Synopsis
The lack of empathy and tremendous fear of conservatives is proven in numerous empirical psychological studies, as well as by the many outrageous statements made by conservative personalities; including Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Michael Savage, Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, and Bill Bennett. Not only are their comments about the poor, feminists, homosexuals, single mothers, blacks, Hispanics, autistic children, wives of 9/11 victims, and others an indictment of the personalities themselves; but also of the multi-millions of conservatives who listen to their radio programs, watch the television shows, and read their books. The more outrageous their statements, the greater their audiences grow. The book also demonstrates how conservatives learn their conservative worldview growing up in Strict Father families, in which obedience of the children is paramount. The belief is that obedience develops self-discipline and self-reliance, which protect them from all the evils in the world. Physical punishment is often used in Strict Father families to insure obedience. Liberals, on the other hand, grow up in Nurturant Parent families, in which children are nurtured and shown empathy. The parents also demonstrate empathy to other people in the community. The parents take the time to explain their decisions to the children, and children are encouraged to question the parents. Liberals learn self-discipline and self-reliance out of their respect for the parents, not out of fear. The childhoods of the conservative personalities are shown to be Strict Father families from their personal writings and authors' researched articles about the personalities. It was found that Bill O'Reilly experienced a lot of physical abuse as a child, Rush Limbaugh and Michael Savage experienced extensive verbal abuse, and Bill Bennett and Ann Coulter had seemingly unnurturing childhoods. The books also presents many facts to counter the misinformation given out by the conservative personalities. For example, in her book Guilty: Liberals 'Victims' and their Assault on America, Ann Coulter devotes a chapter to denigrating single mothers stating Look at any societal problem and you will find that it is really a problem of single mothers. She gives as one of her facts that single-parent families account for 80 percent of all prison inmates. The actual figure for single-parent families is 25.9% from U.S. Department of Justice data. Ironically, single parents (and single mothers) do a better job of keeping their children out of prison than two-parent families, in spite of their economic difficulties. The book also shows that the source that Coulter uses for the 80 percent figure is actually nonexistent, and that other facts Coulter supplies for single mothers are equally as wrong and distorted, and her sources are also nonexistent. The book also provides facts to support the liberal position on the major issues including gay rights, women's rights, civil rights, universal health care, social welfare, evolution, immigration, environmentalism, corporate regulation, death penalty, gun control, and animal rights. The facts overwhelmingly support the liberal worldview on all the major issues.
About the Author
Richard P. Plumer earned a B.A. with a major in Psychology from Williams College in 1964, and earned an M.A. in Psychology in 2002. After reading Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think by George Lakoff, Plumer's love of psychology led him to do research on the psychological studies that proved the theory. He discovered reams of studies that demonstrated the high correlation between self-described political conservatism and lack of empathy and high fear, and the high positive correlation with anti-black racism, nationalism, and sexism, and the high negative correlation with women's rights, gay & lesbian rights, social programs, and environmentalism. One interesting psychological study showed that conservatives have three times the number of nightmares of liberals, and those nightmares tend to feature aggression, misfortune and physical threats. This isn't surprising since another study showed that there was a 288% higher incidence of violence in conservative Strict Father families than in liberal Nurturant Parent families.
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