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A new study showed a link between strong right-wing views and fear of disease and increased concern about hygiene.
The study showed that people who are more offended by bad odors are more likely to support authoritarian leaders, such as Donald Trump.
In the past, disgust at bad odors was important for survival. The scientists suggested that the disgust at unfamiliar odors may be linked to a desire to keep apart from "culturally unfamiliar" groups.
[...] In the new study, 160 people were rated on their aversion to bodily odours on a scale to one five and their responses compared to their political views. It found that each point higher on the disgust scale was associated with feeling 7.5 points more positive towards authoritarian leaders.
[...] It showed that people who were more disgusted by smells were also more likely to vote for Donald Trump than those who were less sensitive.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 01 2018, @05:28AM (57 children)
I suspect this is supposed to be how academia insults me, but whatever. I'm cool with it.
There is something very broken if you don't have an aversion to things that are gross, disgusting, threatening, risky, etc. This is a protective feature of the human mind; it keeps you from an early death. Evolution selects for it. If you lack the feature... well that's like lacking so many other things that normal humans use to survive, like ears. You aren't just differently special. You are broken.
We've seen plenty of similar studies before, for example with photos. We know that conservatives value sanctity, purity, and similar concepts that liberals mostly don't give a damn about.
Here, want to do a really easy study that you can publish? Compare rates of trypophobia. That one is pretty certain to primarily affect conservatives.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by LVDOVICVS on Thursday March 01 2018, @06:00AM (11 children)
Yeah, you're better. You're not "broken."
You said yourself "...conservatives value... concepts..." The avoidance of gross, disgusting things might produce the opposite of an evolutionary benefit. I've seen a burly, conservative man or two wretch at the mere idea of having to change his baby's diaper. Letting your offspring wallow in filth is not beneficial for your progeny. It's not the act of changing the baby that's the problem, it's the "concept" that it's somehow "gross."
It's not some evolutionary superiority that causes this type of behavior, it's that you're a sensitive snowflake.
(Score: 2) by Entropy on Thursday March 01 2018, @02:33PM (3 children)
It could also mean they don't want to date someone who never showers, and thus smells bad. Making the leap to "doesn't like their own baby" from "doesn't like things that smell like filth" is a little much, in my opinion.
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Thursday March 01 2018, @09:53PM (2 children)
Well if you were to live in the South West USA, South Africa or much of Australia (o say nothing of much of Northern Africa, Northern Mexico and Northern Chile) you probably wouldn't be getting laid. Of course you probably don't get laid at all, as even if one showers daily, the act of rubbing bodies together creates lots of smells you'd likely find offensive.
"It is easier to fool someone than it is to convince them that they have been fooled" Mark Twain
(Score: 2) by Entropy on Thursday March 01 2018, @10:13PM
In the south west USA they have air conditioning... Probably not in Africa, but due to the AIDS epidemic one shouldn't get laid there for a number of reasons. ;)
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 01 2018, @11:06PM
I get that the coons in Africa stink, but Australians?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by AthanasiusKircher on Thursday March 01 2018, @02:36PM (1 child)
I'd just note that there's quite a bit a research showing a lot of "disgust" reactions are learned behavior that comes from children observing other people (parents, other adults, other children). There are few things that produce an "innate" universal response like that.
For casual proof -- observe most children. (Studies are more rigorous, but this is just something most people will notice.) Small children are happy to pick up and play with bugs, small creeping slimy things, things that stink, things that most adults would never go near. Most of their "disgust" responses are learned later.
Concern about body odor is one of those things that is also informed by cultural practice. Until a century or so ago, when "deodorant" companies convinced everyone that body odor was unnatural and "unhygienic," body odor was just accepted as common. In fact, pheromones and such in it was often perceived as sexy. There's a somewhat famous account of Napoleon telling his wife to not bathe for several days before he was to return home, because he enjoyed her smell. And that he carried a cloth from her with him that she had kept under her armpit for a while. (If I remember the anecdote correctly...)
