dirtywick
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Understanding the Conservative Mindset
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jt512
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Don't hold your breath on anything woke, such as open borders, DEI, gender ideology, critical race theory, pronouns, defunding the police, etc.
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ponderingturtle
Orthogonal Vector
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You left out legalizing homosexuality and gay marraige. Those are both antithetical to conservatives rather like legalized birth control.
Trausti
Illuminator
This is somewhat correct. But it was society in general that changed. Dems/lefties were against it for a long time, too. But it's was really the collapse of evangelicals as a political force that allowed most people to not care. Anyway, I've always thought was was hilarious:
Ryan O'Dine
OD’ing on Damitol
Bumping, because I just read a book by Robert Sapolsky called Behavior. One measurable difference between conservative and liberal mindsets is that the right is more influenced by disgust (the insula region of the brain). This has been measured in different ways; one famous example being that people asked to fill out a survey were more prone to lean right when there was a garbage can overflowing with rancid trash in the room than in the same room, same survey, but no trash. Brain scan studies have born out the insula connection as well.
Furthermore, the concept of moral good is so newly evolved as to lack its own dedicated focus of activation in the brain, so the brain uses metaphorical alignment (a concept explored to a great extent, lots of fascinating experiments). Physical disgust and moral disgust both activate the insula.
In the conservative mindset, moral reasoning often ends more or less at the insula. On the left, there's a tendency to take one more step and involve the pre-frontal cortex (the "executive" part of the brain). Specifically, the vmPFC -- the ventromedial prefrontal cortex.
One can imagine a scenario: heterosexual males watch two men kissing on the street. The conservative-inclined males may experience the gut reaction of disgust, interpret this as equally a moral disgust, and that's where the processing ends. The liberal-inclined males may experience more or less the same gut reaction, but their vmPFC takes over and they think, "But I know a bunch of gay men, and they're all right by me," or "But I see myself as a live and let live person," so the action of the insula gets moderated by the reaction of the vmPFC.
Lots of really fascinating studies bear this out. I recommend the book, it's a fantastic read. (He also gets into the dangers of too much empathy, just btw.)
Furthermore, the concept of moral good is so newly evolved as to lack its own dedicated focus of activation in the brain, so the brain uses metaphorical alignment (a concept explored to a great extent, lots of fascinating experiments). Physical disgust and moral disgust both activate the insula.
In the conservative mindset, moral reasoning often ends more or less at the insula. On the left, there's a tendency to take one more step and involve the pre-frontal cortex (the "executive" part of the brain). Specifically, the vmPFC -- the ventromedial prefrontal cortex.
One can imagine a scenario: heterosexual males watch two men kissing on the street. The conservative-inclined males may experience the gut reaction of disgust, interpret this as equally a moral disgust, and that's where the processing ends. The liberal-inclined males may experience more or less the same gut reaction, but their vmPFC takes over and they think, "But I know a bunch of gay men, and they're all right by me," or "But I see myself as a live and let live person," so the action of the insula gets moderated by the reaction of the vmPFC.
Lots of really fascinating studies bear this out. I recommend the book, it's a fantastic read. (He also gets into the dangers of too much empathy, just btw.)
jt512
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I'm afraid that sounds like all-too-typical social psychology p-hacked ◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊ that ends up not replicating when studied in a more-rigorous manner. Could you provide a reference to the study? I'd like to take a critical look at the study design and analysis.
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Venom
Philosopher
The apparent contradictions in the "conservative mindset" (or any mindset) can be summarized as either cognitive dissonance, people not really knowing what they want or not accurately communicating it, intentionally or otherwise, or just competing ideas within the Right.
Why did an earlier generation of conservatives emphasize state's rights and small government? They were invoking the principles of the historic American nation, and the Left was gaining a lot of influence in the second half of the last century. The rule is you retreat to libertarianism when the other side has power. But over a long enough timeline, libertarianism isn't going to save you---you have to make people leave you alone. Conservatism, even of the Joe Sobran variety, isn't enough. And I think that's why we're seeing a resurgent Right unapologetically seeking state power to overturn the work of the civil rights movement, second-wave feminism, gay movement, etc. I think the Left has understood this for a while, albeit not to the satisfaction of the DSA and anarchist crowds.
Why did an earlier generation of conservatives emphasize state's rights and small government? They were invoking the principles of the historic American nation, and the Left was gaining a lot of influence in the second half of the last century. The rule is you retreat to libertarianism when the other side has power. But over a long enough timeline, libertarianism isn't going to save you---you have to make people leave you alone. Conservatism, even of the Joe Sobran variety, isn't enough. And I think that's why we're seeing a resurgent Right unapologetically seeking state power to overturn the work of the civil rights movement, second-wave feminism, gay movement, etc. I think the Left has understood this for a while, albeit not to the satisfaction of the DSA and anarchist crowds.
