Observed in the wild: the conservative
This is just priceless. Researchers at Berkeley (!) has looked at the archetypical conservative, and come to the conclusion that political conservatism is linked to
- Fear and aggression
- Dogmatism and intolerance of ambiguity
- Uncertainty avoidance
- Need for cognitive closure
- Terror management
Like all stereotypes, there is a bit of truth in this. The problem is that the "conservative" label (like its competitor the "liberal") fits a wide range of political orientations. As it stands, it probably fits better to the religious right. But if only the religious right were conservatives, it would be a minority position everywhere except Tehran and Kansas (heh).
As you could expect from Berkeley, it is a stereotype. As much as they would like to paint their categorisation in objective, scientific jargon, the press release betrays a bias that doesn't belong in academia:
Disparate conservatives share a resistance to change and acceptance of inequality, the authors said. Hitler, Mussolini, and former President Ronald Reagan were individuals, but all were right-wing conservatives because they preached a return to an idealized past and condoned inequality in some form. Talk host Rush Limbaugh can be described the same way, the authors commented in a published reply to the article.
I have never been a fan of either Reagan nor Limbaugh, but it is pretty obvious that the comparison to Hitler and Mussolini is a form of mud slinging that doesn't do either of them justice. The political right tries the same game when comparing modern social democrats to Mao or Stalin. It is yet another demonstration that a one-axis breakdown of ideaologies makes for ammunition for political snowball fights, but is certainly not useful for any serious analysis.
2:59:50 AM 
|
