could/can genetics be toyed with to make the population more liberal?

[DC Al Fine]

Could someone please post some evidence that white liberals have significantly fewer children than white conservatives? It's like this entire board is consumed with binary anecdotes where all liberals live like the cast of Friends and all conservatives are like the Duggars and the Santorums (or is the plural Santora?).

http://anepigone.blogspot.ca/2012/12/providing-procreation-predictors-pronto_5.html

Correlations are small, but they are there. You are right though, it's not like every Republican has 8 kids and the Democrats have none. One point to add, if a person has a large number of kids (Let's say >4) he almost certainly leans right. It's just that those families are very rare on either side of the spectrum.

[freepcrusher]

Who cares if white liberals are "going extinct" (a highly dubious claim as it is, lol)

By that, I mean what about black, Latino, and Asian liberals? Why get worried about white people? Seems kinda racist to me.

its all good to have Sidney Poitiers in the fold too.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

Do you legitimately not understand how "culture" works? How contagious thought is? How people generally tend to congregate with people who they perceive to be similar to themselves? Seriously, it's a very basic part of humanity.

[Mechaman]

And today's idiot award goes to. . . . . .

[pbrower2a]

well I'm worried that white liberals are in the process of being extinct and that the foaming at the mouth types will soon outnumber them greater than 2:1.

That's why the government needs to stop paying conservatives to have kids.

Those subsidies are available to liberals too. The lack of liberal babies goes much deeper than tax breaks. It has much more to do with the fact that most white liberals value lattes and the theatre more than babies. Until that changes, changes to the tax code won`t do much to level the playing field.

'Conservative' preferences in entertainment and culture are clearly different from those of liberals. I suspect that conservative tastes are now more monolithic. Country music, NASCAR racing. "Action" movies. Just visit a local Wal*Mart to see what fits conservative tastes in music, sports, and cinema.

I'm not going to speak for any but white liberals, but it is more costly to raise a child if one is a liberal because liberals are more likely to see ballet lessons, music lessons, excursions to art galleries, and Scouting activities as a part of a 'good' childhood -- and those are expensive and time-consuming. As for theater or music concerts -- add a baby sitter for a child too young to attend the performance. But eventually the child will go to the concert, the ballet, and the theater.

Because of cheap music CDs and movie discs, conservatives can imprint their easily-adopted culture upon kids who know nothing else. Their kids of course do worse in school, so they get stuck in cr@ppy jobs. 

[ingemann]

Seeing the most dogmatic, irritating and single minded liberals usual have grown up in conservative areas and often with conservative parents, I really doubt that you could genetic engineer people for ideology.

[ingemann]

Could someone please post some evidence that white liberals have significantly fewer children than white conservatives? It's like this entire board is consumed with binary anecdotes where all liberals live like the cast of Friends and all conservatives are like the Duggars and the Santorums (or is the plural Santora?).

Yes...

Just look at me, if I had to follow the historic of my family, we should have been conservatives/right liberals, instead we embraced the opposition movement to these groups from the start, mostly in antipathy toward our fellow farmers and functionaries.

[Vosem]

Would you like my biology teacher's phone number?

[pbrower2a]

Seeing the most dogmatic, irritating and single minded liberals usual have grown up in conservative areas and often with conservative parents, I really doubt that you could genetic engineer people for ideology.

It could be a reaction to a feeling that one missed something by being raised by conservatives in a mindless, joyless environment.

[ingemann]

Seeing the most dogmatic, irritating and single minded liberals usual have grown up in conservative areas and often with conservative parents, I really doubt that you could genetic engineer people for ideology.

It could be a reaction to a feeling that one missed something by being raised by conservatives in a mindless, joyless environment.

Yeah yeah or it could be explained with the converts always being the most extreme. There's nothing as obnoxious as atheist who were once a fundamentalist.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

well I'm worried that white liberals are in the process of being extinct and that the foaming at the mouth types will soon outnumber them greater than 2:1.

That's why the government needs to stop paying conservatives to have kids.

Those subsidies are available to liberals too. The lack of liberal babies goes much deeper than tax breaks. It has much more to do with the fact that most white liberals value lattes and the theatre more than babies. Until that changes, changes to the tax code won`t do much to level the playing field.

'Conservative' preferences in entertainment and culture are clearly different from those of liberals. I suspect that conservative tastes are now more monolithic. Country music, NASCAR racing. "Action" movies. Just visit a local Wal*Mart to see what fits conservative tastes in music, sports, and cinema.

I'm not going to speak for any but white liberals, but it is more costly to raise a child if one is a liberal because liberals are more likely to see ballet lessons, music lessons, excursions to art galleries, and Scouting activities as a part of a 'good' childhood -- and those are expensive and time-consuming. As for theater or music concerts -- add a baby sitter for a child too young to attend the performance. But eventually the child will go to the concert, the ballet, and the theater.

Because of cheap music CDs and movie discs, conservatives can imprint their easily-adopted culture upon kids who know nothing else. Their kids of course do worse in school, so they get stuck in cr@ppy jobs. 

conservatives have their kids watch movies and it's liberals do who . . . Scouting?!?

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Freepcrusher continues to delve into cliche mad scientist territory...

[Vosem]

Seeing the most dogmatic, irritating and single minded liberals usual have grown up in conservative areas and often with conservative parents, I really doubt that you could genetic engineer people for ideology.

It could be a reaction to a feeling that one missed something by being raised by conservatives in a mindless, joyless environment.

It's remarkable how intolerant of other cultures you are.

[pbrower2a]

Seeing the most dogmatic, irritating and single minded liberals usual have grown up in conservative areas and often with conservative parents, I really doubt that you could genetic engineer people for ideology.

