In a study commissioned by Colin Firth “while serving as a guest host of the BBC Radio 4′s Today program in London last year,” so you know it’s good, British researchers found people who describe themselves as liberal have “a larger anterior cingulate cortex–a gray matter of the brain associated with understanding complexity,” whereas people who describe themselves as conservative have “a larger amygdala, an almond-shaped area that is associated with fear and anxiety,” which is a marvel, considering most conservatives probably declined to participate because they were worried they’d be asked to prove their penis size.
(No word if there’s a part of bloggers’ brains that makes them likely to dismiss editing a run-on sentence paragraph by making a joke about it the next line.)
“Previously, some psychological traits were known to be predictive of an individual’s political orientation,” lead researcher Ryota Kanai writes of the study in the latest issue of Current Biology. “Our study now links personality traits with specific brain structure.”
This study, with all its menacingly detailed statistics and stuff, should come as no surprise. Science and reason are always out to get conservatives and will stop at nothing to destroy them. [Yahoo News]
{ 288 comments }
Boo
Go science!
But if science keeps writing the snark itself, who will bother to read Wonkette?
Bite my a larger anterior cingulate cortex bitch!
Hawt.
Scienceis scary because it is all science-y and fact-y
Wait! You mean Beck, Bachmann, Palin, Limbaugh, Boehner, etc. are stupid? Didn't see that one coming. Ah, the unexpected wonders of science!
Not to take away from your point, with which I agree, but to be serious for a second:
What the science is saying is, put in a metaphorical way: "liberals" see shades of grey, "conservatives" see black and white. Hence, conservatives think in terms of: us vs. them, my way vs. the wrong way, etc. This leads to unfortunate consequences, especially when said people are whipped up by inflammatory language and rhetoric. But it is a little unfair to say that all conservatives are "stupid." That would truly make us those "intolerant liberals" the conservatives are always whining about.
Can we just call them "simple minded fucksticks" and call it a day, then?
"Simple-minded fuckstick" does imply some use – as long as they don't speak.
Or we could compromise on "fear-ridden nut".
I guess you're right but it sure feels better calling 'em stupid.
I know, it does, doesn't it?
/sigh
Nah, it's easy. Liberals are the white and all the shades of grey… then the conservatives are black.
Hey, calling conservacunts black, THAT'S something that's bound to rile them up.
This is good news for Herman Cain!
if i remember correctly the amygdala has a strong effect on the intensity of emotions in regards to memory, working in conjunction with the hippocampus.
the hippocampus is not located at Liberty University.
The hippo campus is in the hoveround-friendly Glenn Beck U.
I think Rush Limbic has an honorary doktorate from that institution.
another win fer the kid…nice to see your p-ness growing bigger and bigger every day also, too
Increased activity in the amygdala is also linked to autism, although last time I looked into it they weren't sure if it was a cause or an effect of other synaptic/genetic issues.
Although I will say intense amygdala response can be compatible with liberal thought, as many artists can attest.
This is true, and in particular, the amygdala has a pretty strong impact on one's implicit memory, also mediated by emotions. In other words, Colbert was right, and conservatives tend to think "from the gut", instead of "reasoning things out", using "facts".
oh there you go using *science* and *logic* again…my favorite Colbert moment of the century, "reality has a well known liberal bias"
"if i remember correctly the amygdala has a strong effect on the intensity of emotions in regards to memory"
Doesn't it have something to do with the way that smells are linked to memory?
I don't remember the source, but I believe that's so.
stimuli in general so that would be correct.
To be unfunnily serious some more: none of the people Captain_Quark cited is probably stupid in the sense of having limited cognitive abilities/low IQ or whatever you want to call it. I'd say, for instance, that Beck and Limbaugh probably don't believe what they espouse: they're entertainers playing to an audience, like professional wrestlers or clowns. Palin, Boehner and Bachmann aren't dumb either, but are too unsophisticated to recognize the intellectual flaccidity of their arguments. Lots of grownup liberals were conservatives in their youth because conservatism seems so obviously true until you learn some stuff in college, or maybe even high school. It helps to have tolerant parents who'll listen to your juvenile Social Darwinism and say, "But what if people they can't get jobs because they have dark skin?"
I co-sign that statement but for one thing: I think Palin is abso-fucking-lutely dumb as a post. Limited cognitive abilities without a doubt. I think she *never* would have been unleashed on us all if McCain hadn't swooped down out of nowhere and yanked her off the snowy tundra.
