Conservativism is not a choice!

[Guest coot]

According to a recent Zogby poll, liberals and conservatives aren't just different politically--they're pretty much different in every respect. Apart from a mutual enjoyment of the TV show House, there's not much else they have in common.

I always suspected as much. I think it has more to do with how your brain is wired than how your life experience has shaped your views.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1107/6843.html

[bush_cheney2004]

Liberals and Conservatives from which nation? I hardly think that the Lear Center/Zogby poll has statistical relevance for populations that were not sampled.

The Norman Lear Center and Zogby International conducted an extensive national survey examining political beliefs and entertainment preferences. The survey -- conducted June 26–29, 2007, including 3,939 adults nationwide and carrying a margin of error of +/– 1.6 percentage points -- revealed that America's entertainment tastes are as polarized as our political views.

[Smallc]

According to a recent Zogby poll, liberals and conservatives aren't just different politically--they're pretty much different in every respect. Apart from a mutual enjoyment of the TV show House, there's not much else they have in common.

I always suspected as much. I think it has more to do with how your brain is wired than how your life experience has shaped your views.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1107/6843.html

Well of course they both watch House. Who doesn't?

[M.Dancer]

Well of course they both watch House. Who doesn't?

Me. While I love Hugh Laurie's skill...every time I watch it I expect Stephen Fry to appear with a silver salver saying the Stilton Cheesebreath is expecting him at the Drones.

Laurie and Fry brought P.G Wodehouse to life for me.

[capricorn]

The title you chose for this thread makes it sound like Conservatism is a birth defect. Then again, maybe that's what you intended.

I'm curious, (a Conservative trait?) why did you not use the title Liberalism is not a choice?

[daniel]

According to a recent Zogby poll, ...

This is supported by a study released October 2006. I used to have the link but it's gone. It was reported in the Toronto Star Oct. 16th that kids who whine the most grow up to be conservatives.

[Guest coot]

It was reported in the Toronto Star Oct. 16th that kids who whine the most grow up to be conservatives.

And turn into adults who whine the most?

[old_bold&cold]

This survey was another great waste of time and money I suppose. Hell if our politics were born in to us then how do you get all those undecided people? Were they all from undecided families

Just another wast of bandwidth.

[Guest coot]

It didn't say anything to do with what family you come from. Lots of conservatives are borne from liberals, and vice versa. But the results are what they are. People cover a wide political spectrum, including undecideds, and these results don't dispute that. The interesting thing is that one's political persuasion is indicative of their overall character, which isn't really surprising at all when you think about it.

The fact that you reject things out of hand without thinking them through tells me you likely tend to vote...

[White Doors]

According to a recent Zogby poll, liberals and conservatives aren't just different politically--they're pretty much different in every respect. Apart from a mutual enjoyment of the TV show House, there's not much else they have in common.

I always suspected as much. I think it has more to do with how your brain is wired than how your life experience has shaped your views.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1107/6843.html

Uhh.. You misrepresented the poll, of course. It says liberals are JUST as different.

In fact, it was contrasting liberals and conservatives in the US. They are different from each other in tastes. Not a very suprising finding in my opinion.

BTW, the term liberal and conservative in the states have much different connotations than the same words in Canada. ie: they are not political parties. But you knew that didn't you.?

Also, it does not even attempt to say why they are different wether through nature or nuture, it's not even part of the study.

If you need to misrepresent things so badly then you should really look inside yourself and see if your personal philosophy is based on lies or reality.

[Moxie]

LOL using TV as the medium for a study on the left brain versus the rightwing brain, only in the US. Of course there are differences between those that support the liberal or the Conservatives, I find most people who post straddle the center line of both parties. There is always ample posters that lean hard right or left, I tend to ignore radical LOYAL party followers. They are like members of a bizarre cult, wierdos.

I don't watch much TV the History Channel or HGTV, that's it. I'm a classical liberal with Conservative leanings on economics and the spending of public money.

[JerrySeinfeld]

I always suspected as much. I think it has more to do with how your brain is wired than how your life experience has shaped your views.

I disagree. I used to be a flaming liberal until I got mature, realistic, practical and just generally smart. That's how I know how warped the left wing thinking is - I used to do it firsthand.

[Topaz]

Another example this isn't necessary true is the present government and its leader. Harper, started out supporting the Libs and switched to the Progressive Cons and switched to the Reform, then became a Alliance and then became a Conservative. Now I know why he went with the "conservative" name because he's never would be PM if he went with Alliance. Another ie. is how the Reformers/Alliancers, who believe in their party all of sudden give up on their beliefs to become Conservatives and its beliefs!! ???????

