Is Liberalism Genetic?

Off Topic Politics and World Issues
21

[quote]Cortes wrote:

[quote]TheTick42 wrote:

[quote]Sloth wrote:
If they find a religious gene I’m getting a t-shirt that says “I’m not religious, but my Priest is.” Then I’m going to lead a campaign on campus against religious-phobes ( self-hating closeted religious people, really). If everyone’s getting a predisposition/orientation, I want mine, too.[/quote]

Finest poster? You are telling me that a bigot is the best we got? Really? I didn’t look him up, maybe he makes Samuel Silvio look like Mary Poppins but a bigot is a bigot. Atheists are “closeted religious” people? How does that even make sense?
[/quote]

So, when it finally hits you that you simply didn’t get the joke, and that, indeed, the meaning of the post went sailing over your head, will Sloth still be a bigot? And what will it make you?
[/quote]

I’m wondering if he will ever get it at this point.

22

Tick,

You spent time in California right? The most liberal state in the Union I would argue. We have…

  1. The highest taxes in almost every category.

  2. The 3rd highest unemployment rate in the country.

  3. Ranked 49th out of 50 in student performance, yet pay the highest in teacher salaries in the union.

  4. 35% of the welfare IN THE ENTIRE COUNTRY, yet only 12% of the country’s population.

  5. One of the highest state college tuition rates (which is being increased yet again), yet one of the highest dropout rates in the country.

  6. The highest illegal alien population in the country.

  7. A tax bracket that qualifies you as being “rich” when making $47k/year or more, that means that you are placed in the highest tax bracket.

With all that shit right there^^^, where is all this money going? What has been produced from such a socialistic state? We pour (should I say waste) more money into worthless bottomless hole programs that produce nothing, because of Liberal parasites.

How is that Liberalism working for you? How did Greece turn out ? Cali is on the way, from policies that you encourage.

Great job, you took the state with the 5th largest economy IN THE WORLD, and turned it into a 3rd world shit hole. Yay Liberalism. Yay Fucking Democruds, spend the fuck out of money we don’t have. Tax the shit out of wealth makers, to the point where they leave to more tax friendly states.

And you call your ideology “common sense?” Bitch please.

23

The more educated you are, the more likely it is that you will be a liberal. I think level of education is at least partially correlated with inherited cognitive ability (among many other things). So yes, I think there is a genetic component to political affiliation.

24

[quote]smh23 wrote:
The more educated you are, the more likely it is that you will be a liberal. I think level of education is at least partially correlated with inherited cognitive ability (among many other things). So yes, I think there is a genetic component to political affiliation.[/quote]

You’re joking right? Do you mean more educated as in more credentials as in more time spent at institutions of “higher learning” which are overwhelmingly liberal? It’s hard to see, but I don’t think the graph you posted supports your claim.

OP, No. I would argue that political affiliation is dependent on life experiences. Nurture not nature.

Both my parents are liberal and I turned out OK.

25

[quote]AdamDrew wrote:

[quote]smh23 wrote:
The more educated you are, the more likely it is that you will be a liberal. I think level of education is at least partially correlated with inherited cognitive ability (among many other things). So yes, I think there is a genetic component to political affiliation.[/quote]

You’re joking right? Do you mean more educated as in more credentials as in more time spent at institutions of “higher learning” which are overwhelmingly liberal? It’s hard to see, but I don’t think the graph you posted supports your claim.

OP, No. I would argue that political affiliation is dependent on life experiences. Nurture not nature.

Both my parents are liberal and I turned out OK. [/quote]

If you can’t see it that’s one thing (click on it and it is legible), but the data in the figure I provided does absolutely support my claim that “the more educated you are, the more likely it is that you will be a liberal.” Any of the lines curving downward indicate fewer Republican votes with increasing levels of education. You will notice that the vast majority of the figures show such a trend–including among all four pertaining to whites, who make up about 80% of the American population.

It’s not really disputed that higher levels of education correlate with a higher tendency to vote liberal/Dem. You can argue that these people were “indoctrinated” and in making that argument point out that the institutions of higher learning at which these people receive their educations are made up largely of liberals.

But then I would say: these are the smartest people in our society; they have dedicated their lives and their careers to the pursuit of knowledge. They are our intellectuals. And they are overwhelmingly liberal. Which is my original point.

26

[quote]belligerent wrote:
Liberalism is intellectual poison. But there are lots of very smart people who are liberals.[/quote]

A lot of ‘healthy’ people die.

27

Simple, those with “higher” education believe they can rely on their reason alone. However, the po’ po’ free peasants of the Red States know better. We know that’s impossible to rely on reason alone because we know the weakness of our reasoning faculties, so we rely on tradition.

We’ll take the word of 10,000 free men then the word of one lunatic with a degree.