Yes, she's showing some impressive ability to maintain that attention and grift, grift, grift, but there's gotta be a lot of smarter someones pulling the strings.
I’d agree totally except she has a certain gift for snark: “How’s that hopey-changey thing working for ya?” & etc.I didn’t say great snark. Or original phrasing.Shit, you’re right: she’s a moran. Gerty Van S is running the show when not blowing Todd.
"I think Palin is abso-fucking-lutely dumb as a post."
I'd go further than that: I think she's dumb as a post, and *also* aggressively ignorant. I think she started out as a dumbass, but unlike a lot of other people (and let's face it, not everybody is smart, just like not everybody is tall), she can't become any smarter, because when given the opportunity, she starts yelling, LA LA LA I CAN'T HEAR YOU!!!
Boehner and Bachmann maybe aren't dumb, but Palin? All the stuff about her being lazy, incurious, unwilling to put effort into studying up on government, world affairs, foreign policy? All true.
But I think what has been missed is that she can't. Seriously, I think she has maybe an 85-89 IQ on a good day. She can't learn. Just can't. She is mean, and narcissistic, and racist, and vicious. And stupid, classically stupid.
She has gotten by with her winkin' and flirtin', skirts up to her hoo-ha, her glasses-me-look-smart, and her relative youth. The youth is fading and the looks are being overtaken by her nasty-ass disposition and crappy plastic surgery (at 20 you have the face you were born with, at 50 you have the face you've earned).
Her snark is the snark born of having mean and nasty things come easily to mind. Most of her sayings and writings are courtesy of her increasingly unhinged writer/toelicker, Rebecca Mansour.
Your statement is authoritative. She’s a dumb cunt who got lucky when WALNUTS! took a shine to her.
Howsabout "Scaredpants", then? Know who else only sees in black and white?
Dogs?
The Klu Klux Klan?
Hookworms?
Us, when dreaming? (Is that even true?)
It was an old myth from the early days of dream analysis; actual questioning shows that everyone dreams in color. However, the early studies were done in the early days of movies – which were all black and white at the time, and probably influenced people's dreams, along with early B&W TV.
See this is that damn nuanced LIEberal thinking. If you were a red blooded American you'd just take off your NASCAR trucker hat, pull off your Creed tour t-shirt, and kick some ass! Woo!
Then there are those of us who start out being conservative personalities, but are forced into Liberal politics, etc., by force of circumstances. In my case, a lifetime of being screwed over by the richer and more powerful!
Some have it thrust upon them.
Well said, sir, well said.
…or into them?
They're going to whine no matter how hard we work, explaining it in shades of grey, so better to use a term they understand and call them stoopid.
I for one am loudly, unabashedly intolerant of stupid people, be they liberal or conservative. Of course, almost all stupid people are conservative, so it makes my job pretty easy.
"almost all stupid people are conservative"
Isn't there a saying to the effect that, "Not all conservatives are stupid, but all stupid people are conservatives"?
So if we want to stop the cons from breeding, someone better make condoms easier to operate. Either that, or tell them scary, but simple, stories about the women-parts.
"Uterus!"
{conservatives run in fear}
It's all becoming clear to me now!
Like the one about the virgin birth?
You mean like, don't even kiss her while wearing a bathing suit? That kind of virgin pregnancy?
Sing them the Vagina Dentata Cantata.
Kind of redundant – bigger reptile brains make bigger reptiles.
See? David Ickes was right– the alien Lizard People ARE taking over the world!
So is my anterior cingulate cortex shrinking if I am caused fear and anxiety by the lizard brains?
possibly, but on the bright side your amygdala is getting bigger, and size IS everything!
possibly, but on the bright side your amygdala is getting bigger, and size DOES matter! (at least in lizard world)
Blindsided by Science!
Fearful dweebs.
And here I thought it was that she blinded me with science.
So that's why it's so easy to frighten conservatards.
Hey, look over there – it's a Muslim! And that guy looks gay and might be coming to hit on you! There's a black guy, he must want to mug you!
It's like shooting fish in a barrel.
Universal healthcare! Labor unions! AAIIEEE!!
I never miss an opportunity to bust out my favorite Bloom County cartoon:
No Nukes!
(Edited for HTML fail)
gawd I loved those guys kept me sane thru the Reagan/ Bush II years and thankfully Calvin & Hobbes came along after that!
It's like shooting fish with pink nail polish on their fins in a barrel.
