Not my words, but taken from an on-line blogger concerning hateful conservatives, but easily pertains to liberals, also....

"This would depend on what you put into label of conservative. Taking a five minute view to consider a trend to putting labeling all conservatives being hateful or haters that are ignorant by nature shows a bias on your part.

Passionate statements and answers people make are generally based on how they were raised and their own personal experiences in life. Many use hatreds of others to create a desired outcome for particular situations (spinning it to fit). By using deceptive practices to inflame and conjure emotions to a level of hate or heated debate. Something like flickering a rubber bait hook in front of a hungry fish at sunset. People bite and the spin masters gain an audience.

I believe we each have an obligation to each other to help each other with understanding and learning in what the causes and remedies against true hatred are. We are our brothers keepers.

Certain persons would also call me a neocon conservative for believing in Jesus as my savior. Some treat me with hatred for my beliefs. When it is clear you could not simply get to know who I am and what is in my heart in only five minutes.

I do have to admit though I have hatred for certain things in the world. Corruption that has been allowed to run rampant in our country has brought it to a very dangerous level. So we are hated by others even though the majority of us simply wish to live in peace. Greed has consumed and the anger runs wild through the nation as people try to survive and keep their goodies like fancy houses and cars. Many who have previously sold out or given in by thinking they are secure in their jobs and they allowed the corruption to take over. By not being their brothers keepers they have invited the wolves in the door.

I grew up believing as an American I would have freedom, justice and be treated equally as a human being. This has not been the case in all instances. Yet I would not trade my country for another just because of a few ignorant or greedy people. I would hope that not everyone would attempt to assess the whole situation in a few minutes though by labeling all conservatives hateful and ignorant by nature."

I take liberty with paraphrasing William F. Buckley, IMO, icon of the right: 'Both liberals and conservatives claim to want to give a hearing to other views, but then are shocked and offended to discover that there are other views.'

FYI, my ultimate icon of the center/left was Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

You, Eagleye, seem to counter that argument, by giving thought to all perspectives, while remaining true to your own. Kudos to you.

Eagle, The internet offers varying views on both liberalism/conservatism...for example:

Is Political Conservatism a Mild Form of Insanity?

By William Todd Schult, Ph.D.

Posted Sep 06, 2008

A few years ago I was standing on the deck of a beach house on the 4th of July and a person who had obviously drunk too much told me, “The secret of my life is that I always need someone to hate.”

I was reminded of this exchange while watching the stupendously ruthless Republican National Convention over the last several days. Is there anything that conservatives do not hate? Maybe drilling. In fact, they appear utterly phallically obsessed with drilling (a practice that, in about 10 years or so, might reduce gas prices by 2 or 3 cents per gallon). But otherwise, what we learned from the recent hatefest is that Republicans hate community organizers, liberals (surprise!), Madonna, the “east coast elite,” the “angry left” media, trial lawyers, people who are too smart, people who are “cosmopolitan”—the list goes on into eternity.

Listening to this litany on Wednesday night in particular reminded me of a research article that came out roughly 5 years ago on political conservatism and motivated social cognition (Jost, Glaser, Kruglanski & Sulloway, “Political Conservatism as Motivated Social Cognition,” Psychological Bulletin). In a nutshell, the article—by Stanford and UC Berkeley researchers—seems to suggest that conservatism is a mild form of insanity.

Here are the facts. A meta-analysis culled from 88 samples in 12 countries, and with an N of 22,818, revealed that “several psychological variables predicted political conservatism.” Which variables exactly? In order of predictive power: Death anxiety, system instability, dogmatism/intolerance of ambiguity, closed-mindedness, low tolerance of uncertainty, high needs for order, structure, and closure, low integrative complexity, fear of threat and loss, and low self-esteem. The researchers conclude, a little chillingly, that “the core ideology of conservatism stresses resistance to change and a justification of inequality.”

