# Liberals hanging with Conservatives **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 18, 2017, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-hanging-with-conservatives/804815 "2017-12-18T22:53:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2017, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-hanging-with-conservatives/804815/61 "2017-12-20T02:49:09Z")
Liberal “Elites” are well educated, scientists, business leaders, artists. Conservative “Elites” are Preachers, Singers and Talking Heads\*. - Not David Byrne. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2017, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-hanging-with-conservatives/804815/62 "2017-12-20T02:54:11Z")
I can’t speak for conservatives, not being one, but my understanding of what they mean when they say ‘liberal elites’ is usually entertainers and naive people pushing for policies that’ll make problems worse or that they feel are hypocritical. Liberal Entertainers calling for renewable energy while living in mansions powered by coal and flying jets everywhere. Liberal academics that have nice theories that don’t work in reality. Liberal economists pushing for a just economic system that’ll make the business climate so hostile that it’ll cause businesses to go under. Stuff like that. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2017, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-hanging-with-conservatives/804815/63 "2017-12-20T04:31:21Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > I fourth what **Shodan** , **Orwell** , and **adaher** said. It’s perhaps the most critical thing that coastal elitist types just don’t get. > > I live in North Dakota, which is about as non-coastal and deeply Republican territory as you can get. And yet the fact remains that I am forced to absorb opinion from the liberal coastal elite all the time. If I go to the gym, there are 20 TV’s, and the majority are showing coastal liberal elitists. Some are explicitly advancing politics. At most one is offering Fox News as an alternative. Even those TV shows that are not explicitly political, often work liberal messages in implicitly. (For example, ESPN changed from being about sports to have a heavy political component. This has been a _huge_ topic on right-wing blogs and twitter in the past year.) > > It’s not just gyms. It’s restaurants. It’s bars. It’s airports. It’s libraries. It’s bookstores. It’s public school curriculums. It’s everywhere, except perhaps the most isolated rural regions. You basically cannot live in a city or town anywhere and not hear constantly from the coastal elite. I have to say I’m shocked, considering the top-quality local news reporting and the famously burgeoning North Dakotan entertainment industry, that there would be any demand for content from foreign sources. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2017, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-hanging-with-conservatives/804815/64 "2017-12-20T07:01:38Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > I can’t speak for conservatives, not being one, but my understanding of what they mean when they say ‘liberal elites’ is usually entertainers and naive people pushing for policies that’ll make problems worse or that they feel are hypocritical. > > Liberal Entertainers calling for renewable energy while living in mansions powered by coal and flying jets everywhere. Liberal academics that have nice theories that don’t work in reality. Liberal economists pushing for a just economic system that’ll make the business climate so hostile that it’ll cause businesses to go under. Stuff like that. You are mostly correct. **Chimera** isn’t. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2017, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-hanging-with-conservatives/804815/65 "2017-12-20T12:21:59Z")
> [@sleestak](#): > > However, Jonathan Haidt has studied who understands the other side better, liberals or conservatives. It turns out that conservatives and moderates understand liberals much better than liberals understand conservatives and moderates (as a group of course, YMMV) I got curious and perused the reviews of this book to learn a little more about it. It seems to be little if any reasearch… mostly opinion and unrelated citations stitched together with dubious reasoning. Take this gem here: > [@](#): > > …conservatives generally take a very different view of human nature. They believe people need external structures or constraints in order to behave well, cooperate and thrive. These external constraints include laws, institutions, customs, traditions, nations and religions. This is… highly questionable. I agree it’s clear that conservatives love to describe themselves this way. But when you look at how they vote and how they govern… well… they conveniently tighten the definition of these noble institutions to fit only their own. A polity that elects Donald Trump, a party who fails to rein him in, validates morally dubious Roy Moore, absolutely loathes Muslims. Can you say with a straight face this is a movement that reveres laws, institutions, traditions, religions? > [@](#): > > A couple notes. Haidt started studying political psychology to help Democrats win (The Righteous Mind, chapter 8). In hindsight, I hope he’s not putting that on his resume. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2017, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-hanging-with-conservatives/804815/66 "2017-12-20T14:51:03Z")