[Guest coot]

Uhh.. You misrepresented the poll, of course. It says liberals are JUST as different.

In fact, it was contrasting liberals and conservatives in the US. They are different from each other in tastes. Not a very suprising finding in my opinion.

BTW, the term liberal and conservative in the states have much different connotations than the same words in Canada. ie: they are not political parties. But you knew that didn't you.?

Also, it does not even attempt to say why they are different wether through nature or nuture, it's not even part of the study.

If you need to misrepresent things so badly then you should really look inside yourself and see if your personal philosophy is based on lies or reality.

Uhh, I didn’t misrepresent anything. You just misunderstood. Of course liberals are “JUST as different” (though I’m not sure what you’re implying they are different from). The terms liberal and conservative are not any different in Canada when they are not upper case. My supposed comment on nature versus nurture was not based on the poll and was qualified with a very personal “I think.” But it wasn’t a comment on nature versus nurture anyway. It was a comment on choice versus determinism. I focused on conservatism because it’s funnier (to me) when placed in the context of “homosexuality is a choice,” a popular conservative principle.

To be clear, this survey verifies to me my pre-existing belief that political persuasion is derived from the same stuff that determines your appreciation for music, your taste in food, your overall intelligence, and your sexuality.

If you need to misunderstand things so badly, then you should really look inside yourself….

[Guest coot]

Another example this isn't necessary true is the present government and its leader. Harper, started out supporting the Libs and switched to the Progressive Cons and switched to the Reform, then became a Alliance and then became a Conservative. Now I know why he went with the "conservative" name because he's never would be PM if he went with Alliance. Another ie. is how the Reformers/Alliancers, who believe in their party all of sudden give up on their beliefs to become Conservatives and its beliefs!! ???????

Some people are hard-wired to be opportunists above all else. Some are hard-wired to be fickle flip-floppers. It takes all kinds, including undecideds. But one's reaction to, say, a homeless person on the street is not a choice--it's a reaction. Whether your reaction is to be repulsed and favour their extermination, or compassionate and want to help in any way, or completely indifferent: that is not a choice, and that informs your overall political sensibility.

[jefferiah]

Well of course they both watch House. Who doesn't?

House sucks!!

[jefferiah]

Some people are hard-wired to be opportunists above all else. Some are hard-wired to be fickle flip-floppers. It takes all kinds, including undecideds. But one's reaction to, say, a homeless person on the street is not a choice--it's a reaction. Whether your reaction is to be repulsed and favour their extermination, or compassionate and want to help in any way, or completely indifferent: that is not a choice, and that informs your overall political sensibility.

Complete bs. I used to be quite left leaning and now I am the opposite. But I still have the same DNA.

[White Doors]

Uhh, I didn’t misrepresent anything. You just misunderstood. Of course liberals are “JUST as different” (though I’m not sure what you’re implying they are different from). The terms liberal and conservative are not any different in Canada when they are not upper case. My supposed comment on nature versus nurture was not based on the poll and was qualified with a very personal “I think.” But it wasn’t a comment on nature versus nurture anyway. It was a comment on choice versus determinism. I focused on conservatism because it’s funnier (to me) when placed in the context of “homosexuality is a choice,” a popular conservative principle.

To be clear, this survey verifies to me my pre-existing belief that political persuasion is derived from the same stuff that determines your appreciation for music, your taste in food, your overall intelligence, and your sexuality.

If you need to misunderstand things so badly, then you should really look inside yourself….

You are so full of sanctimoniuos crap I can smell you on my laptop. Who says liberals are more compasssionate than conservatives? It is a well known fact that conservatives give more money to charities than liberals do. In fact, the only thing liberals are more generous with is other people's money. Your smug assertions and broad, sweeping inelp generalizations tells me you have a weak grasp of even what a liberal or Liberal or conservative or Conservative is.

You should really do more research unless you would like to continue to make yourself look like a bigot.

I can say that the vast vast majority of left wing and right wing people want the same result. They just differ on the methods to get there. ie: a handup instead of a handout being one of the many subtle differences in philosophy.

I am probably conservative now ( I was NDP when I was young, as you are probably now) and I firmly believe that homosexuality is 90% nature.

The generalizations you make are inept and very immature in scope and veractiy.

