The Berkeley professors who published that silly attack on conservatives a few weeks ago, now claim that conservatives are too stupid to understand what they really meant. Read:
Apparently without reading our original articles or attempting to contact any of us, many commentators and syndicated columnists, including Ann Coulter and Cal Thomas — George Will [op-ed, Aug. 10] apparently read but misunderstood our work) — assumed that such a psychological analysis of ideology entails a judgment that conservatism must be abnormal, pathological or even the result of mental illness. The British media seem to have settled on the highly stigmatized and equally inaccurate term “neuroses.” All of this reflects a crude and outdated perception of psychological research.
Whomever knows, I’m no fan of Coulter or Thomas. But if Kruglanski and Jost weren’t making the point everyone thinks they were trying to make, then why did they preface their paper with a George Will line taken out of context? Read from Will on August 10:
The professors’ paper is adorned with this epigraph:
“Conservatism is a demanding mistress and is giving me a migraine.”
— George F. Will
A “mistress” who is “demanding”? Freud, call your office. The epigraph is from “Bunts,” a book of baseball essays, from an essay concerning what conservatives should think about the designated hitter.
Only in Berkeley, I suppose, is it considered proper to get defensive when you’re properly understood.
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