Ace of Spades HQ

November 30, 2006

Heh: Master's Degree Student Proves Link Between Conservativism and Mental Illness
— Ace

Meanwhile, those who advise "talking to" Iran are completely sane.

A collective I told you so will ripple through the world of Bush-bashers once news of Christopher Lohses study gets out.
Lohse, a social work masters student at Southern Connecticut State University, says he has proven what many progressives have probably suspected for years: a direct link between mental illness and support for President Bush.
Lohse says his study is no joke. The thesis draws on a survey of 69 psychiatric outpatients in three Connecticut locations during the 2004 presidential election. Lohses study, backed by SCSU Psychology professor Jaak Rakfeldt and statistician Misty Ginacola, found a correlation between the severity of a persons psychosis and their preferences for president: The more psychotic the voter, the more likely they were to vote for Bush.
But before you go thinking all your conservative friends are psychotic, listen to Lohses explanation.
Our study shows that psychotic patients prefer an authoritative leader, Lohse says. If your world is very mixed up, theres something very comforting about someone telling you, This is how its going to be.

There actually may be something to that; who knows. But obviously psychotics, representing less than a tenth of a percent of the population, splitting for Bush 60-40 (or whatever) is not a good basis from which to draw larger conclusions.

And at least our crazies are actually locked up in mental health facilities.

Theirs are... not.

Posted by: Ace at 12:25 PM | Comments (73)
Post contains 266 words, total size 2 kb.

1 Are you talking to ME?

I mean, ARE you talking to me?

I don't see anyone else here.

Are you TALKING to me?

Posted by: franksalterego at November 30, 2006 12:31 PM (ZjYn+)

2 I've got a different hypothese: psychotic patients prefer the incumbent, whoever he is. I bet psychotics in '96 were all for Clinton.

Perhaps the grad student could ask for funding for a time machine so he can do the research. Or he could wait for 2012. I'm sure he won't have his degree by then, so it's all good.

Posted by: meep at November 30, 2006 12:31 PM (5j3FI)

3 Love. Love. Craaaaaaazzy love.

Posted by: Editor at November 30, 2006 12:31 PM (adpJH)

4 Crazy Job Listing - Read the last paragraph

Posted by: Winston at November 30, 2006 12:32 PM (jiQQE)

5 How about I prove a link between being insulted and beating the shit out of people?

Somebody needs to order a code red on this douche. (The student, I mean, not Keith Olbermann.)

Posted by: Rosetta at November 30, 2006 12:32 PM (CTqCo)

6 That lady has that crazed Slade Gorton look in her eyes.

Posted by: Sinistar at November 30, 2006 12:33 PM (5bI3V)

7 Criminy. When I was in graduate school, research projects consisted of actual research, not wish fulfillment.

Kids have it so easy these days.

Posted by: Slublog at November 30, 2006 12:34 PM (R8+nJ)

8 I encourage everyone to read the rest of the story from the original source.

The guy claims to be a "Reagan revolutionary."

Posted by: Bart at November 30, 2006 12:34 PM (4GrEG)

9 Funny, I've found the exact opposite in my life.

One of the reasons I turned away from liberalism is because every single liberal I knew ranged was unhappy, neurotic, a poo flinging psycho, or just plain evil.

Posted by: adolfo_velasquez at November 30, 2006 12:35 PM (gjsXM)

10 Funny, I've found the exact opposite in my life.

One of the reasons I turned away from liberalism is because every single liberal I knew was unhappy, neurotic, a poo flinging psycho, or just plain evil.

Posted by: adolfo_velasquez at November 30, 2006 12:36 PM (gjsXM)

11 Sorry for the double (now triple) post.

Posted by: adolfo_velasquez at November 30, 2006 12:37 PM (gjsXM)

12 Filet-O-Fish thinks this is the best news EVAR!

http://www.oliverwillis.com/2006/11/this_explains_e.html

Posted by: Slublog at November 30, 2006 12:37 PM (R8+nJ)

13 Anyway, all the crazies I see are on the left (granted, I'm not on Entertainment Tonight everday).

Posted by: Winston at November 30, 2006 12:38 PM (jiQQE)

14 Southern Connecticut State university is the MIT of southern Connecticut.

Laura, run over there and mail that boy's ass to Kandahar, willya?

Posted by: spongeworthy at November 30, 2006 12:39 PM (uSomN)

15 I'm dying to read the kid's study.

His conclusion mostly hinges on, in my opinion, how he decided the degree of psychosis in the subject.

