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(It’s not satire – it’s the Lib Dems!)
Liberal Democrats and their supporters – the few that remain anyway – fascinate me.
After all, why would a supposedly moderate, liberal, centrist party support a clearly authoritarian Tory administration with the most right-wing policies since Margaret Thatcher’s government in the 1980s?
Well, I’ve been reading up a bit on political and social psychology and I’ve discovered three possible scientific theories which may help to explain this mystery.
Confirmation Bias
Confirmation Bias is a tendency for people to favour information that confirms their decisions, beliefs or hypotheses avoiding information which disproves them. Confirmation Bias leads to a selective collection of facts and evidence – favouring those which support a decision, belief or point of view but completely ignoring any evidence which refutes it, no matter how strong or convincing it may be.
Cognitive Dissonance
In modern psychology, Cognitive Dissonance is the strong need to avoid the discomfort experienced when simultaneously holding two or more conflicting ideas, beliefs, values or emotional reactions. In some ways it is the opposite of ‘buyer’s regret’ – according to the theory of Cognitive Dissonance we tend to protect our ego by ignoring all the evidence that we have made a wrong decision and find numerous reasons to justify it no matter how ridiculous they may be.
Intraspective Onanism
This is the theory that when faced with choices, some of our cognitive functions can revert to a primitive state where conscious decisions of right and wrong are easily subverted by a profound psychological need to put two fingers up to every principle, belief and ounce of integrity you have ever stood for in exchange for a chauffeur-driven ministerial car and a seat at the top table in order to deal with Nick Clegg’s deep-seated feelings of inadequacy that in reality he’s just a jumped up, self-important arsehole who’d sell off his own grandmother for a taste of power.
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OK I might have made up that last one – but still a likely explanation in my opinion.
Anyway, let me know what you think:
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Related articles by Tom Pride:
Scientists Succeed in Growing Missing Teeth on Liberal Democrats
Liberal Democrats decide jobs and economy are not important enough to debate
57 out of 58 Lib Dems voted with Tories to cut pay for low-waged farm workers
Nick Clegg pledges clampdown on harassment of hot Lib Dem peers by women
Nick Clegg scoops best actor Oscar for performance in sci-fi fantasy Total Lack of Recall
Missing Tory Eastleigh by-election candidate Maria Hutchings turns up at US auction
Fresh outbreak of Foot-in-Mouth in Eastleigh as attempts to quarantine Tory candidate fail
All Lib Dem MPs in England and Wales to be microchipped by 2015
Liberal Democrat to stand for far-right English Democrats in Eastleigh by-election
Zoologists – Vince Cable and Ed Balls ready to mate soon
Revealed! Nick Clegg’s secret love going back to his student days
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Pingback: Three reasons why (a few) people still vote Lib...
More in-depth information on the first two theories is usually sought out by people sticking their heads in the sand…
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I came across cognitive dissonance when dealing with a friend who contradicted herself even in one sentence. She had been to turkey where before she had been used by some creep to gain entry to the UK..for some reason she went back and met him and came back miserable. Later i asked her if she wanted to holiday with me she said ok. I asked her where she wanted to go. She said ‘turkey’ ???
Why? When it had been a place of pain for her…
Anyway regarding lib dems i think Its because they are a multi purpose party. They are opportunistic More than others just jumping on whatever popular bandwagon that is current. They dont have ideals basically a blank sheet party with policies to be filled in and crossed out when the moment rises.
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Some still vote LibDem because it is still the intelligent thing to do in their constituency. This is the theory of smooth-bore single-shot electoral politics in a multiple target environment.
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Can i place this link here Tom? This is an oasis thats fast becoming More serious and sadly being ignored either because someone wants it kept quiet or there is little awareness of the problem. please note my comments posted on this blog adding my own experiences as testimony ..
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Crisis NOT oasis ! I bloody hate phone text editors that take over and presume what you want to write !! Grrr
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Confirmation bias motivated by intraspective onanism
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i think like you said bob they never really stood for anything the they could promise anything they liked knowing they were the 3rd party and would never actually have to do it
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Nick Clegg said yesterday on either Andrew Marr show or sunday politics(not sure which) that there is even more welfare reform on the way hopefully against the rich this time not the poorest who should have what they have lost re-instated when they eventually stop paying welfare to the rich.
I do not think a person who has bought their council home should have to use that to pay for their care, most have paid into a system that covers their care all their lives without robbing them or their family of a little inheritance.
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Actually, I still vote Lib Dem because I recognise that labour or the conservatives left to their own devices are what should be feared. I’d rather vote for a party that conceded a few of their policies to one that’s open about trying to fuck with people’s rights and freedoms.
