# Conservatism comes with paranoia on the side ? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 25, 2006, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatism-comes-with-paranoia-on-the-side/349856 "2006-03-25T15:18:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2006, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatism-comes-with-paranoia-on-the-side/349856/21 "2006-03-26T07:00:50Z")
Paranoia? No. Selfishness, fear of the unknown, and a lack of empathy for others? Sure. ---
**Author:** ![What\_the](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f4b2a3/32.png) [@What\_the](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2006, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatism-comes-with-paranoia-on-the-side/349856/22 "2006-03-26T12:27:05Z")
[QUOTE=rjung] Paranoia? No. Selfishness, fear of the unknown, and a lack of empathy for others? Sure. [/QUOTE] I prefer to think of it as personal responsibility and a fear of the known. As for empathy… that can go both ways. Empathy is not the equivalent of sympathy. ---
**Author:** ![Apos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/838e76/32.png) [@Apos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apos)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2006, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatism-comes-with-paranoia-on-the-side/349856/23 "2006-03-26T15:48:40Z")
This thread is nearly ironic as when RedState called DailyKos a bunch of Nazi Stalinist namecallers. Though, I have a hard time seeing any liberal ever writing something as painfully insanely absurd as: > [@](#): > > To my friends: thank you for your support. To my enemies: I take enormous solace in the fact that you spent this week bashing me, _instead of America._ -emphasis added. This from a guy who was just caught plagarizing on a grand scale. There’s just something uniquely conservative about pissing all over yourself, and then toweling yourself off with the flag like in the above. Of course, some might find that preferable to burning it, but I guess it’s all a matter of taste. ---
**Author:** ![Apos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/838e76/32.png) [@Apos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apos)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2006, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatism-comes-with-paranoia-on-the-side/349856/24 "2006-03-26T15:51:38Z")
Though as paranoia goes, everyone has recently been making fun of this lady: [http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/65930.htm](http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/65930.htm) > [@](#): > > “Hillary Clinton is really worried about me, and is so worried, in fact, that she had helicopters flying over my house in Southampton today taking pictures,” according to a prominent GOP activist who was at the event. > > “She wasn’t joking, she was very, very serious, and she also claimed that Clinton’s people were taking pictures across the street from her house in Manhattan, taking pictures from an apartment across the street from her bedroom,” added the eyewitness, who is not involved in the Senate race. > > … > > “The whole room sort of went silent when she said it,” one person said. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2006, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatism-comes-with-paranoia-on-the-side/349856/25 "2006-03-26T16:16:35Z")
[QUOTE=Rashak Mani] Still what many are saying is liberal paranoia examples… seem like just far fetched possible events if current trends continue. [/QUOTE] Isn’t _paranoia_ the fear of some farfetched possiblity? We tend to lump fear of things entirely impossible under bat-shit crazy instead of paranoia. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2006, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatism-comes-with-paranoia-on-the-side/349856/26 "2006-03-26T16:27:55Z")
[QUOTE=Rashak Mani] Still what many are saying is liberal paranoia examples… seem like just far fetched possible events if current trends continue. [/QUOTE] I would say that applies perfectly well to “Kerry is going to socialize stuff”. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2006, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatism-comes-with-paranoia-on-the-side/349856/27 "2006-03-26T16:29:08Z")
[QUOTE=elfkin477] Isn’t _paranoia_ the fear of some farfetched possiblity? We tend to lump fear of things entirely impossible under bat-shit crazy instead of paranoia. [/QUOTE] “Paranoia,” like “sadism,” is a word whose vernacular use is far broader than its original clinical-psychiatric use. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranoia:](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranoia:) > [@](#): > > In popular culture, the term paranoia is usually used to describe excessive concern about one’s own well-being, sometimes suggesting a person holds persecutory beliefs concerning a threat to themselves or their property and is often linked to a belief in conspiracy theories. > > In psychiatry, the term paranoia was used by Emil Kraepelin to describe a mental illness in which a delusional belief is the sole, or most prominent feature. This usage is now largely obsolete and the term is more typically used in a general sense to signify any delusion, or more specifically, to signify a delusion involving the fear of persecution. The exact use of the term has changed over time, and because of this, psychiatric usage may vary. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2006, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatism-comes-with-paranoia-on-the-side/349856/28 "2006-03-26T16:30:10Z")
