Is Conservatism a Mental Illness?

First of all, I am not talking about people who dress conservatively or have conservative tastes in, for instance, music.  That’s just being an old fuddy duddy and it’s basically harmless.  No, I’m talking about political conservative, and I’m talking specifically about the American variety.  I’m not a fan of Vaclav Klaus, but I respect his intelligence.

They are also poor spellers

American conservatives are something else.  They love guns and Jesus in equal measure.  They hate government but love the military.  They are against science and refuse to believe in evolution.  They tend to be rabid supporters of Israel, and for some of them it is because they literally believe the world will end in one big battle at Har Megiddo, aka Armageddon.  They hate homosexuals with a passion, but a surprising percentage of them have had sex with barnyard animals.  They are nuts.

But, is that nuts nuts, like certifiably insane should be in an institution type nuts, or just somewhat eccentric?

A group of scientists at the City University of New York recently did an interesting experiment.  It doesn’t actually prove that all conservatives are clinically insane, but it does prove that their minds work differently than ours.  Their opinions are more influenced by emotion and their emotions are more easily influenced by superficial factors.  Put into simpler terms, they get pissed off over nothin’ and take it out on everybody else.

The experiment was simple.  The test subjects had 3 drinks in front of them.  One water, one sweetened water, and one kind of bitter and gross.  After taking a sip, researchers asked them  about certain situations – people having sex with their cousins, a man who killed and ate his dog, public nudity, and so on.  Then, they were asked about their political affiliations.

Liberals tended to answer the same, whichever drink they’d had.  Conservatives answers were noticeably harsher and more judgmental after they’d had the bitter drink.

Besides proving that conservatives respond viscerally and don’t tend to think things through, I think this explains the popularity of sweet tea in the south.  It’s to keep people from killing each other.