Brain Dead

Possibly (small study) confirming a long-held belief of mine that the conservative brain differs from the progressive one in ways of which the former should not be proud, a study in England reports the following:

Scientists have found that people with conservative views have brains with larger amygdalas, almond shaped areas in the centre of the brain often associated with anxiety and emotions.

On the otherhand, they have a smaller anterior cingulate, an area at the front of the brain associated with courage and looking on the bright side of life.

We've already seen how conservatives, when faced with facts that disprove their preferred beliefs, tend to believe even harder those discredited views. The behavior is not in doubt. Now, perhaps, we find it's built of neurons and axons and olives.

So, maybe they can't help it. Their paranoia, their tendencies to make up conspiracies, to see the worst in everyone and everything (except, of course, their economic policies -- but that's in the category of resistance to fact; only a variation on the theme of inbred catastrophic thinking) -- it all percolates up, uncontrolled, from the deepest and most reptilian parts of their less-evolved encephalons.

This is not to say, of course, that conservatives should be allowed to roam freely. We can understand, we can sympathize, I can try to be less judgmental -- it's the liberal thing to do, after all. We can agree that, like those with other forms of brain damage, conservatives are not fully responsible for the ills they've caused. But, armed with that knowledge, we must find ways to keep them safe, to prevent them from harming themselves. More importantly, we must be vigilant toward their tendency to harm others. Because somehow, despite their neuroanatomic inadequacies, so far they seem to have figured out how to limit the destruction they cause to those around them, while feathering and protecting their own nests most effectively.

Gimme some of that amygdala, I guess.