Jeff Koterba's latest cartoon: Some monsters are real

[KY_EnviroGuy]

5. Interesting points. I'm going to chew on those for a while...

as an amateur that loves to study evolution and what we inherit from our genetics. I'm relating what you said to a bunch of folks I've known through the years and it's starting to make sense.

However, applying it to that vast majority of so-called "conservatives" who are not born into privilege, I'm seeing an authoritarian environment originating either in a.) religion, b.) parents with hard-core business-oriented beliefs, or c.) one or both parents being psychopathic to some degree and therefore control freaks. In many cases, it's a combination of those environments.

Next, sprinkle that with a sense of entitlement caused by our culture of rampant consumerism, along with a "what me worry?" attitude toward our planet's resources and environment.

Experts say an ingrained dependency on an authoritarian structure is typical of the conservative mindset. That certainly relates to your idea of "become stuck in a pre-adolescent state" because authoritarian structures can block one from that good transition you describe. Best to toe-the-line or else you'll be rejected from the clan (so typical of Republicans).

Being one raised by parents who went through the Great Depression in extremely hard times and World War II on rationing, it was an easy transition in the 60s to that "hero duty" and it lives in me to this day.