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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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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2021
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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. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8717779 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
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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