# The completely smug density of right wingers **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 29, 2022, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-completely-smug-density-of-right-wingers/967122 "2022-06-29T16:28:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2022, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-completely-smug-density-of-right-wingers/967122/41 "2022-07-05T22:42:32Z")
But saying “Things will improve over time” is a great excuse not to personally make that change. With inaction, change can come too late…or not at all for far too many. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2022, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-completely-smug-density-of-right-wingers/967122/42 "2022-07-05T23:57:43Z")
Fair enough. But it was meant to say that Americans came together despite previous divisions and will do so again. It was not meant to imply this would be easy, automatic, without conscious effort or without stimulus. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2022, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-completely-smug-density-of-right-wingers/967122/43 "2022-07-06T00:10:12Z")
We are not unique, and it is also possible that we will NOT come together and bring us back from the precipice. This isn’t a game of see-saw, this is a game of tug-of-war, and tug-of-war is a game you can lose easily. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2022, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-completely-smug-density-of-right-wingers/967122/44 "2022-07-06T00:26:01Z")
Perhaps. History tends to be more cyclic than linear, though. And most people are still in the middle (which would make either game uneventful). ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2022, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-completely-smug-density-of-right-wingers/967122/45 "2022-07-06T06:07:34Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > Which is why I think wild theories like the Comet Pizza one gain traction. Some of these folk look at how bad the current GOP is and build a Liberal Strawman that is even worse, and the worse the GOP get, the scarier the strawman becomes. To me, this is a novel insight that deserves more consideration. Seriously. ---
**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:** [July 6, 2022, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-completely-smug-density-of-right-wingers/967122/46 "2022-07-06T14:14:45Z")
So, _be_ the boogeyman that the right makes us out to be? Nothing on your list is something that Democrats actually want. What makes you think that that is a winning strategy? ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2022, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-completely-smug-density-of-right-wingers/967122/47 "2022-07-06T15:22:44Z")
When you realize who it’s actually going to be a winning strategy for, it certainly make sense. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2022, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-completely-smug-density-of-right-wingers/967122/48 "2022-07-06T15:57:13Z")
> [@bump](#): > > The hard right wing tends to see things in black and white- if you’re not actively trying to destroy something, then you’re actively nurturing it and promoting it. There’s no middle ground in their minds. For example, if you’re not actively promoting explicitly Christian goals, then they think you’re literally against it. My father was like this. To his mind, the world contained only two things, good and evil, and so everything else was one of those two things. America is good and Christianity is good, therefore America is a Christian nation. Abortion is evil and homosexuality is evil, therefore all of those homosexuals are out there getting abortions. And this also meant, of course, that compromise, on anything, was always unacceptable, because in any choice, no matter how mundane, one side was good and one side was evil, so the only possible option was to choose the good one, absolutely. > [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > Perhaps. History tends to be more cyclic than linear, though. And most people are still in the middle (which would make either game uneventful). Maybe, if we just leave everything to go on on its own, things will eventually swing back to sanity. But how and when? Maybe the way that happens is that the US degenerates into a third-world nation, and eventually picks a fight with some civilized nation, and they have to conquer us to prevent us from doing more harm and they impose sanity on us. That’s one of many possible cycles that history has gone through many times before, and could go through again. But it’s not a cycle I’m eager to see happen, even if it does end up well. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2022, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-completely-smug-density-of-right-wingers/967122/49 "2022-07-06T15:58:53Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Maybe the way that happens is that the US degenerates into a third-world nation, and eventually picks a fight with some civilized nation, and they have to conquer us to prevent us from doing more harm and they impose sanity on us. I think Canadian world domination looks pretty good right now. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2022, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-completely-smug-density-of-right-wingers/967122/50 "2022-07-06T15:59:59Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > To be fair, I have seen quite a few formerly self-identified conservatives on these boards talking about how they gave up on the Republican Party post-, or prior to, Trump, and how they still wish they had a sane conservative party to support in order to promote aspects of conservative ideology that they like, but failing that, they’re willing to hold their noses and keep voting Democratic for the duration. Right. True conservatives are likely to vote Democrat because that is, in fact, the conservative option. Today’s Republican party is anything but “conservative” by any definition; they are a bunch of radical neo-Nazi white supremacist theocrats, and their current hero is an orange psychopathic demagogue. The last overtly conservative US president was Barack Obama. