“Chaotic soup of politics:” a Native American Indian mental health perspective

Through a grounded theory process, tribal politics emerged as a core theme from interviews with mental health providers (MHPs) and Native American Indian people experiencing persistent mental illness (PMI). Interviews were conducted over a four-year period with 13 Indian MHPs and administrators, and 18 persons experiencing PMI. Symbolic Interactionism was the informing framework. Findings indicate that reservation life promotes a high immersion in Eurocentric politics, which negatively affects the person with PMI in their maintenance of a healthy spirit balance. To be effective, MHPs need immersion in; the oneness of culture, spirituality, and politics of the community; knowledge of the tribal history; and communication with elders/spiritual leaders. This personal growth could facilitate provision of culturally responsive care needed for a client's navigation of intergovernmental regulations. MHPs should work for adequate funding policies of human service centers while supporting the establishment of indigenous governing practices through tribal sovereignty.     

An Examination of Aggressive Beliefs and Attitudes in Relation to Political Affiliation and Candidate Endorsement in the United States

Abstract

Social cognition provides insight into why Americans are largely divided with strong partisan rifts. The purpose of this set of studies was to examine social cognitive forms of aggression in relation to political party affiliation and political candidate endorsement. In Study 1 (N?=?1,657), all forms of aggressive social cognitions (hostile attribution, potency, retribution, victimization by powerful others, derogation of target, and social discounting) were significantly associated with one or more political parties in some respect (Democrat, Republican, Independent). In Study 2 (N?=?579), participants who endorsed Bernie Sanders reported higher scores on victimization, while participants who endorsed Donald Trump reported scores high on potency (social cognitive forms of aggression were unrelated to support for Hillary Clinton or Ted Cruz beyond political ideology). Results suggest that current political division goes beyond mere differences in political ideology as fundamental aggression-related individual differences appear to covary with how partisans see political parties and primary candidates. Implications include the potential application of our findings to better managing political interpersonal dynamics. For example, knowing that divergent political beliefs and behaviors are associated with fundamental differences in how people perceive the same stimuli may ease partisan hostility, facilitate dialog, and increase willingness to compromise.     

The Buddha was a devoted nationalist: Buddhist nationalism,ressentiment, and defending Buddhism in Myanmar

Since 2012, Buddhist nationalist movements – especially the 969 movement and Ma Ba Tha – have emerged in Burma/Myanmar seeking to defend Buddhism against mainly the Muslim minority, with monks delivering nationalist anti-Muslim sermons to huge audiences. The aim of this article is to demonstrate how a discriminatory nationalist agenda can – by appealing to the common trope of Buddhism-in-danger – appear to be justified to Buddhists. Based mainly on nationalist sermons, as well as on fieldwork and nationalist publications, this article examines discourse on the Buddha as a nationalist. First, it argues that Burmese Buddhist nationalism, analytically, should be understood as a ressentiment ideological discourse that also informs a Buddhist-nationalist discipline claimed to bring karmic merit. Second, it traces the roots of this ideology to the colonial period. Third, the article outlines and seeks to define how ‘Buddhist nationalism’ should be understood in an emic sense.     

Wild Analysis in Politics

This commentary provides a critical discussion of Crouse and Stalker's (2007) attempt to psychoanalyze right‐wing authoritarian beliefs. The psychological inventory used by Crouse and Stalker for this purpose, The Right‐Wing Authoritarian Scale (Altemeyer, 1998), has dubious validity characteristics, and the conclusions reached by Crouse and Stalker regarding the origins and characteristics of right‐wing political beliefs and attitudes may be more reflective of the authors' political prejudices than of a serious psychoanalytic study of different personality structures. In the present article, the author demonstrates not only the flaws associated with the measuring instrument used, but also the left‐wing biases in the Crouse and Stalker analysis. Unfortunately, these prejudices against individuals with conservative political beliefs may be extensively present in the psychology and psychoanalytic communities and serve neither an appropriate clinical nor scientific purpose.     

