Are (some) conservatives brain damaged?

This might explain a lot of what we hear today in the news that's parroted in these forums. Of course this is not about all conservatives, many conservatives are fiscal conservatives and do not subscribe to the fake news networks or AM hate speak so they don‘t tend to espouse hate and encourage discriminations regarding social issues. No, this is more about the social conservatives, the GOP party line voters and ideologues who make decisions based on their religion and/or with their acquired MO as…well: Just plain mean old haters and control freaks who want to progress their ignorance’s and hatred on others...as if that's the answer to our problems. These are the tings that lead us into wars and gutted our economy.

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Here’s how they may have gotten brain damaged:

“You turn the AM on and there’s Rush, or Savage, or another of the army of right-wing radio talk show hosts. You may not be listening hard, just working, driving, doing busywork or the laundry. Yet if you listen day after day, year after year, your brain will begin to change. ...Words, even those heard casually and listened to incidentally, activate frames--structures of ideas that are physically realized in the brain. The more the words are heard, the more the frames are activated in the brain, and stronger their synapses get--until the frames are there permanently. ...All this is normal. It is how words work. And the right-wing message machine has found a way to take advantage of it - activating, as it were, a conservative system of thought. ...One diatribe after another, the crucial facts left out or lied about, day after day, city after city. It has an effect.”--George Lakoff, Professor of Cognitive Science and Linguistics at UC Berkeley, The San Francisco Chronicle, 4/19/09

Here’s what supports the diagnosis:

“Researchers conducted an experiment involving college students whose political ideology ranged from “very liberal” to “very conservative”. The students were instructed to tap a key on a keyboard whenever the letter M appeared on a computer screen, but to not tap the key when the letter W appeared (psychologists call this a Go/No-Go task). The letter M was programmed to appear four times as often as the letter W--thus conditioning the subjects to tap the keyboard when either letter appeared on the computer screen. During the experiment, an electroencephalograph monitored the part of the brain that is known to detect conflicts between a habitual response (in this case--tapping a key) and a more appropriate response (not tapping a key).

This simple experiment demonstrated a dramatic difference between students identifying themselves as liberals compared to those describing themselves as conservative. The data showed that liberals were 2.2 times more accurate in completing the task, and they were 4.9 times more likely to exhibit brain activity in the area associated with conflict whenever the letter W appeared.

In other words, when confronted with change, conservatives responded correctly only half as often as liberals. More importantly, conservative brains failed to respond to a change five times more often than liberal brains.

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All this does not mean that they cannot recover from the damage to their minds. All it may take for them is to turn away from the hateful liars and political pundit shills and try to be mature about issues and in time perhaps rejoin the human race as productive citizens. It's up to them to change..I hope they do since we've suffered enough.

It's all like living with an abusive alcoholic who refuses to get help.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Scientists-Discover-That-C-by-Mick-Youther-090502-579.html

Once again, we are confronted with the marvelous inability to formulate thoughts on a non-copy / paste basis and the need to rely on the 'thoughts' and 'words' of others ...

So many words, so little thought ... par for the course.

Dismissed.

The only purpose for this thread is hate-mongering and poster bashing.
Has no political, current news or events value whatsoever.

Mods, please, consider deleting this thread.

No, it's a valid medical evaluation that may explain why we have so many promoting hated, racism, and ignorances.

Very topical to the events of these times.

Researchers conducted a study...

I went to the article and saw no links to the study, no names of the researchers or where it took place..

How about posting that information so I can get a look at the specifics.

No, it's an example of someone trying to 'make sense of soup' ... it's also just 'cut 'n paste' with NO original thought present anywhere ... the word 'vapid' comes to mind ...

Oh ... 'ignorances' ... ? Case closed.

There are several studies with differing views on whether it's a predisposed condition or an acquired one. That's the only real argument. You can Google the specific studies. Many have been done in this area.

"The work grew out of decades of previous research suggesting that political orientation is linked to certain personality traits or styles of thinking. A review of that research published in 2003 found that conservatives tend to be more rigid and closed-minded, less tolerant of ambiguity and less open to new experiences"

http://psychcentral.com/news/2007/09/10/brains-of-liberals-conservatives-may-work-differently/1691.html

I'll look futher to find the specific study that supports this but here's a great reference on the diffences of liberal and conservative minds.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1196554/posts

Guys, if you do not wish to discuss the topic, simply pass it by. There is entirely too much bickering in the political forums. Everyone wants to appear more intelligent than the other. That persona is unraveled, though, when a handful of rules cannot be understood. Please return to the topic.

More hating and bashing by the left wing commies.

Correction, I never hate the people I feel sorry for...and who on the "left" are commies? Do I need to put my uniform back on and go scram them away? Take a broom to them? Actually one can be a communist and co-exist in America..but they won't get MY vote tho~...yo.

The Cold War has been over for 25 years.

thats a very interesting study,,,,I dont generally put too much creed into studies because the right controls and conditions can be used to imply just about anything

I think its probably a pretty accurate finding though judging by my own interaction and conversation with those boasting about being 'conservative' or those constantly insulting 'liberals'

lol, gee someone pasted a news story in the CURRENT NEWS section,,lol

I believe his opinion followed the article at the bottom of the post

I found a helpful chart!