Liberals are Paranoid Fantasists
Adam Freedman ·
April 10, 2012 at 6:56pm
That's not just me talking; it's Science! The weekend WSJ reported on a demographic survey of "Dream Recall and Political Ideology." Among the interesting findings: 65% of the liberals said their dreams seemed "just like waking life." Now, I'm no doctor, but according to WebMD, there's this thing called "delusional disorder," which is characterized by the inability to "tell what is real from what is imagined." And what to make of this? 61% of liberals said they'd been chased in their dreams . . . compared with only 47% of conservatives.
Delusional? Paranoid? Does anybody know a liberal like that?
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Jun '10
Re: Liberals are Paranoid Fantasists
Conservative brains need more rest at night because they're used more during the day.
Re: Liberals are Paranoid Fantasists
The disparity in dream recall between liberals and conservatives is fascinating. Fwiw, I remember my dreams almost every night, and they seem a lot like waking life, and I'm occasionally chased in them.
Dec '11
Re: Liberals are Paranoid Fantasists
I suffer from sleep paralysis. So about quarterly my body essentially waterboards me on general principle, primarily as a reminder to drink in moderation and maintain regular sleep patterns.
What does that say about me?
You do make an interesting observation. I wouldnt go so far as to say an inability to tell truth from fantasy though.
Edited on April 10, 2012 at 7:19pmAug '10
Re: Liberals are Paranoid Fantasists
THAT'S OUTRAGEOUS! AN OUTRAGE! I PROTEST!
Re: Liberals are Paranoid Fantasists
Hah - I wish I'd said that!
Re: Liberals are Paranoid Fantasists
Have you had the urge to "Occupy" any public spaces lately?
Nov '10
Re: Liberals are Paranoid Fantasists
Were liberals being chased by reality in their dreams?
Mar '11
Re: Liberals are Paranoid Fantasists
From what I've heard, Marijuana (purely medicinal) can have such effects. Not that there's any correlation, of course.
Nov '10
Re: Liberals are Paranoid Fantasists
The reason for the dream difference is that liberals tend to score higher on one of the Big Five personality traits: openness to experience. One if its major facets is a tendency towards to have vivid imagination and fantasy life. But its has other components too, like curiosity and neophilia, as well as some interesting correlates, like intelligence and youth.
Jun '10
Re: Liberals are Paranoid Fantasists
Liberals having a big commitment to fantasy is not surprising. They dream of a government that is always benevolent, and they think that is reality.
Nov '10
Re: Liberals are Paranoid Fantasists
There's certainly a link to openness to experience!
Flory, K., Lynam, D., & Milich, R. (2002). The relations among personality, symptoms of alcohol and marijuana abuse, and symptoms of comorbid psychopathology: Results from a community sample. Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, 10, 425-434.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12498340
"...symptoms of marijuana abuse were characterized by low Extraversion and high Openness to Experience."
Jun '10
Re: Liberals are Paranoid Fantasists
I'm in a book club with several of my old law school friends (political books are banned). I describe myself as the token rational reactionary. A couple are delusionists when it comes to Obama. It's rather off-putting to see them get misty-eyed just talking about him.
When they don't talk politics, they quickly revert to rational mode. It's very odd. I mostly watch and marvel.
Sep '10
Re: Liberals are Paranoid Fantasists
You'll remember a dream only if you wake up during the dream, or immediately after, I think. At least that's true for me. If this is true for all people, the study indicates that liberals are more likely to wake up in the middle of dreaming. This could be for a variety of reasons. Any MDs out there who can tell us what causes people to wake up more often during dream sleep?
Sep '10
Re: Liberals are Paranoid Fantasists
tabula rasa: A couple are delusionists when it comes to Obama. It's rather off-putting to see them get misty-eyed just talking about him.
When they don't talk politics, they quickly revert to rational mode. It's very odd. I mostly watch and marvel. · 1 minute ago
The same happens with some academics I know. For many of them, liberal politics is their version of religion.
Mar '11
Re: Liberals are Paranoid Fantasists
A leftist must have commissioned that survey. I just don't see sensible conservatives falling for "Dream Recall" as any serious indicator of public policy outcomes.
But, then again, we're a competitive bunch. Liberals want to tout their recall prowess? Well, we had Governor Total Recall on our side. Beat that!
Mar '11
Re: Liberals are Paranoid Fantasists
[insert pun here about Scott Walker and the "recall election" in Wisconsin]
Sep '10
Re: Liberals are Paranoid Fantasists
I was only asking if you knew where the closest Starbuck's was.
Women.
Jul '11
Re: Liberals are Paranoid Fantasists
On the rare occasions where criminals, werewolves or vampires are chasing me I always turn to face them and kick the snot out of them.
TR, all the ardent Obama supporters I know are conditioned not to discuss around me or I launch in to a tirade that ends with ,"You'll get a variant of this speech every time you bring up the worst president in US history so be warned". It is to the point where some will shush others just to avoid "the speech".
dogsbody, the liberal mind is in a permanent dream like state which involves equality, fairness, rainbows and unicorns. One can fix this with a frontal lobotomy, paying taxes, or being mugged.
Oct '10
Re: Liberals are Paranoid Fantasists
I'm uncomfortable with this sort of thing. Attention-hungry social science professors do the "your side is inferior/superior to the other" thing all the time (though mostly it's liberal superiority to conservatives).
This sort of thing leads to cocooning, and electoral defeat.
Jan '11
Re: Liberals are Paranoid Fantasists
If we're judging people by their dreams, well, I'd better lie low on this one.