The politics of disgust

[eridani]

http://www.truthout.org/joe-brewer-why-you-should-care-about-psychology-disgust59979

One of the major discoveries so far is that morality is grounded in our bodily experience. We literally feel right and wrong in our bodies. Disgust is a physical experience that applies to notions of moral purity, moral health, and our judgments about how to handle situations like incest, cannibalism, and rape. For each of these emotionally potent topics, the strength of our feelings corresponds directly with our sentiments about how they should be handled in society.

Research tailored to the study of moral purity and the emotion of disgust was conducted by Paul Rozin, Jonathan Haidt, and Rick McCauley. (A copy of their seminal article can be requested here.) They showed that the physical experience of disgust provides the bodily foundation for the moral concept of purity. Put succinctly, when you experience the feeling of moral disgust – via the tainting of something you hold sacred and pure – it is produced by the same neural and chemical process that arise after biting into a moldy piece of bread or some rotten fruit.

The experience of disgust is very persistent. Once we associate those negative feelings with an idea (like 'liberalism' or 'Obama the Muslim') it is very hard to shake off. The explanation for this comes from the field of evolutionary psychology, which explores the evolutionary origins of human thought and behavior. Animals that remember the foods that make them sick are more likely to survive and reproduce. So those who have a long memory of disgust are better adapted for survival.

Applied to politics, this phenomenon implies that once a political idea becomes a rotten apple it will remain a rotten apple. Disgust tends to stick around. This is why so much time, effort, and money is dedicated to painting the opposition with negative feelings. If a disgust response can be evoked, it will tend to stay around.

Think about the ramifications for gay marriage. If children are taught that homosexuality is disgusting, they will want to stay far away from it. As their moral sentiments develop, they will begin to see homosexuality as a contaminant in society. When thinking about the sacred institution of marriage, they will feel the threat of this impurity to something they want to keep clean. It's pretty easy to mobilize them against this threat because the feeling is long-lasting and easy to activate with a political sound bite.

There are two lessons to learn from this. First, if you want someone to support your idea (like the notion that addressing global warming might be a sensible thing to do), don't let it get associated with disgust (such as how people feel about the elitism of scientists - be it real or imagined). Second, if you want someone to oppose an idea, just riddle it with associations to the profane and impure. Do so with references to basic bodily functions and you'll be particularly effective.

These tactics have long been used in politics to the detriment of civil society.

[RandomThoughts]

1. That is why the marketers in politics

used many phrases with overtones in many topics. And why smears usually have sexual topics in them.

It is also a comment on programming, where an anchor can be set, then activated. Words can be loaded with vile feeling, or even things like hate, then anytime they are thought on, those emotions are part of the thought about the topic.

I have noticed that done on a few topics around song videos also, however it would be playing the game not showing what some people are doing.

The videos with multiple streams of meaning in them are that way, they at one level say something terrible, then say something really good at another level.

:shrug: It is part of the marketing of images and thoughts for controlling populations.

But there is something else to it also.



Note also that it is not always using a term to get that effect, but from the object commented on having the same feeling of disgust so it can happen either ways.

Something disgust you, so you call it crap.
Or someone wanting you to think something disgusting by using a word like crap.

I figure people should learn what is being done by emotion manipulation, posted about that along time ago, about bringing more of the subconscious thoughts to the conscious.


Note also that if the intent is not bad, and then the person is judged badly with hypocricy, there is an effect from that also. It also depends where a persons mind is, and what they think on.


What I find funny, is when attempts to do that fit into bigger plans beyond the conception of those trying to do those things.

[RandomThoughts]

2. There is another effect also.

If people are exposed to terrible thought things like you mention, their mind can shut down for protection.

Instead of thinking and feeling they can retreat into a form of apathy or even depression. It is possible that is why so many terrible things are in many fiction shows that are on many channels, a constant assault to break down feeling.

It can also get a person not to feel empathy, and for a person to be controlled to hurt other people, getting rid of empathy is one way to do that, so many of the concepts of disgust and thoughts of assault in many places can have a social impact with an intent.

The worst thing that can happen, is repeated showing of terrible wrong with no justice, that can have a targeted effect to bring people to despair and apathy. So along with transparent information systems, there needs to be hope by justice also being part of the effect after something is shown as wrong, then it has the opposite effect. For instance if a democratic election is democratic, then people get hopeful, if it is stolen and they see nothing is done, people go into despair. And many attempts from the bad side is to create despair.



Another reason I like so many songs, much of them have some really joyful ideas without those concepts.