Comments on: Symbolic Belief

By: Brendan Nyhan: Why Did Birther Support Drop So Much? | Zurfd

Brendan Nyhan: Why Did Birther Support Drop So Much? | Zurfd — Fri, 13 May 2011 17:19:38 +0000

[...] poll questions about Obama’s religion and place of birth as a way to express disapproval (as some commentators and pollsters have [...]

By: Brendan Nyhan: Why Did Birther Support Drop So Much? | GoodPorkBadPork.com

Brendan Nyhan: Why Did Birther Support Drop So Much? | GoodPorkBadPork.com — Fri, 13 May 2011 17:18:37 +0000

[...] using poll questions about Obama's religion and place of birth as a way to express disapproval (as some commentators and pollsters have [...]

By: Gerald Fnord

Gerald Fnord — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 22:50:52 +0000

There’s actually an hopeful note in this: I’ve long believed that it applies to support in the Muslim world for al-Qa’eda and similar groups, that it’s more a matter of showing what you think of America and the local government it backs than of being willing to do or give much.

This is important because we are unlikely to change the minds of fanatics, but if the vast majority have some less weird way of hating the Empire, they might take it.

By: A very good post « Cephalic Furrow

A very good post « Cephalic Furrow — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 17:11:14 +0000

[...] Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: Lefts and rights — cephalicfurrow @ 1:11 PM Julian Sanchez on how the birthers don’t really mean what they say: Now, certainly it would be unsettling if [...]

By: The Pasty Little Putz and Krugman « Marion in Savannah

The Pasty Little Putz and Krugman « Marion in Savannah — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 10:54:03 +0000

[...] James Lees, teetering on the brink of paranoid violence? Not necessarily. As the libertarian writer Julian Sanchez has pointed out, it’s worth taking all these polling responses with a substantial grain of salt. [...]

By: Guns Don’t Kill People, But Far-Right Extremists Do. « PostBourgie

Guns Don’t Kill People, But Far-Right Extremists Do. « PostBourgie — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 22:10:05 +0000

[...] the 9/11 attacks or allowed them to happen, this is for most people what Julian Sanchez calls a symbolic belief. They don’t really believe that these people are thugs intent on murder–not in the sense that [...]

By: NationalistZ

NationalistZ — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 05:48:42 +0000

So, if Chris Matthews waves around a $1M bill would you all believe he was a millionaire? I might have missed it, but did you post a link to his CoLB? I saw it posted on moveon.org before it disappeared because it was a forgery. Please post the link to the CoLB.

By: ad

ad — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:23:56 +0000

“I’m using the phrase “symbolic belief” for the ones that either work as a public expression of some associated attitude, or play some role in defining the holder’s self-conception.”

If the purpose of a symbolic belief is to signal the belief holders allegiance to a cause, then it occurs to me that extremist, absurd beliefs would send a stronger signal than moderate, sensible beliefs.

Incidently, consider the following thought experiment: imagine that it turns out that Arnold Schwarzenegger was actually born in the US, and he attains the presidency. How many Democrats, especially in the most liberal parts of the US, would remain convinced that he was really a foreigner, and that his election was a fraud?

By: James Kabala

James Kabala — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 03:37:46 +0000

The Canadian conservative blogger has been saying this for some time about 9/11 truthers for some time (although being a Bush fan, she was rather more vehement about it, and she conflated it with hypocrisy as you do not):

http://deborahgyapong.blogspot.com/2007/05/kathy-shaidle-on-911-truthers.html

By: Winter’s Haven » Symbolic Belief

Winter’s Haven » Symbolic Belief — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 22:26:19 +0000

[...] Sanchez has an excellent post on symbolic beliefs. However, the question which the post nominally addresses (Are people in the South completely [...]