• It's Maddie!@sh.itjust.works
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    11 months ago

    Alternative take, conservatives are stupid, panicky, irrational animals lashing out in fear at anything unfamiliar or that they don’t understand

    • 🐑🇸 🇭 🇪 🇪 🇵 🇱 🇪🐑@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Here’s some neuroscience knowledge. If a part of the brain is overstimulated and requires too many resources, it actually gets expanded to the detriment of other parts of the brain. The inverse is also true, if a part isn’t used other parts become more dominant. As seen when the brains of blind and deaf people were studied, it was found that the brain actually rewired itself to improve the still working parts.

      It’s simply your brain being efficient with it’s resources. That means the amygdala of conservatives is so overstimulated that it leeches resources away from the rest of the brain.

    • OpenStars@kbin.social
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      11 months ago

      Often, but remember to punch up, not down.

      They can also often be some of the kindest people as well, at least individually even if not from a societal standpoint. It’s strange to think about, I know!

      They just think different - accepting argument by authority more readily than using skeptical thought to personally analyze all input. And in that sense, they share a lot more in common with liberals than the latter group is comfortable admitting… Most thinkers are liberals but the converse is not true.

      Also, everything changes - this Alt Right (or whatever term has replaced it now) is nothing like the Tea Party brand of fiscal and social conservatism that it replaced, which itself was very different than the old-school conservatism, like George W. Bush was a freaking progressive, who wanted to fund education and feed the homeless (and despite the ineptness of their implementation, he did end up doing both!) (And on and on it goes, further back, e.g. Lincoln freed the slaves - what will Republicans be ten years from now, I wonder? At some point, the two sides will switch again, it’s the nature of the game.)

      It’s so easy to simply blame the other side for being inept, but even if true, it does not absolve us from not accomplishing anything ourselves. e.g. abortion is now up to each state to decide, so an excellent time to pass laws protecting it in each state… before conservatives find a way to do the opposite?

      • Vinny_93@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Capturing the whole America conundrum in mere sentences when looked at from a European point of view

        • OpenStars@kbin.social
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          11 months ago

          Boris Johnson, Bolsonaro - it’s happening all over the world. Russia is funding both sides along carefully-chosen division lines, in an effort to accomplish…well…exactly what is happening: the two sides turning from what used to be a united nation (USA post-9/11 was a high point for us, across the pond from Europe:-D) into a heavily divided one. Putin is laughing and hoping for a national divorce between those sides, which he actually might get (Brexit was bad enough but in USA it might take the form of an actual, irl civil war… which is mostly happening already in the cold sense, i.e. almost total dysfunction of the entire legislative branch and fairly close to it in judicial as well), but either way it has us all heavily distracted while he makes his gains, e.g. in Crimea, which he tried to extend further into Ukraine though absolutely failed miserably:-P. At least in the military sense, though sadly, the misinformation game he seems more like he is winning:-(.

          If our nation were a human body, I would say that we are under attack, and our immune system isn’t properly fighting off the invader but instead joining with it - so like AIDS I guess? But nobody knows what to do about it.:-( At least I feel more comfortable whining about it here where there aren’t as many Redi-trolls underfoot:-).

    • Zipitydew@sh.itjust.works
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      11 months ago

      Yes. That’s the whole reason for the tribalism. It’s a survival mechanism that helped our ancestors. But it’s wildly out of place in our modern world. And sadly many people’s brains are on the legacy firmware.

      • focusforte@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        People’s brains are on the legacy firmware

        This is going to be immediately filed into my favorite phrases corner of my brain

    • YeetPics@mander.xyz
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      11 months ago

      Yes, cowards with engorged amygdalas that make them fear everything and everyone unlike themselves.

      Quite literally a fear boner.

      • VikingHippie@lemmy.wtf
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        11 months ago

        No, I mean, they idealise their irrational fear all the time. What’s novel is going to great lengths to spell out that being afraid makes them better.

        He’s fooling nobody with his half-hearted “stress” response dodge 😂

        • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          He’s fooling nobody with his half-hearted “stress” response dodge 😂

          Other conservatives are eating that shit up, so at least some people are fooled…

          • VikingHippie@lemmy.wtf
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            11 months ago

            I meant nobody who isn’t already a member of the cult, but good point.

