Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Conservatives have larger area of the brain associated with fear: study

roachboy · 12-29-2010, 09:47 AM

i am in the middle of something, but this is interesting so a quick note.

first off conservative discourse is freighted with all kinds of assumptions about the demographic it is aimed at. and within that discourse, fear and its inverse in assertions of identity and/or stability and/or "transcendence" (as over against, say, assertions of historical contingency of values, which would be scary scary bad within the discourse---the erosion of this vaporous illusion called "the american way of life" for example) is a central theme.

it turns up all over the place in conservative-speak.

for example, status anxiety and it's reverse in the surreal assumptions about the welfare state, which is presumably some scary bad instrument of scary bad social mobility which of course is a problem of conservatives who are beset with status anxiety because it follows that if a conservative is interpellated by his or her own discourse as the Eternal Victim and there's social mobility breaking out all over the place, then the conservative cum Eternal Victim is going to loose out.

the racist opposition to "ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS" as a threat to the racial purity of the american volk is another example.

"terrorist" is another.

the list is easy to extend.

anyway, it's reasonable from a sociological viewpoint (say) to assume that there's something compelling about a discourse based on fear or anxiety about loss of position or status for people who share certain beliefs or assumptions about the world. it's logical to assume that there are connections between these beliefs and some sort of cognitive arrangement, simply because there are connections between *any* disposition (or act or anything else human beings do) with *some* kind of cognitive arrangement.

but i am not convinced at first blush by the approach taken in the study---there are many theoretical frameworks for thinking about the relation between a geography of the brain and cognitive activity and some of the more interesting recent ones (that i'm aware of---there's no doubt others) don't see cognition as linked in any strong way to particular regions of the brain. neural networks more like, which are not localized (but not entirely other than localized---a different frame).

the press release seems to make a simple correlation claim.
i'm not sure.
but i want to check into it more when later...

12-29-2010, 09:47 AM	#3 (permalink)
roachboy Super Moderator Location: essex ma	i am in the middle of something, but this is interesting so a quick note. first off conservative discourse is freighted with all kinds of assumptions about the demographic it is aimed at. and within that discourse, fear and its inverse in assertions of identity and/or stability and/or "transcendence" (as over against, say, assertions of historical contingency of values, which would be scary scary bad within the discourse---the erosion of this vaporous illusion called "the american way of life" for example) is a central theme. it turns up all over the place in conservative-speak. for example, status anxiety and it's reverse in the surreal assumptions about the welfare state, which is presumably some scary bad instrument of scary bad social mobility which of course is a problem of conservatives who are beset with status anxiety because it follows that if a conservative is interpellated by his or her own discourse as the Eternal Victim and there's social mobility breaking out all over the place, then the conservative cum Eternal Victim is going to loose out. the racist opposition to "ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS" as a threat to the racial purity of the american volk is another example. "terrorist" is another. the list is easy to extend. anyway, it's reasonable from a sociological viewpoint (say) to assume that there's something compelling about a discourse based on fear or anxiety about loss of position or status for people who share certain beliefs or assumptions about the world. it's logical to assume that there are connections between these beliefs and some sort of cognitive arrangement, simply because there are connections between any disposition (or act or anything else human beings do) with some kind of cognitive arrangement. but i am not convinced at first blush by the approach taken in the study---there are many theoretical frameworks for thinking about the relation between a geography of the brain and cognitive activity and some of the more interesting recent ones (that i'm aware of---there's no doubt others) don't see cognition as linked in any strong way to particular regions of the brain. neural networks more like, which are not localized (but not entirely other than localized---a different frame). the press release seems to make a simple correlation claim. i'm not sure. but i want to check into it more when later... __________________ a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear it make you sick. -kamau brathwaite Last edited by roachboy; 12-29-2010 at 09:51 AM..