[QUOTE=Apos] Though as paranoia goes, everyone has recently been making fun of this lady: [http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/65930.htm](http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/65930.htm) [/QUOTE] This lady is delusional if she thinks Hillary **has** helicopters. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2006, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatism-comes-with-paranoia-on-the-side/349856/29 "2006-03-26T19:16:22Z")
[QUOTE=What the … !!!] I prefer to think of it as personal responsibility \< snip \> [/QUOTE] “Personal responsibility” as pushed by the right _is_ selfishness and a lack of empathy, not to mention a weapon used to beat down the common people; “divide and conquer”. The more we act and think only as individuals, the easier it is for the powerful to walk all over us; therefore “personal responsibility”. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2006, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatism-comes-with-paranoia-on-the-side/349856/30 "2006-03-26T19:49:51Z")
[QUOTE=Der Trihs] “Personal responsibility” as pushed by the right _is_ selfishness and a lack of empathy, not to mention a weapon used to beat down the common people; “divide and conquer”. [/quote] I have no idea what your definition of “the right” is, but I can’t think of any meaningful definition that would make your statement correct. There is nothing “selfless” about taking someone else’s money and giving it to a third person. > [@](#): > > more we act and think only as individuals, the easier it is for the powerful to walk all over us; therefore “personal responsibility”. Nope. Individualism is the bane of totalitarian regimes of both the rightist and leftist presuasion. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2006, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatism-comes-with-paranoia-on-the-side/349856/31 "2006-03-26T22:07:50Z")
[QUOTE=John Mace] I have no idea what your definition of “the right” is, but I can’t think of any meaningful definition that would make your statement correct. There is nothing “selfless” about taking someone else’s money and giving it to a third person. [/quote] But there is definitely something selfish about tax evasion or resistance, or even political tax-reform movements. [QUOTE=John Mace] Nope. Individualism is the bane of totalitarian regimes of both the rightist and leftist presuasion. [/QUOTE] Ya think? I recall reading that Hitler, where possible, preferred to address a crowd that was a random mixture of different kinds of people, as opposed to a crowd of laborers, or a crowd of farmers, etc. He wanted them all to be there as individuals, with nothing in common but him as the focal point of their attention. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2006, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatism-comes-with-paranoia-on-the-side/349856/32 "2006-03-27T01:37:51Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] Ya think? I recall reading that Hitler, where possible, preferred to address a crowd that was a random mixture of different kinds of people, as opposed to a crowd of laborers, or a crowd of farmers, etc. He wanted them all to be there as individuals, with nothing in common but him as the focal point of their attention. [/QUOTE] But, then, he was not preaching to them to\*\* be \*\* individuals, he was preaching to them to become part of a different group, but a group nonetheless, the one that had him in common. The tactic was to erode their primary-group bond, away from those with whom they shared immediate experience, and offer in its place another group-bond to “belong to”. Had they a healthier sense of individual_ISM_ it would have been harder to persuade them their happiness lay in feeling they shared the greatness of a Master Race. It is possible to be an individualist with healthy self-esteem, AND feel empathy and solidarity and a sense of social responsibility. The alternatives are not those of being a law-of-the-jungle selfish egotist vs. being a drone subsumed into the collective. BUT the ideologues on both sides will seek to cast the opponent in that light. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2006, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatism-comes-with-paranoia-on-the-side/349856/33 "2006-03-27T14:02:51Z")