28

[quote]ZEB wrote:

[quote]forlife wrote:
Kinda funny that Uganda uses the identical arguments to support discriminating against gays that people use in our own country.

It threatens traditional marriage, and…will someone think of the children???[/quote]

forlife do me a favor if you would. Could you please tie homosexuality into every thread that you’re in? Oh…oh wait…you already do that never mind.

Thanks,

Zeb

As to the topic, most know that liberalism is a mental disease. But that doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily genetic.[/quote]

Wait. Don’t tell me. Forelife attacked you. Right?

29

[quote]ZEB wrote:

[quote]TheTick42 wrote:

[quote]Sloth wrote:
If they find a religious gene I’m getting a t-shirt that says “I’m not religious, but my Priest is.” Then I’m going to lead a campaign on campus against religious-phobes ( self-hating closeted religious people, really). If everyone’s getting a predisposition/orientation, I want mine, too.[/quote]

Are you telling me that you think I, as an Atheist, secretly pray to and worship a god? Are you a Troll because…wow…[/quote]

Hello my name is Zeb and I’m in charge of welcoming all 20 something male, foreign born (to US) atheists to T Nation. I’m glad you’re here because we certainly don’t have enough of you around.

Oh and probably not your best first move calling one of the finest posters on the forum a troll. Let’s just chalk that up to a rookie mistake and move forward. Don’t worry there will be plenty of Christian bashing opportunities ahead of you so that you can feel really good about who you are!

Once again welcome.

:slight_smile:
[/quote]

Wait. Don’t tell me. He attacked you. Right?

30

[quote]TheTick42 wrote:
LOL What’s next - Yo Mama jokes? You can do better! Hey I also spent 5 years in Madison, WI…5 years in Phoenix, AZ not to mention several years travelling throughout Mexico, Canada and Europe. Does that gain me 2pts of cred for the farm belt, 5 for the hot-bed of immigrant bashing and…nope I lost all points for leaving the USA for more than 30 days…damn. Without your high regard I just don’t know how I’ll sleep tonight!! :smiley:

Seriously - Max, Zeb, do you really think that someone with minority views (like Atheism, commonsense etc…) can make it through life without laughing at the little things? If one is going to speak of credibility you may want to consider how little you have while sticking up for someone bragging about being a bigoted hick. [/quote]

There’s a clique in PWI. If you do not comport with the dogma, the personal attacks ensue and they happen very quickly. There is generally very little actually discourse about any given topic, only group-speak, fallacious arguments and personal attacks against the dissenters.

If you had welcomed ZEB here by saying " I’m TheTick42 and I’m in charge of welcoming all 50-something Christians to the forum…" you would have been accused of attacking and/or demeaning Christianity.

31

[quote]DoubleDuce wrote:

[quote]Cortes wrote:

[quote]TheTick42 wrote:

[quote]Sloth wrote:
If they find a religious gene I’m getting a t-shirt that says “I’m not religious, but my Priest is.” Then I’m going to lead a campaign on campus against religious-phobes ( self-hating closeted religious people, really). If everyone’s getting a predisposition/orientation, I want mine, too.[/quote]

Finest poster? You are telling me that a bigot is the best we got? Really? I didn’t look him up, maybe he makes Samuel Silvio look like Mary Poppins but a bigot is a bigot. Atheists are “closeted religious” people? How does that even make sense?
[/quote]

So, when it finally hits you that you simply didn’t get the joke, and that, indeed, the meaning of the post went sailing over your head, will Sloth still be a bigot? And what will it make you?
[/quote]

I’m wondering if he will ever get it at this point.[/quote]

So is this about his not getting an inside reference to PWI? Are we a bunch of school children here?

32

I had this conversation (sort of) with someone today. I abhor labels; democrat, republican, liberal, conservative. As Chris Rock said once in a stand up routine, and I paraphrase, no sane person is one thing all the time. We are conservative on some stuff, liberal on others. Rarely do we entirely exist on what end of any given spectrum. I’m not appealing to the authority of a comedian, but the comment was insightful and instructive. We get labeled, and then territorial lines are drawn, and nothing gets done except a battle of utlimately illusory competing agendas. My friend and I, who undoubtedly up to this point had thought of me as Republican, were talking in general about homelessness because she works for a charity that helps the homeless.

I think the problems we have are not one of “democrat” or “republican” but of our society’s default position to throw money at a problem instead of actually FIXING the problem. The only difference between “republican” and “democrat” appears to be how much money we throw at it, when or how - but at the end of the day, most of it is a first aid approach instead of a cure and ultimately, is wasteful. Now, if we distill my thoughts further, one might want to jump and “label” me a socialist. And I wouldn’t know quite how to reply because I don’t exist in a label, but an idea from within that label may have merit when warranted.

