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Right-Wing Psychedelia: Case Studies in Cultural Plasticity and Political Pluripotency

Recent media advocacy for the nascent psychedelic medicine industry has emphasized the potential for psychedelics to improve society, pointing to research studies that have linked psychedelics to increased environmental concern and liberal politics. However, research supporting the hypothesis that p...

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Autores principales: Pace, Brian A., Devenot, Neşe
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8717779/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34975622
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.733185
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author Pace, Brian A.
Devenot, Neşe
author_facet Pace, Brian A.
Devenot, Neşe
author_sort Pace, Brian A.
collection PubMed
description Recent media advocacy for the nascent psychedelic medicine industry has emphasized the potential for psychedelics to improve society, pointing to research studies that have linked psychedelics to increased environmental concern and liberal politics. However, research supporting the hypothesis that psychedelics induce a shift in political beliefs must address the many historical and contemporary cases of psychedelic users who remained authoritarian in their views after taking psychedelics or became radicalized after extensive experience with them. We propose that the common anecdotal accounts of psychedelics precipitating radical shifts in political or religious beliefs result from the contextual factors of set and setting, and have no particular directional basis on the axes of conservatism-liberalism or authoritarianism-egalitarianism. Instead, we argue that any experience which challenges a person's fundamental worldview—including a psychedelic experience—can precipitate shifts in any direction of political belief. We suggest that the historical record supports the concept of psychedelics as “politically pluripotent,” non-specific amplifiers of the political set and setting. Contrary to recent assertions, we show that conservative, hierarchy-based ideologies are able to assimilate psychedelic experiences of interconnection, as expressed by thought leaders like Jordan Peterson, corporadelic actors, and members of several neo-Nazi organizations.
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spelling pubmed-87177792021-12-31 Right-Wing Psychedelia: Case Studies in Cultural Plasticity and Political Pluripotency Pace, Brian A. Devenot, Neşe Front Psychol Psychology Recent media advocacy for the nascent psychedelic medicine industry has emphasized the potential for psychedelics to improve society, pointing to research studies that have linked psychedelics to increased environmental concern and liberal politics. However, research supporting the hypothesis that psychedelics induce a shift in political beliefs must address the many historical and contemporary cases of psychedelic users who remained authoritarian in their views after taking psychedelics or became radicalized after extensive experience with them. We propose that the common anecdotal accounts of psychedelics precipitating radical shifts in political or religious beliefs result from the contextual factors of set and setting, and have no particular directional basis on the axes of conservatism-liberalism or authoritarianism-egalitarianism. Instead, we argue that any experience which challenges a person's fundamental worldview—including a psychedelic experience—can precipitate shifts in any direction of political belief. We suggest that the historical record supports the concept of psychedelics as “politically pluripotent,” non-specific amplifiers of the political set and setting. Contrary to recent assertions, we show that conservative, hierarchy-based ideologies are able to assimilate psychedelic experiences of interconnection, as expressed by thought leaders like Jordan Peterson, corporadelic actors, and members of several neo-Nazi organizations. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-12-10 /pmc/articles/PMC8717779/ /pubmed/34975622 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.733185 Text en Copyright © 2021 Pace and Devenot. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Pace, Brian A.
Devenot, Neşe
Right-Wing Psychedelia: Case Studies in Cultural Plasticity and Political Pluripotency
title Right-Wing Psychedelia: Case Studies in Cultural Plasticity and Political Pluripotency
title_full Right-Wing Psychedelia: Case Studies in Cultural Plasticity and Political Pluripotency
title_fullStr Right-Wing Psychedelia: Case Studies in Cultural Plasticity and Political Pluripotency
title_full_unstemmed Right-Wing Psychedelia: Case Studies in Cultural Plasticity and Political Pluripotency
title_short Right-Wing Psychedelia: Case Studies in Cultural Plasticity and Political Pluripotency
title_sort right-wing psychedelia: case studies in cultural plasticity and political pluripotency
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8717779/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34975622
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.733185
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