Why Conservatives Hate You: How Our Politics Relies on Creating Disgust for Opponents

[laststeamtrain]

Why Conservatives Hate You: How Our Politics Relies on Creating Disgust for Opponents
By Joe Brewer, TruthOut.org
Posted on May 31, 2010, Printed on June 1, 2010
http://www.alternet.org/story/147060/

Are you someone who struggles to understand why people behave the way they do in politics? Perhaps you've been confused by all the fervor against gay marriage. Or maybe you're taken aback by the strong emotions waged against government-sponsored health care.

To understand political behaviors like these, you'll need to become familiar with the psychology of disgust. Researchers have learned a lot about it in recent years:

* Disgust, like all emotions, is biological and can be explained through the workings of the brain
* Disgust is the physiological foundation for moral notions of purity and sacrilege
* Disgust, once felt, creates a persistent association that is very difficult to get rid of
* Disgust is a powerful motivator of behavior, helping deter us away from perceived threats to our health

So what does this have to do with politics? In a word, everything.

<snip>

Knowledge about the psychology of disgust can be detrimental to democracy if held in the hands of a scrupulous elite. When political strategists learn about the power it can have to influence behavior, they may play their hand at being gods and use it to manipulate the citizenry. This begs the question why I'm publishing these findings to the world.

My answer is that I firmly believe in the democratization of knowledge. The more people know about how the political mind actually works, the more likely it will be that tactics exploiting disgust are recognized and called out for being unethical. This extends beyond politics proper. I like to imagine a world where marketing techniques are based on fundamental trust between people that grows out of honest communication intended to resonate authentically with an audience. To get to this world, a lot of people are going to have to learn about the workings of the political mind. Eventually, it will need to be taught in our schools as part of the standard curriculum for civic life.

<more>

http://www.alternet.org/story/147060/why_conservatives_hate_you%3A_how_our_politics_relies_on_creating_disgust_for_opponents

[Joanne98]

1. We need to take the word conservative and dip it in goo.

[katsy]

2. I can't hear you!

Did you say "POO"?

[patrice]

3. It's all biology. Include the reciprocal of disgust, pleasure and you have a corelate for "God", ...

"America", "right (as opposed to disgust for 'wrong')", "us (as opposed to disgust for 'them')", "heaven" . . . .

Freud's essentially biological model was so right in being based on two types of biological energy: Eros & Thanatos/Pleasure & Disgust.

[RKP5637]

4. +1, n/t

[patrice]

5. This is why Rationalism should be elevated to a status parallel to that which religion occupys.

Grasroots' groups of Rationalists should receive tax breaks the same as churches.

[SkyDaddy7]

6. But this is SCIENCE and...

Most Americans have been told science is BAD BAD BAD! Science says we came from monkeys who have no morals, BAD BAD BAD! And now Science is going to try and tell these same Americans that their "Fair & Balanced" FOX "News" is screwing with their heads? GOOD LUCK!

I am all about trying anything to reverse the trend of willful ignorance in this country! However, this will be like trying to land a man on the moon!

The Right Wing in this country got the churches to go to work on the psychology of the American mind 2 decades ago! They have been very successful in shaping the minds of many Americans over this time to distrust science and basically anything people educated in Secular Universities have to say especially when it comes to science & American History!

Take into consideration that in 1994 only 41% of Americans denied the FACT all life on Earth...Today some polls say as high as 63% of Americans now deny the Theory of Evolution. And even the lowest figures have this number well over 50%...This is embarrassing & extremely SAD!

This distrust is now used by the right to convince people that important issues like global warming is a lie.

So, I say GOOD LUCK! I honestly think it will take decades to reverse this trend if it can be reversed...The spiral has started and the religious are already claiming America's problems are due to the fact we have moved away from god...Their solution is to turn America into a theocracy!

PLEASE do not be mad at me for not feeling to confident about America's future.

[RKP5637]

7. America is intent in progressing to the Dark Ages. n/t

[teknomanzer]

10. Regressing. n/t

[RKP5637]

11. Oops, THANKS for the catch!!!

:hi: :hi: :hi:

[teknomanzer]

13. If you had said conservatives are progressing to the Dark Ages...

there would have been no need for correction. ;)

[SkyDaddy7]

12. I agree!! n/t

[NorthCarolina]

8. Does this pertain to just GOP conservatives, or does it include DLC New Dem conservatives as well?

eom

[laststeamtrain]

9. DLC New Dems use the psychology of disgust to attack one another...

and non-DLC 'Other' Dems.

The 'big tent' gets smaller when you start throwing out all the various kinds of 'disgusting' people.

[Uncle Joe]

14. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, laststeamtrain.

[awoke_in_2003]

15. I wonder how disgust...

interplays with hatred- one of our most primal emotions? Right wing talk show host do seem to only use the reptilian part of the brain.