Bleeding Heart Tightwads: Liberals are less charitable than Republicans

Bigtexxx's measure of the "successful ones"???

Family members with more than five teeth!

 

Why is that?

 

I haven't read the book, so I can only guess. I would suspect that independents and moderates are more likely to be cynical, but I don't know. He also says that the most religious people are happiest, followed by the least religious. All the people in the middle are less happy.

 

I read a study recently that claimed that a larger percentage of Conservatives considered themselves happy than did liberals (regardless of income, thus negating the "more money - happiness theory). I don't know if it is because of religion or just a conservative contentment mindset. I'll have to try to find the link to the study, I remember reading it from CNN.com

 

I guess if you want to be happy you need to pick your side of the boat.

 

I've read similar things. There is some apparently strong evidence that (1) having a deep faith, and (2) being involved in charity both greatly increase a person's reporting themselves as happy.

Maybe point 1 relates to weslinder's note about moderates/independents. The extreme areligious have a sort of faith that they are correct and following the correct path.

Luckily, we have this growing field of "positive psychology" to look forward to. Just like we're studying not just what makes people physically healthy (as opposed to just focusing on disease), you've got a lot of social scientists now studying what makes people mentally healthy and content (as opposed to just focusing on all the ailments).

 

all the conservatives go to joel osteen's church, therefore they're happy

 

I would hypothesize that the cause is contentment and the effect is conservatism. People who are content with their lives and their position in life are more likely to consider themselves conservative (most basic definition: resistant to change).

 

The study doesn't say conservatives are happy, political moderates aren't, so its best to hypothesize that people with causes in life are happy, whether it be religion, or helping the homeless, or whatever. I've generally found this to be true.

 

Except <del>a lot</del> most of the people that call themselves 'conservative' would be more effectively described as reactionary. Listen to Rush Limbaugh or watch Sean Hannity for a few hours if you think conservatism = contentment with the way things are. They spend 90% percent of their time complaining about 'the world that liberals have made'.

 

Republicans make liberals unhappy.

 

Based on recent posting history, that perception will be changing over the next eight years...

snicker

 

11/4 changed everything

 

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/8cc2910fbd58cc8eaa83f0a39229746b.htm

Based on this true figure, it seems Muslims, kooky Scandinavian liberals, french Casino owners, tax evaders, more kooky Scandinavian liberals and the drunken Irish are more charitable then American republicans. While we're on the trend of generalizing everything.

 

Delete thread ban user imo

 

...actually, I think it's kinda a valid point, just way too general. Anything that gets people fired up to do good things shouldn't be censored. Maybe liberals don't donate as much; there's some hypocrisy here. Trying to hide it or avoid it is just repressing and I have to admit, some of the posts here sought to attack first (mine included) and understand later. The premise and intentions may be incendiary. But there could be some good things coming out of it.

 

As well as the problems that arise from looking at this through a strictly liberal-conservative lens, Brooks's actual is not unproblematic either.

 

I'm all for shaming people into being more charitable.

 

Does that mean Biden will give more than 369 this year?