This article is basically about right-wingers getting angry about The Odyssey while the film has done very well at the box office.

Maybe some right-wing people just like getting angry when there’s really not much reason to get angry.

  • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Maybe some right-wing people just like getting angry when there’s really not much reason to get angry.

    With like two minutes of training, anyone can identify political affiliation almost instantly from a brain scan, with over 70% accuracy…

    This is because of three things.

    1. Someone with a larger prefrontal cortex has more empathy and critical thinking, they’re the progressive ones.

    2. Someone with a large amygdala has a larger fight/flight reaction, those are conservatives.

    3. Roughly 30% of Americans don’t vote, they’re the ones whose political affiliation can’t be determined from a brain scan.

    What’s important is those brain differences aren’t innate, and one of my personal favorite studies on London Taxi drivers showed that these types of changes can happen even well into someone 60s.

    So practically no one is a lost cause.

    The (should be clear) downside, is we stopped teaches kids the shit that grows a pre-frontal cortex decades ago, so we’re going to keep getting fresh waves of conservatives until like a decade after we fix public education.

    Tldr:

    The more people get angry, the larger their amygdala grows.

    The larger the amygdala grows, the guicker they are to anger.

    They’re literally addicted to getting pissed off. Oligarchs have to keep giving them imaginary things to be mad about, or they might get mad at the oligarchs. And if they do, the oligarchs are fucked.

    • ModCen@feddit.ukOP
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      3 hours ago

      those brain differences aren’t innate

      Makes sense. Surely political views are most of the time just a product of someone’s life circumstances. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that billionaires are conservatives who want to lower taxes on rich people. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that people who face particular struggles in life (low income, discrimination, dangerous work, health problems) often support left-wing politics.

    • Cris_Citrus@piefed.zip
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      13 hours ago

      Leftists are angry literally all the time, and I spend like 90% of my life either in fight or flight, or avoiding and dissociating to avoid the fight or flight of anxiety.

      I’m not a conservative.

      Your interpretation kinda feels like it may be somewhat reductive. Possibly.

      • Seppo@sopuli.xyz
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        5 hours ago

        What you think of as a “leftist” is likely just a relatively small but very vocal subculture. Plenty of normal people with no mental illness or unresolved trauma vote for left-wing parties.

        • Cris_Citrus@piefed.zip
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          8 hours ago

          Theres a reason experts always contextualize their statements and explain the nuance and limitations of their research. If thats what the experts are doing, maybe treating every possible interpretation of that research as a “verifiably true” take is not a particularly scientific approach. Especially when the researchers themselves explicitly warn against this EXACT reductive interpretation.

          You will notice that the article written on the research and the quotes from the researchers who did the research are infinitely tamer to a point of not being entirely the same claims anymore. Including explicitly telling people not to interpret their research in reductive ways.

          The study successfully replicated a key finding from earlier research: on average, conservative participants had larger amygdalas compared to their more progressive counterparts. Although the size difference was small, it was statistically significant, suggesting that conservatives may be more sensitive to fear or threat-related stimuli—a role the amygdala is known to play in emotional processing.

          “The main takeaway is that our political beliefs may be shaped not only by our environment and experiences but also by our biology,” Petropoulos explained. “We found that certain brain structures, like the amygdala and fusiform gyrus, are associated with political ideology. While this doesn’t mean our brains ‘determine’ our political views, it suggests that biology plays a role in how we perceive and react to the world, influencing our political preferences.”

          “While our study used a large and representative sample, it is still only one piece of the puzzle,”

          “I think it’s important for people to understand that our findings should not be used to reinforce stereotypes or suggest that political beliefs are fixed. The brain is incredibly adaptable, and political beliefs are shaped by many factors. Instead, understanding the biological influences on ideology may help us appreciate the diversity of perspectives and improve our ability to communicate across ideological divides.”

