I am repeatedly shocked by how few people realize our behavior is largely determined by how we wish to view ourselves, including our tribal affiliations.
Then again, that sentence largely explains itself... E Sent from my iPhone > On Oct 26, 2014, at 21:47, BILROJ via Centroids: The Center of the Radical > Centrist Community <[email protected]> wrote: > > The issue isn't selective memory, it is falsification of facts to maintain > support > for a political party. And it happens all the time. Are you an establishment > Republican? > Then almost any mistake that George W Bush made wasn't a mistake at all; > a rationalization can be found to change reality into the opposite of the > actual facts. I vividly recall a conversation with a naturalized US citizen > originally from South Africa who was such an adamant Bush supporter > that any criticism of GWB was met with vehement denunciations of those > criticisms and countered with claims that turned a variety of undeniable > facts on their heads. > > I also recall similar conversations with Democrats about Obama. One of the > first > tax increases that the Democratic Congress made -with BHO leadership- was > to raise cigarette taxes by 60 cents per pack. Lo and behold, a few years > later > that Democratic / Obama tax was the fault of Republicans! A Democrat who > smokes blamed the Republicans for the tax even though the truth > was the exact opposite. > > Then there is immigration; some Democrats have as little use for the flood of > mostly Mexicans who entered the country in the 1990s and early 2000s as the > most > conservative voter you can think of. Clearly this policy, allowing massive > (often illegal) immigration, was primarily the work of Democrats, starting > with Ted Kennedy > years ago. But by the mid 2000s this was no longer true; the fault was > entirely > the bad policies of Republicans -exactly the people who most opposed > illegal immigration. Which, of course, Hispanics understood very well > when 3 out of 4 voted Democratic in 2008 and nearly as lop-sidedly > in 2012. But so what? If you detest the Republicans then > they, not the Democrats, are the culprits. > > Which is one of the main points of Radical Centrism: Intense political > partisanship > makes it next to impossible for a voter to be objective about much of > anything. > > Good article that helps explain how this kind of political psychology > operates. > > BR > > > ------------------ > > > > NPR > Partisan Psychology: Why Do People Choose Political Loyalties Over Facts? > > > by Shankar Vedantam > > May 09, 2012 > > When pollsters ask Republicans and Democrats whether the president can do > anything about high gas prices, the answers reflect the usual partisan > divisions in the country. About two-thirds of Republicans say the president > can do something about high gas prices, and about two-thirds of Democrats say > he can't. > > But six years ago, with a Republican president in the White House, the > numbers were reversed: Three-fourths of Democrats said President Bush could > do something about high gas prices, while the majority of Republicans said > gas prices were clearly outside the president's control. > > The flipped perceptions on gas prices isn't an aberration, said Dartmouth > College political scientist Brendan Nyhan. On a range of issues, partisans > seem partial to their political loyalties over the facts. When those > loyalties demand changing their views of the facts, he said, partisans seem > willing to throw even consistency overboard. > > > > Nyhan cited the work of political commentator Jonathan Chait, who has drawn a > contrast between the upcoming 2012 election between President Obama and the > likely Republican nominee, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, and the > 2004 election between President Bush and John Kerry, the Democratic senator > from Massachusetts. > > "Last time it was Republicans who were against a flip-flopping, out-of-touch > elitist from Massachusetts, and now it's Democrats," Nyhan said. > > Nyhan also contrasted the outrage in 2004 among Democrats who felt that Bush > was politicizing the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks for political gain, and the > outrage today among Republicans who feel the Obama re-election campaign is > exploiting the killing of Osama bin Laden. > > "The whole political landscape has flipped," Nyhan said. > > Along with Jason Reifler at Georgia State University, Nyhan said, he's > exploring the possibility that partisans reject facts because they produce > cognitive dissonance — the psychological experience of having to hold > inconsistent ideas in one's head. When Democrats hear the argument that the > president can do something about high gas prices, that produces dissonance > because it clashes with the loyalties these voters feel toward Obama. The > same thing happens when Republicans hear that Obama cannot be held > responsible for high gas prices — the information challenges their dislike of > the president. > > Nyhan and Reifler hypothesized that partisans reject such information not > because they're against the facts, but because it's painful. That notion > suggested a possible solution: If partisans were made to feel better about > themselves — if they received a little image and ego boost — could this help > them more easily absorb the "blow" of information that threatens their > pre-existing views? > > Nyhan said that ongoing — and as yet, unpublished — research was showing the > technique could be effective. The researchers had voters think of times in > their lives when they had done something very positive and found that, > fortified by this positive memory, voters were more willing to take in > information that challenged their pre-existing views. > > "One person talked about taking care of his elderly grandmother — something > you wouldn't expect to have any influence on people's factual beliefs about > politics," Nyhan said. "But that brings to mind these positive feelings about > themselves, which we think will protect them or inoculate them from the > threat that unwelcome ideas or unwelcome information might pose to their > self-concept." > > -- > -- > Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community > <[email protected]> > Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism > Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org > > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