/fixed
Scientists descended from monkeys. Conservatives did not, though they are, apparently, evolving into apes.
I'd say they're ten hairs away from being baboons, except that'd be an insult to baboons everywhere
"My father was a mulatto, my grandfather was a Negro, and my great-grandfather a monkey. You see, Sir, my family starts where yours ends." — Alexandre Dumas, père
This is obviously just a theory, and the theory that conservatives are smarter must be given equal time. Teach the controversy!!
At Ave Maria University, Conservatives are Smarter 101 is scheduled right after the Gravity is Just a Theory seminar and the Day I Chose to be Straight writing workshop.
Attention students: Due to a room schedule conflict, today's Gravity is Just a Theory Seminar has been moved to the roof.
the tide comes in, the tide goes out, who can explain it?
Evidence for that assertion is harder to come by than contemporary photos –even heliographs — of Jeebus riding a brontosaurus.
Hey, don't mock the documentary. It even has a catch tune: Flintstones meet the Flintstones… they're a stone age modern family!
gawd I loved those guys…that Barney Rubble, what an actor!
"we'll have a yabba dabba doo time,
a dabba doo time,
we'll have a gay old time!"
OK, maybe not.
In theory, there's no difference between theory and practice…
So you're a proponent of unintelligent design?
"Teach the controversy!!"
Yeah, critical thinking, n stuff.
New directive from the Club for Growth: breed the shillers!
I demand to see Obama's amygdala, to prove that he was born a liberal.
The picture is of a man, wearing a mullet, with a beer gut, sporting a bandana and holding a misspelled sign. Now is NOT the time to cut funding to Planned Parenthood. This is a sign that we should be giving them a NASA-sized budget.
So are you saying that the anterior cingulate cortex is also associated with good taste in dressing and personal grooming?
Plus he's a Cardinals fan.
Don't forget to spay or neuter your bubba (or bubbette)!
Thus proving it's easier to hate than to think…. or, Downfisting Trollism Explained.
A thousand Amens to you, and the one meager fist I am allotted to give you.
The many upfists make them fearful.
I've never yet figured out why downfisting is such a big deal. It's not like Doofuss is pissing in my beer when I'm not looking. He cannot hurt me in the least.
Scary thing is, there are beers out there where you can't discern that this has happened.
Beer Lao is not among them.
and the result of the study about correlation between penis size and political orientation is … ?
Why do you think so many black dudes are Democrats?
I'm an Uber-liberal.
Inconclusive – they haven't been able to figure out how to measure a cock buried in a young boy's ass, which means they have no data on conservatives.
All politicians are big dicks.
methinks it involves an equation where penis size has an direct inverse relationship to the size of excessively large truck/ SUV driven, hence Hummer = microscopic
Will no one speak up on behalf of the teeny weenies?
First they came for the teeny weenies, and I had a huge schlong, so I said nothing.
Along with science they can't understand macro economics, political philosophy, the anthropology of religion, cultural geography, or recent history.
Of course not. Those "liberal" arts and "social(ist)" sciences aren't required in MBA school.
Or basic spelling and grammar.
The phrase from my youth that comes to mind is "No shit, Sherlock."
"… a larger amygdala…"
Size does matter.
Beck is all amygdala.
I guess the big amygdala compensates for other, um, deficiencies.
I assume any guy with a big amygdala could get laid at CPAC.
Trust your amygda-dar.
"Science and reason are always out to get conservatives…"
Science, reason and reality are always out to get conservatives.
Better now.
Facts have a liberal bias.
No WONDER they all cling to their guns and religion!
Next up on Fox: New research shows the size of your amygdala is the best measure of your intelligence.
I thought the amygdale had to do with pleasure, that can’t be if conservatives have a more developed one because they seem to be rater joyless.
You may be thinking of the g-spot, while the conservatives have developed into solid assholes. It does get confusing, but if you consider the joylessness to be caused by bleeding, swollen, itching, painful, burning hemorrhoids then it gives you a little mnemonic.
Any pleasure they have is wiped out by their Depends-wetting fear.
If you don't believe in science can a study scare you?
The thing I wonder about is, did the vivisections directly follow the interviews?
I would be willing to hypothesize that over 90% of conserevatards are the adult survivors of some form of child abuse/molestation. Snarkless, sorry.
Nope, its nature, not nurture. Ask any parent. Some kids are born fretful, some are born bold, you see their nature from infancy.
