Saturday, September 6, 2014

Yes! Next Question . . .

Are Liberals the Real Authoritarians?
. . . Apparently, I’m not the only one who had questions about the prevalence of conformity on both sides of the political spectrum:
The way I saw it, this slavish obedience to authority and tradition on the part of conservatives was the true source of the culture war between liberals and conservatives over foreign war, abortion, same-sex marriage, gun control, and racial inequality. They way I saw it, conservatives clung to old, near-sighted ways of thinking and fell in line with the dictates of the "man in charge." If only conservatives would think for themselves -- like liberals do -- the war would be over and we could get on with life, governance, and progress. Or so I thought.

Then, in 2012, I went on a cycling trip around Cuba.
Jeremy Frimer, the author of the piece, noticed that socialists seemed unable to tolerate even mild questioning of Che Guevara’s eminently questionable legacy. Frimer is a researcher at the University of Winnipeg, and he decided to investigate. What he found is that liberals are actually very comfortable with authority and obedience -- as long as the authorities are liberals (“should you obey an environmentalist?”). And that conservatives then became much less willing to go along with “the man in charge.” 
Liberals are willing to argue about anything until they get a 50.01% consensus on it. After that, it's cast in stone, through the immutable  "liberal ratchet", whereby governmental control once achieved can never be repealed.

Linked at Pirate's Cove in the weekly "Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup." Thanks, Teach!

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