[lbo-talk] Query on popular badasses

[Wojtek Sokolowski]

Miles:
> I can't resist pointing out the psychological research on this:
> there is a moderate positive correlation between measures of
> political conservatism and need for certainty.  Bush is an
> extreme case study, but he illustrates the trend: the more
> conservative you are, the less comfortable you are with complexity
> and uncertainty, and the more you filter out "inconvenient"
> facts.  (I won't even try to untangle cause and effect here--)
> 

Check out my previous postings in this thread.  The causal argument I
proposed there runs from cognitive styles (grounded in our "brain chemistry"
- I believe) to political ideology.  One empirical proof of the causal
direction might be found in political preferences of E. European immigrants:
many of those who used be communist party activists turned into Repug
supporters while many dissidents (anti-communist by definition) turned
lefties in the US (myself including).  

How else would you explain these ideological "crossovers" if not by
cognitive styles?  Those who liked certitude guaranteed by authority were
with the authoritarian "communist" party in E. Europe and turned into an
authoritarian party in the US.  Those who were dissidents and disliked such
authoritarian rebelled against the authoritarian "communist" party in E.
Europe and rebel against the authoritarian repugs here.

Wojtek