It’s been verified with brain scans that conservatives notice and respond more strongly to threats. They see and respond to threats more than liberals. That’s why they admire the police and military so much (they defend against threats), why they obsess over guns (to feel safe) why they react so strongly to having a porous border or fear Muslims more than liberals do, etc. Conservatives see threats liberals do not. So to liberals, conservatives seem aggressive, militant and paranoid. To conservatives, liberalism means letting criminals and terrorists walk all over us while liberal policies collapse the economy Having said that, I think you are missing the appeal of Moore and Trump. They are both deeply criminal deranged men and both are remorseless sex criminals. But both represent a bulwark of patriarchal Christian white nationalism in the face of an America rapidly becoming more and more multicultural, egalitarian and secular. The fact that they are deeply flawed people isn’t important per se. When Trump goes on Twitter and gets into a rage about black people in the NFL protesting police brutality he is defending Christian white nationalism. When he threatened to deport all Latino immigrants or ban Muslim immigrants he was defending Christian white nationalism. Roy Moore refusing to remove the ten commandments or blocking gay marriage was upholding Christian white nationalism. Conservatives do revere institutions, traditions and religions. But only theirs. And they defend them by electing aggressive people to defend them like Trump and Moore in the face of what they consider threats to those values. Patriarchal Christian white nationalism is under threat and they want aggressive defenders of it. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2017, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-hanging-with-conservatives/804815/67 "2017-12-20T15:11:29Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > It’s been verified with brain scans that conservatives notice and respond more strongly to threats. They see and respond to threats more than liberals. I would like to see the research and challenge it with the question “a threat to what?” When considering the current political behavior of conservatives, the category of “threat” seems highly selective as well as contingent on one’s tribal membership. To me this is just a variant of the flawed “values survey” that describes conservatives as high on loyalty, laws, religion, etc. Conservatives will rabidly attack these structures if it is too different from their own, or the people it benefits are too different from them. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2017, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-hanging-with-conservatives/804815/68 "2017-12-20T15:18:39Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > I did say “part of”. You’ve highlighted another part (to expose liberals to a conservative perspective). I do suppose that what you are learning from us is not something that is visible in your posting. Do you actually have any liberals IRL that you hang out with? They are probably better at humanizing those positions than some random guy spouting words on a screen. I live in conservative country, so I get plenty of exposure to conservative mindset. If I want to talk to people far more to the right than you are, I can go talk to my parents. If I want to talk to someone so far off the libertarian path that they have gone full sovereign citizen, I can talk to my brother. If I want to talk to a pro-lifer for any and all reasons, including rape, including medical concerns, I can talk to one of my sisters. Do you have anyone in your life like that on the liberal front? > [@](#): > > I _really_ don’t want to derail the thread with an abortion debate, but I would like to note that there are some pro-life people who would probably lose their shit reading the definition of liberalism you proffer here. This is a thread about the differences in conservative and liberal mindset, so anything goes along those lines. I am curious as to why pro-lifers would lose their shit there? Sure, if you redefine an embryo or a fetus as a person, with all the rights that a person has, then you would think that a statement like ““How can we ensure that everyone has a chance for a meaningful and productive life?”” would include the unborn among the “everyone”, but that would be ridiculous, because you have to exist in order to be included in “everyone”. Do you think that that would also include unfertilized eggs and sperm? I don’t consider a clump of cells to be a person, with all the rights that a person has, so they would not be included under “everyone”. Now, once we have learned to take care of the people who are born, and currently exist, maybe then we can look into rights for those who don’t yet, once human suffering is minimized, something that conservatives seem to be fairly callous in addressing. At the same time, I am not a big fan of abortion, and would be more than happy to implement policies that would reduce, but not restrict, its use. The main policies would be sex education and access to birth control, which are things that are opposed by the pro-life side. This is actually one of the harder things for me to get my head around about conservative ideology. To oppose the things that would reduce abortion significantly, and to not care about a person after they have been born doesn’t make any sense to me from the aspect of people saying that they are motivated by the welfare of the unborn. Anyway, I stand by the statement that “How can we ensure that everyone has a chance for a meaningful and productive life?” is as good an aspirational statement that motivates liberals as any. That you can twist any statement into a different meaning by redefining the words in it is not an impressive trick, and it is one that does tend to widen the gap between liberal and conservative. If you have questions about how a statement would work with redefined terms, it is better to ask if the statement is still valid, after you have redefined terms, than to assume that redefining terms invalidates the entire ideology. What mission statement would you say motivates conservatives? I do stand by my perspective of it being “Got mine, how do I ensure that it is not taken?”, but I welcome your perspective. