Conservatism A Disease? This might be old but I never saw it before...

[complain jane]

A study funded by the US government has concluded that conservatism can be explained psychologically as a set of neuroses rooted in "fear and aggression, dogmatism and the intolerance of ambiguity".

As if that was not enough to get Republican blood boiling, the report's four authors linked Hitler, Mussolini, Ronald Reagan and the rightwing talkshow host, Rush Limbaugh, arguing they all suffered from the same affliction.

All of them "preached a return to an idealised past and condoned inequality".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1017546,00.html

[Suich]

1. That would certainly explain a lot!

:hi:

[sakabatou]

2. Was going to say the same thing.

[Sherman A1]

3. Very Interesting

Thanks for posting - one of the far too many that I know I missed in the volumes of stuff to try and keep up with everyday.

[HereSince1628]

4. The citation so you can find the whole document...and a link to PDF

version of the file... BTW the article doesn't actually make the claim conservatism is disorder. Rather it is implied by reviewers who view many of the correlated motivators (fear of death, need for closure, need for rationalizing authority) as such. It's a somewhat technical read...

Jost, J.T., Glaser, J., Kruglanski, A.W., & Sulloway, F.J. (2003). Political conservatism as motivated social cognition. Psychological Bulletin, 129, 339-375.

http://psychoanalystsopposewar.org/resources_files/ConsevatismAsMotivatedSocialCognition.pdf#search=%22Jost%20et%20al%20Cognitive%20Motivators%22

[Renew Deal]

5. You have to be mentally ill to handle all of the contradictions

of conservativism.