[IMC-Editorial] Letter on "Study" Equating Conservatives to Mass Murderers

[The Ayn Rand Institute]

Dear Editor:

Leftist college professors have reached a new high in intellectual
absurdity. In a recent study published in the Psychological Bulletin,
they claim to have discovered that Reagan, Hitler, Mussolini and Rush
Limbaugh have important personality traits in common. They are all
right-wing "conservatives," by which the authors mean they "resist
change." 

Whether such resistance is to freedom or to dictatorship is
not mentioned. So as not to sound too obviously left-wing, the
professors add that left-wing dictators like Stalin, Castro and
Khrushchev (who the leftists have consistently supported or excused)
also "resisted change," and thus may also be labeled as right-wing
"conservatives."

What could be the motive for lumping together an American President, a
talk show host and assorted mass murderers? Obviously to try to
"psychologize" away anyone who disagrees with the leftists by evading
fundamental differences in the content of their ideas, for example,
the fact that conservatives, at least the better ones, support
America's founding, and decidedly radical, principles of freedom and
individual rights, whereas the mass killers only goal was to
obliterate all rights in their mad frenzy to seize power and enslave
or exterminate all those who opposed them or anyone they did not
happen to like.

With nonsense like this passing for objective scientific inquiry, is
it any wonder that the American public is becoming increasingly
contemptuous of its intellectuals?

Sincerely,

Edwin A. Locke
Ayn Rand Institute

2121 Alton Parkway, #250
Irvine, CA  92606
United States
(818) 706-9361

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