Some Social Scientists Claim Pervasive Bias in the Academe Discrimination is always high on the agenda at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology’s conference, where psychologists discuss their research on racial prejudice, homophobia, sexism, stereotype threat and unconscious bias against minorities. But the most talked-about speech at this year’s meeting, which ended Jan. 30, involved a new “outgroup.”
posted by modernnomad
on Feb 9, 2011 -
180 comments
You can tell if a person is liberal or conservative by how a person responds to your "
gaze cues". Look away at something while you're talking and a liberal will tend to look at it, too. Conservatives are "completely immune" to this effect.
[more inside]
posted by MuadDib
on Dec 9, 2010 -
94 comments
“There’s a tremendous amount of anxiety among religious traditionalists that when you take one step toward egalitarianism, the floodgates are open and everything that seemed self-evident will no longer be. Men go to work, and women raise children. If you undermine that, you have lost your whole universe.”The Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist movements of Judaism have been ordaining women as rabbis for decades, but the religion's most traditional sect, the Orthodox, remains a lone, minority holdout against egalitarianism. Last year, Orthodox Rabbi Avraham "Avi" Weiss (political
activist and founder of the
controversial, liberal, "Open Orthodox"
Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Yeshiva in New York)
tried to shake things up by ordaining the first female American Orthodox rabbi.
[more inside]
posted by zarq
on Jul 31, 2010 -
35 comments
The
rumours are increasing that there will be a merger between the two left-leaning political parties in Canada, the hapless Liberals under the wooden Michael Ignatieff, and the perennial almost-show New Democrats under the magnificently
mustached Jack Layton. Denials all 'round, of course, but as separate parties they have not managed to take down Stephen Harper and his wiley Conservatives.
posted by anothermug
on Jun 8, 2010 -
117 comments
Among American Jews today, there are a great many Zionists, especially in the Orthodox world, people deeply devoted to the State of Israel. And there are a great many liberals, especially in the secular Jewish world, people deeply devoted to human rights for all people, Palestinians included. But the two groups are increasingly distinct. Particularly in the younger generations, fewer and fewer American Jewish liberals are Zionists; fewer and fewer American Jewish Zionists are liberal. One reason is that the leading institutions of American Jewry have refused to foster—indeed, have actively opposed—a Zionism that challenges Israel’s behavior in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and toward its own Arab citizens.
The Failure of the American Jewish Establishment
posted by y2karl
on May 18, 2010 -
105 comments
Intense debate about weighty issues like racism, abortion, and immigration... between animals in funny hats! This is the silly punditry of
Scenario: Dog v. Cat:
Round 1,
round 2,
round 3.
posted by hjo3
on May 28, 2008 -
7 comments
History is a Weapon -- Featuring
Propaganda by the inventor of modern PR,
Edward Bernays, essays by
Bill Clinton,
Eugene Debs,
Frederick Douglass,
Sojourner Truth,
Mark Twain, the entirety of
A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn, and
much, much more.
posted by empath
on May 26, 2008 -
55 comments
Are Liberals and Conservatives Different Species? Get this: Everyone in our sample was an American, a teenager, and belonged to the same major religious tradition of Protestantism. In these respects they were culturally uniform. But some belonged to conservative denominations such as Pentecostal and others to liberal denominations such as Episcopalian. As Ingrid combed through the
data, which involved tedious hours in front of the computer, the differences that began to emerge were astounding. It was as if these conservative and liberal religious youth were--different species. [via
3quarksdaily]
[more inside]
posted by sisquoc15
on Feb 29, 2008 -
86 comments
In an experiment reported in the journal
Nature Neuroscience, scientists at NYU and UCLA demonstrate that political orientation is related to basic differences in cognition - how the brain processes information. Psychological studies in the past found conservatives tend to be more structured and persistent in their judgments while liberals are more "open to new experiences." The latest study finds these traits are not confined to political situations but also influence everyday decisions.
[more inside]
posted by uaudio
on Sep 11, 2007 -
57 comments
My Right Wing Dad is a new-ish and rather informal blog that aims to provide "a chance for folks to examine the unrestrained rhetoric that is quietly passed from in-box to in-box in America," by hosting a collection of the emails that form an often untraceable and unacknowledged part of public discourse in the U.S., especially on the Right. Tagged by category (for example:
God,
college,
flag,
liberal, and
World War II), the amateur archive presents a range of colorful opinion, not all of it strikingly accurate, and some of it offensive. In efforts to understand
liberal and conservative habits of communication, it may be worth considering the role of forwarded email in the electoral process, and the
reasons that the forwarding of email is popular among some people, and whether this behavior tends to correlate with particular political opinions. The emails hosted on MyRightWingDad may in any case be enlightening, unless you're already on the forward list of someone in the know.
posted by washburn
on Aug 15, 2007 -
105 comments
Results of tonight's election in Quebec are in. The Quebec Liberal Party has managed just barely to hold onto power in that province, winning a minority government--the first time this has happened in
la belle province since...well...since the year the phonograph was first patented. But there's an even bigger story. And that's the apparent collapse of the separatist
Parti Québécois vote, in favour of the centre-right
Action Démocratique Party, surprising just about everybody other than those who actually live in the province.
