Nature or Nurture?

I've regularly read in the political threads that "liberalism is a disease" or "a mental disorder". The wingnuts say this as if it were accepted, common knowledge like "water is wet" or "ice is cold". I've often wondered if they had any psychological basis for this or if they were just being mean. I figured the latter.

Well, I found the scientific basis for this! In a thread! I didn't even have to not bother to click on a link for it! Some genius did a cut and paste!

I won't link it here. I don't even remember the *doctors* name. Nor am I interested in what late-night TV advertised school he bought his degree from. It doesn't matter. If his credentials are good enough for the wingnuts, they're good enough for me to make fun of.

I'm not one to really take psychiatry lightly. Most psychologists aren't out there shooting up Army bases or manipulating people on the internet. I'm sure many of them sincerely try to help people with emotional and mental health issues. But, yeah, some got into the field to figure out why THEY were so fucked in the head...

Quick story before I digress (why do I do that? I have no fucking idea. Don't care either...)

Years ago I was tending bar in the South Loop. As I approached the two dudes at the end of the bar, I heard the one dude proclaim to his buddy; "I'm a psychiatrist. If you want to kill yourself, do it. If you don't want to, see me."

Yikes. Mind you, he wasn't talking about his buddy, he was talking about people in general. So, as a greeting I said:

"What can I get you- besides a soul?"

Again, this was 20 some years ago so, I won't pretend to remember the conversation verbatim. It was a Friday evening so I wasn't able to spend much time with this jerk and, I was fine with that. You usually get these types on Sunday when there's no football and no one else in the bar. So I never got the chance to say: "If you WANT me to smack the shit outa you, keep running your mouth. If you DON'T want me to smack the shit outa you, SHUT THE FUCK UP!".

He was quite bemused though at my suggestion that he might be in need of a soul. I recall he spoke in respectful but condescending tones about my compassion for others and yada, yada, yada. After all, I was just a young bartender. What could I possibly know about the human condition that hadn't been taught in an institution of higher learning?

Well, lots. For starters, I wouldn't go around telling people it was ok if they wanted to kill themselves. I still think that's kinda mean and not at all helpful. But hey- I'm only a high school graduate.

I know that people cannot be genetically predisposed to one political philosophy or another. Until science finds a wingnut gene and a liberal gene, I'm not buying it. I think it's more along the lines of what we trained, professional ex-bartenders call, "nurture". It's not nature. Nature may decide one's sexuality, eye color and the like but nurture decides political affiliations. And, it's all decided at the dinner table.

If, at dinner, your father regularly railed about "fucking n-words don't want to work" and "fucking Jews got all the money", your odds of becoming a democrat are really slim unless things happen later in life to make you realize what an asshole the old man was. You'll probably be a republican. Or a Nazi.

But, if at dinner your dad implored you to please eat everything on your plate because there were starving kids in China who wished they could have such a meal, you were destined to be a democrat like dear ol' dad. And maybe a little chubby.

Politics is learned at home first, before we take to the streets. If your parents show respect and compassion to others, most likely you will as well. If mom and dad act like winner-take-all, show-no-quarter barbarians, regardless of how they vote, their politics will likely be handed down to you.

I don't mean to pick on all republicans- just the insane wingnuts who leap at every disparaging thought about democrats and accept it as gospel despite- or because of-the source, without even thinking for themselves whether it be justifiable or not. I have an aunt who is a former six term republican representative in her state. I often tell her she's the only republican I've ever loved. It's true. She's pro-choice and against the death penalty. And, yes, she's a very serious republican. She wasn't an abused child. She came by her politics honestly which is what I could hope for anyone.

But, if you put stock in the rantings of a strange psychologist with an agenda and use that to justify clinical analysis AND use it in political discourse, you are one step closer to eugenics and other abominations brought to us by the Third Reich. And you need to get help.

But, be careful who you ask for help. There's a lot of folks out there who can't make a decent martini. It's been 20 years but I still can. never even went to bartending school...