Also, keep in mind that frequent deep cleansing affects the type of bacteria that hang out on the skin, which affect odor character. Not washing (or at least not using harsh soaps) for days or weeks may develop very different biomes on your skin. The fast-growing stuff that takes up residence every day is probably more stinky and offensive.
(Note -- I shower daily and use deodorant, etc... So I'm not promoting this because it's not standard in Western society. But "hygiene" practices have given birth to a lot of BS over the years, and our sensitivity to BO is probably enhanced by cultural perception and practice.)
(Score: 2) by Bot on Friday March 02 2018, @05:09PM
> I'd just note that there's quite a bit a research showing a lot of "disgust" reactions are learned behavior that comes from children observing other people (parents, other adults, other children).
Those bits of research do not explain the faces of little kids in front of veggies, though.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday March 01 2018, @03:21PM (1 child)
Actually, baby shit can be overwhelmingly nauseous. I changed my share of diapers, and I can tell you that not every full diaper is equal. Don't ask me why or how, but apparently the digestive biome changes from time to time, and unholy things can happen.
Normally, diaper changing is merely objectionable, and a nuisance. And, of course, you know that candy asses will use any excuse to get out of such chores.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 01 2018, @05:45PM
To this day, I still have the occasional PSTD-like flashbacks to changing diapers, especially the ones where the little guy wasn't feeling good.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday March 01 2018, @05:04PM (2 children)
I'd wager the correlation is stronger if you evaluate city-dwellers vs. rural folks, anyway. Simply being exposed to more people seems a lot more reasonable a hypothesis than political views.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 01 2018, @05:27PM (1 child)
I did not like being exposed to gross and nasty city-dwelling liberals. Subway stations, though convenient, were especially awful. They smelled of piss and more. Passing through the park (The Fens), you'd see guys lying on the grass in speedos that were supported by vertical cocks. The piles of condoms behind the bush beside the rose garden were not appealing to me. I saw bums begging. Everything, everywhere, seemed so dirty and icky and perverted.
City life mostly made me want to flee, and so I did as soon as I could. Simply being exposed to more people made me hate those sick fucks.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 01 2018, @11:03PM
Well at least you stopped posting your horror fantasies for a few hours. Speaking of sick fucks. . .
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 01 2018, @07:16AM
Generally, they *say* they value it but then act contrary to what they believe. Kind of reminds be of when you look at people that are "violently anti-gay" and then you find out they they are gay themselves and it's just an episode of self-loathing.
I would describe myself as a liberal. And I value sanctity and purity too, but I also recognize that people are not perfect and I will not condemn another because they do not live up to my standards (provided they do not affect my and my family's life with their "transgressions")... You know, live and let live??
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday March 01 2018, @07:52AM (3 children)
A few months ago I purchased a really spiffy accordion file.
Then I sorted all my bills and statements into separate piles on the floor.
That accordion file remains empty. Those bills and statements remain on my floor but they've been kicked around so much that really they are just one pile.
I am a Pre-Soviet Marxist.
Have A Nice Day! :)
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 3, Funny) by Runaway1956 on Thursday March 01 2018, @03:25PM (1 child)
Next time, buy a bastard file. It makes a pretty decent weapon in case of home invasion. Well, at least a better weapon than an accordion file.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday March 01 2018, @06:32PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 07 2018, @02:06AM
Lol old people are so cute.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by knarf on Thursday March 01 2018, @08:13AM (12 children)
It would be interesting to see whether there is a link between toxoplasmosis infection [1] and left-wing political views. Infection with this parasite has been shown to inhibit natural aversion from predators in rodents. In humans it has been shown to promote promiscuous sexual behaviour [2] and increase risk-taking in men. People infected with this parasite have a reduced sense of self-preservation, something which might help the parasite spread but is detrimental to the host. I do see parallels between the irrational behaviour of many left-wing politicians who seem to be bent on "cultural suicide" and the mentioned effects.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasmosis [wikipedia.org]
[2] http://www.psypost.org/2016/11/study-toxoplasma-gondii-parasite-can-alter-humans-sexual-desires-45990 [psypost.org]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday March 01 2018, @08:27AM (2 children)
You really think the so-called conservatives in this country *aren't* committing cultural suicide? Look at what it is they stand for and the results of their policies. The most charitable thing that can be said relating to your idea is that the extremes of both sides are committing cultural suicide by different paths.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1, Troll) by knarf on Thursday March 01 2018, @12:36PM
I did not target "this country" (which I assume to be the USA) specifically, more the general lapse of reason among those who identify themselves with the current-days left. That does not say anything about others, be they center or right or off the scale. The world is not black and white, the enemy of your enemy is not necessarily your friend, objects in the mirror are closer than they appear, smokey says "don't play with matches". In other words, think for yourself.