Damn straight. In fact, I'm so liberal that I even have a smart ass.
Where is the "greedy" part of the brain?
Usually it's directly beneath a hideous combover.
Or a bad toupee.
The basal ganglia aka lizard portion of the human brain.
Specifically the nucleus acumbens, which is, in fact, highly interconnected with the amygdala.
The Kochlea?
Under Trump's "hair."
Because lieberals have have brains capable of doing science, they will probably be able to identify a large number of reasons why this research is probably bullshit.
But it makes good blog-fodder for an afternoon…
EDIT: Haha, from the study: "Because none of the participants reported the scale corresponding to very conservative, the analyses were conducted using the scales of [v. liberal], [liberal], [middle-of-the-road], and [conservative]."
True story: the larger your amygdala, the more sexually aggressive you are. Also, and underdeveloped amygdala is just as bad as one that is too big for its cavern. The amygdala is one of the last parts of the brain to mature (early to mid-twenties), and because it regulates emotions, it explains why teenagers are such assholes.
Teenagers are such assholes. I forget between exposures just how bad it is.
Teachers, you have my every sympathy.
So…liberals are LITERALLY children?
I'm both liberal and anxious. WTF?
Must be my 8 3/8 hat size.
Maybe you just have an ENORMOUS amount of grey matter to balance out a larger Queen Amygdala.
Sounds like somebody's cingulate cortex is feuding with their amygdala.
So their war on science was pre-emptive. Pretty shrewd.
I'm gittin' me a big ol' pair of Truck-Amygdalaz to hang off of my tow hitch.
Haha, I want one! Gonna hang it from my swim trunks in VEGAS
DINGDINGDING
WINNAR!
Verifies the old saying… not all Right Wingers are stupid, but stupid people are Right Wing.
reminds me of a favorite line in Apocalypse Now (Robert Duvall I think?) "not all gooks are chinks but all chinks are gooks"
"'Sixty percent of scientific studies inaccurate' studys says."
160% of pundit predictions turn out to be inaccurate, also.
60% of the time it works, every time.
138% of all statistics are false.
Good – now we can test for it in utero and flush it if it looks too Republican.
HA HA – no we can't – I just thought I'd freak out the little Breitbart dweebs.
You know who ELSE argued in favor of eugenics?
KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAN
This IS Ceti Alpha Five!!!
Oh, awesome.
Not in D.C. anyway.
Now thats an awesome death panel.
This one was so good, please pass along to your wife that you deserve a vigorous upfisting tonight.
I have a large snarkabellum.
Republicunts have a large Sarahbellum.
"I have a large snarkabellum."
Yeah, no damn kidding! I can see it from here!
Now all we need is research to determine why conservatives can't sustain an erection unless we're going to war for no reason.
"If your erection lasts longer than 7 years, elect a Democratic president and then blame it on him."
Contards being fat drunk and stupid is no way to help their boners.
HaHA! You put Conservative + Brains together. Mistakes were made.
You go to life with the brains you have, not the brains you wish you had.
And make no effort to improve those brains, or fill them with knowledge.
Where's Ryota Kanai birth certificate huh?
The enlarged amygdala is where Jesus lives.
good. then we can stop looking in the gaps.
Charlie Sheen calls them Goddesses…
Ninety percent of what Planned Parenthood does involves shrinking amygdalae.
Is this what they mean by the graying of America?
"If you have a larger amygdala….You might be a Red-Neck"
-Jeff Somthing or Other, I Don't Remember His Name Right Now, and I'll be Damned if I'm Going to Google It.-
Foxworthy!
Oh..that was a test, wasn't it? And I just passed (failed).
Usually I'm like "oh what the hell is that person's name….Oh god it's on the tip of my tounge.
But with him, I could've gone the rest of the year without caring.
I cope with that by referring to everyone as "Little Whats-her-face".
Hey, baby, wanna see my amygdala?
Several conservative commentators dismissed the findings outright before ducking behind their mums' skirts and picking their noses. Others didn't dispute the empirical evidence that their amygdalas had expanded over time, but denied the suggestion that the changes were Beck-made.
I am guessing that T-shirt is for the Arizona Cardinals, not the St.Louis Cardinals.
No… The very same as the team boasting Glenn Beck supporters Tony La Russa & Albert Pujols.
Certainly not the Stanford Cardinal.
In my experience, rural Missourians tend to be Cardinals fans instead of Royals fans, so there's no telling.