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2022, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-completely-smug-density-of-right-wingers/967122/51 "2022-07-06T18:00:16Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > My father was like this. To his mind, the world contained only two things, good and evil, and so everything else was one of those two things. America is good and Christianity is good, therefore America is a Christian nation. Abortion is evil and homosexuality is evil, therefore all of those homosexuals are out there getting abortions. And this also meant, of course, that compromise, on anything, was always unacceptable, because in any choice, no matter how mundane, one side was good and one side was evil, so the only possible option was to choose the good one, absolutely. Yeah, I’ve known a few people like that myself, and that’s where I realized how they operate. What kills me is that reverse part- where if you’re not on the same side, you’re automatically assumed to be working _against_ their goals, or that their goals are NOT yours. I tend to think that’s the most cancerous thought pattern of the whole thing- that’s how we get stuff like the populist Republican hatred for environmental things. Because it’s Democrat-associated, and the Democrats are against all the things they hold dear, then environmentalism must be something that must be opposed tooth and nail. Which has to lead to some interesting cognitive dissonance; most GOP types are hunting/outdoors friendly and all about wildlife conservation, and you’d think environmental protection would dovetail right into that. But apparently conserving wildlife and protecting habitats aren’t just aspects of environmentalism, but something totally different? > [@wolfpup](#): > > The last overtly conservative US president was Barack Obama. By whose reckoning? I’d call Obama far more of a centrist than a conservative. Even by the standards of the last three quarters of a century he’s not _conservative_ as much as somewhere left of center, but not very far left. I think Biden definitely falls in very much the same category as Obama actually. You’re right in that today’s GOP is “reactionary” with a desire to roll back the clock on a lot of modern policies. None of that is conservative in the sense of preserving the status quo or at least challenging attempts to change the status quo. ---
**Author:** ![irae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f0a364/32.png) [@irae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irae)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2022, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-completely-smug-density-of-right-wingers/967122/52 "2022-07-06T18:04:02Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > True conservatives are likely to vote Democrat because that is, in fact, the conservative option. So that’s, like 6 or 7 votes right there for Team D! ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2022, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-completely-smug-density-of-right-wingers/967122/53 "2022-07-06T18:15:01Z")
> [@bump](#): > > > [@wolfpup](#): > > > > The last overtly conservative US president was Barack Obama. > > By whose reckoning? By the reckoning that derives from his policies, as, for example, this careful analysis by the _Washington Post_: > **[Perspective | Barack Obama, conservative](https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/11/22/barack-obama-conservative/)** > > The left and the right still misunderstand his politics. ETA: That’s not a criticism of Obama. It’s a criticism of the current state of American politics. Democrats represent both the center and the conservative side. Republicans represent the radical, deranged, white supremacist, theocratic, science-denying side. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2022, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-completely-smug-density-of-right-wingers/967122/54 "2022-07-06T18:28:12Z")
Thank you. Over these many years, my political values and views have changed very little. However, I’ve watched the Republicans slide so far rightward, they’re off their cracker and now in Crazy Town. It’s why they constantly characterize people like me – once considered moderately left of center – as the Extreme Elitist Left™ now. There’s no other way to claim to their followers that they, the Republicans, are the “normal” ones. ---
**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:** [July 6, 2022, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-completely-smug-density-of-right-wingers/967122/55 "2022-07-06T18:28:56Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > Republicans represent the the deranged, white supremacist, theocratic, science-denying side. While still somehow getting votes from self described conservatives. Having spoke with conservatives, I believe that what someone upthread said is 100% on the mark. They know how bad the Republicans are, so in order to justify their support of the Republican party, they have to claim that the Democrats are even worse. ---
**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:** [July 6, 2022, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-completely-smug-density-of-right-wingers/967122/56 "2022-07-06T18:30:12Z")
> [@Aspenglow](#): > > they’re off their cracker and now in Crazy Town. Oh, they passed Crazy Town a while ago. They traveled down Insanity Drive all the way till they leapt from the Cliffs of Madness. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2022, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-completely-smug-density-of-right-wingers/967122/57 "2022-07-06T18:30:38Z")
I’d agree with that, for sure. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2022, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-completely-smug-density-of-right-wingers/967122/58 "2022-07-06T19:05:54Z")
> [@Aspenglow](#): > > {…} they’re off their cracker {…} Channeling my inner conservative crackpottery, And there you have it folks! Yet another example of comunist socillist liberal demoncRat hippocrasy and antiWhite racism! ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2022, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-completely-smug-density-of-right-wingers/967122/59 "2022-07-06T19:41:50Z")
I just don’t think the old labels, taken from the seating of the Estates at a pre-revolutionary meeting in France hundreds of years ago carry much accuracy. Aren’t traditional Conservatives all about the proper rule of law? More now seem to flout it, and to flaunt this. I don’t generally respect Bothsides-ism. But is Russia still left wing? There is also a difference between equal rights and inclusion, which I deem very important, and thinking _everything_ is a right. Rights are important and should not be diluted. Russia has no _right_ to invade Ukraine. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2022, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-completely-smug-density-of-right-wingers/967122/60 "2022-07-06T21:56:26Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Maybe the way that happens is that the US degenerates into a third-world nation, and eventually picks a fight with some civilized nation, and they have to conquer us to prevent us from doing more harm and they impose sanity on us. I really don’t want the history books to talk of the America Nazi empire of 2024, and how itm led to a war and America had to be invaded and de-Republicanified. I don’t think it is too late. But I have to think that. We aren’t Germany 1935. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-completely-smug-density-of-right-wingers/967122.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-completely-smug-density-of-right-wingers/967122.md?page=4)