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This Machine Can Tell Whether You're Liberal or Conservative

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Re: This Machine Can Tell Whether You're Liberal or Conservative

#61

Post by c0achmcguirk »

gnaritas wrote: post #56
a8da6b0c91d wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disgust is only one of the relevant psychometric dimensions in Jonathan Haidt's model, which is where this bit comes from. In a nutshell, Haidt found that liberals reason about moral problems almost exclusively through the lens of fairness, while Consevatives use a larger "moral toolbox." http://www.moralfoundations.org/ One of the more interesting observations out of Haidt's work is that conservatives can reliably a…

> Liberals have difficulty emulating perspectives that include concepts such as the divine. I would hope so, since divine anything is simply ignorant and doesn't belong in any moral toolbox.

> I would hope so, since divine anything is simply ignorant and doesn't belong in any moral toolbox.

Please save your intolerant ignorance for your atheist message boards. There is nothing ignorant about belief in God.

Re: This Machine Can Tell Whether You're Liberal or Conservative

#62

Post by unclebucknasty »

satellitecat wrote: post #28
vilhelm_s wrote: post #18

The Last Psychiatrist wrote some interesting commentary about the Science paper that this article mentions. "[T]he actual finding isn't that conservatives are fearful; it's that liberals seem not to exhibit much response to scary photos. But it's actually a little worse than that." ( http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2008/09/either_conservatives_... )

On it being "worse" and liberals being unafraid in the way psychopaths are -- it could be that they are unafraid of things that can't hurt them, like the "scary" staged photo in the article. Maybe if they used realistic pictures, they'd get an actual response. And of course a picture of something scary and something actually scary is quite different. Makes me remember when I found a video online of a guy getting atta…

>it could be that they are unafraid of things that can't hurt them

This was exactly my thought. It is actually unreasonable to be afraid of a photograph.

I would imagine that all people are subject to unreasonable levels of fear in various situations, but this does seem to show that conservatives may experience higher levels of unreasonable fear.

Re: This Machine Can Tell Whether You're Liberal or Conservative

#63

Post by unclebucknasty »

nateabele wrote: post #40

As with most other articles about politics, it's easy to miss the forest through the trees. There's one most important, indisputable point: that we can generally be divided into two groups politically, and those divisions go well beyond opinions developed over time. How you classify these groups (liberal vs. conservative, individualist vs. collectivist, voluntaryist vs. statist -- I tend to use the language of i vs.…

>we probably would have a healthy, functioning society if each side could appreciate the other's differences of perspective.

But, what this article/study suggests is that those differences are hard-wired and almost visceral. This would explain why it is so difficult for each side to appreciate the other's perspective, as well as why it's so easy for the political class to exploit both.

Re: This Machine Can Tell Whether You're Liberal or Conservative

#64

Post by unclebucknasty »

rubyn00bie wrote: post #17

I always thought it was pretty easy to tell being human.... One's an asshole, and one's not! zing Update after downvotes: apparently no one reading this has a sense of humor, liberal or conservative.

>apparently no one reading this has a sense of humor

Of course, the other possibility is that they do.

Re: This Machine Can Tell Whether You're Liberal or Conservative

#65

Post by aptwebapps »

humanrebar wrote: post #46
patrickmay wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, real numbers would be helpful. My perception is that, in the U.S., the fiscal conservatives would be more logically aligned with the social liberals since the freedom to live as one wishes valued by the latter is more consistent with the small government ideals of the former. It seems that whether a person with such views ends up in the Republican or Democrat camp depends on if they are better able to hold thei…

Real numbers: http://www.electionstudies.org/nesguide/toptable/tab3_1.htm According to those numbers, there are consistently more conservatives than liberals, but about half of the population either identifies as moderate or doesn't identify with anything.

We already have a feel for that from voting patterns. I was more curious about the authoritarian/anti-authoritarian split. My feeling is that, if you can strip out the rhetoric, buzzwords, and partisanship, most people are fine with a relatively powerful government.

Edit: From the same source: http://www.electionstudies.org/nesguide/toptable/tab4a_1.htm

Re: This Machine Can Tell Whether You're Liberal or Conservative

#66

Post by thesimpsons1022 »

satellitecat wrote: post #54
thesimpsons1022 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think most people are too ignorant to even be either party but instead vote narrowly on issues that benefit them or stupid stuff. that's why we end up with divided government with the president as one party and congress as others.

Agreed, yep. They'll vote for their niche issue even though the rest of the platform may hurt them or their ideals more in the big picture.

and that's why the parties seem so hypocritical. they just serve a lot of niche issues. like big business and Christians.

Re: This Machine Can Tell Whether You're Liberal or Conservative

#67

Post by gnaritas »

c0achmcguirk wrote: post #61
gnaritas wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Liberals have difficulty emulating perspectives that include concepts such as the divine. I would hope so, since divine anything is simply ignorant and doesn't belong in any moral toolbox.

> I would hope so, since divine anything is simply ignorant and doesn't belong in any moral toolbox. Please save your intolerant ignorance for your atheist message boards. There is nothing ignorant about belief in God.

> There is nothing ignorant about belief in God.

There's little more ignorant than an adult who still has an imaginary friend and insists he's real.

Re: This Machine Can Tell Whether You're Liberal or Conservative

#68

Post by c0achmcguirk »

gnaritas wrote: post #67
c0achmcguirk wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I would hope so, since divine anything is simply ignorant and doesn't belong in any moral toolbox. Please save your intolerant ignorance for your atheist message boards. There is nothing ignorant about belief in God.

> There is nothing ignorant about belief in God. There's little more ignorant than an adult who still has an imaginary friend and insists he's real.

> There's little more ignorant than an adult who still has an imaginary friend and insists he's real.

Oooh, can I argue the same way? I mean, by begging the question and arguing using ipse dixit?

Here goes:

There's little more ignorant than an adult who doesn't believe in God.

Re: This Machine Can Tell Whether You're Liberal or Conservative

#69

Post by gnaritas »

c0achmcguirk wrote: post #68
gnaritas wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is nothing ignorant about belief in God. There's little more ignorant than an adult who still has an imaginary friend and insists he's real.

> There's little more ignorant than an adult who still has an imaginary friend and insists he's real. Oooh, can I argue the same way? I mean, by begging the question and arguing using ipse dixit? Here goes: There's little more ignorant than an adult who doesn't believe in God.

Oh you've confused an insult for an argument; not surprising for one who prays to the sky. Go find some fellow delusional people in a church or something, this is Hacker News, not the Delusional Daily.

Re: This Machine Can Tell Whether You're Liberal or Conservative

#70

Post by c0achmcguirk »

gnaritas wrote: post #69
c0achmcguirk wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's little more ignorant than an adult who still has an imaginary friend and insists he's real. Oooh, can I argue the same way? I mean, by begging the question and arguing using ipse dixit? Here goes: There's little more ignorant than an adult who doesn't believe in God.

Oh you've confused an insult for an argument; not surprising for one who prays to the sky. Go find some fellow delusional people in a church or something, this is Hacker News, not the Delusional Daily.

Feel better?

So back to your original comment about moral toolboxes--what would belong in yours? How do they get there? What morals do you think others should follow?

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