Disgusting Politics

Yesterday I was going to blog about riding my bike to work for the first time this season, but then Hardingfele asked me to blog about the Fish Liberators. Today it is a beautiful day again but I took the bus. Anyway, next week is Bike to Work Week so there will be plenty of time to blog about it then. Today I will instead discuss a most fascinating article Hardingfele sent me.

The article is on Yahoo! News and is called "Conservatives Are More Easily Disgusted." The link to the article can be found here:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20090605/sc_livescience/conservativesaremoreeasilydisgusted;_ylt=AjsV0.vA4_Cr28aZzaq.e.J0fNdF

The gist of the article is that people who are more squeamish about "yucky" things are more politically conservative because of a knee-jerk reaction to how "yucky" abortion and gay marriage are. It says a lot of other odd things too. For example:

1. Political conservatives tend to be tidy, with organized offices, but liberals favor colorful, more stylish but cluttered spaces. So then I must be liberal.

2. A large, global study in 2007 concluded that political preference is 50 percent genetic. So then I must be at least half liberal.

3. Conservatives Happier Than Liberals - I consider myself a happy person, so then I must be conservative.

Like many people, I feel my views are too nuanced to be considered either "liberal" or "conservative." You could split the difference and call me a "moderate," but I am not truly a moderate on anything, more of a raving anti-abortion, tree-hugging, social justice wackadoo. The paragraph in this article I found most chilling was this:

Studying the link between disgust and moral judgment could help explain the strong differences in people's moral opinions, Pizarro figures. And it could offer strategies for persuading some to change their views.

Say what? Isn't that what the kids are calling "brainwashing" these days? Can you imagine if a conservative had said this about the liberal viewpoint? I find it alarming that this Cornell University psychology professor is advocating using some kind of behavioral "reprogramming" to change the views of those he does not agree with. How 1984 of him. Maybe he should change his name to O'Brien, although he probably wouldn't get the reference. People like this tend to be well-read only in the sense that they read writers who agree with their preconceived notions, and he would probably consider George Orwell a traitor. "What do you mean, he saw some flaws in socialism? Big Brother always knows best!"

So if you don't like blood and guts and bugs, let Big Brother reprogram your brain so that you will vote the appropriate way. I am not a particularly squeamish person but do tend to be socially conservative, so good luck reprogramming my brain. Then again, since I am messy and love bright colors, maybe they would overlook me in their witch hunt for those vile, squeamish conservative types they are just trying to enlighten.

Famous Hat