Lohse is obviously not qualified to make those determinations, so how did he do it?

Posted by: Bart at November 30, 2006 12:40 PM (4GrEG)

16 Have you adolfo?

Have you Adolfo?

Sorry, just teasing your double post.

Sorry, just teasing your double post.

Yeah, I'll bet he's a Reagan revolutionary. And it was that big baaaad Bush that turned him, right, just out of the blue?

Posted by: Sinistar at November 30, 2006 12:40 PM (5bI3V)

17 I found this part interesting further down in the article:

The study was an advocacy project of sorts, designed to register mentally ill voters and encourage them to go to the polls

So, basically, if I am to understand this correctly, the "research" project was to get the crazies to the polls, presumably to "help" them to vote for Democrats, only to find that they preferred Bush.

Neat.

Posted by: Jason at November 30, 2006 12:40 PM (Y2Bw/)

18 I could have been a scientist. But I did too well on my IQ test.

I'm going to start recycling that line alot.

Posted by: JohnW at November 30, 2006 12:41 PM (wg4FW)

19 Well, seeing as how a large part of diagnosing mental illness depends upon assessing a behavior's deviance, I have a hard time taking it seriously. If the behavior is mainstream, it isn't deviant, and so loses one if it's main characteristics of abnormality. Besides, I could point you to studies that show liberalism has a high positive correlation with mental illness as well. Those studies have been done by professionals.

The behavior also has to be dysfunctional and distressful. (The classic 3 D's...they used to consider dangerous as well and it was 4 D's, but that's been let go). That is, dysfunctional in that it keeps someone from leading a normal life and distressful in that the behaviors create a negative feeling for the individual. Linking a political philosophy with none of those characteristics with abnormal behaviors that do is odd when your sample was 69 psychiatric patients.

Posted by: thelinyguy at November 30, 2006 12:41 PM (7xc/4)

20 That lady has that crazed Slade Gorton look in her eyes.

Notice the wine glass in front of the monitor. Looks like she likes to get liquored up before she does her blogging. Maybe she's just drunk.

Posted by: OregonMuse at November 30, 2006 12:44 PM (PsGnn)

21 It took a little work, but I found the raw data from the survey he did of all 69 psychotics:

Who do you prefer as President?
George Bush - 16
John Kerry - 15
Galactic High Command has dissolved the office of President, next question - 11
[some kind of growling noise] -7
anyone but mother - 6
President Bartlett's term isn't over,don't you get Bravo? - 5
TGI Friday's appetizer medley - 4
the lamp - 3

-so it appears to be legitimate scientific work.

Posted by: bgates at November 30, 2006 12:44 PM (5X1St)

22 And Here I thought Oliver Willis choked to death on a ham sandwich.

Posted by: Sinistar at November 30, 2006 12:46 PM (5bI3V)

23 No wonder we just lost the midterms. Half our base is in the Funny Farm.

Seriously, MEEP is correct. Most crazy people HATE change and want stability.

Posted by: RobG at November 30, 2006 12:46 PM (MTu19)

24 Oh, shit. Okay, so a psychology professor was involved in the study. Who, by the way, backpeddles from Lohse's conclusion.

BUT WAIT.

The article claims that Lohse, the professor, and a statistician "found a correlation between the severity of a person’s psychosis and their preferences for president."

Statisticians are usually very careful about throwing around the word "correlation" unless they have several experiments to prove such a claim. Otherwise, they will say they have a discovered a "relationship" between the variables.

Posted by: Bart at November 30, 2006 12:49 PM (4GrEG)

25 And speaking of batshit crazy bloggers, I see that http://debfrisch.com/ has gone dark.

Just an fyi.

Posted by: OregonMuse at November 30, 2006 12:50 PM (PsGnn)

26 Lohse, a social work master’s student at Southern Connecticut State University

Wow, pretty impressive credentials. I guess the government should just start rounding up conservatives and putting them in camps. I mean the guy almost has a masters in social work! Social work, definately one of the most rigorous of academic disciplines right behind psychology and leisure studies.

ook fellow conservatives, I know that it is going to be rough but this Lohse guy is well equiped to determine that large percentages of the population should be locked in camps for their own good. I mean when he graduates he is going to go out into the work force and make $10/hr managing the Baby Gap at the mall. We have no choice but to take his study seriously and act now for the good of the country and all us looney conservatives.