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2017, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-hanging-with-conservatives/804815/69 "2017-12-20T15:36:52Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > It’s been verified with brain scans that conservatives notice and respond more strongly to threats. They see and respond to threats more than liberals. I’ve heard this claim before but find it doubtful. Liberals will circle the wagons very, \*very \*quickly when/if someone tries to overturn gay marriage or eliminate womens’ access to abortions or pass voter-ID laws, etc. Perhaps their threat instinct isn’t exactly as strong as conservatives’, but it’s got to be pretty close. > [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > they obsess over guns (to feel safe) But both sides of the gun issue are motivated by a threat perception. Gun-control advocates almost always argue that we need to restrict or ban gun ownership on the basis of the numerous deaths (accidental or intentional) that arise from 300 million guns floating around in the United States. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Hamsandwich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4bbf92/32.png) [@Darth\_Hamsandwich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Hamsandwich)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2017, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-hanging-with-conservatives/804815/70 "2017-12-20T15:53:12Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > So, let me play this back to you the way I heard it: It’s as though there’s been a civil war, and you lost. You’re living in the same place, but it feels as though you are an exile in your own country, because the dominant culture isn’t yours any more. You lost, and now you are a dwindling, misunderstood, despised minority culture. > > If that’s the way you feel, well no wonder you’re cranky. Wow, this could have been a blurb on the inside of the coat jacket of the book I just read: [_Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right_](https://workingclassstudiesjournal.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/jwcs-vol-2-issue-1-june-2017-silva1.pdf). AR Hochschild, an eminent sociologist straight out of Berkeley traveled to Louisiana oil country to understand the “deep story” of the American Right and why they hold the values they do. The deep story that she uncovered, that many she interviewed agreed on is summed up thusly: > [@](#): > > “You are standing in a long line, ‘patient but weary’, awaiting the American Dream you’ve worked so hard for, and others are cutting in front of you – blacks, women, immigrants, refugees, even the brown pelican with its ‘long, oil-drenched wings’. You are enraged, but you do not complain. You are resentful of the line cutters, not only because they take more than their fair share, but because of how they demand you feel, ‘…happy for the gay newlywed, sad at the plight of the Syrian refugee, unresentful about paying taxes’. Strangers step ahead of you in line, making you anxious, resentful, and afraid. A president allies with the line cutters, making you feel distrustful, betrayed. A person ahead of you in line insults you as an ignorant redneck, making you feel humiliated and mad. Economically, culturally, demographically, politically, you are suddenly a stranger in your own land.” Quite an eye-opener, this book. And it explains exactly why they voted for Trump. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2017, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-hanging-with-conservatives/804815/71 "2017-12-20T16:21:01Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > It’s been verified with brain scans that conservatives notice and respond more strongly to threats. They see and respond to threats more than liberals. What I’ve read is that their reactions of fear and disgust are stronger. I think this may be another way of viewing the in-group/authority/sanctity bases of their morality. In any event, the proper stance for liberals is to acknowledge that _ **conservative moral views have merit** _, that they complement the liberal emphasis on care and fairness. The more that liberals ridicule conservatives for their stances on morality, the more conservatives will turn away in disgust and embrace demagogues like Trump. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2017, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-hanging-with-conservatives/804815/72 "2017-12-20T16:32:46Z")
> [@sleestak](#): > > Here is a hint: Assuming that Trump voters view him as a ‘seriously deranged, authoritarian con man who works for our enemies’ is a bad place to start if you are trying to understand why they voted for him. > > For a board that supposedly is interested in fighting ignorance, it is rather surprising that no one has actually bothered to look at any research in this area. > > I mentioned Haidt earlier and he has some interesting theories and research in this area. (Haidt, for those who haven’t heard of him, is a Professor of Ehtical Leadsership at NYUs Stern School of Business, got a BA from Yale and his PhD in psychology from University of Pennsylvania). > > He has a TED talk on the subject. [Link](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjU3oDanZXYAhXC3SYKHd7UDy8QtwIIJjAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ted.com%2Ftalks%2Fjonathan_haidt_on_the_moral_mind%2Ftranscript&usg=AOvVaw2IxZ226Spd9Nxwlbdy6J0C). > > The issue with conservative vs. liberals is that each group is working from a different set of moral foundations. Those foundations are care, fairness, loyalty, authority, liberty\* and sanctity. Liberals, as a group, score very high on fairness and caring. Conservatives on the other hand are concerned with all the foundations equally. So when a conservative has a belief that is based, or somewhat based, on sanctity, liberals really do not understand it. At the same time, conservatives understand a liberal belief based on fairness, but they don’t give fairness the same weight a liberal does. So, yes, conservatives (as a group) can understand liberals better than liberals understand conservatives. > > You can take a test on this [here](http://www.yourmorals.org/). For the record, I am socially pretty liberal, fisically classically conservative. My results from the moral foundations test were > > Harm 2.5 (3.7/3.1) > Fairness 3.3 (3.7/3.1) > Loyalty 2.0 (2.2/3.1) > Authority 1.7 (2.1/3.1) > Purity 0.2 (1.4/3.0) > > (Note, the values in parenthesis are liberal/conservative average. My purity score indicates I am one dirty MF :eek:) > > Note, liberty/opression is not on the test but Haidt added it later. Libertarians tend to score very high on this. > > If you really want to start understanding conservatives, go check out [moralfoundations.org](http://moralfoundations.org), read this [link](http://righteousmind.