I say, let’s **GET THE PARANOIDS!** (God forbid they should be disappointed. 😉 ) ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2006, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatism-comes-with-paranoia-on-the-side/349856/34 "2006-03-27T15:36:49Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] I say, let’s **GET THE PARANOIDS!** (God forbid they should be disappointed. 😉 ) [/QUOTE] … I wouldn’t be so paranoid if all those bastards weren’t out to get me … 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2006, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatism-comes-with-paranoia-on-the-side/349856/35 "2006-03-27T16:04:18Z")
Exhibit [911](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=364515) ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2006, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatism-comes-with-paranoia-on-the-side/349856/36 "2006-03-27T19:34:26Z")
I think that “individualism” tanget has to do with the idea that it’s in the Republican’s interests to have people think of themselves as individual taxpayers as opposed to people who, like everyone else, rely on the public schools, etc. Give them a voucher and they’ll no longer care if the schools are dismantled. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2006, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatism-comes-with-paranoia-on-the-side/349856/37 "2006-03-27T23:29:06Z")
It’s a commonplace tactic for people to highlight the most extreme of their political opponents, as a means of suggesting that everyone on the other side of the ideological divide must be that way. The stereotyping gets especially silly when one argues that the paranoid crazies in one’s own camp are voicing reasonable fears, while the opposition’s loons are just nuts nuts nuts. Those Brazilians who fear a mass takeover of the Amazon are probably right. There’s a nifty pod-vehicle in the Hammacher Schlemmer catalog that will allow us to invade in comfort. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatism-comes-with-paranoia-on-the-side/349856/38 "2006-03-28T01:09:49Z")
[QUOTE=Rashak Mani] To make things worse… by Dad is becoming more of a conservative for some time and now he seems overly worried about the Avian fever headed our way. He even bought some tamiflu (expensive drug against viral action) [/QUOTE] I’m a liberal and I agree that this is a pretty good idea. Seems like a safe thing to do at this point. I may be one of the clamoring millions when and if Bird Flu does take hold. Better to have it and be prepared (I was a Boyscout.). ---
**Author:** ![Sequent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dbc845/32.png) [@Sequent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sequent)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatism-comes-with-paranoia-on-the-side/349856/39 "2006-03-28T21:35:03Z")
I’d say paranoia does come hand in hand with being conservative, but I’m very liberal, so my perspective is admittedly biased. But those who note that there’s a healthy amount of paranoia on the other side of the fence are correct, too, especially for liberals here in the US since 2000. I think the difference is that a lot of liberals are paranoid because the Republican party here has been hijacked by evangelical Christians. Paranoia about this has been building for years, and, as of the last election, was proven to be quite well-founded. One thing I’ve noticed about conservatives that doesn’t apply to liberals: the more they win, the more they whine. If you just listen to contemporary conservative rhetoric, you’d never know they controlled all three branches of our our government. You’d think this was ancient Rome and Christian conservatives were being fed to lions or something. For being self-proclaimed members of the “culture of life,” Christians sure are an antagonistic bunch. The last “good news” for Christians broke two thousand years ago. I don’t think Bush is a terrorist, I don’t think he stole the election, I don’t believe a lot of the crap you hear about him. But I do strongly believe he feels that this nation is–at least in his terms–a defacto theocracy, that all our democratic mechanisms are simply ritualistic and meaningless devices when compared to his Divine Mandate. He’s with God; even on the off chance he does make a mistake, it’s between him and History and The Big Guy. The American electorate has been all but obviated. And I think when the Republican party became a bona fide religious organization, that’s when the polarization in American politics passed the point of no return, that’s when paranoia became the default side item for any political position other than being square in the middle, if that’s even possible anymore. It’s sad, but true. As long as conservatives take the default position that liberalism is some form of Satan-worship, we liberals will continue to assume conservatism is a mental defect. Good times. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatism-comes-with-paranoia-on-the-side/349856/40 "2006-03-28T22:56:12Z")
[QUOTE=Sequent] One thing I’ve noticed about conservatives that doesn’t apply to liberals: the more they win, the more they whine. [/QUOTE] It’s pretty obvious why that observation doesn’t apply to liberals. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatism-comes-with-paranoia-on-the-side/349856.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatism-comes-with-paranoia-on-the-side/349856.md?page=3)