Liberals, Conservatives, and Flag Waving--What do psychologists/sociologists know?

Factual Questions
1

I have the impression that being conservative correlates with enjoyment of such activities as flag waving and patriotic chanting.

Is my impression accurate?

And if so, what do psychologists or sociologists know about this phenomenon? What explains it? Is there something interesting to think about here?

If my impression is not accurate, am I just being random, or is there some explanation for my impression?

2

I think you already have a thread about this, not lost in amnesia weekend, with a couple replies.

3

Unfortunately, I missed those replies. (In fact, I didn’t just miss them–I thought they didn’t exist. But I think at some point the old boards stopped alerting my email account to new posts in my threads so there may well have been replies after all.)

-FrL-

4

Oh you said not lost in the amnesia weekend.

Oops.

-FrL-

5

Here it is

6

I’m not sure if that old thread will disappear when we get the new board going. I’m replying to this on the “boardtest” board. I’ll probably just leave it for now.

7

Hell, no, we won’t go!

Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?

Bush lied, people died!

And, of course, cite.

I would say your impression is not accurate.

Regards,
Shodan

8

That’s chanting, but is it patriotic chanting?

One typical left-wing / liberal slogan is, “Think global, act local.” The “global” transcends the national (i.e., patriotism and the flag), while the “local” is only a small picture, again ignoring the national level. People believing in this might fly a flag, but it’s not going to be a national flag.

9

I must say, I’m pleasantly surprised to discover that Shodan considers chants such as these to be patriotic.

10

I’m sure the chanters consider them so.

Click on the link above.

Regards,
Shodan

11

I find it hard to watch videos at work, but that’s Hillary Clinton at the Democratic Convention. I’m not sure I’d chose her as a typical liberal, especially in that context. More typical of the liberal-conservative divide is the controversy about Senator Obama not wearing a flag pin, as contrasted with the conservatives who want an ant-flag-burning amendment.

12

I wasn’t talking about Hilary; I was showing that flag-waving was just as rife at the DNC as at the RNC. IOW, the question of the OP -

can be answered No.

Regards,
Shodan

13

I mentioned this here several years ago, but can’t find the post. At the time of 9-11, I was living in Orlando, and noticed that the bulk of “display patriotism” was in rednecky and lower-middle-class white neighborhoods; not just on houses, but on cars, trucks, styrofoam cups shoved into fences, and so on. Flag display was also common in middle-class but blue-collar neighborhoods; the types of places where nobody steps outside without first strapping a Nextel to their belt. These areas tended to be the most politically conservative. Flag display seemed inversely proportional to income among whites; in more affluent areas, hardly a flag was to be seen. In African-American neighborhoods, there were no flags. None that I saw, anyhow.

14

Oh. Well. So much for that pleasantly surprised feeling. Wanna come over and kick my cats too?

15

Well, since no one has attempted to answer the latter part of your question, I might as well take a stab.

George Lakoff, a professor of cognitive linguistics, has written many books about politics, where he often says that Republicans invoke strong-father authoritarian metaphors.

Joseph Haidt may also be of interest to you.

If you do some searches on the literature, you will find that there are many studies about actual psychological differences between liberals and conservatives. Flag-waving may be one of them, but that’s an awfully specific behavior that seems to fall in the category of authoritarianism.

Lakoff or Haidt’s are reasonable places to start, I’m sure you will find some interesting stuff. Come back and tell us what you found!

16

I cannot stand the extreme stance that either party has taken these days, being a moderate myself, but I agree that this is patriotic.

Even if you don’t agree with what is being said about our current leaders, you have to appreciate that we still have the freedom to do so.

As far as the topic is concerned, I have to ask - how is mindless-herd, patriotic chanting different than mindless-herd, anti-patriotic chanting?

ETA: and throw in mindless-herd chanting at concerts, which I’ve done several times myself. Yes, in my opinion, it becomes mindless and meaningless.