As to whether the "so-called convervatives in this country" are or are not committing cultural suicide I can not give a good answer. Who are those "so-called conservatives"? Seen from afar it is hard to identify them, the term could mean anything from the remnants of the tea party movement to some lost democrats. In general it looks like the dichotomy between "democrat" and "republican" in the USA is a recipe for disaster as it forces people to think in black/white friend/enemy good/bad terms. In other words, time for an upheaval in the US election system. It is not as if the current system is any more workable than one which allows for multiple parties and coalition governments after all. When the Senate and the House are in different hands the system is often paralysed more than it would be when both parties were forced to come to a compromise beforehand.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by i286NiNJA on Thursday March 01 2018, @06:41PM
Don't forget that the extremes are now being revealed to be paid shills. One nazi, one sjw, and one "confused" guy you're supposed to relate to.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 01 2018, @03:09PM (1 child)
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/canine-corner/201306/do-politics-matter-when-it-comes-loving-cats-or-dogs [psychologytoday.com]
It does seem to support the idea that Ds like cats more than Rs. It doesn't address actual cat ownership as far as I saw, so you definitely can't make a real leap to toxoplasmosis, but there is definitely a hint there.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday March 01 2018, @03:29PM
Damn. That means I'm married to a liberal? Damn. My wife is the cat lady. Damn! Obviously, 30 years is enough! Time for a divorce! I can't have liberals living in my home!! </sarcasm>
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday March 01 2018, @05:08PM
You'd probably want to demonstrate that liberals own more cats and/or eat more infected meat before you jump to that conclusion.
(Score: 3, Funny) by khallow on Thursday March 01 2018, @06:34PM (5 children)
(Score: 4, Insightful) by aristarchus on Thursday March 01 2018, @07:23PM (4 children)
I concur, khallow! In fact, it is something of an obvious concurrence! The only thing is that you may be in error about who is hosting the parasite!
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 01 2018, @10:37PM (3 children)
I almost took the opening myself, you'd think for someone with his towering intellect he wouldn't leave such obvious openings.
(Score: 3, Funny) by aristarchus on Thursday March 01 2018, @11:40PM (2 children)
Hmmm, AC, do you think khallow is alright? Could he be developing a sense of humor, or, god forbid, humility?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday March 02 2018, @03:16AM (1 child)
No, he saw a chance to spout off, shot his stupid flapping foodsucker off at Mach 1.3 as usual, and fed us all the kind of straightline that gets knocked so far out of the park it ought to have free peanuts and ginger ale on it.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday March 02 2018, @02:56PM
(Score: 5, Informative) by FatPhil on Thursday March 01 2018, @08:57AM (3 children)
Everyone must avoid blue cheese, as it's moldy. And white rinded cheese like brie, as that rind's mold too. And all cheese, as it's milk gone off. And yoghurt, for the same reason. Keffir's out too, obviously.
And beer, my goodness - that's a malt drink with a massive yeast infection. Ditto cider. And wine of course. Yikes, no more vinegar on my chips either, as that's wine that's gone bad. I guess the soy sauce is off the menu too, for obvious reasons.
And who called kimchee a "superfood"? It's rotton bok choi - that's gotta go. Saurkraut's in the same boat, no more of that, definitely. Salty gherkins? No fricking way, that's lactobacillus at work!
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 01 2018, @05:39PM (2 children)
For cheese I'll accept mozzarella, colby, and mild cheddar. If the cheddar sits in the fridge too long, it turns into nasty inedible medium cheddar. Yogurt, soy sauce, saurkraut, and vinegar are OK.