I, for one, welcome our new Baby Gap managing overlords.

Posted by: Big E at November 30, 2006 12:50 PM (uw1/g)

27 Ace, you'll be wanting to change "there's" to "their's" in the last sentence.

Posted by: geoff at November 30, 2006 12:51 PM (2d9Ny)

28 I like the name of the statistician:Misty Ginacola.

Posted by: yls at November 30, 2006 12:52 PM (yKQCl)

29 Statisticians are usually very careful about throwing around the word
"correlation" unless they have several experiments to prove such a
claim.

Well, good statisticians do, anyway. Lazy academics, to fulfill publish or perish requirements at universities, run a few regression analyses and call it good.

Posted by: Slublog at November 30, 2006 12:52 PM (R8+nJ)

30 I think Frisch would be a fun date if you shot her up with a bunch of Thorazine, cleaned her up a little and put her in a black evening dress.

I don't know how managing spike heels would go with the Thorazine though...

Posted by: Purple Avenger at November 30, 2006 12:54 PM (p9O/F)

31 Conspracy theory alert. Is this whole thing just a brilliant way for a lazy masters student to make sure his thesis gets accepted?

Posted by: Big E at November 30, 2006 12:54 PM (uw1/g)

32 Could this be due to name recognition?

Posted by: Knemon at November 30, 2006 01:01 PM (LxTnx)

33 ConServatiVes crazzy? YoU BEt youR ass we R!

Don't mess with US or we WilL Kill U.

Now bring me some pudding damn it.

Posted by: Drew at November 30, 2006 01:02 PM (gNyUT)

34 Um, the dude asked me two questions.
The first one was, "Do you support the Iraq War?"
I said "Yeah, I guess so."

The second question was, "Do you believe in government sponsored health care for all of it's residents?" I said, "Um, no."

Then the dude said I was "fucking crazy" and called me a "Neo-Con Bush-lover."

Posted by: Crazy Psycho at November 30, 2006 01:03 PM (4GrEG)

35 Well, Knemon, that's where I got my hypothesis from (well, it came from my ass, but after it emerged, the thinking was that psychotics would go for someone they recognized). Again, I bet if people had been surveyed in 1996, you'd see they would be saying "Bob who?"

Another hypothesis: these psychotics come from a Republican area of the state. They're outpatients, so I would guess that they're getting treatment near where they live. You're not going to see a Berkeley outpatient show up at a Connecticut treatment center.

Last choice: it's 69 frigging people. It's just complete chance that it turned out this way.

Posted by: meep at November 30, 2006 01:08 PM (5j3FI)

36 I own a mansion and a yacht.

and I always, always vote for the Repubwican.

Posted by: Elmer J. Fudd at November 30, 2006 01:12 PM (dTi2n)

I own a mansion and a yacht.

and I always, always vote for the Repubwican.

"You should stop...you should stop...you SHOULD stop...YOU should STOP traumatizing women with sexual intercourse. Should STOP. You should stop traumatizing women sexually. I should know. I'm a medical doctor. I own a mansion and a yacht."

Posted by: otcconan at November 30, 2006 01:21 PM (vVeLO)

38 Sorry, I hear that line and I think of "Slacker" before I think of Elmer. And the woman in that movie was certifiable.

Posted by: otcconan at November 30, 2006 01:22 PM (vVeLO)

39 Can't wait for 2008:

Re-Education Camps for conservatives.

Because they are crazy and insane and paranoid and fascist.

So we progressives must strike first.

Posted by: at November 30, 2006 01:26 PM (Gi7oA)

40 "I could have been a scientist. But I did too well on my IQ test.

I'm going to start recycling that line alot."

It will work even better when you realize that there is no such word as alot. Yea, yea, I know. Spelling Nazi.

Posted by: JackStraw at November 30, 2006 01:27 PM (t+mja)

41 Well, Ace and Geoff, it should just be "Theirs"

Their's would be like Hi's or Her's

Posted by: funky at November 30, 2006 01:34 PM (EZWY4)

42 Social Work isn't science!

Posted by: funky at November 30, 2006 01:34 PM (EZWY4)

43 Quite correct, funky.

Posted by: geoff at November 30, 2006 01:40 PM (2d9Ny)

44 Funny, I always thought it was liberals and lefties--not conservatives--who preferred authoritative (or authoritarian) leaders.

