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Your politics are determined genetically

For instance, at the ages of three and four, the “conservative” preschoolers had been described as “uncomfortable with uncertainty,” as “rigidifying when experiencing duress,” and as “relatively over-controlled.”
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Ms. Palin, paging a Sara Palin, you have a call.
 
I have this fear that science is eventually going to prove that we have absolutely no control over anything and it's all a long series of predetermined chemical reactions in our brains.
 
This time they asked the young adults, now age 24, to situate themselves on a five-point political spectrum. They also asked them to express their opinions on a number of highly partisan, hot-button issues. In particular, several of these questions measured their tolerance of inequality between the genders and between different racial groups.
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Asking a bunch of 24-year-olds how they feel about gender and racial equality is the method used to test the hypothesis??
 
bmoneydeac said:
I have this fear that science is eventually going to prove that we have absolutely no control over anything and it's all a long series of predetermined chemical reactions in our brains.
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That basically is true, because even your 'choosing' thought process is just neurons firing; but it's not predetermined until we can accurately measure those interactions and I doubt we'll ever get there.
 
The hilarious irony of these studies - originating from Berkley no less! - is that if true, they would undermine one of the fundamental building blocks of modern liberalism; namely, that you are shaped by your environment more than by your heredity. Ha, ha! Well done.

On the other hand, anyone with half a functioning brain, who bothers to use it, will be "liberal" on some issues and "conservative" on others, indeed will emphasize different philosophies, liberal and conservative, during different phases of their life. Furthermore, an individual will often entertain, and give great significance to, all kinds of ideas that are not readily classifyable as being either liberal or conservative.

I'll leave the critique of the methodologies to the survey experts among us.
 
sailordeac said:
The hilarious irony of these studies - originating from Berkley no less! - is that if true, they would undermine one of the fundamental building blocks of modern liberalism; namely, that you are shaped by your environment more than by your heredity. Ha, ha! Well done.
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You don't think the studies further undermine the concept of libertarian free will, which conservatives would need to be true to continue hating gays and drug addicts, and label poors as lazy moochers?
 
Fundamental building blocks of modern liberalism? GTFO.
 
I'm pretty sure that eschewing hereditary privilege is not the same thing as choosing nurture over nature as a developmental psych/genetic tenet.
 
KickballDeac said:
You don't think the studies further undermine the concept of libertarian free will, which conservatives would need to be true to continue hating gays and drug addicts, and label poors as lazy moochers?
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Perhaps in some far-off future, but for the moment we are a long way from eliminating the idea of free will. For the moment, these studies do far more to bring one of the the basic philosophical premises of liberalism into question, than they undermine conservatism. Indeed, they seem to support the conservative notion that heredity is important and that liberals overvalue the impact of the social environment. I don't think that the studies are very conclusive. However, they do raise some interesting and important questions.
 
sailordeac said:
Perhaps in some far-off future, but for the moment we are a long way from eliminating the idea of free will. For the moment, these studies do far more to bring one of the the basic philosophical premises of liberalism into question, than they undermine conservatism. Indeed, they seem to support the conservative notion that heredity is important and that liberals overvalue the impact of the social environment. I don't think that the studies are very conclusive. However, they do raise some interesting and important questions.
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You're reaching.
 
TownieDeac said:
I'm pretty sure that eschewing hereditary privilege is not the same thing as choosing nurture over nature as a developmental psych/genetic tenet.
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The issue here is that liberalism philosophically is wedded to nurture and not nature. (Perhaps you feel more comfortable with those words, rather than heredity and environment.) So, if these studies are going to prove reliable, then liberalism, as a philosophic point of view, will have taken a far greater hit than conservatism. I don't see how hereditary privilege fits into this discussion at all, save perhaps as just another aspect of the man-made social environment.

On a personal note Townie, I hope that you can be civil and tolerant from here on out and avoid imperiously and vulgarly ordering me to GTFO because you apparently misunderstood what I had said.
 
Classic confirmation bias here, which is funny considering you apparently doubt the veracity of the claims or the methodology of the study.

I could just as easily propose that conservatives are born thinking the same thing as their parents, which is to be unwavering and closed-minded (fundamental building blocks of the current GOP) whereas liberals are born open minded and more willing to consider alternative opinions. That too would be reaching.

Additionally, nothing about this experimental design suggests genetics to me. Sounds a lot like how these kids were raised. It claims to control for background, but how could it possibly control for parenting style?
 
sailordeac said:
The issue here is that liberalism philosophically is wedded to nurture and not nature. (Perhaps you feel more comfortable with those words, rather than heredity and environment.) So, if these studies are going to prove reliable, then liberalism, as a philosophic point of view, will have taken a far greater hit than conservatism. I don't see how hereditary privilege fits into this discussion at all, save perhaps as just another aspect of the man-made social environment.

On a personal note Townie, I hope that you can be civil and tolerant from here on out and avoid imperiously and vulgarly ordering me to GTFO because you apparently misunderstood what I had said.
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Get the fuck out, you fucking jackass
 
sailordeac said:
On a personal note Townie, I hope that you can be civil and tolerant from here on out and avoid imperiously and vulgarly ordering me to GTFO because you apparently misunderstood what I had said.
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I'd be glad to. I am very interested in hashing this out civilly.
 
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