          (Bold/italicized emphasis mine)

          What the original commenter said is a reductive interpretation of the research that extrapolates the findings beyond what the researchers ever would, and is in fact explicitly at odds with the way the researchers told people the research should be interpreted.

          Nevermind that the provided source can’t actually tell us much about scientific consensus, nor does it evaluate the quality of the experimental design. And if you ever talk to actual scientists, they generally don’t go around calling anything “verifyably true”, even when there actually is fairly strong scientific consensus.

          The results of a paper tell you that THAT experimental design, produced THOSE statistical outputs, and may support the interpretations the researchers put forward. Thats the only thing thats “verifiably true”. Everything past that is essentially layperson narrative crafting, until you get to things like systematic reviews, or meta analysis which can start to communicate scientific consensus, and even then its only the interpretations actually in the paper that have strong evidence, not just any old way you might interpret their findings.

          • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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            8 hours ago

            “I think it’s important for people to understand that our findings should not be used to reinforce stereotypes or suggest that political beliefs are fixed. The brain is incredibly adaptable, and political beliefs are shaped by many factors. Instead, understanding the biological influences on ideology may help us appreciate the diversity of perspectives and improve our ability to communicate across ideological divides.”

            (Bold/italicized emphasis mine)

            Ok, so either the problem was you didn’t read this:

            What’s important is those brain differences aren’t innate, and one of my personal favorite studies on London Taxi drivers showed that these types of changes can happen even well into someone 60s.

            Or you didn’t understand the verbiage I used?

            Either way buddy, you’re not being anywhere near polite enough for me to keep sinking time into trying to help you understand this.

            Like, do you understand the problem here?

            You’re mad at me trying to explain this in layman’s terms, but you seem to not even understand what the word “innate” means, so obviously the issue is I’m not simplifying this enough for you.

            And it’s always pretty much impossible to resolve something like this.

            If I do what you ask,you’ll understand even less. If I don’t do what you ask, you’ll get mad because you can’t understand it…

            There’s just no path here I can see to explaining this in a way that will make sense to you. I’m afraid I’m going to have to throw in the towel and accept you won’t get this regardless of how much of my time I sink in this.

            • Cris_Citrus@piefed.zip
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              8 hours ago

              Some of that is fair, going back and rereading your first comment I think I misunderstood certain aspects of your position from having waded through the pile of discussion from people not just including you

              Believe it or not I’m actually a reasonable person, who isn’t angry at you at all. Nor was I really impolite at all at any point frankly. Like, even a little bit. Thinking you might be overstating or extrapolating the research into somewhat sweeping conclusions isnt rude, its just not sharing your exact position.

              But I do understand that when you’re arguing with a pile of people on the internet it does change the way you experience what people say and will put you in a headspace where things read as attacks

              Have a nice day

    • Malyca@lemmy.zip
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      24 hours ago

      I have cptsd, autism and ADHD. Prefrontal cortex issues. I’ve also spent 2/3 of my life in fight or flight, larger amygdala. I have hyper empathy, compassion and decent critical thinking skills. If I can do it, everybody can. Somewhere along the way people choose to be selfish and continue to make that choice all their lives. Don’t give them a pass.

      • teslekova@sh.itjust.works
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        19 hours ago

        Yep, that’s why it’s a statistical tendency, not a straight-up determining factor. Also, your lifelong suffering gives you more compassion for those who also suffer, another well-studied phenomenon.

      • ewo@piefed.ca
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        20 hours ago

        Same here, hyper-amygdala because of fibromyalgia (brain is broken), probably hyper-empathy from doing as ton of lsd years back. Not American… Where do people like us fit?

      • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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        24 hours ago

        I’m not giving anyone a pass, nor would I be able to if I wanted…

        https://www.psypost.org/political-ideology-linked-to-subtle-differences-in-brain-structure-study-finds/

        It’s science, whether you agree with it or even understand it, it’s real.

        If someone talks about something you don’t know about, they’re almost always going to be willing to answer questions if you ask.

