Pathologizing Conservatism

Pathologizing Conservatism - Reason An article about some psychology studies. I had to wait to the end of the interesting article for the following, but for my readers I'll spoil the drama of waiting to see whether the author was going to be an unknowing parody of himself or would realize the pathology of these studies.

Reasonable people, such as the distinguished academic researchers cited here, will no doubt agree that until effective treatments can be developed, we should reconsider whether sufferers of conservatism, like other mental defectives, should be allowed freely to exercise the franchise.

I do think that the pathologies of the far right are real as were the pathologies of the far left. I say 'were' because I think that the far left is dead in the US in any serious sense; communist and socialist are terms of utter contempt for most people here and no serious politician could get away with describing himself as such. One of the real pathologies of the right is the pathologizing of the self-descriptions of the left. There is nothing wrong with being a liberal. On some days I describe myself as one while at the same time identifying, self-congratutorily, as a genuinely good guy and a Christian. The right succeeded in this with the aforementioned 'communist' and 'socialist' terms. But in that case there was arguably something inherently wrong with being a communist or socialist if not before WWII, certainly as the realities of life in the communist countries became more widely known. Part of the disdain that these terms hold now is due to the fact that a consensus eventually emerged through argument (and other less high-brow means as well) that communism was inherently pathological. In Europe to call someone a communist or socialist is a description. Here it is a denunciation. The right cannot be allowed to demonize every term of self-description the left chooses. These studies attempt to do that from the opposite direction. Liberal and conservative are good names for the moderate halves of the debate here. Neither belongs in the ninth circle of hell with the communists and fascists. The right ought not demonize 'liberals' and the left ought to be careful not to treat people as if they have some sort of genetic disease if they subscribe to conservatism. To do so is fascist if anything ever fit the term.