(no subject)

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

Comments

[spamwarrior.livejournal.com]

Good.

[chron-job.livejournal.com]

Interesting!

I'd like to see a similar one based on congressional polarization, running beside it and synced, so we can track lags and responsiveness to public opinion in congress.

[wight1984.livejournal.com]

Any thoughts about how this trend could be averted?

[unnamed525.livejournal.com]

This.

[unnamed525.livejournal.com]

By conservatives realizing that their "rugged individualism" isn't actually a possible way for humans to live; we are social creatures by nature. Randian ethics, which is the cult of the American right wing, makes the mistake of failing to universalize respect for personhood, ignorantly thinking that you can truly respect yourself if you don't respect others.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Voteview.org (http://voteview.com/political_polarization.asp)

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

I don't know if I want the trend to be averted.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

This is a really bizarre take on the American right.

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

Yeah, maybe we can become more like Iraq
and have a real civil war.

No more speechifying, but gunfire!

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

Is there some Extremist Island for you and your ilk to live on then?

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

What's the data source?

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

It's credited on the bottom.

[unnamed525.livejournal.com]

How is that bizzare? Maybe you are just that self-unaware ... wow ... anyway, many American right-wingers certainly ascribe to Randian ethics, which is where the whole problem begins.

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

Randian ethics with a few exceptions, like stoning gays.

[unnamed525.livejournal.com]

I would not feel so all alone ...
Everybody must get stoned.

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

New Marijuana Study Says Everyone Knows You're High And You'll Likely Be Stoned Forever (http://www.theonion.com/video/new-marijuana-study-says-everyone-knows-youre-high,35386/?playlist=recent-news)

[oslo.livejournal.com]

I'll believe you when you move to one of the highly-polarized red states.

[unnamed525.livejournal.com]

Sweet.

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

But enough frivolity!
Ayn Rand’s Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone (http://the-toast.net/2014/05/27/ayn-rands-harry-potter-sorcerers-stone/)

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure you're describing many, if any, right wingers, never mind "Randian ethics" in any coherent way.

[madam-shapo.livejournal.com]

Averted? Why? Right direction.

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

All issues are either left or right?

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

http://www.people-press.org/2014/06/12/political-polarization-in-the-american-public/

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

So, no seeking common ground or solutions that suit both sides? Instead we should just take more extreme positions until what?

[oslo.livejournal.com]

You're right, Unnamed hasn't really described "Randian ethics" - coherently or otherwise. Your intimation that he's somehow gotten it wrong is unwarranted.

But in any case, Unnamed is broadly correct in stating that "right wingers" inappropriately treat the "individual" as the sole foundational unit of society and unduly over-emphasize, to the point of fetishization, the importance of such "individual's" "freedom," which is nearly always defined by "right wingers" in some question-begging way.

The only reason the philosophical incoherence of "right wingers'" worldview doesn't result in a self-perpetuating feedback loop of increasing incoherence and raving idiocy - if it doesn't result in that, which I think is still an open question - it's because "right wingers" turn out to be their own worst examples. Cf., e.g., open-carriers in Starbucks, state legislators proudly campaigning on anti-science platforms, you, etc.