            Btw, this is very old knowledge. I posted a study about this to a political shitposting Facebook group over a decade ago to make fun of how conservatism is an irrational fear response and they basically said that the study must be wrong because everyone ELSE is the one who’s scared, not them!

            Fast forward several years and they’re using the same study that was old even back then to promote themselves like some weird distortion of the “greed is good” Gordon Gekko bullshit 😂

            • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              What’s funny? They’re not wrong about the world being scary. But the reason the world is scary is… these idiots…

              • VikingHippie@lemmy.wtf
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                11 months ago

                What’s funny is that the same people who pretend to be ultra-rugged world-conquerors get all panicky if someone’s immigration papers aren’t in order or if someone’s sexuality and/or gender expression don’t match up with their 1850s norms 😂

                • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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                  11 months ago

                  like I said… they’re a large part of why the world is scary.

                  when they get scared they get violent and shoot places up.

          • DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe
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            11 months ago

            Stupid people believe stupid things.

            One might ask themselves, however, if an intelligent person would be prepared for the dumb, panicky animals with a fetish for violence and a shared delusion of persecution to do some violent things.

  • Phil_in_here@lemmy.ca
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    11 months ago

    “Lefties aren’t scared enough about real world issues like what happens when boys kiss. It’s due to their diminished amygdala.”

    Lefties gesture to entire planet on fire.

    “Typical leftist fear mongering!”

    Remember folks, it’s not conservatives’ fault they deny climate change, they’re biologically predisposed to be too afraid to handle it.

    • hglman
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      11 months ago

      Conservatives maybe physically diffrent, but also being physically predisposed doesn’t mean you get to harm everyone in asking for accommodation.

      • Phil_in_here@lemmy.ca
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        11 months ago

        Who there, commie! There’s just one God and his only job is to kiss my forehead and pat my hair and tell me I’m a good boy and everything is His plan and it’s all going to be safe and okay and I’ll get to live with him in Cozytown before everything is destroyed.

  • Daft_ish@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Interesting. Has anyone thought to compare the abnormality to heightened levels of lead in the environment.

    Edit: Also, what the fuck is suppose to be scary about immigration? Please don’t try to conserve-splain it to me either.

    • Clay_pidgin@sh.itjust.works
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      11 months ago

      Immigrants are some combination of:

      • Coming to take all the jobs because they’re so hard working

      • coming to take all the social safety net because they’re so lazy

      • bringing crime with them because they’re bad people

      • Miscegenating the white women (miscegenating WITH?)

      • Coming in on democratic buses to vote for Obama somehow

      • Coming in to aggressively not speak American

      • niktemadur@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        There’s one more that I can think of.

        Their recent ancestors also migrated there, and look how they treated those who were already there before them. Now, every time they look in the mirror there is a guilt they will not fully acknowledge, but it’s there, and deep down they’re afraid they’ll end up faring like the natives, that they’ll end up getting treated the way they have treated others.

        That they’ll get treated the way they know deep down that they deserve.
        No coincidence that those most loudly and vulgarly opposed to immigration are concentrated in the racist, confederacy-sympathizin’ pro-slavery south.

        It’s so easy for charlatans to successfully pop-up in that environment and whip the people into a frenzy, feeding them more ignorance and fear every day. You get the evangelical preachers and the republican politicians, and the line is blurry between the two.

    • Eranziel@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Because immigrants are the other. It’s fear of people who are different, worrying they will change how you live your life.

    • OpenStars@kbin.social
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      11 months ago

      Because following the laws regarding seeking asylum is illegal.

      Yeah, maybe it’ll make more sense if you listen to it directly from them. (Hint: no, it actually won’t.)

    • lseif@sopuli.xyz
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      11 months ago

      disclaimer: i do not believe these arguments, im just giving context!!!

      destroying white culture, increased crime rate, threat of white people being a minority (which is bad), race-mixing…

    • unoriginalsin@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      When you have an enlarged amygdala, everything is scary. Ask any conservative what they fear most and they will never finish.

  • 🐑🇸 🇭 🇪 🇪 🇵 🇱 🇪🐑@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Stimuli also causes certain parts of the brain to become more dominant. A smaller amygdala means everything else gets more resources.

    A larger amygdala means the fear response is so constant that it takes up more resources and makes everything else smaller.

    This is basic neurological science. Similar studies of redistribution of resources have been made on blind and deaf people.