Here's a scientific explanation for your observation: Cardinal uniforms red, Royal uniforms blue. Royal(e)s may have a touch of the French in them, too, adding to the fear factor.
Alas, a crown, but no fleur de lis.
Yeah, but's been that was since the 80s. There are small pockets of Royals fans throughout the state traditionally, but anymore you have a hard time finding Royals fans inside KC itself.
It wasn't always that way, though. The 1985 World Series was like the American Civil War 2.0 for us.
George piles it on.
The sports teams or the clergy members?
I once heard a VA psychiatrist talking about the brains of untreated vets returning with PTSD. Pretty much the whole enlarged amygdala scenario. These guys (mostly) had been reduced to sizing up every situation as fight or flight, which tends to make you kind of hard to be around. In the case of our teabagger chicken hawk friends these brain changes make them immune to rational thought but easily manipulated by authoritarian leaders.
Brains do develop. The grey cells will grow throughout life, if you encourage them. That's why learning foreign languages is good, even in old age.
Except for the meth labs.
Science…kept secretly alive through the Dark Ages by them damned Mooslins…
Wait until they find out that numbers are Arabic.
I keep waiting for some conservative talking head to announce he/she's switched back to the old fashioned Roman numerals!
By "big bang" I presume you mean:
1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
3 And God said, Let there be light and there was light.
How can there be waters in the void? It's a mystery!
And God created Man in His own image, which explains a hell of a lot.
Early Xtns were considerably more sophisticated, intellectually, than most protestant fundies today, and always took it for granted this stuff was poetry and metaphor and allegory, not literal.
Reference?
Saint Augustine comes to mind- he repeatedly urged Christians not to try to use the Bible to argue with science, because it made them look like ignorant backwards hicks whenever they were wrong, and this kinda interfered with the larger message they were trying to spread.
On the other hand, Saint Augustine must have had a few Christians in particular in mind when he said this, so it's equally accurate to say that this suggests that the Xtian urge to be insane, backwards, and anti-science goes all the way back to the early church.
Ha! Yet another reason the fundie Baptists of my upbringing demonized the Papists.
Aurelius Augustinus, De genesi ad litteram. Or any of the Hexaemeronliterature.
"Early Xtns were considerably more sophisticated, intellectually, than most protestant fundies today"
I'm borrowing here, but somebody or other (Sam Harris??) made the point that religion is the only field of endeavor that doesn't change over time. We don't use the medical theories of 100 years ago, drive cars built with 100 year old technology, etc., so why couldn't religion keep up with the changes in human knowledge/society?
tide comes in, tide goes out…who can explain it?
All I know is that Sarah Palin went to the Wailing Wall a few weeks ago and asked, "Where are all the whales?"
She was so pissed that she went to all that trouble getting her harpoon through customs.
I kept waiting for her to get in a fight with the haredim, like Cicciolina did when she "performed" at the Wall some years ago!
Thanks for reminding me that the eye-tees get Cicciolina and we get Palin.
For some reason, the Dayton [Ohio] Daily News covered her doingspretty closely, in the '80s. I remember when she got married (inHungary) and the Lutheran pastor made her promise to reform her ways.After a long argument in the church, she consented, but, judging byher press conference afterwards “the road to reform would be long anddifficult.”
I had a giant Amygdala on a stick last week at the State Fair…YUMMY!
Deep fried!!
So, the State Fair now has deep fried…
BRAAAAAIIINNNNZZZ!!!
Remember when they were studying the voting preferences of a mental hospital in New Hampshire and discovered that the more mentally ill you are the more likely you were to vote for George Bush?
Ohh Great, another reason for libtard girls everywhere to make me watch Colin Firth movies.
Well, you could always pick up some conservatard girls, but they'd probably make you take them to that Atlas Shrugged movie or something. Better or worse? You decide.
Ohh come on. If Colin played John Galt you know you would go see it.
Nyet, tovarisch.
Hmmm.
Larger amygdala = Fear, Anxiety.
Larger anterior cingulate cortex = understanding Complexity.
Could this be evidence of Intelligent Design?
If it "is" then that Intelligent Designer is one cruel and ironic motherfucker. What Intelligent Designer would make the people who believe in him so stupid?
Precisely.
More self modification by evolving man. When man evolved the club the neocortex evolved to cushion the hind brain where the breathing, breeding, eating stuff is kept. Eventually this anterior cingulate got involved in thinking in those early humans where were not being pounded on the head so often. And so it is today. Get pounded on, especially as kids, you retreat to the hindbrain.