I happen to think that in a world of abundant wealth and resources, no one should ever go hungry, die from lack of healthcare or be without shelter. Does that make me a “democrat” or “liberal” or “socialist”? I don’t think so. Because I’m very “conservative” and “republican” in my disdain for our throwing money at problems. I’d rather throw our limited resources at long term solutions and making the hard choices to actually fix problems.

Finally to my point; As long as we continue to be defined by these labels, we will accomplish very little. Progress is impeded in my opinion. I’ve been in some very interesting threads touching on the origins of our universe, and those answers truly lie beyond our abilities right now. Our social ills, however, are not so complex. They just involve and call for hard decisions, not “politics as usual”.

33

[quote]smh23 wrote:

[quote]AdamDrew wrote:

[quote]smh23 wrote:
The more educated you are, the more likely it is that you will be a liberal. I think level of education is at least partially correlated with inherited cognitive ability (among many other things). So yes, I think there is a genetic component to political affiliation.[/quote]

You’re joking right? Do you mean more educated as in more credentials as in more time spent at institutions of “higher learning” which are overwhelmingly liberal? It’s hard to see, but I don’t think the graph you posted supports your claim.

OP, No. I would argue that political affiliation is dependent on life experiences. Nurture not nature.

Both my parents are liberal and I turned out OK. [/quote]

If you can’t see it that’s one thing (click on it and it is legible), but the data in the figure I provided does absolutely support my claim that “the more educated you are, the more likely it is that you will be a liberal.” Any of the lines curving downward indicate fewer Republican votes with increasing levels of education. You will notice that the vast majority of the figures show such a trend–including among all four pertaining to whites, who make up about 80% of the American population.

It’s not really disputed that higher levels of education correlate with a higher tendency to vote liberal/Dem. You can argue that these people were “indoctrinated” and in making that argument point out that the institutions of higher learning at which these people receive their educations are made up largely of liberals.

But then I would say: these are the smartest people in our society; they have dedicated their lives and their careers to the pursuit of knowledge. They are our intellectuals. And they are overwhelmingly liberal. Which is my original point.[/quote]

Correlations do not necessarily support causation.

34

Statistics also do not explain cause and effect relationships.

35

[quote]TheBodyGuard wrote:

[quote]DoubleDuce wrote:

[quote]Cortes wrote:

[quote]TheTick42 wrote:

[quote]Sloth wrote:
If they find a religious gene I’m getting a t-shirt that says “I’m not religious, but my Priest is.” Then I’m going to lead a campaign on campus against religious-phobes ( self-hating closeted religious people, really). If everyone’s getting a predisposition/orientation, I want mine, too.[/quote]

Finest poster? You are telling me that a bigot is the best we got? Really? I didn’t look him up, maybe he makes Samuel Silvio look like Mary Poppins but a bigot is a bigot. Atheists are “closeted religious” people? How does that even make sense?
[/quote]

So, when it finally hits you that you simply didn’t get the joke, and that, indeed, the meaning of the post went sailing over your head, will Sloth still be a bigot? And what will it make you?
[/quote]

I’m wondering if he will ever get it at this point.[/quote]

So is this about his not getting an inside reference to PWI? Are we a bunch of school children here?[/quote]

Speak for yourself.

Sarcasm and a basic command of the English language isn’t exactly Advanced Calculus level stuff. Or did you not get it, either?

36

[quote]TheBodyGuard wrote:

[quote]smh23 wrote:

[quote]AdamDrew wrote:

[quote]smh23 wrote:
The more educated you are, the more likely it is that you will be a liberal. I think level of education is at least partially correlated with inherited cognitive ability (among many other things). So yes, I think there is a genetic component to political affiliation.[/quote]

You’re joking right? Do you mean more educated as in more credentials as in more time spent at institutions of “higher learning” which are overwhelmingly liberal? It’s hard to see, but I don’t think the graph you posted supports your claim.

OP, No. I would argue that political affiliation is dependent on life experiences. Nurture not nature.

Both my parents are liberal and I turned out OK. [/quote]

If you can’t see it that’s one thing (click on it and it is legible), but the data in the figure I provided does absolutely support my claim that “the more educated you are, the more likely it is that you will be a liberal.” Any of the lines curving downward indicate fewer Republican votes with increasing levels of education. You will notice that the vast majority of the figures show such a trend–including among all four pertaining to whites, who make up about 80% of the American population.

It’s not really disputed that higher levels of education correlate with a higher tendency to vote liberal/Dem. You can argue that these people were “indoctrinated” and in making that argument point out that the institutions of higher learning at which these people receive their educations are made up largely of liberals.

