Unorthodox wrote:
Lots of reasons, but a few important things to look at.
For one,
this book does a great job talking about this sort of issue in a broader sense. Basically, politics back in the 60's/70's/80's wasn't seen as a part of your identity, but it now is. A great example cited in the book is simply looking at how more than 2/3rds of Whole Foods are located in liberal districts and about an equal amount or more of Cracker Barrels are located in republican districts. In other words, if you go to Cracker Barrel more than Whole Foods, I can guess with about a 80-90% certainty you're a republican and not a democrat. Something that is not even connected to politics can be correlated to your political identity.
Naturally, this is also associated with rural vs urban living. People who live in the urban centers vote more liberally than rural areas, however, this is only a recent phenomenon. The book has a great graphic to show the formation of this trend and how it wasn't really like this back in the day and is now.
Mixing identity with politics creates a toxic environment that makes rational discussion or thought about politics close to impossible. For example, when someone who doesn't think about politics much is told about a specific policy, they are more often than not will approach an idea thinking "well... whats in it for me?". However, someone who is deep into politics has a tendency to not think about in that way- instead they'll think about what their opinion on that policy
says about them.
Here's an interesting study they cite in the book, and I might get some of it wrong because I'm thinking it up off the top of my head and don't have the book in front of me:
You give a test that has a single math problem to two groups of people- one group is highly politically minded and the other isn't. The result is that one group ends up solving the problem with about as many people getting the correct answer as the other group.
Now make two more groups, of the same types, and give them the same math problem with a twist- make it political. In other words, in the first test, you're testing strictly on the math, but in the second test, you're testing on the math in the context of politics. The result shows that the politically minded people did
worse on the test all of the sudden,
especially if the correct answer went against their political views (I believe this was tested for both republicans and democrats, with the same result).
Most people have a shallow understanding of the issues that directly affect them, but the problem is that those who consistently keep track of politics can often be
more illogical and not less. And, this happens because the logic switches from "what will this policy
do for me" to "what does supporting/not supporting this policy
say about me?"
So, to answer your question, I think the reason a lot of very masculine people align with conservatives is because they want to be aligned with other highly masculine people, and this is even more true the more rural you get ("I'm an Alpha" or whatever). This applies for people in the military or people that are police officers. It's not about policies, it's about identity.
Interesting.
What's also interesting is that you approached the questions of "what will this policy do for me" and "what does supporting/not supporting it say about about me" but NOT "what will this policy do for other people or other people like me?"
I feel that the latter question should be of most importance.
I think you are right about the "alpha" attitude, and it bugs me to no end because, as mentioned, i am very into the world of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, MMA and martial arts and so I'll know these people for the rest of my life, so while some people who are democrats and dislike Trump will just seperate themselves from those like that, I can't do that and I need to get along with these people so I avoid ever discussing politics with them, and so far it works well because i just avoid political discussions both online and in person with these people but inevitably I have to listen to them talk shit constantly about liberals and feel pissed off and bite my tongue and then go see my family who talks shit about republicans and I'm stuck in the middle just wanting to get along with everyone but still hoping to god that Trump doesn't get re-elected.
And I read a short online discussion about the psychology of liberals vs republicans which basically stated that if you core values have more to do with freedom of expression and individuality then you'll probably be a liberal (which is one big reason I am and one reason I think many metal heads and artists are liberals).....whereas if you core values have more to do with security, predictability and valuing authority then you'll be republican.
So obviously, martial arts have to do with self defense which has to do with security and crosses easily into the territory of police and military, but i am very interested in self defense even despite being a liberal and i don't think the 2 are mutually exclusive.
It's also interesting to note that in martial arts, and i'm sure the military and the police, there's a term called "coachability".
"Coachability" is often seen as the ability to simply listen to whatever your coach tells you without question and follow his instructions when it comes to your training and assume he knows what is best for you, and the thing is, if you choose a good sports coach/martial arts instructor or even military or law enforcement instructor chances are they DO often know what's best for your training and often you should listen, and in my BJJ training over the years I have failed to act in my own best interest at times by not following my coach's instructions when really i should have.
Problem for me is that I often have a big problem with authority, even if those authority figures are friends, at times if they get too militant with their instructions I have a natural tendency to rebel and question why they are asking me to do something, which is considered a big problem because if you want to succeed in a group endeavor such as a martial arts team, police force or military the absolute LAST thing anyone wants is you questioning your team leader's authority.
When it comes to military or police I can only assume this could cost lives, so having too much of an authority problem or individual need for freedom or expression could cause real casualties, and this is probably I think why police and military actively look for and attract the sorts who will not question authority in the first place, and the party that probably aligns more closely with that is the republican party.
But when you go into other avenues of life like the arts or any number of other areas, not questioning what you are being told enough can lead to either being miserable and/or becoming some kind of drone without any true sense of self, so it's a tough balancing act.
And then when you come back to the "alpha" mentality, I actually think that doing what others say without question is ANYTHING BUT an alpha-trait. Conformity does NOT seem very "alpha-male" to me.
I could never ever have been in the military with my personal nature, but I have a huge admiration for anyone who has been able to pull it off.
I often think that such rigid training would have had a great impact on my personality and made me a harder worker, but then I wonder if it would have destroyed my sense of individuality, which I prize very highly.
Do you guys think that most metalheads and metal musicians, as well as other sorts of musicians in general, not just on the this board but elsewhere, are more likely to be liberal/left leaning than right?
I know this board has many left-leaning people, but I have seen right wing metal heads elsewhere.
I think punk rock would even more be leftward leaning.