Contextualising the Quebec Charter of Values: how the Muslim ‘Other’ is conceptualised in Quebec

At varying points in Quebec’s recent history, political parties have gained prominence through employing identity politics, framing Muslims as a threatening ‘Other’. This occurred during the Reasonable Accommodation debates from 2006 to 2008 and more recently in discussions over Bill 60, a proposed law that would have prohibited government employees or employees of state-funded institutions from wearing conspicuous forms of religious attire. This article attempts to contextualise the anti-Muslim fallout which resulted from Bill 60, arguing that it was symptomatic of pre-existing fears of a threatening ‘Other’. Through examining how Quebec identity was transformed in the 1960s, this article will demonstrate how the values proceeding from this era influenced state policies to preserve the white francophone majoritarian culture. In the post-9/11 context, this has resulted in Islamophobic rhetoric and anti-Muslim bias permeating political and media discourses in Quebec on the grounds of asserting gender equality and secularist ideals.     

The Embrace of Radical Philosophical Emptiness as a Liberating Conceptualization of Thought in Roland Barthes and Jean Baudrillard

Among the challenges of poststructuralist thought has been the demand that we acknowledge a kind of philosophical emptiness which many feel accompanies the perceived decline in foundationalist thought. By looking more closely at Barthes and Baudrillard＇s writing on meaning, writing, language, truth, and the real, we can come to a better understanding of the emergence and implications of the poststructural challenge. The paper argues that Barthes＇ and Baudrillard＇s writing on these five key concepts can lead us to a more liberating conception of thought and contribute to our individual effort to become more challenging thinkers. This paper also （unavoidably） points to several points of convergence and divergence between Barthes and Baudrillard.     

The Essentiality of “Culture” in the Study of Religion and Politics

This article reviews various theoretical approaches political scientists employ in the analysis of religion and politics and posits culture as a conceptual bridge between competing approaches. After coming to the study of religion slowly in comparison with other social science disciplines, political science finally has a theoretically diverse and thriving religion and politics subfield. However, political scientists’ contributions to the social scientific study of religion are hampered by a lack of agreement about whether endogenous or exogenous theoretical approaches ought to dominate our scholarship. I assert that the concept of culture—and more specifically, subculture—might help create more connections across theoretical research traditions. I emphasize how the concept of religion‐based subculture is inherent in psychological, social psychological, social movement, and contextual approaches to religion and politics scholarship, and I explore these theoretical connections using the example of religion‐based “us versus them” discourses in contemporary American politics.     

The Young and the Restless? The Liberalization of Young Evangelicals

This study examines popular and scholarly perceptions that young American evangelicals are becoming more liberal than older evangelicals. Young evangelicals are more likely to have more liberal attitudes on same‐sex marriage, premarital sex, cohabitating, and pornography, but not abortion. This analysis is situated within the theoretical context of emerging adulthood, and considers higher education, delayed marriage, and shifts in moral authority as potential mediating factors accounting for age differences. A new method for operationalizing evangelical as a religious identity is suggested and three different classification schemes are examined: religious tradition, self‐identified evangelicals, and theologically conservative Protestants. The data come from the 2006 Panel Study of American Religion and Ethnicity.     

Intersecting Identities as a Source of Religious Incongruence

Chaves (2010) argues that much of the work in the sociology of religion is susceptible to the religious congruence fallacy—the tendency to assume consistency between religious beliefs and one's attitudes and behaviors across situations when they are in fact highly variable. We build on and extend this argument by focusing on intersecting group identities as a mechanism for identifying such incongruence, not only within religious contexts, but also at the intersection of categories such as gender and race. To illustrate this argument, the analysis draws on data from the 2006 Panel Study of American Religion and Ethnicity (PS‐ARE) to assess how race, gender, and religion interact to produce different levels of attitude and behavior incongruencies on key issues of the day, specifically conservative social values and voting behaviors. The results find marked differences and inconsistent relationships between attitudes and behaviors across racial‐gender groups. We use the analysis to highlight the conditions that result in incongruence at the intersections of identity categories and pinpoint where social scientists are most vulnerable to committing the congruence fallacy.     

Religious Appeals and Implicit Attitudes

This article explores the effects of religious appeals by politicians on attitudes and behavior. Although politicians frequently make religious appeals, the effectiveness of these appeals and the mechanisms of persuasion are unknown. This article explores the possibility that religious language can affect political attitudes through implicit processes. Because religious attachments are formed early in the lives of many Americans, religious language may influence citizens without their awareness. Implicit and explicit attitudes are related but distinct constructs, and implicit attitudes may have behavioral implications in the political realm. I test these hypotheses experimentally, relying on a widely used implicit measure, the Implicit Association Test. I find that a Christian religious appeal affects implicit attitudes and political behavior among people who currently or previously identify as Christian. Furthermore, an explicit preference for less religion in politics does not moderate implicit effects.