Or more precisely, those who identify as conservative suffer from “a partially heritable personality trait that predisposes some people to be cognitively inflexible, fond of hierarchy, and inordinately afraid of uncertainty, change, and death.” At least it is if you’re Jonathan Haidt, who informed us last September, that in essence, those people who did not agree with his politics were a alien cultural subgroup in need of enlightenment, much as the Christians enlightened the savages on the Dark Continent. In fact, Haidt’s article drips with an arrogance, condescension, and an earnest desire to bring civilization to the heathen that wouldn’t seem all that out of place in an 19th century Englishman. Call it the white man’s asshat’s burden
Categories: asshat