regulation. Fear in this capacity is often void of nuanced restraint and clarity and is the manner in which conservatives feel discomfort and insecurity in dissonance arousing situations. They're in a way, wired to be 'snowflakes', in that fear and discomfort around a subject act as a defense mechanism that overrides objective truth in order to feel safe about one's reputation, beliefs, and values. This while hiding behind the veil of politics to feel justified in their hatred of social and economic change through the bias of their community, the GOP itself, and conservative propaganda in the media. You routinely see this effect in religious groups and the like. Simply put, they’re fear-driven beings with symptoms of low social mobility (cultural capital).

Study A --- Brain scan

Study B

Study C

Study D

Study E

There is fact, and there is cognitive dissonance. the latter of which is an emotional landscape where truth is relative and lowbrow conspiracy theory runs rampant. Gas lighting and projection are a staple here and falsehoods feel vindicating when they run counter to perceived liberal agendas or entities, which allows lies to perpetuate and grow. Not out of policy, but out of malice. A place of self-aggrandizement where conservative constituents reside and by which the GOP has them hook, line, and sinker. As has been routinely observed, a frightening number of these people will not hesitate to vote for a bona fide dictator, a literal Nazi, child predator, or rapist. One needn't look hard to see that these people ravenously support a quality of man they'd never, ever allow to be left alone with their wives or children. It is as if the content of one's character doesn't matter anymore as long as Republicans are 'winning.' Winning feels good, so winning is the moral high ground. A place where the reputation of a man's character is worthless and self-reflection is impossible. Authoritarianism is very much alive in modern America and there is no shortage of narcissistic supply.

Furthermore, they all went out and voted for a malcontent snake-oil salesman who lives in a golden tower with his name written on it in caps lock. An abusive, spray-tanned, affluent egomaniac in a baggy suit with no redeeming qualities as a man, husband, father, and leader. The kind of adult you can't bring around because you're too ashamed and too worried about his behavior. Donald J. Trump is a person so fraught with hypocrisy and scandal that reasonable people are questioning whether he has a histrionic personality disorder or degenerative brain disease without a hint of hyperbole.

We now have a literal President who refuses to read long-form text and hasn’t finished a novel in five decades. A man so untethered from reality that he feels he has earned his right to be a criminal and that fondling women is genuinely appropriate. Not only will he do the crime, but he will brag about it publicly while simultaneously denying it and then turn around and gaslight whoever points out the behavior. Regardless of what you believe, or whether you think a narcissist can do good through bad in a vacuum, this is what conservative authoritarianism looks like and how it functions in the collective psyches of conservative America. Anybody who supports Donald Trump at this juncture is a certifiable dumbass or worse, a nihilistic troll. Conservatism has almost fully transitioned unto unbridled authoritarianism, and that's not hyperbole. Things have gotten so bad that hyperbole is dead.
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Thursday, January 26, 2017

Why Texas Sucks

When Republicans say it's about Christian/conservative/family values and you want to show them "pro-life" hypocrisy, consider:
My mom is a cafeteria lady at a public elementary school in Texas. Their school just had the budget for free breakfasts cut while Texas knew they'd be forking over millions to fight lawsuits challenging their preposterous fetal remain burial law. Texas cares about fetuses, not children.
The full George Carlin quote is brilliant, especially the part right before what you said: "If you're pre-born, you're fine, if you're pre-schooled, you're fucked. Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. Pro-life, these people aren't pro-life, they're killing doctors, what kind of pro-life is that? What, they'll do everything they can do save a fetus, but if it grows up to be a doctor they just might have to kill it?"
Isn't it the conservatives who want less government involvement but are very quick to jump in and involve themselves.
American conservatism is unusual (not sure about unique) in that it's a frothy mixture of liberalism (in the European sense) and fascism.
More:
Texas has highest maternal mortality rate in developed world, study finds
As the Republican-led state legislature has slashed funding to reproductive healthcare clinics, the maternal mortality rate doubled over just a two-year period
Texas state rankings (includes DC):
#1 in hazardous waste generated
#1 in population uninsured
#1 in executions
#2 in births
#2 in uninsured children
#3 in subprime credit
#3 in population living in food insecurity/hunger
#4 in teen pregnancy
#4 in percentage of women living in poverty
#8 in obesity
#47 in voter registration
#50 in percentage of high school graduates
#50 in spending on mental health
#50 in percent of women receiving prenatal care
#51 in voter participation
#51 in welfare benefits
#51 in percent of women with health insurance
(These are from the Texas Legislative Study Group, which used to produce these stats every year: http://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/news/2013-04-15/texas-on-the-brink/)
As I've said before, Texas has good people who are so poorly served by their state government (who have drawn some of the worst gerrymandered drawn district lines in the country to keep Republican control, even over the liberal cities). Texas Republicans focus their time and energy and the state's considerable resources on Southern Strategy racial resentment, anti-sex ed, women's sexuality regulation, anti-LGBT, randomly removing liberal historical figures from textbooks, while spending billions subsidizing corporate welfare for oil companies and other companies that benefit the Republicans in power. 