Here's the breakdown in the vote as of 11:00PM:
Liberal (32.50%) - ADQ (31.19%) - PQ (28.48%).
What these results mean for Canada's federal parliament---also in a minority situation---is anyone's guess at this point. The smart money is on Prime Minister Harper calling an early summer election. These results tonight would certainly give him reason to think that Quebec voters are in the mood for change. But like spring weather in these parts, things are quite changeable these days.
posted by runningdogofcapitalism
on Mar 26, 2007 -
69 comments
On December 3rd, 2006 Canada's next Prime Minister will be decided by a few thousand
delegates at the Liberal party convention in Montreal
(join for ~$10). Don't believe me? In the last 110 years of
Liberal party history only one leader has failed to become Prime Minister. No fewer than
sixteen candidates met in Edmonton last week. On the surface the candidates are making nice.
Ignatieff: "None of us, none of us are going to run against each other. All of us are running against Stephen Harper's vision of Canada."
It is even said that Bob Rae and Ignatieff are
life long close friends. That didn't stop the Ignatieff campaign co-chair.
David Peterson: "[Rae's] got some terrible burdens to overcome. One is his record and one is his loyalty."
Emphasis mine, and <more inside>
posted by Chuckles
on Apr 9, 2006 -
52 comments
Michael Ignatieff, the candidate parachuted into Etobicoke by supporters who would see him as the next leader of the federal
Liberal Party of Canada, has just
given a speech outlining his vision for Canada, which is probably the forerunner to an official announcement about his candidacy. (Previously,
on MeFi.) If he runs, he will be up against
Martha Hall Findlay,
John Godfrey, and
Maurizio Bevilacqua who have all declared. Other contenders might well include
Stéphane Dion,
Joe Volpe, and hockey legend
Ken Dryden. Finally, the race appears to be hotting up.
posted by Zinger
on Mar 30, 2006 -
41 comments
Things we already knew: Jack Block and his wife and fellow professor Jeanne Block (now deceased) began tracking more than 100 nursery school kids as part of a general study of personality. The kids' personalities were rated at the time by teachers and assistants who had known them for months. ... A few decades later, Block followed up with more surveys, looking again at personality, and this time at politics, too. The whiny kids tended to grow up conservative, and turned into rigid young adults who hewed closely to traditional gender roles and were uncomfortable with ambiguity. The confident kids turned out liberal and were still hanging loose, turning into bright, non-conforming adults with wide interests.
posted by caddis
on Mar 22, 2006 -
29 comments
Conservative Blogs Rock! NEW YORK In an argument sure to be challenged in certain sectors of the blogosphere, a story in The New York Times magazine coming up this Sunday declares that conservative blogs continue to best liberal blogs in political and electoral influence.
posted by Sagres
on Dec 9, 2005 -
51 comments
truthdig --drilling beneath the headlines. A new webmagazine, offering
expert in-depth coverage of current affairs as well as a variety of thoughtful, provocative content assembled from a progressive point of view. The site is built around major “digs,” led by authorities in their fields, who will drill down into contemporary topics and assemble packages of content... Robert Scheer is editor in chief (you may know him from the
SF Chronicle). The current featured "dig" is on
religion and homosexuality.
posted by amberglow
on Dec 2, 2005 -
12 comments
A bushy-tailed morning in the quest for truth : MemeTank and dKosopedia This morning, I wondered - where's the update to (the deceased) Steve Kangas' mighty
liberal FAQ ? "Update?", thought I, "Well,
this attempt ran out of steam" Then..."Ah, a
Wiki !" Then, "well, isn't truth the point ?...shouldn't it be Bipartisan, or multipartisan ?" Daily Kos was just sniffing (May 28th) along that trail, it seemed....partway :
"We hope the dKosopedia will become the progressive-political version of the Wikipedia, a political FAQ so to speak" Would the "Dkosopedia" benefit from a less partisan stance ?
But, the
MemeTank rocks -with it's bestiary of Liberal/Progressive, Right Wing, and "other" memes and the (MemeTank's) "
Meme Development Project....
This section is for people who want to invent new memes and try to encourage professional journalists to start using them."
posted by troutfishing
on Jun 6, 2004 -
10 comments
