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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums“It’s not that conservative people are more fearful, it’s that fearful people are more conservative.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2013/02/fear_and_conservatism.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Talking-Points-Memo+%28Talking+Points+Memo%3A+by+Joshua+Micah+Marshall%29Next, the researchers surveyed the sample for their attitudes toward out-groups immigrants in this case as well as toward segregation. Participants were also ranked on a liberal-conservative partisanship scale depending on how they self-reported their political attitudes.
The research indicates a strong correlation between social fear and anti-immigration, pro-segregation attitudes. While those individuals with higher levels of social fear exhibited the strongest negative out-group attitudes, even the lowest amount of social phobia was related to substantially less positive out-group attitudes.
Its not that conservative people are more fearful, its that fearful people are more conservative. People who are scared of novelty, uncertainty, people they dont know, and things they dont understand, are more supportive of policies that provide them with a sense of surety and security, McDermott said.
Arkansas Granny
(31,515 posts)It seems to me that fear and conservatism go hand in hand.
applegrove
(118,642 posts)Last edited Thu Feb 7, 2013, 09:21 PM - Edit history (1)
will make one hold onto loved ones tighter and care less about others. A win for the GOP who need people who don't care about others to be their base.
libtodeath
(2,888 posts)dballance
(5,756 posts)Broadly brushing here I know. You may take me to task if you wish. I believe the key sentence is: Its not that conservative people are more fearful, its that fearful people are more conservative. People who are scared of novelty, uncertainty, people they dont know, and things they dont understand, are more supportive of policies that provide them with a sense of surety and security
The GOP tries to frame everything in a very black and white way. You're either a patriot if you blindly support everything our military does or you're a traitor and terrorist supporter if you don't and you criticize. There is no middle ground to discuss rationally. It's this kind of thinking the GOP encourages and plants among their base and supporters. It makes them feel comfortable to be able to put all the round pegs in the round holes and all the square block in the square holes. They have no ability or comfort to deal with ovals or rectangles to further the analogy.
HooptieWagon
(17,064 posts)I think it somewhat goes hand in hand. Its not that conservatives are more fearful, but more that they are more fearful of the unknown, thus respond to fear-mongering. I doubt that all the RW fear and rage at Obama would exist if not for Fox, Rush, et al ramping up the fear.
When Obama was looking like he would win the '08 primaries, I had occassion to engage in conversation with an elderly woman who was terrified at the propect of Obama being POTUS. After listening to her, and finding out she was getting her "information" from RW chain emails and Fox news, I gently explained and assured her that Obama was not a Muslim, he was an American citizen, he wasn't going to surrender sovereignity to the UN, on and on. I admitted to her that she wasn't going to like most of his policies, but she would survive them just as Democrats survived Bush. I also pointed out the fear-mongering techniques being used, and explained it was just a political ploy to fire up the base. She understood, and while I'm sure she voted for McCain, at least she then viewed Obama as the political opposition not the Anti-Christ.
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)scarletwoman
(31,893 posts)John Stuart Mill, in a Parliamentary debate with the Conservative MP, John Pakington (May 31, 1866)