 And rather than the poor or other things Jesus actually talked about, Christian conservatives focus on gays, guns, and things like this (and government benefits for the wealthy and industries, obviously)
EDIT:
For those wondering how Texas got this bad, there's the gerrymandering linked above but also the effect of conservative media like Fox News ("War on Christmas," "Obama's terrorist fist bump," God, guns, gays, race dogwhistling):
Tests of knowledge of Fox viewers
A 2010 Stanford University survey found "more exposure to Fox News was associated with more rejection of many mainstream scientists' claims about global warming, [and] with less trust in scientists".[75]
A 2011 Kaiser Family Foundation survey on U.S. misperceptions about health care reform found that Fox News viewers had a poorer understanding of the new laws and were more likely to believe in falsehoods about the Affordable Care Act such as cuts to Medicare benefits and the death panel myth.[76] A 2010 Ohio State University study of public misperceptions about the so-called "Ground Zero Mosque", officially named Park51, found that viewers who relied on Fox News were 66% more likely to believe incorrect rumors than those with a "low reliance" on Fox News.[77]
In 2011, a study by Fairleigh Dickinson University found that New Jersey Fox News viewers were less well informed than people who did not watch any news at all.
67% of Fox viewers believed that the "U.S. has found clear evidence in Iraq that Saddam Hussein was working closely with the al Qaeda terrorist organization" (compared with 56% for CBS, 49% for NBC, 48% for CNN, 45% for ABC, 16% for NPR/PBS).
The belief that "The U.S. has found Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq" was held by 33% of Fox viewers and only 23% of CBS viewers, 19% for ABC, 20% for NBC, 20% for CNN and 11% for NPR/PBS.
35% of Fox viewers believed that "the majority of people [in the world] favor the U.S. having gone to war" with Iraq (compared with 28% for CBS, 27% for ABC, 24% for CNN, 20% for NBC, 5% for NPR/PBS).
You start out in 1954 by saying, "N----r, n----r, n----r." By 1968 you can't say "n----r" — that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states' rights and all that stuff. You're getting so abstract now [that] you're talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites. And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me — because obviously sitting around saying, "We want to cut this," is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than "n----r, n----r."
Fox News' owner is an Australian media mogul billionaire named Rupert Murdoch, who also has a media empire there biased to Australia's wealthy/conservative political party, as well as in the UK, with his News Corp tabloids, Sky TV, and other media properties he has there which did all of these fearmongering tactics with Brexit
Examples of the biased charts and graphics Fox News uses on its shows here: http://mediamatters.org/research/2012/10/01/a-history-of-dishonest-fox-charts/190225
Daily memos
Photocopied memos from John Moody instructed the network's on-air anchors and reporters to use positive language when discussing pro-life viewpoints, the Iraq War, and tax cuts, as well as requesting that the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal be put in context with the other violence in the area.[84] Such memos were reproduced for the film Outfoxed, which included Moody quotes such as, "The soldiers [seen on Fox in Iraq] in the foreground should be identified as 'sharpshooters,' not 'snipers,' which carries a negative connotation."
From his interviews with former trolls employed by Russia, Chen gathered that the point of their jobs "was to weave propaganda seamlessly into what appeared to be the nonpolitical musings of an everyday person."
It's a brand of information warfare, known as "dezinformatsiya," that has been used by the Russians since at least the Cold War. The disinformation campaigns are only one "active measure" tool used by Russian intelligence to "sow discord among," and within, allies perceived hostile to Russia.

SOURCE 
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