Inside Politics

Intolerance of ambiguity

Conservatives are practically psychotic — at least according to an academic study funded by $1.2 million in federal money from the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Science foundation.

“Political Conservatism as Motivated Social Cognition” does not differentiate among Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, former President Ronald Reagan and talk radio host Rush Limbaugh.

“One is justified in referring to Hitler, Mussolini, Reagan, and Limbaugh as right-wing conservatives,” wrote the four author/professors from Stanford University, University of California at Berkeley and the University of Maryland.

“Not because they share an opposition to ‘big government’ or a mythical, romanticized view of Aryan purity — they did not share these specific attitudes — but because they all preached a return to an idealized past and favored or condoned inequality in some form,” they continued.

The study claimed conservatives are “significantly associated with mental rigidity and closed-mindedness, increased dogmatism and intolerance of ambiguity, decreased cognitive complexity, decreased openness to experience, uncertainty avoidance, personal needs for order and structure, need for cognitive closure, lowered self-esteem; fear, anger, and aggression; pessimism, disgust, and contempt.”

It’s outrageous, said one lawmaker who was part of a Republican investigation of the study.

“Taxpayers shouldn’t be required to pay for these things,” Rep. Tom Feeney, Florida Republican, told National Review. “When you are basically confiscating money from taxpayers to fund left-wing rhetoric and dress it up as scientific study, I think you have a real problem with credibility.”

But no signet ring

Uh-oh, look out. The Hill’s Angels are on the prowl for new members. The grass-roots support group for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, New York Democrat, believes the vast conspiracy of yore is out to get the former first lady.

“While Hillary is fighting for the values and policies we care about, the right wing is waging a personal attack against her,” the group notes at its Web site, www.friendsofhillary.com. “They’ve already launched their campaign to defeat Hillary in 2006, using the same old politics of personal destruction, sending out hate-filled mail charging she is ‘anti-woman, anti-child, anti-family.’”

They want new members, though — and some money, too.

For $25, one gets an official membership card and a “Living History” bookmark. A $75 contribution gets the card and a “Living History” mug, while $250 brings the card and a “Living History” pen. For $500, the lucky contributor gets the mug, pen, bookmark, “silver-toned” bookmark and a “personally inscribed” copy of the book.

Journalist jive

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