For leftists, junk science `R' us

"For leftists, junk science ‘R’ us"’ headlines Canadafreepress.com

Then comes Michael M. Bates' skewering of a Cal Berkeley study that “found” whiny kids tend to grow up to be conservative while confident kids turn out to be liberals.

Here’s Bates:

Blogosphere liberals were chuckling to themselves this week. I don't begrudge them that. It's a refreshing change of pace from talking to themselves.

The source of their amusement was Sunday's article in the Toronto Star titled, “How to spot a baby conservative.” The story centered on a study conducted by University of California at Berkeley professor Jack Block that tracked 95 people from their days as nursery school students to adulthood.

According to the article, “The whiny kids tended to grow up conservative, and turned into rigid young adults who hewed closely to traditional gender roles and were uncomfortable with ambiguity.”

By contrast, “The confident kids turned out liberal and were still hanging loose, turning into bright, non-conforming adults with wide interests.”

For those unfamiliar with lib-speak, “rigid” and “uncomfortable with ambiguity” are code for having a sense of right and wrong. “Hewing closely to traditional gender roles” means heterosexual, believing in conventional marriage and accepting that men and women are different. …

Bates asks some important questions:

What objective criteria were used to establish which kids were “whiny” and which ones were “confident?”

Were these the only determinants of an individual's politics or were other factors measured and taken into account?

How representative of the general population were kids enrolled in a nursery school in Berkeley, California decades ago?

Bates has done some research himself. His subject? The whiny study’s principal author. Bates found

Professor Block gained some notoriety in 1990 with another study, one related to teen drug use. His research, of a group of only 101, found that those who had experimented with illegal drugs tended to be healthier and better adjusted than either drug abusers or people who had never tried dope.

Compared to the experimenters, the young people who abstained were “not warm and responsive, not curious and open to new experience, not active, not vital, and not cheerful.” Sounds like another way of calling them rigid young adults who hewed closely to traditional gender roles and were uncomfortable with ambiguity.

Jack Block's curriculum vitae, thoughtfully posted on the Internet, reflects several grants from different government agencies over the years. Federal Election Commission records show the admiration is mutual; he's made many financial contributions to big government liberals.

Howard Dean, Dennis Kucinich, Ralph Nader, Russell Feingold and Barack Obama are but a few who've enjoyed Block's jack. So have lefty outfits such as Moveon.org, the Council for a Livable World and America Coming Together.

How about that? Anyone surprised?

Bates concludes that Block’s “findings” are ironic:

After all, it's liberals who have developed an unhealthful addiction to the state. They demand that government make all sorts of decisions--from retirement plans to the size of their toilets--for responsible adults. Who see conspiracies everywhere but in abortion clinics. Who still fixate on the 2000 presidential election and just can't, if you'll pardon the expression, move on.
…
So, OK, let liberals feel better about themselves by imagining that conservatives are complainers when they're small children. The rest of us know with certitude which adults have a monopoly on whining.

You can read the whole thing here.

I don't know what sort of response Professor Block will make but I'm sure we all hope it isn't whiny.
_______________
Michelle Malkin has a lot more at PSYCHOANALYZE THIS