re: #199 Charles Johnson

You folks who think the Salon article is just horribly bad support for Christopher Dorner had better not ever read a book by James Baldwin — your heads would explode.

There is a group out there that dismisses psychological research as nothing more than fanciful nonsense, shown to be false by common sense and traditional views. That most of the research tells us our common sense is frequently wrong, especially when used to assume reasons for our actions makes it all the more difficult to accept.

The only conclusion that can be made by those invested in their own beliefs is that psychology, represented by some generic liberal plan to blame parents, society, circumstances, whatever can be blamed other than the human being considered is done to shift blame. That we do the research, not to assign blame, but to find ways of recognizing the mental pathways to specific actions in order to minimize deviant behaviour doesn’t enter their thought.

They tend to rely on punishment as a deterrent where liberals look to correcting fundamental causes as a method to prevent behaviours.