You should strive for better.

your overall intelligence

I'd love to hear your argument that liberals are smarter than conservatives.

Please feel free to use personal anecdotes.

Edited November 15, 2007 by White Doors

[capricorn]

But one's reaction to, say, a homeless person on the street is not a choice--it's a reaction. Whether your reaction is to be repulsed and favour their extermination, or compassionate and want to help in any way, or completely indifferent: that is not a choice, and that informs your overall political sensibility.

This is astonishing. You equate political sensibility to whether a person would exterminate the homeless or throw them a lifeline.

Now let's see if you are honest enough to answer this. Those who would be the exterminators, would they be of the liberal or conservative persuasion? Those who would throw a lifeline, would they be of the liberal or conservative persuasion? You have obviously given this a great deal or thought before you started this thread. I look forward to your reply.

[M.Dancer]

Complete bs. I used to be quite left leaning and now I am the opposite. But I still have the same DNA.

I have been pretty much the same.....middle of the road, but my vote changes to whomever sounds the most pragmatic and makes the most sense.

[Moxie]

Whitedoors wrote: I'd love to hear your argument that liberals are smarter than conservatives.

Please feel free to use personal anecdotes.

Snicker pass the popcorn merci, this could be amusing.

A wise man once said "We are all born a Liberal and we all die a Conservative". I was a hardcore Leftest in my youth but my opinions and ethos changed once I had to start working for a living. Watching one's taxdollars get wasted year after year on Pie in the Sky programs. Social Experiment like Multiculture that backfired badly. Propaganda campaigns to further their agenda (Global Warming and debit and credits, I believe the current one is the new World Order) One can only be that gullable for a short time before the stench of hypocrisy becomes so strong you gag and run into the Conservative's arms-not literally .

[Guest coot]

A person who would have them exterminated would naturally be someone who strongly believes in survival of the fittest and in the supremacy of the social order. A person who would be inclined to help might believe that the government should have a role in helping the person to ensure there is a systematic way of ensuring they are taken care of, or they might believe that other ways of helping are more efficient and effective. One can only guess how they decide to vote, but I think it might be unlikely the survival-of-the-fittest guy votes NDP. By your response, you obviously feel the same way.

But I was just stating the range of human response to a particular situation. I don’t see why you would get all defensive about the fact that stating a range requires an indication of the extremes. That’s just how ranges are defined.

I also think that political persuasion is defined by how we respond to a given statement. Those who are reflexively defensive, sanctimonious, and contemptuous are often so by nature, and these characteristics help place them on the political spectrum.

But even though I think these tendencies are hard-wired into the brain and are part of who we are, that’s not to say the brain is a static object that can never be altered. I think it’s been proven that the brain can be “rewired” over time. But we are born with a certain blueprint and most of us just tend to go with that flow: some for the good and some for the bad.

[jefferiah]

But even though I think these tendencies are hard-wired into the brain and are part of who we are, that’s not to say the brain is a static object that can never be altered. I think it’s been proven that the brain can be “rewired” over time. But we are born with a certain blueprint and most of us just tend to go with that flow: some for the good and some for the bad.

The thing about alot of these hard-wired thingomajigs you read in Time magazine or whatnot is that the fact that there is an article about them means very little. What it means is that there is a researcher or researchers out there who have become enamoured with this idea and they are putting research into it based upon a few observations, nothing conclusive. While I do believe in certain things definitely being hard-wired I find it humorous the degree to which it is claimed to be in some of these theories. Hard-wired for religion, hard-wired to like McDonald's, hard-wired to vote for Harper. Puh-lease.

[White Doors]

Dodge and weave. Dodge and weave.

Typical. You come out here and make smug generalizations that reminded me of the eugenics days and you don't back any of them up.

Carry on then.

[Guest coot]

Dodge and weave. Dodge and weave.

Typical. You come out here and make smug generalizations that reminded me of the eugenics days and you don't back any of them up.

Carry on then.

You can't stand the fact that your interpretations were completely wrong, so you label my rational elucidations "dodging and weaving?" Wow. Your intellectual dishonesty and inability to truly discuss the issue are amazing, though I'm not sure they are representative of your overall political philosophy.

I made no generalizations. I said it takes all kinds. I said there is a vast range of different responses to different stimuli, and that makes for a wide political spectrum, which I defined by its extremes. Because, for lack of reading skills, you misunderstood, you got all huffy. It's kind of funny debating with people who are more emotional than rational, but ultimately kind of tiresome.