Stop Your Whining!
In the category of "this shouldn't come as a surprise..." is this recent study, cited in the Toronto Star, alleging that whiny, insecure kids tend to grow up to be whiny, insecure conservatives -- and that you can predict, with a fair measure of accuracy, what kind of politics a person will embrace later in life by how he or she behaves as a child. It has always struck me how right-wingers tend to be so shrill and defensive, even after getting their own way time after time (even after controlling virtually every part of the government and judiciary and media in this country for the past five-plus years). I guess maybe this study sheds some light on the reasons behind that particular mind-set.
As Tom Tomorrow once said, the only thing Republicans like whining about more than the politics of victimization is whining about how victimized they are. It's very much like the "liberal media" myth -- virtually all evidence is to the contrary and it's easily disproven, but that particular canard -- just like the notion that conservatives are constantly being smacked down and put upon by a hateful liberal populace -- is hard-wired into their little lizard brains and no amount of arguing or empirical evidence will convince them otherwise. The media is liberal because they say it's liberal. Conservatives are victimized because they say they're victimized.
In the 1960s Jack Block and his wife and fellow professor Jeanne Block (now deceased) began tracking more than 100 nursery school kids as part of a general study of personality. The kids' personalities were rated at the time by teachers and assistants who had known them for months. There's no reason to think political bias skewed the ratings — the investigators were not looking at political orientation back then. Even if they had been, it's unlikely that 3- and 4-year-olds would have had much idea about their political leanings.
A few decades later, Block followed up with more surveys, looking again at personality, and this time at politics, too. The whiny kids tended to grow up conservative, and turned into rigid young adults who hewed closely to traditional gender roles and were uncomfortable with ambiguity.
The confident kids turned out liberal and were still hanging loose, turning into bright, non-conforming adults with wide interests. The girls were still outgoing, but the young men tended to turn a little introspective.
If you think about it, it makes perfect sense. Can't you just see a young Karl Rove pissing and moaning about some imagined neighborhood slight? He's still getting back at that girl who smacked him for sporting a Nixon bumper sticker on the basket of his bike when he was a kid. Not to mention his (alleged) boss, the bully, who still acts like a petulant child any time someone asks him a question he doesn't want to answer or disagrees with him.
As my friend Eric, who sent me the link to this story in the first place (and thanks for that!), said, "Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be wingnuts."
As Tom Tomorrow once said, the only thing Republicans like whining about more than the politics of victimization is whining about how victimized they are. It's very much like the "liberal media" myth -- virtually all evidence is to the contrary and it's easily disproven, but that particular canard -- just like the notion that conservatives are constantly being smacked down and put upon by a hateful liberal populace -- is hard-wired into their little lizard brains and no amount of arguing or empirical evidence will convince them otherwise. The media is liberal because they say it's liberal. Conservatives are victimized because they say they're victimized.
In the 1960s Jack Block and his wife and fellow professor Jeanne Block (now deceased) began tracking more than 100 nursery school kids as part of a general study of personality. The kids' personalities were rated at the time by teachers and assistants who had known them for months. There's no reason to think political bias skewed the ratings — the investigators were not looking at political orientation back then. Even if they had been, it's unlikely that 3- and 4-year-olds would have had much idea about their political leanings.
A few decades later, Block followed up with more surveys, looking again at personality, and this time at politics, too. The whiny kids tended to grow up conservative, and turned into rigid young adults who hewed closely to traditional gender roles and were uncomfortable with ambiguity.
The confident kids turned out liberal and were still hanging loose, turning into bright, non-conforming adults with wide interests. The girls were still outgoing, but the young men tended to turn a little introspective.
If you think about it, it makes perfect sense. Can't you just see a young Karl Rove pissing and moaning about some imagined neighborhood slight? He's still getting back at that girl who smacked him for sporting a Nixon bumper sticker on the basket of his bike when he was a kid. Not to mention his (alleged) boss, the bully, who still acts like a petulant child any time someone asks him a question he doesn't want to answer or disagrees with him.
As my friend Eric, who sent me the link to this story in the first place (and thanks for that!), said, "Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be wingnuts."
posted by Generik at 7:47 AM
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