        Get upset at what they say and spout uninformed opinions and personal ancedotes at them…

        They might block you before even replying so they don’t waste time trying to help you understand things later.

        Don’t make other people write you off as a lost cause.

        I have cptsd, autism and ADHD. Prefrontal cortex issues. I’ve also spent 2/3 of my life in fight or flight, larger amygdala

        I literally have a degree and years of experience in explaining things to people with issues like you say you’re facing. There’s a very real chance no one else on the fediverse is more equipped to explain shit to you bro.

        But just in general, with anyone, if they say something you w never heard that doesn’t make sense, give them the benefit of doubt for at least one reply, ask them what they’re talking about, even mention your own personal experience seems to conflict with it if you think that matters.

        Just don’t do what you just did if you actually want to learn shit.

        • teslekova@sh.itjust.works
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          19 hours ago

          Oh, a degree, well that definitely makes me think you know everything, fine, let’s all bow down to the ultimate authority here.

          Fuck you, dude.

          • imaqtpie@sh.itjust.works
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            15 hours ago

            The researchers used structural MRI scans from a large public dataset known as the Amsterdam Open MRI Collection, which includes brain imaging data from 928 healthy volunteers. This is about ten times the sample size of earlier studies, making the findings more statistically reliable. Participants were, on average, 22.86 years old, with a relatively balanced gender distribution (52% female).

            928 Dutch college students hardly comprises a definitive sample. It’s perhaps an interesting question to explore further, but the unwarranted authoritative, arrogant explanation given by OP is wild lmao.

            anyone can identify political affiliation almost instantly from a brain scan, with over 70% accuracy…

            60% of the time, it works every time! Ahhh I just can’t deal with this nonsense, why must the dumbest people always be the loudest?

        • ewo@piefed.ca
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          20 hours ago

          Horseshite, he has the problems, you do not. You are not qualified to make an opinion and also, from your language you sound like, in full circle, you are talking horseshite…

          • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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            20 hours ago

            he has the problems, you do not

            Oh…

            I forgot the only people with issues are the ones that randomly claim to have them on social media.

            And since I didn’t say I have any in my last comment, clearly I’m just normal as fuck over here.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      23 hours ago

      Love to watch someone bust out the calipers when they talk politics.

      I hear the low sloped forehead and close-set eyeballs are a clear indication of Paleo-Libertarianism. Meanwhile, if your second toe is longer than your big toe, there’s a good chance you voted for Hillary Clinton in the 2008 primary.

      They’re literally addicted to getting pissed off.

      The only thing more addictive is medicalizing your ideological beliefs.

      Poking someone with a stick, shouting “Why are you mad, tho? Why are you mad?!”, and then calling them Trump voters when they take a swing at you. Maybe calling in a body-language expert to do a riff on the Chris Rock bit - “Does anyone notice how Democrats walk like THAT but Republicans walk like THIS?”

      Absolute bottom-of-the-barrel eugenics-tier propaganda.

      • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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        22 hours ago

        The great part about so many studies being done on this, is I can just go grab a different peer reviewed academic study every time someone doesn’t believe it…

        I already linked someone else what I was talking about.

        So I’ll give you a different study where they studied people with lesions in either area, and discovered once again that the size/health/ability of those regions correlates to political leaning.

        Specifically, we compared the political orientations of patients with frontal lobe lesions, patients with amygdala lesions and healthy control subjects. Lesion type classification analyses revealed that people with frontal lesions held more conservative (or less liberal) beliefs than those with anterior temporal lobe lesions or no lesions. Additional analyses predicting ideology by extent of damage provided convergent evidence that greater damage in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex—but not the amygdala—was associated with greater conservatism.

        https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/article/376/1822/20200137/31478/Toward-a-neuropsychology-of-political-orientation

        What ill never understand, is why people think literal physical changes to the brain wouldn’t correlate to political reasoning…

        What do you think pushes people to one side of the aisle or the other besides differences in our brains?

