# Liberal Mind vs. Conservative Mind **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 11, 2013, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberal-mind-vs-conservative-mind/670974 "2013-10-11T13:34:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 5
**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:** [October 15, 2013, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberal-mind-vs-conservative-mind/670974/81 "2013-10-15T01:12:59Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > It is not “special treatment” to refrain from making ill-considered, broad brush claims that condemn entire groups of people simply for holding different beliefs and are clearly not accurate except in the unsupported opinion of extreme partisans of opposite beliefs. It’s not clear at all that my accusations are inaccurate; on the contrary, finding counterexamples is far harder (which is why people trying to defend conservatism seldom try to come up with any, but just declare any criticism of conservatism unfair). And it’s _humanly impossible_ to speak of large groups of people without using a “broad brush”; insisting that someone only criticize millions of people on a individual basis is just a means of saying that criticism of that group is forbidden. Nor is condemning people for holding different beliefs either unusual or unethical; every time someone condemns someone for supporting racism, sexism, homophobia, or any number of other evils, that’s _exactly what they are doing._ The only question is if conservatism deserves to be added to that list, and I think it does. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2013, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberal-mind-vs-conservative-mind/670974/82 "2013-10-15T01:50:58Z")
Der Trihs (God, I can never spell that properly)- Again, I support your right to strongly held beliefs. However, it is your willingness to throw rhetorical bombs as a form of facile, non-thoughtful debate that I am moderating. When you say something like > [@](#): > > Nor is condemning people for holding different beliefs either unusual or unethical; every time someone condemns someone for supporting racism, sexism, homophobia, or any number of other evils, that’s exactly what they are doing. The only question is if conservatism deserves to be added to that list, and I think it does. What you say is that a person who holds that belief is unethical. Note that you’re condemning a person. When instead you say: > [@](#): > > No; conservatives throughout history have done wrong things because they are evil people. I see no reason to care that they think that they are doing the right thing; that’s no consolation to the people being oppressed, exploited or slaughtered. Did it do any good for the blacks who were lynched during Jim Crow that their murderers thought they were in the right? You are assigning your own prejudice - against conservatives - to all people who may hold all sorts of beliefs. Again, it is facile and too widely thrown to be of any real use in argument. It may - indeed, it likely is - your true beliefs. However, it is as bad as anyone ever saying “All X are Y”. I have known conservatives who are good men and women just as I have known progressives who aren’t. To say that ALL conservatives are evil people is evil in and of itself and you should think hard about painting people that way. At a minimum, you do little to promote your own position and instead push people away when you share such opinions in a way that makes you look like an extremist. You should learn that the equation “extremsim or loudness =/= persuasion” is valid. In short, respect other people whose beliefs - both personal and political - differ from yours. There are certainly ways of getting your point across without being disrespectful. I encourage you to explore them. ---
**Author:** ![Walmarticus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Walmarticus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walmarticus)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2013, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberal-mind-vs-conservative-mind/670974/83 "2013-10-17T20:14:44Z")
Conservatism vs liberalism is where you fall on the “if\_\_\_\_ was such a good idea, we’d be doing it already” vs “there’s a first time for everything” spectrum. Conservatism means the very fact we’re not doing _X_ is reason to not do _X_, because we inherit wisdom against _X_. Liberals think we make wisdom as we go along. Even if we can look back to the past to see the right thing, it was the untraditional thing at one point. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2013, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberal-mind-vs-conservative-mind/670974/84 "2013-10-17T20:51:00Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > It’s not clear at all that my accusations are inaccurate; on the contrary, finding counterexamples is far harder (which is why people trying to defend conservatism seldom try to come up with any, but just declare any criticism of conservatism unfair). And it’s _humanly impossible_ to speak of large groups of people without using a “broad brush”; insisting that someone only criticize millions of people on a individual basis is just a means of saying that criticism of that group is forbidden. Would you be willing at least to say “some” Republicans/Conservatives or even “most” instead of writing Republicans/Conservatives with distinction? I agree that you can’t boil down a large group to simply individuals and criticize them one at a time, but I also think that you can separate a large group into fairly homogenous sub-groups. “Evil” conservatives as opposed to “good” ones. ---
**Author:** ![steabo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c68b51/32.png) [@steabo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steabo)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2013, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberal-mind-vs-conservative-mind/670974/85 "2013-10-19T02:07:27Z")
Conservatives pine for a past that never was, and progressives dream of a future that will never be… but at least conservatives have something to go on 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberal-mind-vs-conservative-mind/670974.md?page=4)