this post was submitted on 05 Dec 2023
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Harvard acting shitty? Say it ain't so!
Harvard is not a great educational institution, it's amongst other things primarily a signalling and filtering mechanism that signals willingness to do what it takes to be a part of the ruling class. It's part of a filtering system helping to ensure only psychopaths make it to the top.
I use the words "psychopath" and "sadist" often because I'm trying to push the idea that right wingers are not good people that made a few mistakes, or good people that have equally valid but different opinions. They are either victims of lies, or are actually bad people (bad because their mode of operation is to harm or be willing to harm others for gain) and we cannot expect to change them, therefore to make the world a better place, we should stop wasting energy trying to change a psychopath's opinion and instead recognize the danger and act appropriately to protect ourselves.
I read a few studies a while back that were able to predict if a person self identified as conservative or liberal based off of their brain patterns that were measured. I believe the the distinct areas were the right amygdala (handles instictual behaviour) and the left anterior cortex (which I think was used for intepreting how others will behave). Use of one part decreased the use of the other part. Scientist were able to successfully predict the right amygdala was associated with conservatives about 85ish% and anterior cortex for self identified liberals.
Other studies show that decreased use of the left anterior cortex is associated with childhood abuse (either physical or emotional), so it is reasonable to believe most conservatives had emotional/physical abuse during childhood that left them with an underdeveloped brain. Unfortunantly studies show there is very little that can be done to fix this deficiency once the person reaches mid to early twenties.
I guess the point is that they are not necessarily psychopaths, but they do have defective brain processes and we should improve systems and education that will help reduce childhood abuse, and teach empathy in schools if we want to reduce the quantity of right wingers.
Makes a lot of sense, I think I read that study some time ago. I do want to be clear that I'm not calling all conservatives psychopaths. The psychopaths are the ones in government and executive positions.
Run of the mill conservatives are probably deficient in the ways you describe and likely abuse victims (the one I knew well was in fact) which manifests as fear, hate, gullibility, desire for retribution, etc. Many are also just victims of propaganda, stuck, or too unintelligent to find their own way so follow some strong personality around them.