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‘It’s Bullsh*t’: Liberals Seethe At Diversity Debunking Study

Liberals pride themselves on being a bastion of diversity. As it turns out, they’re rather uniform in this belief. 

Democrats (more than Republicans) tightly centre their belief-system around a set of positions at the extremes of these particular items, implying that people who deviate from these positions are likely to be considered as outgroup members,” according to a study from the British Journal of Social Psychology is making the rounds on social media. “It is possible that holding extreme (and thus unnegotiable) attitudes on important social-political issues has become increasingly identity defining for Democrats,” the authors speculate. 

The study’s authors recruited over 400 paid participants. 58.1% self-identified as Democrats, 28% as Independents, and 13.9% as Republicans. They asked participants to rank their opinions on eight questions regarding “hot-button topics such as abortion, immigration, gun control, and gay marriage” on a 5-point scale. They concluded the “cluster reflecting Democrat belief-system almost exclusively contained extreme attitudes as indicated by strong disagreement with each of the eight items. Conversely, the cluster reflecting the Republican belief-system contained a wider range of attitude responses ranging from mild disagreement to maximum agreement.” (RELATED: Top Presidential Contender Wrecks Hopes Before Stepping Foot On Campaign Trail)

Loyalty tests serve a vital function for political organizations (and human organizations more broadly). They signal out-group from in-group. The higher the signaling cost – like, say, demanding in-group members affirm that men are women – the more sure one can be of in-group loyalty. 

The left has spent decades shifting the window of acceptable beliefs leftwards. The “right” is an assortment of those now-unacceptable beliefs. It includes former Democrats, hard-line MAGA moms, neoconservatives, people who don’t consume canola oil, and “Gays Against Groomers.” The right’s identity is largely negative: “We are not the left.” 

Such an alliance proved an effective organizing strategy against a politically and culturally ascendant left. As President Donald Trump’s second term plays out, we may see those bonds tested by deep ideological differences. The “big, beautiful break-up” between Trump and Elon Musk over national debt is just a taste of what’s to come. (RELATED: Glenn Greenwald Scandal Proves Tolerance Is Not A Virtue — It’s High Time Conservatives Start Acting Like It)

Liberals, for their part, have a different explanation of the study’s results. Look no further than responses to the study on Reddit’s r/AskLiberals.

One user proposes that “the ‘diversity of thought’ on the right is a grab-bag of whatever convenient bs they believe in this week to absolve themselves of responsibility or consequences.”

“It’s bullshit,” writes another. “You can see how ‘diverse’ the right are in their support and defense of the white supremacist raids Trump’s thugs are currently conducting.”

Yet another Redditor diagnoses the “American right” as “vulnerable to the epidemic of xenophobic nationalism that has swept the country in the last decade.”

“Diversity” is not the classical liberal’s organizing principle. “Equality” is. See: inalienable rights. The modern liberal goes a step further, demanding not just natural rights, but equality of outcome. Differences between individuals – of the cognitive, ideological, racial, or sexual variety – are impediments to that end. When the world is boiled down into a homogenous gray goo, true equality will be had at last. 

The American left retains elements of this impulse towards homogeneity. But they’ve strayed far afield from the likes of John Locke. If their stated goal is “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” their revealed goal is inverting traditional hierarchies. Everyone will be equal – protected classes most of all. 

Follow Natalie Sandoval on X: @NatalieIrene03



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