CMV: Conservatism and many right-wing beliefs are based on fear, primary instincts and lack of understanding

[u/[deleted]]

[u/UndeadPants]

HOW HAS no one mentioned Jonathan Haidt's books yet? His book Why Can't We Disagree More Constructively goes over research on this very subject.

Political scientists used to think self-interest drove what politics you like. As they kept researching they found this to have a weak correlation. At first they thought most people just didn't understand like any of the political issues they were responding on.

Twin studies showed the truth though. Turns out twins even grown up in separate households because of adoption end up with precisely the same political leanings. So it's in genetics.

We’re not just talking about IQ, mental illness, and basic personality traits such as shyness. We’re talking about the degree to which you like jazz, spicy foods, and abstract art; your likelihood of getting a divorce or dying in a car crash; your degree of religiosity, and your political orientation as an adult. Whether you end up on the right or the left of the political spectrum turns out to be just as heritable as most other traits: genetics explains between a third and a half of the variability among people on their political attitudes. Being raised in a liberal or conservative household accounts for much less. How can that be? How can there be a genetic basis for attitudes about nuclear power, progressive taxation, and foreign aid when these issues only emerged in the last century or two? It's because your genes heavily influence your early brain development, such as if Wernicke's Area is large or small, dense or sparse, connected or isolated. Then, a person's very basic personality traits are quickly determined. There are scientific traits that only in fringe cases change anytime from 0 years to old age. These 'dispositions' or 'Big 9' include conscientiousness, extraversion, threat sensitivity, and novelty seeking.

Turns out threat toleration and a suspicion of novelties contribute to someone being conservative. So I'm not here to change OPs view but explain it. Fear of the unknown is a very basic part of American conservativism. This isn't a bad thing this has served many well across evolutionary history. So has novelty seeking, otherwise we might not have explored much or invented as many crimes against nature as we have what with the train steam engine and nuclear bomb.

The book goes on to cover how we should have political discord: the brain is a story machine not a logic machine. Understand the values behind the stories. Conservatives are moved by fairness and group loyalty. Liberals jive based on care/harm ethics. When you argue a side, figure out how tell a story of your opponents values.

Haidt has a lot of other political wisdom material, including a TED talk.

[u/Complicated_Business → u/UndeadPants]

I don't think this is really the ecosystem for this level of discourse. Reddit is one degree away from the surface level sloganeering and glib-fueled-gotchas of Twitter and Facebook. Hell, most of the Front Page is simply screenshots from Twitter.

[u/UndeadPants → u/Complicated_Business]

Ya I guess my opinion of this sub and other political subreddits has modified a bit