The above list of variables is more than a little unsavory. We are talking about someone full of fear, with a poor sense of self, and a lack of mental dexterity. I always tell my students that tolerance of ambiguity is one especially excellent mark of psychological maturity. It isn’t a black and white world. According to the research, conservatives possess precisely the opposite: an intolerance of ambiguity and an inability to deal with complexity. Maybe that’s one reason why Obama seems so distasteful to them: he is a nuanced, multi-faceted thinker who can see things from several different perspectives simultaneously. And he isn’t preaching fear, either.

eagleye13, What nonsense. Where in the DSM does it say that liberalism is a psychological illness? If the far right can't respond to a question or situation, this is the kind of stuff they love to quote. I guess FDR, JFK, both Clintons, Nelson Rockefeller, etc., etc. were all crazy. I only hope we get more candidates like them elected. Instead of trying to defame an entire ideology, that has proven to reform America from monopoly, terrible laws and other anti democratic practices from the rich and powerful, the right has to resort to this kind of nonsense.

Eagle, The internet offers varying views on both liberalism/conservatism...for example:

Is Political Conservatism a Mild Form of Insanity?

By William Todd Schult, Ph.D.

Posted Sep 06, 2008

A few years ago I was standing on the deck of a beach house on the 4th of July and a person who had obviously drunk too much told me, “The secret of my life is that I always need someone to hate.”

I was reminded of this exchange while watching the stupendously ruthless Republican National Convention over the last several days. Is there anything that conservatives do not hate? Maybe drilling. In fact, they appear utterly phallically obsessed with drilling (a practice that, in about 10 years or so, might reduce gas prices by 2 or 3 cents per gallon). But otherwise, what we learned from the recent hatefest is that Republicans hate community organizers, liberals (surprise!), Madonna, the “east coast elite,” the “angry left” media, trial lawyers, people who are too smart, people who are “cosmopolitan”—the list goes on into eternity.

Listening to this litany on Wednesday night in particular reminded me of a research article that came out roughly 5 years ago on political conservatism and motivated social cognition (Jost, Glaser, Kruglanski & Sulloway, “Political Conservatism as Motivated Social Cognition,” Psychological Bulletin). In a nutshell, the article—by Stanford and UC Berkeley researchers—seems to suggest that conservatism is a mild form of insanity.

Here are the facts. A meta-analysis culled from 88 samples in 12 countries, and with an N of 22,818, revealed that “several psychological variables predicted political conservatism.” Which variables exactly? In order of predictive power: Death anxiety, system instability, dogmatism/intolerance of ambiguity, closed-mindedness, low tolerance of uncertainty, high needs for order, structure, and closure, low integrative complexity, fear of threat and loss, and low self-esteem. The researchers conclude, a little chillingly, that “the core ideology of conservatism stresses resistance to change and a justification of inequality.”

The above list of variables is more than a little unsavory. We are talking about someone full of fear, with a poor sense of self, and a lack of mental dexterity. I always tell my students that tolerance of ambiguity is one especially excellent mark of psychological maturity. It isn’t a black and white world. According to the research, conservatives possess precisely the opposite: an intolerance of ambiguity and an inability to deal with complexity. Maybe that’s one reason why Obama seems so distasteful to them: he is a nuanced, multi-faceted thinker who can see things from several different perspectives simultaneously. And he isn’t preaching fear, either.

Oh Lord, yes, the internet offers varying views on EVERYTHING, including psyche tests to help you decide which of 21 or 22 genders you should be.

Our Founders established the greatest system of government ever devised by man, a system that limited government to its primary role as spelled out in the Preamble to the Constitution. Never in human history was a government established that granted the people the right to govern themselves through representation--a government that derives its just powers from the consent of the governed. A system of government that is directly accountable to the people. A system of government that acknowledges that human beings have certain unalienable rights that no one can take from them, not the government or anyone else. The right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

"But the entire twentieth century, and the dawn of the twenty-first, have witnessed modern liberalism’s relentless attacks on all of these goals and on all of the principles on which individual liberty and rational social order rest. Although they are strikingly deficient in political substance, these attacks have nevertheless been successful in exploiting the psychological nature of man for socialist purposes. To counter the destructiveness of these attacks requires a clear understanding of the relationship between human psychology and social process."