Everything else you list is completely vile.
You can find a conservative to like each of those things, and you can find a liberal to hate of of those things, but on average I'm pretty sure the liberals are more into that stuff. They do seem to like eating some weird-ass food.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 03 2018, @04:46AM (1 child)
> They do seem to like eating some weird-ass food.
You ain't seen nothing until you've eaten in Taiwan. I stopped when it got to goat testicle stew, but had a great time up until then.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 03 2018, @05:44AM
Now that is an abomination! Everyone knows that testicles are best breaded and deep-fried, Rocky Mountain Oyster style. Stop by in Redlodge, Montana, during the Testicle Festival! They don't smell bad, if they're fresh, so conservatives, Nazis and other Authoritarian loving types welcome. Stay away from the Bikers, though.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 01 2018, @09:46AM (3 children)
Evolution also selected for the features you call broken, otherwise you wouldn't find them in humans.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 01 2018, @05:48PM (1 child)
Humans have lots of defects that evolution selects against, but that selection often isn't instantaneous. (that would be a miscarriage) Some defects are only mildly detrimental. It takes time to eliminate them from the gene pool.
Meanwhile, we keep getting new defects randomly. Complex features are easy to break. One little thing goes wrong, and the feature is broken.
For example, consider the fear of spiders. Even if you lack this, you probably won't get killed by spiders before you reproduce. Your chance of death is increased, but not by very much.
One may also be broken by other things in the environment, such as BPA and toxoplasmosis and lead. Evolution can't reliably overcome everything bad.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 02 2018, @05:44AM
Unless you live in Australia.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 01 2018, @05:50PM
You understanding of evolution is broken. Evolution allows for unhealthy traits to persist in a population under a variety of circumstances.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Oakenshield on Thursday March 01 2018, @01:39PM (9 children)
Every time I see some young beautiful thing on the news that meets an early demise due to her poor selection of boyfriend candidates, I think to myself that her daddy did not properly prepare her for the world. You lie down with dogs, you wake up with fleas. You date ex-con scumbags with neck and face tattoos or drug dealing low lifes, don't worry about how much you need for retirement. You're not going to need it.
(Score: 1) by i286NiNJA on Thursday March 01 2018, @11:40PM (8 children)
This just in, evolutionary dead end complains about "thug" getting sexual access to a "young beautiful thing". Spoken like a true virgin. Just because she knows how to put on a good face sometimes doesn't mean that behind closed doors she's not every bit the nightmare he is.
(Score: 2) by Oakenshield on Friday March 02 2018, @12:43AM (7 children)
Dude, I have four kids and I assure you that my only daughter got the talk about thugs and even simple minded losers like you as well. She is now married and off on her own. This daddy prepared his daughter for life. I value NOTHING over the lives and well being of my kids.
Brush up on your reading comprehension, Mr. Retard. I said "Every time I see some young beautiful thing on the news that meets an early demise due to her poor selection of boyfriend candidates". By definition, she CANNOT possibly be the nightmare he is since she's the one that ended up dead. I never see the news article where some beautiful young thing murders a low life thug boyfriend and gets life in prison. But you just keep dreaming and send your little girl off to the slaughter if you ever manage to reproduce. I want mine as far away from scumbags and lowlifes as possible.
(Score: 1) by i286NiNJA on Friday March 02 2018, @01:18AM (6 children)
It seems like you have a hard time judging a person's body and their character separately.
No she can be every bit the monster he is, but if she's dating a true psychopath he's going to kill her long before he ever thinks of offing himself. Just because she's less capable of defending herself doesn't make her a better person, it makes her the dead half of a pair of assholes. Can you see how weird it is to lament the death of a woman just because she's young and beautiful?
While I doubt there is parity but you *NEVER* see it because you're the target audience for the news. They know if they put a hot face at the top of a tragic article you'll shake your head about what a waste it was that such a promising young beautiful woman overdoses/gets killed/goes missing. But you don't know that she was promising she might have been a piece of shit who slept with guys to steal the shit on their nightstand and the pills in their medicine cabinet. In 5 years when her teeth are brown , her face is wrinkled, and he vocal cords are blown out... well then she's trash.
