Empirical Evidence re: Conservative Crybabies
Or:
For Psychology, That Ain't Half Dumb
I guess I don't have to tell you that the conclusions of psychological research generally have to be taken with a hefty dose of salt. (Wittgenstein: "In psychology there are empirical methods and conceptual confusions.") But this one sure does explain a lot. These findings purport to show that whiney kids tend to grow up to be conservative. I'd dismiss it out of hand except that the study wasn't done with any eye on political affiliation at all, it's just something that turned up later.
This kind of evidence has to be treated very carefully. So long is we're just having fun with it, or using it as a springboard for future research, that's fine. We just can't take it too terribly seriously.
Though, of course, if the whiney kids had turned into liberals we'd never have heard the end of it...
(via Atrios)
Or:
For Psychology, That Ain't Half Dumb
I guess I don't have to tell you that the conclusions of psychological research generally have to be taken with a hefty dose of salt. (Wittgenstein: "In psychology there are empirical methods and conceptual confusions.") But this one sure does explain a lot. These findings purport to show that whiney kids tend to grow up to be conservative. I'd dismiss it out of hand except that the study wasn't done with any eye on political affiliation at all, it's just something that turned up later.
This kind of evidence has to be treated very carefully. So long is we're just having fun with it, or using it as a springboard for future research, that's fine. We just can't take it too terribly seriously.
Though, of course, if the whiney kids had turned into liberals we'd never have heard the end of it...
(via Atrios)
posted by Winston Smith at
12:30 PM
16 Comments:
The ideocons will be whining about the study pretty soon, if they aren't already!
Whiny adults become Democrats. You could look it up. (I see the evidence evry day.)
No doubt taxpayers financed this specious, um, study. Forgive me for my skepticism towards what the "academy" generates. The results seldom discover or even seek to address anything that doesn't fit the atheist/materialist/behaviorist meme that infects our society.
My own observations indicate a high correlation between one's relationship with his or her parents and party affiliation. I would find such a study far more probative than this fucking nonsense.
Yeah, I doubt it's true...but it sure would explain a lot... I mean, c'mon...the media has a liberal bias, academia has a liberal bias...basically every institution that isn't under the control of corporate money or organized religion is "biased" against conservatives.
Oh, I dunno... Both sides actually seem like a bunch of whiners to me when I think about it. Have you seen how Atrios and the Atrios dittoheads go on about a few stray comments by Chris Matthews? I expect them to start crying for their mommies at any moment.
Oh, don't forget the courts...wahhh! The courts have a liberal bias, too!
Or, rather, they DID before the Federalist Society started taking them over...
Forgive me for my skepticism towards what the "academy" generates. The results seldom discover or even seek to address anything that doesn't fit the atheist/materialist/behaviorist meme that infects our society.
Forgive me for pointing out that the post only supports the proposition under consideration.
It's called falsifiability, TVD. If you think something is wrong, show us some facts and reasoning behind your POV, and try not to use references to excrement, as it tends to put you into the Archie Bunker camp of conservatism these days....
My own observations indicate a high correlation between one's relationship with his or her parents and party affiliation.
And the plural for anecdote isn't the equivalent for that of data, as you probably could've found many folks in the late '50s and early '60s who would've stated from their own observations that African-Americans, especially in the South, didn't care about or want the right to vote, contrary to the 'propaganda' of Northern 'agitators'.
At least TVD didn't use a barnyard epithet. Grin!
Well, I thought it was more a nautical epithet, one that any sailor would be proud of.
I'm quite ambivalent about social science as science, since the human equation has far more variables than, say, whining as a child. The best it can arrive at seems to be correlation, not cause, as opposed to "hard" science.
Still, while I admit my observation is anecdotal, I think it deserves a closer look. Show me somebody who hates his father (or had an absent one), and I'll show you a Democrat.
Show me somebody who hates his father (or had an absent one), and I'll show you a Democrat.
Well, both Professor Avenger and I are Democrats, and neither of us hated or had an absent father, FWIW.
Oh, and data hasn't become the plural of data yet, but nice try.
Should be 'anecdote still isn't the plural of data'.
Late night folks...
I thought people with weird relationships to their fathers were supposed to become *christians*...
Not that I believe any of that kind of quasi-Freudian crap.
To the Dark Avenger: All squirrels are animals. All animals are not squirrels.
To WS: Don't have a pseudo-Freudian explanation. Just an observation, and one more quantifiable than "whininess."
To all: It's an established fact that Republicans are better in bed. So there.
Just for the record, the plural of 'data' is....
Oh yeah, 'data' is already the plural form of 'datum.'
And that ain't anecdotal.
Show me somebody who hates his father (or had an absent one), and I'll show you a Democrat.
I've never had a fist fight with my dad, but Duhbya has. Hmm.
Ronald Wilson Reagan was born in 1911 in Tampico, Illinois, the second son of Jack and Nelle Reagan. He had a difficult childhood. His father was an itinerant shoe salesman and an alcoholic.
Ronnie's pop was .
It's an established fact that Republicans are better in bed. So there.
TVD just misinterpreted the true finding that Republicans are much better at fucking the rest of us.
TVD, your logic-chopping really doesn't make any sense, just like your continued demonization of Clinton each and every time you come to the defense of Chimpy against WSs' 'slights' against him.
You suggest that you know of cases where people became Demos because of some sort of horrible problem that they have with their father, and I gave you two counter-examples from my own experience, which your attempt at a logical inversion does nothing to counter, or even address, for that matter.
Howbout this: Most Republicans I've met have been losers, including my sisters' first husband, who was killed by sheriffs' deputies because he pointed a loaded gun at them in a successful attempt at 'suicide by cop'.
Can you falsify my observations?
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home