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jt512
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Your hallucinations reveal a lot about the liberal mindset.
Ryan O'Dine
OD’ing on Damitol
I listened to the book as a library loan, so I can only refer you to the book itself. Here's the Amazon link: Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst. It was an audio book, but I'd be shocked if it didn't have extensive references to journal articles.
Sapolsky is a neuroscientist and a primatologist. The book was heavy on science, and a challenging read, but I do recommend it.
Venom
Philosopher
I overstated it a bit there. But I believe it's moving in that direction, particularly among young men. And we see this sentiment among some Republican politicians and candidates for office.
arthwollipot
Limerick Purist Pronouns: He/Him
If you're not seeing that, then it's you that's blinkered.
jt512
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Ok. Fair enough.
In the USA, they are. In many other parts of the world, not so much:
It's peculiar that some conservative Americans manage to be both gay and against "legalizing homosexuality and gay marriage."
In Europe, I think you'll usually have to go to countries run by autocratic conservatives to find similar attitudes.
Interesting maps in this Wikipedia article: LGBTQ rights in Europe
It never did. 'Small government' and 'fiscal convervatism' was always about image and preventing any and all wealth to 'trickle down' to the poor. It's never about the army, the police or subsidies for industry.
Notice how this corresponds to the DEI narrative:Matt Salomone on bsky, Sep 27, 2026
Deep story: “My life is hard bc the elites in power care more about [insert out-group] than about me.” Claim: “Haitian immigrants are eating the dogs” Inference: “That makes sense bc they’re being protected from consequences by those elites; it must be True”
'I was supposed to be a success story at this point in my life in my pursuit of the American Dream, so why ain't I?'
The answer is so damn obvious, ain't it? It was delivered to them by the GOP:
'Because of all those N-words, illegal immigrants, and the elites (i.e. school teachers!!!) using all my money to pay for sex-change operations and gay pride parades.'
The new thing is that Bernie Sanders, first and foremost, managed to change that narrative:
Claim: ‘Obscene,’ Says Sanders After CBO Reports Richest 1% Now Owns Over 1/3 of US Wealth
And unlike the claim about Haitian immigrants, this one is actually true!
It's not new. It's not something Bernie didn't come up with until 2022 when it occurred to him all of a sudden.
And it obviously failed to reach the masses at that point in time.
So why does it work now when it didn't four years ago?
The new thing is that the truth is now plain to see for anybody who isn't 100 percent immersed in the MAGA cult.
It got even worse under Trump. He made it clear to everybody who the actual elite is when he paraded them for the whole nation to see at his inauguration. They weren't the doctors, the nurses, the teachers, the annoying 'woke' college students or the news hosts of the 'lamestream media.'
It takes a lot more than the usual amount of cognitive dissonance to not see what is happening. It takes a lot more than the degree of denial that conservatives always depend on to unsee the difference between Trump, the Superman of the memes, and the decrepit, lying old bastard that he actually is.
The current GOP lies only appeal to the base, the dumbest of the MAGAlytes, the ones who believed in the QAnon conspiracy ideas, and that base is shrinking fast!
Tommy Tuberville's attempt to revive the conservative narrative with his story about furry pilots ain't cuttin' it. (It doesn't help that his name already sounds like something you would call a character on Nickelodeon.)
* I didn't know about Artie Russell Hochschild's "“deep story” of the Right," until Matt Salomone mentioned it, but this is it: The American Right: Its Deep Story (Global Dialogue, Aug 6, 2016)
It's not a long article, and the Deep Story (in italics) is only 20 lines long.
Venom
Philosopher
I don't buy that it was all just a cynical political tactic. Though that is a useful caricature for their opponents.
What would you accept as proof?
The irony is that if you are a so-called fiscal conservative, you should vote for the Democrats – except that's not really what allegedly fiscal conservatives want. They want poor people to be further disadvantaged, and it's what they get from Republicans. (And they tend to get it from corporate Democrats, too, but they are not as overt about it.)
There are several parameters in this article, all of them very interesting. I wasn't aware of most of them before now:
If you want me to find examples of Republican politicians saying, 'We don't give a ◊◊◊◊ about poor people. Screw them!', it's obviously not something they usually say in televised speeches, but it does happen:
Romney: "I'm not concerned about the very poor" (Politico, Feb 1, 2012, 32 sec.)
POLITICS
ROMNEY: When I Said I Don't Care About Poor People I Didn't Really Mean It That Way (Business Insider, Feb 3, 2012)
They tend to get even more honest when they are talking to campaign donors and think the microphones have been turned off.
Later, that same year, 2012:
All those entitled poor people!
And Mitt Romney (alongside John McCain, who helped make the Tea Party kosher) is supposed to be one of the good Republicans ...
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