One doesn't need an internet search or a psychological evaluation to see that liberal progressives want to demolish, abolish, or otherwise fundamentally transform our constitutional system of government and replace it with a system of government that has been most common throughout history--gargantuan bureaucracy, authoritarian, despotic, tyrannical. A system that subjugates the people, favors collectivism over individualism, and controls every facet of its subjects life. And, in the more extreme cases, such governments have eliminated political opposition by force. For example, during the 20th century, more citizens were murdered by their own governments than the number of people killed in war action in all the wars fought in that century.

And, what did these governments have in common? Atheism. Godless statism, i.e. socialism, fascism, communism, et al. Liberal progressivism is in that "basket of deplorables".This is not the result of psychoanalysis, it is reality.

Oh Lord, yes, the internet offers varying views on EVERYTHING, including psyche tests to help you decide which of 21 or 22 genders you should be.

Our Founders established the greatest system of government ever devised by man, a system that limited government to its primary role as spelled out in the Preamble to the Constitution. Never in human history was a government established that granted the people the right to govern themselves through representation--a government that derives its just powers from the consent of the governed. A system of government that is directly accountable to the people. A system of government that acknowledges that human beings have certain unalienable rights that no one can take from them, not the government or anyone else. The right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

"But the entire twentieth century, and the dawn of the twenty-first, have witnessed modern liberalism’s relentless attacks on all of these goals and on all of the principles on which individual liberty and rational social order rest. Although they are strikingly deficient in political substance, these attacks have nevertheless been successful in exploiting the psychological nature of man for socialist purposes. To counter the destructiveness of these attacks requires a clear understanding of the relationship between human psychology and social process."

One doesn't need an internet search or a psychological evaluation to see that liberal progressives want to demolish, abolish, or otherwise fundamentally transform our constitutional system of government and replace it with a system of government that has been most common throughout history--gargantuan bureaucracy, authoritarian, despotic, tyrannical. A system that subjugates the people, favors collectivism over individualism, and controls every facet of its subjects life. And, in the more extreme cases, such governments have eliminated political opposition by force. For example, during the 20th century, more citizens were murdered by their own governments than the number of people killed in war action in all the wars fought in that century.

And, what did these governments have in common? Atheism. Godless statism, i.e. socialism, fascism, communism, et al. Liberal progressivism is in that "basket of deplorables".This is not the result of psychoanalysis, it is reality.

Wow Blade right on after the firet sentence.
Slat pretends to not know the first sentence was a purposeful exaggeration. It was all he had to defend liberalism/progressiveism/socialism.
You are right on target, BR.



"Our Founders established the greatest system of government ever devised by man, a system that limited government to its primary role as spelled out in the Preamble to the Constitution. Never in human history was a government established that granted the people the right to govern themselves through representation--a government that derives its just powers from the consent of the governed. A system of government that is directly accountable to the people. A system of government that acknowledges that human beings have certain unalienable rights that no one can take from them, not the government or anyone else. The right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

"But the entire twentieth century, and the dawn of the twenty-first, have witnessed modern liberalism’s relentless attacks on all of these goals and on all of the principles on which individual liberty and rational social order rest. Although they are strikingly deficient in political substance, these attacks have nevertheless been successful in exploiting the psychological nature of man for socialist purposes. To counter the destructiveness of these attacks requires a clear understanding of the relationship between human psychology and social process."

One doesn't need an internet search or a psychological evaluation to see that liberal progressives want to demolish, abolish, or otherwise fundamentally transform our constitutional system of government and replace it with a system of government that has been most common throughout history--gargantuan bureaucracy, authoritarian, despotic, tyrannical. A system that subjugates the people, favors collectivism over individualism, and controls every facet of its subjects life. And, in the more extreme cases, such governments have eliminated political opposition by force. For example, during the 20th century, more citizens were murdered by their own governments than the number of people killed in war action in all the wars fought in that century.

And, what did these governments have in common? Atheism. Godless statism, i.e. socialism, fascism, communism, et al. Liberal progressivism is in that "basket of deplorables".This is not the result of psychoanalysis, it is reality." - Blade Runner