Debbie Schlussel: Psychobabble Study: Tough on Terrorism? Then, You're a Bad Parent, Unstable
Leave it to the flailing Scripps Howard News Service (and Ohio University) to invent a connection between supporting getting tough on terrorists and being a "bad" parent.
That's what the news service is trying to tell you with a silly survey of 1,031 adult U.S. residents.
The survey found that those who support using torture to get information from a suspected terrorist were more likely to support spanking their children to maintain discipline. Oh, and they found, that Democrats and Independents--surprise, surprise!--are more likely to be against torture and spanking, Republicans more likely to support both.
But the attempt to defame those who are tough on terrorism doesn't stop there. Scripps Howard reporters presented the findings along with a quote from a left-wing Ivy League psychiatrist who sounds like he's an ACLU lawyer and says that those who are tough on terror and support spanking are unstable and bad parents:
"We know that when parents spank, it's a way to manage the frustrations of parenthood. It's usually done when there are a lot of emotions, generally when parents are at the ends of their ropes," said Kyle Pruett, a psychiatry professor and director of medical studies at Yale University's Child Study Center.Pruett said he's not surprised attitudes on spanking are linked to - although not necessarily the cause of - attitudes on torture.
"I can see why people would think that terrorists have frustrated us enormously, to the point that we struggle to see them even as human beings," he said. "We feel we can violate them because they have so frustrated us. So we say it is all right to spank. It is all right to torture."
Oh, and by the way, this absurd study claims men and Whites are more likely to be torturing, bad parents. Women and minorities, less likely.
And the "scientists" who conducted the study were more likely to have checked their testicles and their Americanism (if they ever had any) at the door.
Posted by Debbie on November 2, 2006 10:14 AM to Debbie Schlussel