Why can’t the far left tolerate opinions that differ from their own?
Why can’t the far left tolerate opinions that differ from their own?
It is because they are irrational. That is, their mind believes it knows the truth (however, in rationality you can’t: proof).
SHORT EXPLANATION: Irrational people are connected to (applying) their beliefs outside of their capacity to reason. Without reason, a person has only operant conditioning to refine their beliefs. If another person or situation comes along attempting to remove or radically change a belief (other than incremental changes), the person is neurologically at risk because they are unconsciously using/relying/dependent on that belief. This would be akin to deleting a program off a hard drive when the computer is currently running it. The computer would crash. Nevertheless, human minds have emotional protections against such attacks. This is the emotional response we see from irrational people when beliefs are threatened.
A more detailed neurological discussion:
For the following text, see the above image.
People think and learn through two mechanisms:
- Evolutionary – using classical and operant conditioning;
- Developmental – using reason.
Evolutionary decision making uses concepts/beliefs the brain already knows. In the past, people referred to this thinking ability as the subconscious brain or subconscious thinking. But it isn’t. The subconscious brain is your actual brain—in fact, it is nearly your entire brain.
Often, one’s awareness (conscious thought) is not focused on the details of the behavior or thought that the brain is using [1]. Think of awareness as your mind’s monitor … mostly. Sure, sometimes the conscious directs actions, but perceptions originating in sight, hearing, taste, and feeling often drive your thinking. That is, the conscious, with reason, is mostly NOT driving a person’s actions [NOTE 1 again]. Instead, the brain uses operant conditioning to improve or refine beliefs within your “subconscious”. Emotions, via the amygdala, are how the subconscious communicates with the conscious in order to alarm the conscious when something goes wrong, demanding the focus of the mind’s awareness.
Reason can make the big belief corrections however. This is possible because reason momentarily draws the mind away from the solution the mind currently holds as TRUE—i.e. the one the mind is/was using. Much, if not all the “code” for reason is also in the “subconscious” as well, but critically, it is different than the neural network of the “operating” belief. Again, to use a computer analogy: it is like first closing a program before you delete or radically alter it.
Imagine an archer in a competition –
The archer will use operant conditioning to refine their aim at the target (primarily-if they are not using reason to deal with wind, or some other variable). The archer can do this by mental habit (subconscious thinking). Seamlessly. It’s fast. It’s accurate.
However, if the contest judge walked by and told the archer that he was shooting at the wrong target, the archer might be initially alarmed by the amygdala resulting in his great panic. But the conscious is thus alerted. If the archer has faculties of reason, he would pull back and begin using reason to decide which target is the correct one. Calm would soon return. His focus would be regained, and the archer would return to subconscious action with operant conditioning for aim.
Our lesson, DON’T mess with an irrational person’s aim, even if they are shooting at the wrong target. For some horrible reason, they lack reason. They will therefore emotionally defend their beliefs until you eventually give up and walk away. It is all that they know how to do.
[1] This is why so many leftists and otherwise irrational people (Narcissists, Marxists and the woke) think humans do not have free will. GUARDIAN: The clockwork universe: is free will an illusion?