        • OfCourseNot@fedia.io
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          21 hours ago

          Ok, so first, I’ve read it but not any of the citations or any other follow up work… but that study is about people with lesions in their brain, what about people with healthy brains? Can you identify conservatives with just a scan if they don’t have a brain injury? I still doubt it, much less ‘anyone with two minutes of training’. Or maybe you mean that half (if not more) of the world population suffers some kind of brain lesion or disorder? And that sample size seems also quite small and, without really being able to actually tell, not very random (the groups with lesions are overwhelmingly white, while the control group isn’t…).

          Don’t get me wrong, I do think that conservatism is a disease/disorder. But a social, memetic one. That can’t be diagnosed or cured like physical or mental problems.

          Anyway, it doesn’t convinced me, but it doesn’t matter cause I don’t really have any use for that information since I can’t scan people’s brains, modify them, or cure injuries. But I’m sure the fascists taking ahold of the world will be (are?) very interested on this bullshit, and I won’t be surprised if they end up putting anyone with a functional prefrontal cortex down.

          • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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            20 hours ago

            what about people with healthy brains?

            Well, I literally said it was in another comment already…

            https://lemmy.world/post/49973823/24987459

            Now, personally if someone said that, and I didn’t see it…

            I would assume it was because for some reason I couldn’t see the comments from the other person.

            So I would sign out, and then be able to see the comments.

            If you still have questions after reading that comment and that study, no worries

            Take a deep breath, remember I’m not arguing with anyone, I’m explaining scientifically repeatable experiments, and ask your questions.

            • OfCourseNot@fedia.io
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              20 hours ago

              I was just taking a look at that. Well, not the article but the actual study it links…

              Don’t get so sassy, I think asking someone not only to read a scientific article to answer to your comment but also to go to the other comments to read another is a bit too much to ask. But I’ve done it anyway… and now I’m doubting that you did read them. From this second article:

              No differences in Anterior Cingulate Cortex volume replicated between levels of conservatism - in contrast to the original study

              self-reported ideology (single item) was not a significant predictor of amygdalar volume.

              So you take a deep breath and read more carefully what you post before making bullshit assertions like ‘With like two minutes of training, anyone can identify political affiliation almost instantly from a brain scan, with over 70% accuracy…’.

              • ewo@piefed.ca
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                20 hours ago

                Correct, this very much sounds like pseudo-science. I don’t even need to read the studies, all I know is that any self-respecting academic/scientist would call this out for the horseshite it is. If I didn’t know better, it’s a facist in a trenchcoat.

                  • ewo@piefed.ca
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                    19 hours ago

                    Yeah I don’t read psuedo-horseshite. Let me come back sober and I’ll read it and deconstruct it. But I really can’t be fucked because again, you’re talking shit out of your arse…

              • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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                20 hours ago

                I think asking someone not only to read a scientific article to answer to your comment but also to go to the other comments to read another is a bit too much to ask

                Weird…

                Personally I think it’s an entitled opinion to ask the same question some one else already has and expect a bespoke answer…

                Agree to disagree I guess

                Best of luck finding someone else to answer your questions. Frankly, it doesn’t matter to me that much if you understand, I was just trying to help you, and clearly you don’t want any help.

                And don’t forget, you started with:

                Wake up, babe! New phrenology just dropped.

                I gave you plenty of chances to learn

                • rhymeswithduck@sh.itjust.works
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                  6 hours ago

                  Why are you acting like this? No one is asking you for your long-winded explanations. It feels like the only reason you’re giving them is so you can tell everyone else how stupid they are for not having the specific degree and experience you do.

                  “I gave you plenty of chances to learn”?? You sound like a supervillain.

                  • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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                    6 hours ago

                    Why are you acting like this?

                    Why am I upset that people refuse to believe science when it disagrees with their pre-concieved notions and quickly devolve the conversation to junior high level personal insults?

                    To quote Angelica Pickles:

                    If you have to ask, you’ll never know.