How to tell if you're liberal or conservative

[Bob]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/28/opinion/28kristof.html Op-Ed Columnist
Would You Slap Your Father? If So, You?re a Liberal


By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Published: May 27, 2009

If you want to tell whether someone is conservative or liberal, what are a couple of completely nonpolitical questions that will give a good clue?


How?s this: Would you be willing to slap your father in the face, with his permission, as part of a comedy skit?

And, second: Does it disgust you to touch the faucet in a public restroom?

Studies suggest that conservatives are more often distressed by actions that seem disrespectful of authority, such as slapping Dad. Liberals don?t worry as long as Dad has given permission.

Likewise, conservatives are more likely than liberals to sense contamination or perceive disgust. People who would be disgusted to find that they had accidentally sipped from an acquaintance?s drink are more likely to identify as conservatives.

The upshot is that liberals and conservatives don?t just think differently, they also feel differently. This may even be a result, in part, of divergent neural responses.

 

[Bob]

no more telling anyone to eat sheite!

 

[Lynnie]

I always find the consistent inconsistencies rather interesting. For instance the number of pro-lifers, conservative Christians who are for the death penalty.



There are other examples of this, too.

 

[kkddbb]

i always find the consistent inconsistencies rather interesting. For instance the number of pro-lifers, conservative christians who are for the death penalty.



There are other examples of this, too.

are you comparing the killing of an innocent baby to the killing of a deathrow inmate?

 

[scooterbug44]

If sanctity of life is the argument, they're both wrong. That's why the Vatican opposes the death penalty.

 

[Lynnie]

Well, if you want to view it like that, then yes. However, it baffles me how a far right Christian conservative can advocate the death penalty.

I don't discredit the feelings one has at all. It does baffle me and I am a moderate Christian who does not believe in the death penalty......probably why I aim for the knee instead of the liver....see gun thread.

And, my point was for consistent inconsistencies. It's on both sides.

 

[LuciferSam]

Conservatives believe in a firm objective morality but loose and subjective reality. Liberals try to understand others' situations through empathy, conservatives instead use projection, defined by WIki as "a defense mechanism in which one attributes to others, one’s own unacceptable or unwanted thoughts or emotions"

 

[LuciferSam]

are you comparing the killing of an innocent baby to the killing of a deathrow inmate?

How about pro-lifers killing doctors? Ironic enough for you?

 

[TooFarTampa]

Great column -- thanks for passing it along Bob. It would be useful if more people recognized that reasonable people who disagree likely are just wired differently. Nurture, yes, but a whole lotta nature.

 

[steyou]

Well, if you want to view it like that, then yes. However, it baffles me how a far right Christian conservative can advocate the death penalty.

I don't discredit the feelings one has at all. It does baffle me and I am a moderate Christian who does not believe in the death penalty......probably why I aim for the knee instead of the liver....see gun thread.

And, my point was for consistent inconsistencies. It's on both sides.

Please define moderate Christian. I'm curious.