Liberal Persuasion 101

After writing numerous pieces, one discovers that facts do not sway Liberal minds.  Even a bulletproof case will not change their minds.  It is frustrating to many Conservatives, who are factually based reasoners, in general.  The reason we cannot change Liberal minds through facts?  Liberals rely on emotion more than fact to arrive at decisions.

Let's face it, there is something very different between Liberals and Conservatives.  Many people struggle to comprehend the differences.  Just like anything these days, there are studies.  Of course, most of the politics revolve around psychology.  The excerpt, below, best summarized arguing with the Liberal mentality.

You don’t tell your opponent what to think or what’s best. You help them discover for themselves what feels right and best and most advantageous to them. Their ultimate decision is based on self-interest. That’s emotional. I want this. This is good for me and my side. (Decisions Are Emotional, not Logical: The Neuroscience behind Decision Making)

In order to convince most Liberals, one must appeal to their emotions and self-interest.  This particular study found that most decisions evolve from the right feeling about a decision.  And, arguably, good can be perceived as helping others (social programs).  The good in supporting social programs also backs Liberalism today, which is big government.

Oddly, Conservatives are often accused of acting in their self interests. Yet, this study shows that the opposite is actually true.  It may be that the self-interest is inner peace through supporting social programs to help others.

Because of their egalitarian beliefs, liberals are motivated to correct the normal attribution-affect-action sequence and, in so doing, go out their way to try to generate sympathy for and find reasons to help the irresponsible. (Liberal-conservative differences in inclusion-exclusion strategy choice)

No matter how irresponsible or reckless people may be in their own lives, Liberals will support those who make bad decisions.  This explains why many Conservatives feel that our society rewards those who error and punish those who take the right paths.  To Liberals, this seems to be where social injustice comes into play.  No matter the individual's actions, Liberals feel the need to help them from being affected.  We hear the arguments; "It's not their fault", "Corporations caused this", "It's Bush's fault" or a host of explanations for social injustices.  And, as we have seen, Liberals will stand by bad decisions until the end.  Almost all of these arguments seem to seek sympathy for the individual afflicted through their own actions.

In two studies, we demonstrated that liberals underestimate their similarity to other liberals (i.e., display truly false uniqueness), whereas moderates and conservatives overestimate their similarity to other moderates and conservatives (i.e., display truly false consensus; Studies 1 and 2). We further demonstrated that a fundamental difference between liberals and conservatives in the motivation to feel unique explains this ideological distinction in the accuracy of estimating similarity (Study 2). Implications of the accuracy of consensus estimates for mobilizing liberal and conservative political movements are discussed. (The Liberal Illusion of Uniqueness)

These studies were not as surprising.  Is it any wonder that Conservatives and moderates will argue amongst each other excessively.  For example, just look at the ongoing "war" within the Republican Party now.  Even within that war, there are factions battling for position and agreement.  It could be deduced that Conservatives were surprised by the lack of cooperation or agreement.  Conservatives simply believe there are more people who align exactly with  their beliefs than really do.  This is not to say there are less Conservatives, just that there are factions within the Conservative movement.

Liberals, on the other hand, seem to think they are more unique.  In reality, they find that there are others who conform to their beliefs. It could stem from a sort of arrogance which perpetuates the Liberal movement; an attitude of "I care more than you" that prevents Liberals from realizing others agree, including Conservatives.

The interesting part about this study, was how this difference in beliefs affects organization.  Think about the Occupy and Tea Party crowds.  The Tea Party quickly mobilized out of no where for the cause.  Meanwhile, Occupy Wall Street organized and quickly fell apart.  Think about why this happened; Conservatives believe in each other as being the same and still believe the cooperation to be there.  Liberals, meanwhile, still believe they are unique and cannot organize as well around a cause.  This is in spite of our political opposition to be part of the society versus individual freedoms.

Economists and neuroscientists at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Iowa decided to find out whether people's feelings got in the way of their intellects. They found that stroke victims and others with damage to the emotional centers of their brains made better investment decisions than those with a full range of emotions. (Do Emotions Cloud Common Sense?)

Ah, yes, the common sense versus emotional argument; all too common when stepping into a Conservative and Liberal arguing with each other.  However, this explains the problem, as it were.  Since Liberals rely on emotional decisions, common sense is basically thrown out the door.  This can be frustrating to a Conservative, yet a Liberal feels like their emotion is more important (see attribution-affect-action sequence section above).

What does all of this mean?

To win an argument with a Liberal, you must employ a non commonsense approach with an emotional appeal that does not punish irresponsibility and is not based on factual information.

So, maybe that isn't so helpful since it undermines Conservatism completely.  However, it is possible to appeal to emotions for Conservative causes.  Punishing irresponsibility may be the sticking point here; most Conservatives do not believe we should give everyone a way out of bad decisions.  After all, it is an opportunity to learn and grow.  And, in reality, commonsense is the opposite of emotion from time to time.  Appealing to emotions is the best way to convince Liberals of your viewpoint. Unfortunately, as well know, appeals to emotion are logical fallacies.

Maybe someone else needs to answer this question; what does all of this mean?