Just because someone is young and beautiful doesn't mean they're not a complete waste of space.
(Score: 2) by Oakenshield on Friday March 02 2018, @02:35PM (5 children)
The misogyny is strong with this one. Or perhaps you are overly sensitive because you are one of those prison refugees covered head to foot with tattoos that I warned my daughter about. What you fail to take into your calculus is the inherent inequality in power and strength between males in females. I lament a senseless death of a young person with their entire life before them. Perhaps you think it is justified if she is a "bad person" in your eyes, but that does not excuse the perp for being judge, jury, and executioner in mine. A young person struck down by being in the company of a thug is a tragedy in my eyes. And make no mistake, they are thugs. I try to tell my kids to avoid the kind of person who glorifies this lifestyle. They are (statistically) trouble. Sure, there are scumbags that hide it well but stay away from the ones who wear it like a uniform. It convenient that they make it easy to avoid them.
Well, we'll never know if she's dead, will we? Ends justify the means?
And that justifies her senseless death at the hands of her boyfriend/lover? I tell my boys to stay away from women who are trouble like that. Kick them to the curb. Don't stay and be miserable until things get violent. All my kids know that they will ALWAYS have a place to go if things go bad as long as dad can draw a breath. My oldest son was involved with a girl for a couple years and I told them BOTH that they were not good together. I liked the girl on a personal level, but she was not a good match for my son and they fought constantly. I took my son in when things went bad with his old girlfriend. The girl he is with now is a perfect mate for him. They get along great and now he is planning his wedding and living in his own home again.
When you have kids, maybe then you'll understand that your job is to make sure they are safe and happy. Avoiding ex-cons, thugs, druggies, drunks, gang bangers, and other scumbags is what you should teach them from a young age, not some bullshit egalitarian "We're all good people." I didn't raise nightstand thieves and pill poppers and as I said in the beginning, you lay down with dogs, you wake up with fleas.
(Score: 1) by i286NiNJA on Friday March 02 2018, @07:54PM (4 children)
Well it seems like you understand exactly what I'm saying except:
Being the less capable asshole doesn't make you less of an asshole. It only makes you the loser. I've said it over and over but the logic here escapes you.
It's also still creepy to gauge tragedy against qualities like youth and beauty. I think it hints at the fate that awaits the young, beautiful, and otherwise unneeded in the future. Today is not the Mayberry of your childhood. Kids today do not have promising futures. When you cry over the news you're kidding yourself. Stop kidding yourself, we've made up excuses for our society every step of the way here. There is no Mayberry for most of today's youth.
(Score: 2) by Oakenshield on Friday March 02 2018, @08:55PM (3 children)
You are the one who misses the big picture. Being less capable doesn't just make you the loser, it makes you dead. That is the simple fact you seem to ignore. We are not talking about a game of poker or Call of Duty. We are talking about robbing a person of their future and their life. Dead is forever.
It's unsettling that you disregard youth when a person's life is ended at the hands of a supposed loved one. That is not just creepy, it's sociopathic. A person's life ended in their teens or 20's IS a tragedy whether or not YOU think they may be unworthy of a longer life. Someone cut down in youth is a tragedy by any measure of a normal human being. Unfortunately, sometimes warning signs are present, but ignored.
You might want to seek some professional counselling. It sounds like you might be suffering from some kind of depression.
My kids have a promising future whether you believe so or not. And if you want your kids to have a bright future, don't be an asshole parent. Always think of your kids over your own self. Be a role model. Teach them honor. And keep them away from low life scumbags. Or better yet, keep your pecker holstered until you can get your own head straight and start feeling a little empathy for those young people murdered by some piece of shit, street trash.
(Score: 1) by i286NiNJA on Friday March 02 2018, @11:28PM (2 children)
I don't think it's weird to feel bad about a stranger's life being cut short. I think it's weird that you'd comment first and foremost on the attractiveness of a murder victim. Would you be happier if the "thugs" were killing the uggos and duffers? Do you cry every time you hear a stranger got themselves killed by engaging in risky behavior? I don't know I don't have much more to say on the subject but it feels like you're grading the worthiness of a life by their bangability. Maybe that wasn't your intent but if we're talking about who we'd encourage our kids to date I'd consider that a red flag from a suitor.