Think about it.

Posted by: Ed Snate at November 30, 2006 01:43 PM (vwuU8)

45 Man, there's a lot of crazy out there today.

Posted by: Ed Snate at November 30, 2006 01:44 PM (vwuU8)

46 "Despite the setback, I promise not going to give up on the psycho vote in any of the 50 states," announced Democratic party head Howard Dean, "We're going after the psychos in Connectictut. And then we're going to Michigan, and Washington, and Virginia. And then we're going to Washington D.C. to take back the White House. Yeeeeeeeaaaahhh!!!!"

Posted by: pbrown at November 30, 2006 01:52 PM (O+9Yg)

47 Southern Connecticut State university is the MIT of southern Connecticut.

And their motto is...

Be Adequite

Posted by: Bart at November 30, 2006 01:55 PM (QYfAM)

48 You know, I actually am psychotic. My mum can back me up on this and everything; medication, time spent in the hospital, the works. It's genetic, I'm sad to say. But I was a Bush supporter long before any of that ever entered my life.

As a member of the Batshit-American community, I'm disgusted by the implication that conservatism is a mental defect. This jackass is cheapening both us and the real problems of psychosis by claiming that we only vote Bush because we're crazy. Here's another psychological term for you, mister: projection. And I may have my moments, but I've taken pains to educate myself about my condition, and this kind of attitude smacks dangerously of both a superiority complex and a determination to find fault, which are signs of a weak ego.

The leftie journalists? Greed and hysteria. The leftie politicians? Superiority and a father-knows-best attitude that leaves me utterly cold. *bangs head against desk* This guy goes right up there on my list of "Jackasses who don't know what mental illness REALLY entails," alongside Tom Cruise. Next time I run out of my meds, point me in said student's direction, won't you? I can't join the military like I wanted to, but at least I can do a public service by keeping him from ever graduating.

Posted by: Tungsten Monk at November 30, 2006 01:57 PM (8pSCy)

49 social work master’s student

Master of social work? Is that even a real degree? That's like getting a masters in janitorial systems, though probably not as useful.

Posted by: at November 30, 2006 02:10 PM (Y3JHF)

50 I know two people working on advanced degrees in social work. It's hard not to laugh.

Posted by: Carin at November 30, 2006 02:15 PM (gOmmg)

51
Yes. We conservatives are insane. That's why we give so much more to charity than secular progressives.

On a more serious note - can anyone here see what's coming once this theory is accepted as truth?

Knock on door. "We're taking you away for your own good. You listen to Rush Limbaugh and obviously need ot be taken to one of our"re-education" centers.

"Oh, and by the way - we're taking your kids. The Village will do a much better job of raising them."

Posted by: Patti at November 30, 2006 02:22 PM (JqXWM)

52 I don't know which to say:

1) Better crazy than stupid, or

2) Democrats are just mentally ill people who have not been institutionalized yet.

Posted by: Ron at November 30, 2006 02:44 PM (jBPjf)

53 One visit to a leftist protest parade is all it takes to sink his thesis.

Posted by: Scott Free at November 30, 2006 02:55 PM (s9+bo)

54 One of my customers today: "The Russians poisoned another one."

Me: "Really. Tsk, tsk. Just imagine."

She: "That Putin..." *shaking head*

Me: "Can you imagine electing a leader and then he pretty much becomes a dictator?"

She: "That is going to happen here. They're going to say we can't change presidents during a time of war, and that will be that. You watch! He said he saw Putin's soul! He likes him because they're two of a kind! Garfle! Blagblag chertlykash! GRAAAAARPHLE greasy fried onions!"

Me: *biting lip, tasting blood*

You can't blame me for not knowing. They look just exactly like people.

Posted by: lauraw at November 30, 2006 03:26 PM (DbybK)

55 THIS JUST IN
For my master's thesis, I have demonstrated that non-psychotic Americans showed a small but measurable tendency to favor George Bush for President over John Kerry. This tendency was geographically dispersed, occurring in enough states to give Bush a majority of votes in the Electoral College.