This is *so* the perfect combination of snark and science. The only way it could possibly be improved is by adding coffee and/or library books.
Could be; but by whom? Ancient Egyptians credited creation of the universe to Atum, masturbating! I'm use lots of Wonketteers could go along with this!
I have no problem with Intelligent Design. I just don't want some Baptist shoving their prayers and prejudices down my Catholic/Lutheran throat. Let the Fundies create their own schools, like the Catholics have. Pay for'em themselve, too.
Their amygdala tells them, "Why build our own when we can take these by force?"
We have no amygdala, but amygdala itself.
It remains to be seen whether a democracy can function when 35% of the electorate is highly motivated but too fearful to think clearly and the other 65% is too encumbered to nuance and scruples to take definitive action. (i.e. crush these morans before the can breed more0.
Heh-you said more-o.
You have to deal with the human race you have, not the one you want.
This amygdali stuff is surreal.
Thank you. It took me awhile but I got it. Well played and funny as hell.
Took me a while too. You're playing multi-dimensional chess with that comment, good sir! (Or madame.)
to be fair, more knowledge and stuff makes less room for jesus.
Knowledge is the Devil's trick to make you question the existence of Jeebus.
Once you've had a large anterior cingulate cortex, you never go back.
This is the first time I've seen the moron's sign that resulted in the spelling of Moran, which I do just to copy-cat the wonkeratti. Could this explain the Baptist attempt to take over City Hall in my little town? Because they're afraid of those scary Methodists who have been in charge for years?
This is like finding Jeebuses nails isn't it. The source of moran, the original fundamental moran.
Tabula Rosa.
*applies strawberry lip gloss*
*kisses Bluesy on the lips*
Maybe he was named Moran? Like the hero of "Breaker Moran"?
Why, didntja no? Ain't no Methodist gonna git intah Heavn. And if ye aint heaven-bound, boy (or gurl), ye aint got no biznuss in that thar city hall, now do ye?
I'm not sure how this will affect my theory about how certain pockets of inbreeding (The South) have resulted in bringing forth those few Neanderthal genes possessed by some gene pools, thus making recessive traits dominant.
Probably won't have much effect.
Actually, neanderthals had larger brains and were more social, so of course the homo moranis had to wipe them out.
Why, us'ns that has family trees that don't brainch resembles that remark.
Wow, so that insult I've been using that conservatives are basically shared shitless all the time is actual scientific truth? Score!
Check out Robert Altemeyer, The Authoritarians. http://members.shaw.ca/jeanaltemeyer/drbob/TheAut...
Science once again proves conservativism attracts the unbalanced and the stupid.
GOP responds by trying to "correct" the budget by "defunding science" in 3….2….
Also, does this article make anyone else think of "From Beyond"?
The only portion engaged is the lizard part.
That means fire was harnessed by a liberal plinking away at different stones while conservatives huddled deep in the caves to get away from the lightning.
And later the conservative caveman said, 'Hey! Thats MY fire! Dem libruls dun tuk mah fire!!!1!1!"
Fire was invented by Beijing Man; he was a practical joker and wanted to light his farts!
More evidence of the science's liberal bias!
Liberals invented science to trick conservatives, and make them look dumb. QED, science has a liberal bias.
Maybe it's a Brit thing? Hugh Grant just did an expose of the phone tapping that Murdoch and his ilk do:
http://www.businessinsider.com/hugh-grant-rupert-...
I think the study is on the right track. I know that the conservatives I've met are largely people who live/act from fear, regardless of how educated they are.
As I noted above, amygdala activity is linked to autism. So is a lack of ability to process abstract thoughts, and the sort of mental skills that are good for engineering but not for having a full social life. Which might explain why every engineer I've ever none is some weird mixture of conservative and libertarian and fucking paranoid about the government (especially the ones who work for it).
Does that also explain their failure to understand humor? Engineers, that is.
In view of these findings, I propose that we dispense with the Democrat/Republican paradigm and replace it with two new parties: The Anterior Cingulate Cortexians and the
Amygdaloids.
I'm sure that things would be the same after awhile, but it might be fun.
You mean the Eloi and the Morlocks?
God damn. This shit has been going on so long I can't even remember what idiotic outburst of nitwittery produced that "Morans" pic. Pro War? Anti Health care? GZMosk?
