The Other Bell Curve

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My nephew, who recently dropped out of college in California, submitted this as his final paper for Psychology 101 …

Many psychometric studies have explored the psychological structures associated with conservative thought and behavior.  The Authoritarian Personality (1950) by Theodor W. Adorno, et al., correlated fascist and anti-democratic attitudes with a personality structure characterized by an aggressive attitude toward groups that threaten traditional values, a tendency to accept and obey social conventions, and other related qualities.  Correlations like these are supported by Robert Altemeyer in his seminal work, Enemies of Freedom: Understanding Right Wing Authoritarianism.  In a study conducted in Israel, Fibert and Ressler (1998) found that measures of intolerance of ambiguity were significantly higher among right-wing students than among their moderate and extreme left-wing peers.  Whiny babies grow up to be conservatives, and scientific study after study shows that conservatives are generally a bunch of stodgy, selfish, unempathic shitheads .

Evidence for a high heritability (H) for conservatism comes from the fact that these fuckers tend to cluster in families and breed with one another.

This author recommends that we send all these fuckers to Kansas.

Comments

[Beavis]

You said "seminal." He-he, he-he-he.

[Rachel Tension]

So, Sally, you never told me about this nephew. He sounds cool. Is he a dish? Is he gay?

[bmo]

There is also some evidence to suggest that bottle/formula fed babies tend to lean right as they grow older.

[The Happy Tutor]

Well done. Quite scholary with all the links mixed with the invective.

[Mike Golby]

So what's it like having a neocon in the family then, Sally :)?

[Sally Wilde]

Mike: A ne'er-do-well by his own admission, but never a neocon, I don't think. The suggestion that we "send the fuckers to Kansas" does have a martial ring, doesn't it? He can be like that.

Rachel: My nephew is indeed a dish, although we've never discussed his being gay. He sent me this photograph from a recent rock climbing trip with friends. It was a side of him I had never seen before.