Broadly speaking, the Southern and Western desert and mountain states will vote for the candidate who endorses an aggressive military, a role for religion in public life, laissez-faire economic policies, private ownership of guns and relaxed conditions for using them, less regulation and taxation, and a valorization of the traditional family.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the political preferences of certain U.S. regions, reflecting their inclination towards traditional and conservative values.
Steven Pinker points out that in the Southern and Western regions of the United States, voters are typically inclined to support candidates who advocate for a strong military presence, the influence of religion in government affairs, free-market economic policies, gun ownership rights, reduced regulations, and the promotion of traditional family values. This indicates a cultural alignment in these areas towards conservative ideologies and a shared vision for governance.
In practice
A political analyst discussing regional voting patterns might quote Pinker to illustrate conservative ideologies.
The foundation of individual rights is the assumption that people have wants and needs and are authorities on what those wants and needs are. If people's stated desires were just some kind of erasable inscription or reprogrammable brainwashing, any atrocity could be justified.
The linguistic clumsiness of tourists and students might be the price we pay for the linguistic genius we displayed as babies, just as the decrepitude of age in the price we pay for the vigor of youth.
If we are not to abandon values such as peace and equality, or our commitments to science and truth, then we must pry these values away from claims about our psychological makeup that are vulnerable to being proven false.
We adults protect ourselves with laws, police, workplace regulations and social norms and there is no conceivable reason why children should be left more vulnerable, other that laziness or callousness in considering what life is like from their point of view.
The idea that children are passive repositories to be shaped by their parents has been massively overstated. A child's peer group is a far greater determinant of its development and achievements than parental aspiration.
Reason is non-negotiable. Try to argue against it, or to exclude it from some realm of knowledge, and you've already lost the argument, because you're using reason to make your case. ... We don't "believe" in reason.
Small men, seeking great wealth or power, have too often and too long turned even the highest levels of public service into mere personal opportunity.
I deplore the need or the use of troops anywhere to get American citizens to obey the orders of constituted courts.
If we can't have a public debate because the information space is so polluted, or because people are afraid of the reactions of organized trolls, then we can't really have meaningful elections anymore, either.
A man who is not interested in politics is not doing his patriotic duty toward maintaining the constitution of the United States.
Policy is largely set by economic elites and organized groups representing business interests with little concern for public attitudes or public safety, as long as the public remains passive and obedient.
The potential for the abuse of power through digital networks - upon which we the people now depend for nearly everything, including our politics - is one of the most insidious threats to democracy in the Internet age.
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