The long history of so much stupid is just forming a simple colagualted mass in my memory. Feels bad man.
I seem to remember it was a neo-satirical reverse ironicism protest movement.
http://shii.org/knows/Get_A_Brain_Morans
Of course, it's an article on the internet, so who knows?
Jesus. Get a load of those motherfuckers. Swastika tattoos and all.
These gorillas are just waiting out there to be called up to get evil. Same type Walker could have called on to make some trouble, no doubt. In Egypt, they ride camels and swing batons.
A fucking pro-war rally.
Worse than a swastika tattoo, it's a backwards one — displaying stupidity as well as the hate.
Lulz. Maybe I am wrong and he is Hindu?
Seriously, I love how America spent so much time and effort destroying communist union leaders, and let neonazis and the klan run amok.
That's real history.
"Worse than a swastika tattoo, it's a backwards one — displaying stupidity as well as the hate."
Isn't a backwards swastika a Native American Indian symbol dating back to the 1800s (i.e., prior to the Nazi era)? Not that the pud in the Cardinals shirt would know that.
A friend of a friend knows this guy. It was definitely a fake/snarky pro-war rally.
I could have proved this with two lines of evidence. First…..look at Breitbart's site. That's an airtight case right there. In case you were still in doubt…look at this. She actually thinks she could win. : http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/04/bachma...
prone to fear & anxiety — doesn't that perfectly explain the allure of Faux News & the Tea Party to the pea-brained Repukes?
Also (drum roll) — I guess that makes Sarah Palin "Queen Amygdala"
Thus usurping Anakin's role as the whiny bitch in that movie.
I'm sure the enlarged amygdala is also responsible for their addiction to processed meats and cheeses.
Brace yourselves for the onslaught of downfistie trolls and their big, swingin' amygdalae.
I'm scared of my amygdala.
Remember, these are British Conservatives, famously perverted.
I often think it's comical – Fal, lal, la!
How Nature always does contrive – Fal, lal, la!
That every boy and every gal
That’s born into the world alive
Is either a little Liberal
Or else a little Conservative!
Fal, lal, la!
Gilbert and Sullivan, Iolanthe http://math.boisestate.edu/gas/iolanthe/web_op/io...
Is that the one about duty?
I don't know the details, unhappily, just the line. The singer is aGuardsman on sentry duty.
When all night long a chap remains
On sentry go, to chase monotony
He exercises of his brains
(That is assuming that he's got any)
William Gilbert <3
Somewhere in the stories, Horace Rumpole remarks that professional criminals are usually Conservative. No on appreciates hard currency and material possessions more than a burglar.
Seriously, folks, this is early research. Data and interpretation are sure to be modified. There are many ways to define Lib and Con, many shades within those categories.
Spellin', spellin' – git a brian, morane!
Science is disgusting, wriggling around in gray matter! Get it out of the schools!!
This ties into and reinforces Bob Altemeyer's findings from "The Authoritarians," which can be read for free online and which you should totally do right now if you haven't already:
http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/
They have an advanced antebellum.
*curtsies in hoopskirt*
How much did they pay for this study? I live in the Dust Bowl. Why the fuck didn't they ask ME?. Hell, all I had to do was go to the donut shop after Bubba, Junior Leroy and Joe Bob have finished feeding and stopped to eat fried sausage rolls, fried donuts, and talk about talk about how that Kenyan is damn sure not going to get their guns.
Hey, wait just a damn minute–that sentence, while complex, is not a run-on, at least in its current form. You are playing silly buggers, perhaps?
He, he… you said 'science'
thinking is hard, turn on FOX NEWZ, please.
…and we need scientists to tell us that?
Same way he can commission anything. Supply the pounds Sterling.
Do brain differences cause political beliefs or do holding certain political beliefs alter your brain?
My amygdala maybe tiny, but I have a 5 inch medulla oblongata, it's insane.
*faints*
I mean it, my anterior cingulate cortex just can't get enough . . .
Ah, sweet mystery of life at last I've found thee. . . .
If bitchiness was a sign of intelligence, there'd be a lot more prom queens and former cheerleaders in the Ivy League, Berkeley and Stanford.
In the case of Conservatism, yes.
Or, as Calvin's dad so helpfully explained, the whole world was in black and white back then, even though the film took color pictures.
Thanks! Well, I guess that shows that I'm an "Old."
Ah, Bristol.
Thrust goes in; … aw, fuck it.
Comments on this entry are closed.