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/ch07.RighteousMind.final_.pdf)(warning, pdf), and go to [yourmorals.org](http://yourmorals.org) and take some tests. > > Slee Really interesting post, Slee. I’m liberal, particularly in the social realm, but I don’t struggle to understand conservatives because I grew up among them. I was raised by them. To a certain extent, that culture is my culture, though I never belonged in it. The liberal elite culture is equally perplexing to me. For all our shared values there is so much they take for granted and so many unfounded assumptions. If I had to guess, absent any research of my own, why conservatives are less concerned with understanding liberals, I’d guess that it hails back to that Reaganesque standard of always appearing to be unified despite differences. While liberals argue quite, um, liberally, among themselves, I don’t get the impression that conservatives value dissent as highly. See, for example, the way McCain has been branded a traitor for refusing to pass the health bill. That would be consistent with the studies showing conservatives value community cohesion over fairness etc. Though I will admit I still have no idea how Trump happened. And the value of dissent in liberal circles seems to be plunging precipitously. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2017, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-hanging-with-conservatives/804815/73 "2017-12-20T16:49:10Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > I’ve heard this claim before but find it doubtful. Liberals will circle the wagons very, \*very \*quickly when/if someone tries to overturn gay marriage or eliminate womens’ access to abortions or pass voter-ID laws, etc. Perhaps their threat instinct isn’t exactly as strong as conservatives’, but it’s got to be pretty close. Either side can react just fine to having a gun to their head. It’s just that the liberals do not make the assumption that there will be a gun to their head until someone starts pulling out guns. > [@](#): > > But both sides of the gun issue are motivated by a threat perception. Gun-control advocates almost always argue that we need to restrict or ban gun ownership on the basis of the numerous deaths (accidental or intentional) that arise from 300 million guns floating around in the United States. But liberals are concerned about people getting killed by having completely unfettered access to guns, a fairly realistic concern, as it is something that happens every day, and conservatives are concerned about the government breaking down their doors and confiscating their guns, which is, IMHO an unrealistic concern. It seems that liberals react to actual dangers and concerns that are harming people, and conservatives react to imagined or supposed dangers that will probably not ever come to pass. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2017, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-hanging-with-conservatives/804815/74 "2017-12-20T17:19:42Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > I’ve heard this claim before but find it doubtful. Liberals will circle the wagons very, \*very \*quickly when/if someone tries to overturn gay marriage or eliminate womens’ access to abortions or pass voter-ID laws, etc. Perhaps their threat instinct isn’t exactly as strong as conservatives’, but it’s got to be pretty close. > > But both sides of the gun issue are motivated by a threat perception. Gun-control advocates almost always argue that we need to restrict or ban gun ownership on the basis of the numerous deaths (accidental or intentional) that arise from 300 million guns floating around in the United States. > **[Study: Liberals and conservatives have different brain structures](https://www.salon.com/2016/06/06/study_liberals_and_conservatives_have_different_brain_structures_partner/)** > > Political polarity is more about nature than nurture, according to psychiatrist Gail Saltz Based on brain scans, you can tell who is liberal vs conservative about 72% accuracy. Conservatives have bigger right Amygdalas which respond to threats. Liberals score higher on fairness, care, egalitarianism, etc so yes when policy that harms the weak is passed (anti gay legislation, anti woman legislation, voter suppression targeting minorities) liberals get upset. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2017, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-hanging-with-conservatives/804815/75 "2017-12-20T17:30:59Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > Really interesting post, Slee. > > I’m liberal, particularly in the social realm, but I don’t struggle to understand conservatives because I grew up among them. I was raised by them. To a certain extent, that culture is my culture, though I never belonged in it. The liberal elite culture is equally perplexing to me. For all our shared values there is so much they take for granted and so many unfounded assumptions. > > If I had to guess, absent any research of my own, why conservatives are less concerned with understanding liberals, I’d guess that it hails back to that Reaganesque standard of always appearing to be unified despite differences. While liberals argue quite, um, liberally, among themselves, I don’t get the impression that conservatives value dissent as highly. See, for example, the way McCain has been branded a traitor for refusing to pass the health bill. That would be consistent with the studies showing conservatives value community cohesion over fairness etc. > > Though I will admit I still have no idea how Trump happened. And the value of dissent in liberal circles seems to be plunging precipitously. Can someone explain how my statement that Trump is a ‘seriously deranged, authoritarian con man who works for our enemies’ is a false statement? I didn’t say that about mitt Romney. There are four aspects of that insult. Seriously deranged Authoritarian Con man Works for our enemies (putin) If anyone would like to debate me on these four issues to explain why I’m wrong for saying it, I am willing to have that debate. Trump is also fat, but people can call him fat without it being untrue. I feel like you guys think we should deny unpleasant reality in the name of bipartisanship. It’d be like if someone said ‘Trump is fat’ but you guys said ‘that’s insulting, in the interest of civility and bipartisanship let’s meet in the middle ground and pretend Trump is skinny’. I’m not going to deny reality to be bipartisan. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2017, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-hanging-with-conservatives/804815/76 "2017-12-20T17:32:37Z")