Posted by: bgates at November 30, 2006 04:18 PM (5X1St)

56 mental i,llness is cuased by going to those liberal collages and learning to be a bubbleheaded headshrinking idiot like him

Posted by: spurwing plover at November 30, 2006 06:00 PM (TPwuq)

I was distracted by "Misty Ginacola" in the post. The name was ..interesting, so I googled her name (no pics by the way) and all that came up was a bunch of left wing sites saying "See, I told you so." That is rather odd, as if she was a respected statistician it should have produced multiple hits. Also, a sample size of 69 is rather small. When I was working on my thesis, my professors stressed that it is dangerous to extrapolate conclusions outside the data set, and I included many disclaimers in my paper. I was working at Great Lakes Naval Base, and did my Master’s thesis on the “spiral development” method we were using to develop new training plans for the Engineering schools. There was a lot of resistance to spiral development, which entailed implementing the new programs before they were fully developed and then fine tuning the programs with small incremental changes after the programs were online. My surveys covered over a thousand personnel. Even with that robust data set, the reader was cautioned that the findings only applied to the engineering school in Great Lakes and not the Navy in general and additionally that subsets of the data (ie enlisted E-5, E-6, E-7, officer) yielded different conclusions when looked at separately.

Posted by: PukingDog at November 30, 2006 06:54 PM (P6vVJ)

58 I was distracted by "Misty Ginacola" in the post.

I was distracted by "Misty Ginacola" when I saw her in Backdoor Babes 9: The End of the Beginning.

Posted by: OregonMuse at November 30, 2006 08:04 PM (u74yY)

59 Q: How do you get rid of someone with a masters in social work who's at your front door?

A: Pay them for the pizza.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at November 30, 2006 08:22 PM (p9O/F)

60 If I remember correctly, the "liberals" were all going to run away to Canada (or something like that) if Bush won the 2004 election. He did, and they're still here. And some moonbat calls conservatives nuts? Liberalism is a, or actually the, mental disorder.

Posted by: Steve at November 30, 2006 08:58 PM (orluU)

61 The liberals were going to run away to Canada if Bush won the 2000 election. There was a great thread on Lucianne about Alec Baldwin's announcement to that effect, and a whole bunch of great suggestions about where he should go. The only two I remember are "Antarctica" and "back under the rock he crawled out from."

Posted by: Tungsten Monk at November 30, 2006 09:48 PM (8pSCy)

62 Filet-O-Fish thinks this is the best news EVAR!

"I'm Othiver Willithbs. And thabt's the truthhbbsp".

Posted by: Dave in Texas at December 01, 2006 05:16 AM (hNyWr)

63 Let me see if I have this straight - someone gets a masters degree for declaring the opposing party to be "crazy"? Sh!t, every commenter here needs to get their cranky arse down to SCSU and apply for their degree stat.

Dems shouldn't worry overmuch though; even if it were true that asylums vote republican, all they need to do to nix that is stop bussing them all to the polls every election in their straitjackets and bathrobes - and they'll always have a lock on the undead vote (it's common knowledge that voters default to D in the afterlife).

Posted by: Scott at December 01, 2006 06:25 AM (z2RMg)

64 Who is that crazy looking lady?

Posted by: Winston at December 01, 2006 06:38 AM (jiQQE)

65 Oxymoron for the day: social work.

Posted by: triticale at December 01, 2006 09:39 AM (YUwuZ)

66 An image search of the name Misty, even without safesearch, is surprisingly disappointing

Posted by: hobgoblin at December 01, 2006 09:50 AM (p1s9n)

67 Re-Education Camps for conservatives.

Can I get the construction projects? I promise to do shoddy work and hire lots of brown people.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at December 01, 2006 12:44 PM (p9O/F)

68 that crazy looking lady showed up in some Washington Post article some time back. BDS of the highest magnitude dude.

Seriously, who's really crazy? Conservatives who lose an election, shrug their shoulders and say "ah well, try harder next time" or the libs who cry about "stolen" elections, "selected not elected!" and want to run away to canada if they don't get their way?

Posted by: at December 01, 2006 12:48 PM (059Fh)

69 Can I get the construction projects? I promise to do shoddy work and hire lots of brown people.

But then you'll be spending all your time crapping your pants. If you're a true conservative, that is.

Posted by: OregonMuse at December 01, 2006 02:30 PM (PsGnn)

70 Just like the idiot who tried to find a connection between gun ownership and roadrage what a bunch of eggheads and our tax money is being used to pay for such junk science how about THERES A DSFFINATE CONNECTION BETWEEN WATCHING MINDLESS LIBERAL TV PROGRAMS AND THE DUMB STUDENTS COMMING OUT OF OUR SCHOOLS. THE SIMPSONS MAKES YOU STUPID

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