As for my kids, they'll be fine because I have the ability to launch them into adulthood on the right side of the socioeconomic divide. You grew up during the most prosperous middle class in US history. I know where the bottom half of our country is headed. I've seen it with my own eyes in other countries. To comment on the future of young americans sounds sociopathic because the future will be a colder crueler place than you've probably experienced. So you're still kidding yourself because you'd be as mad as I am if you weren't.
I never judged their lives to be unworthy, your generation did though it's selfishness. Now even as these kids get passed the shit end of the deal, it's popular sport for boomers to talk about how worthless and spoiled they are. Maybe we'll grind them up into soylent or maybe we'll find some worthwhile causes for them to die for. But by the numbers the future is bleak for any given statistically average American kid.
I have PTSD because I've been bad places so if I say we're going bad places maybe I know what I'm talking about.
(Score: 2) by Oakenshield on Saturday March 03 2018, @04:48PM (1 child)
I do not, but unlike you, that doesn't mean I have no empathy at all.
I never mentioned nor implied "bangability". You brought it in from your own projection beginning with your very first post. It pissed me off enough to reply in the first place. Youth and beauty are intertwined. The end of a young life is tragedy because they had their whole life before them.
With your outlook on life, I'd be more concerned about keeping them out of prison: Conflating youth and beauty with "bangability", misplaced anger, jealousy, total lack of empathy toward others' misfortunes, depression, pessimism, lack of insight, poor judgment, projection. Parental influence on children sometimes works in ways you don't want.
Wow. I do hope you are under the care of a professional for your PTSD and whatever else you are suffering.
Dude, you need help. I am the one of us that is advocating empathy for people cut down early in their life and you are talking about grinding them up into Soylent. You are the one saying "She might have been a piece of shit and deserved it." If anyone looks at it objectively, it's pretty obvious which one of us judges their lives "to be unworthy" and which one doesn't. Don't project on me and "my generation" as you call it, for your lack of caring. It's pretty obvious who doesn't care.
If you do have kids, I certainly feel bad for their development and future. Their father must be a laugh riot to be around. Make sure you keep your opiates locked up at home. Don't want to make it too easy for them.
(Score: 1) by i286NiNJA on Monday March 05 2018, @06:36PM
You seem genuinely pretty bothered. Don't let it ruin your day I think you sound like a creepy old man, it's not ok to call people sweet young things anymore (4real).
I'm distantly worried about all the things I talked about but across all this you should keep in mind I'm just talking shit and being contrarian. Maybe all this shit will come to pass and your kids will end up eating your corpse on soylent green wednesdays. Probably we'll get our shit together, we've done it before.
Why are you here though? It doesn't seem like you're a guy who spent years dealing with trolls, reading cDc, or laughing at penisbirds and hello.jpeg. This is a weird-named clone of a has-been web 1.0 forum and you seem rather facebook.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by meustrus on Thursday March 01 2018, @03:07PM (1 child)
Natural selection may favor individual survival among wild animals, but humans have been a tribal species for a long time. The most likely cause of death for a human being, besides failing health, is not predators or spoiled food. It's other human beings, and for the majority of human existence, war from other tribes.
Therefore, natural selection does not just favor individual survival. It favors group survival. And the tribes which survive and prosper have invariably been the ones that care better for others within the tribe, with a general trend against interpersonal power struggles.
But the trajectory of humanity did not end with the selection of the best tribes. It continued as some tribes learned to cooperate with each other and form alliances. These tribes had a strong advantage over the tribes that were unwilling to cooperate with the other. Natural selection favors the tribes that cooperate with others and form alliances.
It is these tribes, forming large-scale alliances across increasingly vast regions, that formed the basis of civilization. The trends have continued towards larger and larger cooperating groups, because a greater number of people working together have always been able to accomplish more and survive worse calamity. Natural selection favors the individual who puts aside ideas of "purity" and is unaffected by fear of the unfamiliar, because those individuals form the building blocks of stronger cooperative groups.
