Psychologists Misfire In Study
By Larry Pratt (08/19/03)
The American Psychological Association has published a study that embarrasses the authors and the publisher.
The study is entitled "Political Conservatism as Motivated Social Cognition." A news release was issued by the University of California at Berkeley announcing the work of two Berkeley professors who were coauthors of the study.
The psychobabble used to describe political conservatives included these labels: "fear and aggression, dogmatism and intolerance of ambiguity, uncertainty avoidance, need for cognitive closure and terror management."
"Intolerance of ambiguity" translates into English as "believes there are absolute rights and wrongs." Imagine that… there are actually people who think that those who believe it is wrong to lie, steal and cheat have a personality disorder! Perhaps they "treated" President Clinton.
The Berkeley press release reflects the ignorance of the high priests of political correctness. For example, "Hitler, Mussolini and former President Ronald Reagan were individuals [savor the profundity of that insight], but all were right-wing conservatives because they preached a return to an idealized past and condoned inequality in some form. Rush Limbaugh can be described the same way, the authors commented in a published reply to the article."
So much ignorance, so little time!
Hitler and Mussolini were socialists. Nazi is a German contraction for National Socialist. Mussolini was a member of the Socialist Party of Italy. Fascism is a form of socialism that controls private property through regulation, but the end is the same as if the property were owned outright by the state. There is no independent decision making allowed.
The liberals - who because of their bias can never find an enemy on the left - have decided that Hitler and Mussolini were right wing dictators because they fought the communist Soviet Union, but that is simply not correct. This liberal bias would also explain why an even more murderous thug than Hitler and Mussolini - Russia's Joseph Stalin - was omitted from those being examined for personality disorders.
These psychobabblers believe that condoning inequality is a personality disorder. Of course they would since they are socialists who are principally concerned with eliminating all inequality in society (except for the leaders). Yes, conservatives and constitutionalists do tend to condone inequality. If I make a better mousetrap than you do, and I make more money selling it, I sure don't want you taking my money to make us equal. As socialists, the Berkeley psychobabblers are for legalized theft by passing laws designed to steal from the rich and give to the elite. They also gobbled up over $2,000,000 bucks taken from you and me to finance their "research."
"Preaching a return to an idealized past" is psychobabble for objecting to socialists expanding the functions of government beyond Constitutional limits. The freedoms Reagan preached about are freedoms that did not exist only in the past. These are freedoms that are on the books right now, but are being violated by government officials who simply ignore them. One example is gun control. Gun control laws are not constitutional, but that has not stopped the folks in power. The Constitution's meaning for them is whatever pops into their minds at the moment.
Studies such as this make it clear why an individual's mental health records should not be available to those doing background checks on gun purchasers. For that matter, background checks should not be done on anyone, but that is an issue for discussion elsewhere. Psychology is so out of touch with reality that it is impossible to tell what next might be considered a personality disorder... that would then be used to expand the number of persons prohibited from owning guns.
In Nazi Germany and in the Soviet Union, psychiatry was a willing handmaiden of the regimes. Nazi psychiatrists turned over lists of patients who ended up in the extermination camps. Soviet shrinks operated prison hospitals where political prisoners were jailed under trumped up diagnoses. Then the "doctors" tortured their "patients," often killing them in jail, but sometimes sending them to their deaths in the concentration camps.
The next time you hear a shrink spouting off, remember that psychology is not science, but you almost always will be hearing the opinion of a socialist who wants to control your life. And the control will be enforced with guns.
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