TDPS: Will the liberal gene lead to the next Republican stem cell conspiracy theory?

[celtics23]

Run time: 05:57 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-n0ZWs9EnZ0   Posted on YouTube: November 09, 2010 By YouTube Member: MidweekPolitics Views on YouTube: 247   Posted on DU: November 11, 2010 By DU Member: celtics23 Views on DU: 545

 
From: www.davidpakman.com | Subscription: www.davidpakman.com/membership | YouTube: www.youtube.com/midweekpolitics

Transcript:

David: All right, let's talk about the "liberal gene". Scientists at the University of California San Diego and Harvard determined that people who carry a variant of the DRD4 gene are more likely to be liberals as adults. But it's not just the gene, Louis, it also depends on how many friendships did you have during high school. If you were more social and had more friends during high school, you were more likely to be predisposed to end up as a liberal as an adult. What do you think of that?

Louis: Strange.



David: Incredible insight, Louis. The four authors, including UCSD's James Fowler, wanted to explore if politics were inheritable by identifying a specific gene variant associated with political leaning. This is interesting, because we always talk about nature versus nurture, and we know that the children of conservatives are certainly more likely to be conservative, and same thing applies to liberals, but it may not be just an issue of that's how they're raised, it may actually be at least partially genetic.

Louis: How big was the test group?

David: The test group was... You know, I don't have it in front of me. It was a real test. I mean, there was a full 80-page writeup about it, it's a legitimate organization. And when I read this, I thought, so hold on a second, if you're more isolated and socially challenged during high school, you're more likely to end up conservative? I mean, it almost seems obvious, does it not? And I know that will make a lot of people angry, but there seems to be some logic in that.

Louis: I don't know. I don't know.

David: There's one person that really strikes a chord, Louis, that we know who was not very social during high school and who fits this bill exactly that...

Louis: Are we talking... I mean...

David: You know who we're talking about. Somebody who was very into guns that...

Louis: I fail to see how this could affect you on social... on fiscal issues.

David: Louis, you're reading too much into this. This is more... this is not how you...

Louis: It's who you identify with.

David: This is what types of sentiments will you be predisposed to which then, in the political landscape that exists in the U.S., make you choose between oh, I am liberal or conservative based on the U.S. This isn't it makes you fiscally conservative or liberal, Louis.

Louis: Oh, I know that.

David: This is just, you get, you grow up in a certain way which makes you more empathetic to certain types of causes and not others, and that ends up, based on how politics are in the U.S., having you associate more with Democrats than Republicans. That's all it is.

Louis: I think things would get real interesting if we included a conversation about people thinking they're liberal or conservative but actually being the opposite.

David: Yeah, that's a whole other layer. I'm getting emails from people saying it's silly to think that just a gene can make you a liberal, and again, that's not really what the study is saying. We're just making that... they're making that connection, but the study says there's a certain gene that can make you predisposed to think about life in a way that in everyday life and U.S. politics would lead you towards liberal politics. That's what we're saying. So the gene combined with positive social interactions make you more likely to seek out new experiences, ie, to progress, to be progressive, which leads to liberalism, as opposed to not having the gene, which would maybe make you shy away from new experiences, I mean, I don't know, or otherwise want to kind of conserve, which is where we would get conservative. Is that making any sense?

Louis: It does make a little bit of sense, but I think overall we've barely scratched the surface when it comes to research like this.

David: Now, having the gene by itself won't make you liberal, but if you're a liberal, it's very, very likely that you have that gene. Now, it's kind of weird, Louis, because you're a liberal. I don't, it's not clear, you know, exactly where your politics are, but you were kind of an angry guy during high school, were you not? I mean, very into violent movies and video games.

Louis: But who isn't? Give me a break.

David: I don't think I was violent during high school.

Louis: You've played plenty of violent video games and watched plenty of violent movies.

David: Yeah, but it wasn't my thing. I mean, you really were into it. I mean, at one point you said that you were into songs about death.

Louis: You know what? Almost everyone, almost every guy I grew up with was into violent video games, violent movies, violent shows.

David: Into, yeah. I mean, we all played them, but I'm saying you really made, you were known... Louis in high school was known for being like the dark, death-metal, killing-in-video-games, gore-movies type of guy, you know? And that's not everybody. But you ended up, I don't know, you're pretty social now and you're pretty liberal, too.

Louis: I was pretty social back then.

David: I guess so. You know, the obvious thing now is, you know what's going to happen next with this liberal gene thing. It's the next conservative conspiracy theory. Follow me on this. Stem cell research, many conservatives don't want it, for a number of different reasons, some which are based in fact, and some which are just based in not fact, let's leave it at that.

Louis: OK.

David: The next conspiracy will be you can't do that liberal stem cell research stuff, you know why? Because liberals are going to figure out a way to implant DRD4 into kids, and they're going to basically just start making it so that everybody who's born has a predisposition to be liberal. They're going to phase us out, Louis, they're going to phase out the conservatives with this DRD4.

Louis: With science. Right.

David: I could see that happening, couldn't you?

Louis: I could see a select few people thinking that that might happen.

David: Subscribing to that conspiracy theory, not many.

Louis: Right.

[qcmadman1]

1. Haha, brilliant theory

Sounds about right, too.

[tins0404]

2. Boy do I hope we go full steam ahead with embryonic stem cell research soon

In part because of the obvious potential, in part to hear the escalation of insane arguments against it from wingnuts.

[Ozymanithrax]

3. Savage already labeled liberalism a mental disorder...

So when will he label us as genetically deficient?

[felix_numinous]

4. The coolest nerdiest discoveries

always get confiscated by Dr. Evil or Dr. Strangelove types, turning good ideas into nightmares. I say gene therapy, cloning and stem cell research would most likely be sold to the highest bidder, the MIC, to be used for their nefarious purposes.

That is my liberal conspiracy theory-to cancel out the teabagger one. :P