But then I would say: these are the smartest people in our society; they have dedicated their lives and their careers to the pursuit of knowledge. They are our intellectuals. And they are overwhelmingly liberal. Which is my original point.[/quote]

Correlations do not necessarily support causation. [/quote]

Very true. I’m not actually trying to suggest that smart people are only liberal or that intelligence causes liberalism. I was more just firing back at the notion that liberalism is a mental disorder.

37

[quote]MaximusB wrote:
Statistics also do not explain cause and effect relationships. [/quote]

Yes I know. Some of the most intellectual people I know are fiscal conservatives. I was using the data as a quick “fuck you” to the notion of liberalism as a mental disorder, not as something I think truly meaningful/worthy of a lot of serious consideration.

38

[quote]Brother Chris wrote:
Simple, those with “higher” education believe they can rely on their reason alone. However, the po’ po’ free peasants of the Red States know better. We know that’s impossible to rely on reason alone because we know the weakness of our reasoning faculties, so we rely on tradition.

We’ll take the word of 10,000 free men then the word of one lunatic with a degree.[/quote]

I think we should trust the experts as much as we can. I trust engineers to design and build the bridges that I drive on every day. I trust my doctors to figure out what ails me and fix it. I think the less intelligent should at least take into consideration what their smarter countrymen say and think with regard to public policy. This goes for liberals as well as conservatives. Whenever an economist is talking I listen, because whatever his politics, he is far more qualified to speak on the topic than am I.

It isn’t rich vs. poor or white vs. blue collar. In the end it is all about understanding the issues and having the intellectual and perceptive acumen requisite to fix them. If we all forgot knee-jerk politics for a minute and committed to understanding the complexities and REALITIES (for the distortion of reality is one of the primary weapons of the politician) of the problems facing us today, our world would be far better.

39

[quote]Cortes wrote:

[quote]TheBodyGuard wrote:

[quote]DoubleDuce wrote:

[quote]Cortes wrote:

[quote]TheTick42 wrote:

[quote]Sloth wrote:
If they find a religious gene I’m getting a t-shirt that says “I’m not religious, but my Priest is.” Then I’m going to lead a campaign on campus against religious-phobes ( self-hating closeted religious people, really). If everyone’s getting a predisposition/orientation, I want mine, too.[/quote]

Finest poster? You are telling me that a bigot is the best we got? Really? I didn’t look him up, maybe he makes Samuel Silvio look like Mary Poppins but a bigot is a bigot. Atheists are “closeted religious” people? How does that even make sense?
[/quote]

So, when it finally hits you that you simply didn’t get the joke, and that, indeed, the meaning of the post went sailing over your head, will Sloth still be a bigot? And what will it make you?
[/quote]

I’m wondering if he will ever get it at this point.[/quote]

So is this about his not getting an inside reference to PWI? Are we a bunch of school children here?[/quote]

Speak for yourself.

Sarcasm and a basic command of the English language isn’t exactly Advanced Calculus level stuff. Or did you not get it, either?
[/quote]

I know I speak for myself, but thanks for reminding me.

And we all know you’re just trying to bait me once again. That’s common commerce here in PWI apparently. So, let me rephrase - the personal attacks hearken back to a time in the 4th grade playground.

As for calculus and such, I do not know the poster in question, and frankly found the post unintelligible at first glance and since I did not actually read the OP reference, I may very well indeed have “missed something”. Now let’s see if you can use that admission in a clever attempt to attack me or imply you’re smarter than me or something - because apparently, that’s what the “new T-man” does on the internet.

40

[quote]smh23 wrote:

[quote]Brother Chris wrote:
Simple, those with “higher” education believe they can rely on their reason alone. However, the po’ po’ free peasants of the Red States know better. We know that’s impossible to rely on reason alone because we know the weakness of our reasoning faculties, so we rely on tradition.

We’ll take the word of 10,000 free men then the word of one lunatic with a degree.[/quote]

I think we should trust the experts as much as we can. I trust engineers to design and build the bridges that I drive on every day. I trust my doctors to figure out what ails me and fix it. I think the less intelligent should at least take into consideration what their smarter countrymen say and think with regard to public policy. This goes for liberals as well as conservatives. Whenever an economist is talking I listen, because whatever his politics, he is far more qualified to speak on the topic than am I.

It isn’t rich vs. poor or white vs. blue collar. In the end it is all about understanding the issues and having the intellectual and perceptive acumen requisite to fix them. If we all forgot knee-jerk politics for a minute and committed to understanding the complexities and REALITIES (for the distortion of reality is one of the primary weapons of the politician) of the problems facing us today, our world would be far better.[/quote]

The problem is, we’re not fixing problems. Our politicians fight about how much we’re going to spend on the band aid instead of working on the cure.

We’re an “advanced civilization” in the mightiest nation of the world and we still have:

A health care problem;
Homelessness;
Hunger; and
A justice system that creates career criminals;

to just name a few of our ills…