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You’re over thinking it…it’s simply a pragmatic decision that you’re better off in the game if you want any influence on actual policy making. There’s no point holding a set of values if you’re powerless to implement them. It’s an uncomfortable compromise, but one that was necessary at the time.
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you missed out the 4th reason, which to me is the most important. they are fucking morons
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Nick
What policies have the lib dems influenced since the formation of the con/dem coalition?
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I don’t entirely blame the Lib/Dems for forming the coalition with the Cons, after all, Labor (or is it Labour in the UK) had not entirely covered themselves with glory over the previous several years. But, how can they stay in coalition, given the ‘prostitution’ they’ve had to subject themselves to? Introspective Onanism is the only reasonable explanation.
Look on the bright side, you have an execrable government which you can vote out of office; here, in Australia, we have a quite reasonable government which we have to vote out of office to get rid of an execrable leader, with a really capable former leader waiting in the wings (but not acceptable to the machine [union] men who run the party).
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Oh what a cynical lot we’ve become!!
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Some reasons from an actual Lib Dem voter:
The horrifying record of past Labour and Conservative majority governments – I suspect I don’t need to explain the worst excesses Thatcher here, but in my view there were many equally bad aspect of the Blair and Brown governments. I feel that no one party should be given what is in many ways a 5 year dictatorship, especially not the heirs to Thatcher and Blair. I think that coalitions inherently guard against that sort of thing, especially with a party like the Lib Dems, who consistently push back against authoritarianism and disastrous foreign adventures.
A belief in pragmatism and consensus building – Even if end result is further from my own opinions, I think there is an inherent value in compromising across parties and trying to build a broad a consensus as possible. All sorts of tribalism and opposition for its own sake (especially that shown by Labour over the past few years) is deeply offputting.
They place the highest value on personal liberty – This is an ideological view that I completely understand if people disagree with, but the Conservatives and especially Labour are far too willing to resort to populist authoritarian measures that sacrifice our liberties, seemingly just to please tabloid newspapers.
The fairest approach to tax – We’ve started to hear some apologies and changes in direction from Labour recently, but essentially it amounts to them just adopting the majority of the Lib Dems’ longstanding tax policy, like income tax cuts and new wealth taxes. And while Miliband just talks about how a living wage would be a good thing, the Lib Dems have actually made significant progress towards actually implementing it by massively cutting income tax for low earners.
Fantastic local record – Lib Dem councillors consistently stand out as harder working and more in tune with local priorities than those from other parties, especially in my local area.
Lack of trust in Labour on the economy – Labour’s attitude over the past few years in abdicating all responsibility for the current state of the economy and dishonestly implying that no spending cuts at all are necessary does not inspire confidence. Balls and Miliband seem to have realised this and are starting to develop some more reasonable policy on welfare (much to the horror of Labour activists), but to be honest the majority of the party still seems to be in denial.
A commitment to evidence-based policy – Some of this has definitely been diluted due to the coalition, but the Lib Dems still stand out as being uniquely rational in areas like drug policy. Labour haven’t really shown any signs that they have moved on from Alan Johnson’s strategy of firing scientific advisors who point out facts that contradict his opinions.
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the libdem activists are out in force today conceded a few policys thats a joke.
what about voting for secret witch the libdems did.
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isnt the libdems voting for secret fucking with peoples rights and freedems.
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that should of read secret courts the libdems clearly have no more intrest in peoples freedoms than labor and the torys do.
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it is freedoms for the rich at the expense of the poor..they lose, coz they can never gain the biggest treasure of all….self esteem…
localism is nimbyism…
the libs should have said NO! get lost…
gross..”understanding psychology”…A level course book…a good start imho…
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hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
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” but the Lib Dems still stand out as being uniquely rational in areas like drug policy.”
well stone me!!!!!!!!!!!!hhahahahahahahahahahhahaahahaha
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ffhffhffh
The liberals have influenced nothing because nothing has been passed by the tories that they have not wanted to be passed.
The tax threshold was raised for the poorest paid (who should not have been paying tax in the first place) to give the illusion that they were giving something to the low paid, to again give the illusion of fairness for the tax gift they gave to millionaires.
The lib dems could not get a mansion tax passed, but went along with a bedroom tax for the poorest, reducing housing benefit for those with extra bedrooms, no doubt cancelling any tax benefit they may have gained if in work.
The party who stands for nothing achieves nothing, and I would say this maxim suits all three mainstream parties, those who refuse to bend will not break in the wind, as the other old maxim says they will grow stronger and multiply.
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Reblogged this on Gogwit's Blog.
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Clegg is a solipsist onanist (self-centred wanker).
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fawkes….they come up with an interesting solution to the mansion tax…and called a council house, a mansion….
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totally agree
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