One stick alone breaks easily. Many sticks tied together hold firm.
If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday March 02 2018, @03:20AM
Just to note, the root word of fascism is "fasces," which is the very bundle of sticks you're talking about...
You're completely right, though. And, hilariously, the same people who will say "culture and epigenetics influence evolution" (because they can't say "hurr hurr stupid n*ggers" without getting filtered, of course!) will studiously and carefully ignore the much more fundamental and universally human selection for group behavior and cooperation. Human, hell, primate even.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 01 2018, @03:10PM
I think they have the causation backwards, as usual.
I agree it's perfectly normal to be put off by disease and things that carry disease like pests.
However, I think it's the case that Right Wing Authoritarians (as opposed to anarcho-capitalists and libertarians [i.e. not anarcho-capitalism], a distinction nobody cares to make) have an irrational response to disease given a modern understanding of the nature of common diseases. Additionally, they tend to also blame the patient.
On the other hand, most people I know who live in filth vote R team, so whatever.
(Score: 1) by i286NiNJA on Thursday March 01 2018, @06:39PM
Barely in control of instincts meant to keep us from playing with shit and rotten meat?
Certainly something to be proud of!
I'm squeky fucking clean but I've always felt bossy authoritarians complain about smells as a way of controlling others.
I associated whining about cologne as the domain of fat liberal crybullies but if you wanna claim that particular antisocial behavior for conservatives go ahead.
"Oh god I have a headache.. I'm so fucking sensitive and special, you simply don't understand that you're literally killing me with your farts and scented right guard. "
--- Rugged Conservative Libertarians in 2018
(Score: 4, Insightful) by julian on Friday March 02 2018, @12:16AM (4 children)
Conservatism is an irrational overreaction to those things with no sense of proportionality. Wildly miscalculating risk is often just as pathological, if not more so, than failing to see it altogether. And conservative instincts can wildly misfire and turn into a sort of cultural auto-immune disease, attacking benign or even beneficial peoples and institutions that offend the conservative aesthetic.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday March 02 2018, @01:31PM (3 children)
I think you might need to stop listening to people quite so far left. Conservatism is nothing but resistance to change. I think the word you're looking for is "regressive". You know, like those folks currently trying to get rid of all the progress we made in regards to free speech, race relations, gender equality, and such during the 20th century so they can better sell their divisive identity politics for personal gain.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by julian on Friday March 02 2018, @05:20PM (1 child)
In the past, examples of "change" that conservatives have resisted included the abolition of slavery, the institution of women's suffrage, ending discrimination against homosexuals, and the legalization of cannabis, to name just a few. Some far left activists, mostly in academia, are causing problems with a runaway pursuit of political correctness, but these people hold virtually no institutional power in government and never have. That they're doing this on purpose to exploit strife for personal gain is a conspiracy theory [wikipedia.org], a hoax, barely more believable than a child sex-trafficking cult headquartered in the basement of a pizzeria.
But I'm a liberal, not a leftist, which is a distinction fewer and fewer people on the right seem capable of making. I don't even have to try to defend those people. I can't stand them either. But I'm also not a conservative, so I don't lose my shit and overreact by electing a huckster buffoon to save me from the scary college kids with weird ideas about gender and biology.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday March 02 2018, @06:13PM
You really might want to consider all the politicians and industries that bend over backwards to pander to the extreme left before you commit to that first paragraph. When they control or are pandered to by most of the media, most educational institutions, and most online communication venues, and quite a lot of politicians with D by their name, they are no longer fighting the system, they are the system.
That's fine. Proper liberals are useful in any nation. They defend the liberties of the citizens, advocating for change when necessary. Hell, I'm one myself. Proper conservatives are likewise useful though. They keep change to a sensible pace so that it only figuratively gets people up in arms rather than literally. They also keep extremists on either side from swinging the pendulum so hard that they break the shit out of it.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 03 2018, @05:47AM
Leave the Mormons out of this, Buzz!