I enjoyed an entertaining exchange on a favourite point of argument this week: is it better to be constant; or constantly changing?
Almost certainly a bit of both. Nevertheless which you prefer apparently says quite a lot about you. Fox News, ranks this among the ‘Dumbest Research Studies of 2016 (So Far)‘:
“There’s a simple trick to determine liberals from conservatives: Phew, someone’s figured this out. It seems that it’s all just in the words. Conservatives like to use nouns more than liberals. For example, they would tend to call people “optimists” instead of “optimistic” or an “idealist” instead of “idealistic.”
But I thought it was smarter than Fox and sent it to my ‘constant friend’ overseas. He replied:
“Why add an ic to a word when it is redundant? I’m sure there’s another research study there.”
I’m sure there is. But the difference is all the difference in the world…
Instead of being forever trapped as a relentless optimist, an unblinking idealist; a rank pessimist or a brutal realist, I’d rather enjoy moments of them all – depending on the topic, situation or theme.
I’m a liberal when if comes to character; so this week’s Fox News bulletin gives me a new campaign slogan: ‘Down with nouns.’
Achilles & Aristotle 
According to Jonathan Haidt, another good way to separate liberals from conservatives is to ask if you have a high level of openness to experience, preferring novelty, variety, diversity, new ideas and travel rather than the familiar, safe and dependable. He sees the conservative values as in-group loyalty and authority/respect (and thinks we should value all the values, so equal respect for nouns and adjectives!).
(Ted and http://www.YourMorals.org)
Novelty, variety, diversity and new ideas and travel; what’s not to like!