I bet I’d test as a conservative. I definitely have some amygdala dysfunction that hypperreacts to threats. Exaggerated startle response, hypervigilance, etc. But a lot of things conservatives perceive as a threat, like terrorism, I really don’t. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2017, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-hanging-with-conservatives/804815/77 "2017-12-20T17:34:41Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Can someone explain how my statement that Trump is a ‘seriously deranged, authoritarian con man who works for our enemies’ is a false statement? > > I didn’t say that about mitt Romney. > > There are four aspects of that insult. > > Seriously deranged > Authoritarian > Con man > Works for our enemies (putin) > > If anyone would like to debate me on these four issues to explain why I’m wrong for saying it, I am willing to have that debate. > > Trump is also fat, but people can call him fat without it being untrue. > > I feel like you guys think we should deny unpleasant reality in the name of bipartisanship. It’d be like if someone said ‘Trump is fat’ but you guys said ‘that’s insulting, in the interest of civility and bipartisanship let’s meet in the middle ground and pretend Trump is skinny’. > > I’m not going to deny reality to be bipartisan. I don’t think it’s a false statement. I’m not sure why you quoted my post? Is there something you find objectionable in it? ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2017, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-hanging-with-conservatives/804815/78 "2017-12-20T17:39:53Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > If I had to guess, absent any research of my own, why conservatives are less concerned with understanding liberals, I’d guess that it hails back to that Reaganesque standard of always appearing to be unified despite differences. Conservatives are not less concerned with understanding liberals. We already understand them better than they understand us, for the reasons mentioned. The question is why are liberals less concerned or less able to understand conservatives. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Nylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/77aa72/32.png) [@Mr.Nylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Nylock)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2017, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-hanging-with-conservatives/804815/79 "2017-12-20T18:10:29Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Conservatives are not less concerned with understanding liberals. We already understand them better than they understand us, for the reasons mentioned. The question is why are liberals less concerned or less able to understand conservatives. > > Regards, > Shodan Having been on this board for a bit, I find this to be a very interesting and pertinent question. Core values and whatnot have something to do with it. On the other hand it is my belief that conservatives tend to be very hard headed about certain things. I think that both sides are working off of different premises - conservatives tend to come from backgrounds where they have been treated fairly and have difficulty understanding how if you are not from a certain background you are simply not given the same opportunities as others and how that will have an effect on the world view and actions of any rational person. On the other hand I am deeply disappointed in liberals these days. So often I see and hear among people I know and on this board not even a basic understanding of various policies and how they effect various groups they are not intimately familiar with and come to conclusions about the moral or intellectual ineptitude of such. I’m an extreme moderate, I love everyone but they all hate my guts for one reason or another. I don’t really leave the house much any more except to go to work or go to the dollar store. My wife usually buys groceries but sometimes we go together. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2017, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-hanging-with-conservatives/804815/80 "2017-12-20T18:20:04Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Conservatives are not less concerned with understanding liberals. We already understand them better than they understand us, for the reasons mentioned. The question is why are liberals less concerned or less able to understand conservatives. > > Regards, > Shodan Well if we take the reasons mentioned here at face value, then it’s pretty obvious a lot of liberals don’t understand as well because they aren’t inundated with, or exposed to, conservative cultures. As for not wanting to understand, you got me. I go out of my way all the time to try to understand, and I get shit for it from other liberals. Nylock’s right. People hate moderates. People hate uncertainty and complexity. Though it’s hard to believe conservatives truly understand liberals if they swallow horseshit characterizations of us on Fox News, Breitbart et. al. I hate HuffPo and others for doing that to conservatives just as well. But I see no meaningful difference in the lies and shit-slinging based on political orientation. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-hanging-with-conservatives/804815.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-hanging-with-conservatives/804815.md?page=5)