Every now and again, somebody gets the idea of saying that conservative values are male and Leftist values are female. I have critiqued the assertions by Leftist George Lakoff to that effect some time ago.
But the idea also seems to be a favourite of conservative psychologist Gagdad Bob. Gagdad Bob is however in the tradition of the psychoanalysts and is essentially a speculative writer. He rarely provides much evidence for his assertions. So, while many of his analyses are thought-provoking, whether they are right or wrong is essentially unknown. And on this issue I think he is wrong.
Why? Because of the voting patterns. If Leftist values were female, should not women vote overwhelimngly for the Left? They don't. In fact, in the 2004 Presidential election, George Bush and John Kerry split the female vote almost equally. One could argue that Presidential candidates have to be centrists with only a slight "lean" to Left or Right but even so it is strange that there is not SOME regular tendency for the female vote to polarize if the theory is true.
Whether support for the troops is a male thing is however a different question. There is an amusing attack on an anti-troop writer here -- in which the writer concerned was described as a "neuter". Since some of the most vigorous pro-troop campaigners are women (such as Melanie Morgan) however, I am inclined to suspect the reverse.
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ELSEWHERE
I have just posted here a brief review of a book about an allegedly "faith-based" (but Leftist) approach to affordable housing. After doing everything in their power to make housing LESS affordable (with attacks on the "developers" who provide it etc.), Leftists then blame others for the consequences of their own actions and advocate "solutions" (such as rent control) that will only make the problem worse. They are so hate-filled that they don't care how many ordinary people they hurt by their attacks.
Kerry shunned by the troops in Iraq: "Check out this photo from our mess hall at the US Embassy yesterday morning. Sen. Kerry found himself all alone while he was over here. He cancelled his press conference because no one came, he worked out alone in the gym w/o any soldiers even going up to say hi or ask for an autograph (I was one of those who was in the gym at the same time), and he found himself eating breakfast with only a couple of folks who are obviously not troops. What is amazing is Bill O'Reilly came to visit with us and the troops at the CSH the same day and the line for autographs extended through the palace and people waited for two hours to shake his hand. You decide who is more respected and loved by us servicemen and women!"
Hindu nationalists not appeasers: "On the weekend, leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the main parliamentary opposition, forcefully repledged themselves to the policy of Hindutva, or Hindu nationalism. At a meeting in Lucknow, capital of Uttar Pradesh where elections are due early in the new year, the new BJP president, Rajnath Singh, called for his party to be given 10 years "to replace the politics of Muslim appeasement with the politics of nationalism". In a chilling enunciation of the BJP's stance in a country where there are about 180 million Muslims, he declared: "Give us a clear majority and 10 years' time ... and I will promise the BJP will put an end to the politics of appeasement that is ruining the nation."
Muslim apartheid: "It is not just Egypt where Christians are being driven out of the middle east. It is in Iraq, Lebanon and Bethlehem. Muslim apartheid is worse than South African apartheid, because it is comes with the threat of not only discrimination but death and torture. Muslim religious bigotry is the root cause of terrorism in the world today and it is getting worse. It is now pushing the survivors of the Christian faith from there homes."
What a laugh! A government-sponsored rival to Google!: "French and German developers have split over a plan to rival Google with a new-generation internet search engine, but will be continuing in their efforts separately. A spokeswoman at the French Agency for Industrial Innovation said it was continuing with the project to build a search engine called "Quaero" that would be able to index not only text but also photos and videos. Some German firms would still be involved in that project, despite the withdrawal of others to work on the separate German-developed engine called "Theseus" that would be more focused on analysing text. "There will be a French project and a German project, and as they are not working in the same areas, they will not be rivals but complementary to each other - there will be two programs instead of one," she said. [It's already a bureaucratic bunfight!]
The virtues of sweatshops: "An acquaintance said to me the other day how appalling it is to see so many Americans revel in the gifts received during the holidays. 'We should be ashamed of ourselves,' he lamented. 'Most of this stuff was manufactured in sweatshops.' Such a misinformed notion shouldn't go unanswered because it reinforces this fallacy in the minds of those who don't know better."
Some good satire: "Activists of several Latino advocacy groups hailed the recent E. coli outbreaks at Taco Bell restaurants as "the biggest success yet in reclaiming Aztlan culture on the territories occupied by the American invaders." Groups as La Raza, MEChA, Organization for the Liberation of Aztlan, and other advocates for the restoration of a legendary Chicano country called Aztlan, are celebrating victory. "Mexican people across North America can finally get fast food just like back home," said Margarita Cagada, executive director of the New Jersey state chapter of La Raza. "On behalf of all Hispanics everywhere, La Raza praises Taco Bell for its loyalty to diversity and the promotion of Chicanismo within the community."
The young dimwit at the WSJ who dissed bloggers gets his comeuppance on the Hugh Hewitt show
For more postings, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS and EYE ON BRITAIN. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here).
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"All the worth which the human being possesses, all spiritual reality, he possesses only through the State." -- 19th century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel is the most influential philosopher of the Left -- inspiring Karl Marx, the American "Progressives" of the early 20th century and university socialists to this day.
The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch)
R.I.P. Augusto Pinochet. Pinochet deposed a law-defying Marxist President at the express and desperate invitation of the Chilean parliament. He pioneered the free-market reforms which Reagan and Thatcher later unleashed to world-changing effect. That he used far-Leftist methods to suppress far-Leftist violence is reasonable if not ideal. The Leftist view that they should have a monopoly of violence and that others should follow the law is a total absurdity which shows only that their hate overcomes their reason
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