It could be a reaction to a feeling that one missed something by being raised by conservatives in a mindless, joyless environment.

It's remarkable how intolerant of other cultures you are.

Neither mindlessness not joylessness counts as 'culture'.

[Vosem]

Seeing the most dogmatic, irritating and single minded liberals usual have grown up in conservative areas and often with conservative parents, I really doubt that you could genetic engineer people for ideology.

It could be a reaction to a feeling that one missed something by being raised by conservatives in a mindless, joyless environment.

It's remarkable how intolerant of other cultures you are.

Neither mindlessness not joylessness counts as 'culture'.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/95/1890sc_Pears_Soap_Ad.jpg

Civilization is advancing, eh?

Also, speaking from my own experiences with uber-religious people (Orthodox Jews, in my case), while I certainly wouldn't want such a lifestyle for myself, it is neither mindless nor is it joyless. But the interesting coincidence is that they consider modern secular culture to be both mindless and joyless. And significant proportions of them come from secular backgrounds, which, using your logic:

It could be a reaction to a feeling that one missed something by being raised in a mindless, joyless environment.

Means that modern, secular America is a mindless, joyless environment. (And I can safely say we both agree that is not the case.)

[Mad Deadly Worldwide Communist Gangster Computer God]

Who cares if white liberals are "going extinct" (a highly dubious claim as it is, lol)

By that, I mean what about black, Latino, and Asian liberals? Why get worried about white people? Seems kinda racist to me.

Oh, irony.

[Mechaman]

well I'm worried that white liberals are in the process of being extinct and that the foaming at the mouth types will soon outnumber them greater than 2:1.

That's why the government needs to stop paying conservatives to have kids.

Those subsidies are available to liberals too. The lack of liberal babies goes much deeper than tax breaks. It has much more to do with the fact that most white liberals value lattes and the theatre more than babies. Until that changes, changes to the tax code won`t do much to level the playing field.

'Conservative' preferences in entertainment and culture are clearly different from those of liberals. I suspect that conservative tastes are now more monolithic. Country music, NASCAR racing. "Action" movies. Just visit a local Wal*Mart to see what fits conservative tastes in music, sports, and cinema.

I'm not going to speak for any but white liberals, but it is more costly to raise a child if one is a liberal because liberals are more likely to see ballet lessons, music lessons, excursions to art galleries, and Scouting activities as a part of a 'good' childhood -- and those are expensive and time-consuming. As for theater or music concerts -- add a baby sitter for a child too young to attend the performance. But eventually the child will go to the concert, the ballet, and the theater.

Because of cheap music CDs and movie discs, conservatives can imprint their easily-adopted culture upon kids who know nothing else. Their kids of course do worse in school, so they get stuck in cr@ppy jobs.  

conservatives have their kids watch movies and it's liberals do who . . . Scouting?!?

Yes, pbrower's post is perhaps one of the most bizarrely idiotic posts I've ever seen.  Pretty impressive, even for him.  I know a lot of liberals who do go to Wal-Mart and get action flicks.  And, given the demographics of the overwhelmingly Republican voting district I live in (went 89% McCain in 2008, probably went over 90% for Romney), I must say that the perception that "conservative" (defined as voting Republican, I would guess) culture doesn't like activities like scouting, art galleries, music lessons, or ballet is really patently absurd.

But of course, a lot of rich white liberals, like their rich white conservative counterparts, are full of their own classist sh*t and will bash the culture of the proles (who they have had a historical prejudice against) incessantly to make them feel good about their fortunate situation to have been born into such a position of sheltered privilege.  Which I guess it's hard to be truly open minded about diversity of opinion or what constitutes culture when you're born into the type of environment that encourages you to naturally have the disdainful attitude towards proles, due to your own uncomfortability with them as well as just being born with sh*t up your nose.

I would expect a rich white conservative to have the same disdainful attitude and elitist opinions against overwhelmingly Democratic groups that happen to have prole tastes. But of course, those views would be correctly attacked with the label of "bigotry", just like some of these views should.  I'm not really surprised, however, that a white "liberal" would suggest toying with genetics to create favorable offspring.  After all, Eugenics was highly popular amongst many "enlightened" upper class WASPs.

Anti-bourgeois rant over.

[pbrower2a]

Seeing the most dogmatic, irritating and single minded liberals usual have grown up in conservative areas and often with conservative parents, I really doubt that you could genetic engineer people for ideology.

It could be a reaction to a feeling that one missed something by being raised by conservatives in a mindless, joyless environment.

It's remarkable how intolerant of other cultures you are.

Neither mindlessness not joylessness counts as 'culture'.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/95/1890sc_Pears_Soap_Ad.jpg

Civilization is advancing, eh?

Also, speaking from my own experiences with uber-religious people (Orthodox Jews, in my case), while I certainly wouldn't want such a lifestyle for myself, it is neither mindless nor is it joyless. But the interesting coincidence is that they consider modern secular culture to be both mindless and joyless. And significant proportions of them come from secular backgrounds, which, using your logic:

It could be a reaction to a feeling that one missed something by being raised in a mindless, joyless environment.

Means that modern, secular America is a mindless, joyless environment. (And I can safely say we both agree that is not the case.)

The reference is to specific families, and not to religion. People could be very happy in a religion that mandates rejection of much that is mainstream, the Old Order Amish as a prime example. No pork or shellfish (Orthodox Jewish) or no alcohol (Mormonism) isn't quite as restrictive as the rejection of automobiles, telephones, or electronic entertainments. A child brought up as a Mormon or an orthodox Jew can easily listen to Mozart; an Old Order Amish child almost certainly can't.

Alcoholism or drug abuse by parents could create a mindless, joyless environment for children.