I was just peeking in at the Obama / Palin Nuclear thread and it made me wonder. What are the large chunks of stupidity that conservatives are supposed to believe today?
By this I mean things that are factually not true and are overwhelmingly championed by the right. I don’t want opinions, like say on abortion, but actually factual stupidity that conservatives just sort of pretend is true. The examples I can think of are:
[ul]
[li]Global Warming is a lie, or some kind of plot or something.[/li][li]Keynesian stimulation in a deep recession is bad or something.[/li][li]Saddam was behind 911 (as of a few years ago at least)[/li][li]Marxism, Fascism, Communism, Maoism and Islamism are all the same thing and they’re what Obama is doing.[/li][li]Birthers[/li][/ul]
Anyone have a more exhaustive list? And as a reminder, I don’t mean everyone conservative has to believe it, but say 50% or more. And please, anyone is welcome to start a companion liberal thread, but let’s keep this tidy. Kay?
Hows about you start with cites that 50% or more of “conservatives” believe all the things on your list. And why do you have something in your list that you seem to admit was true “a few years ago”, when you are asking about "today’?
I mean, I know you’re strictly impartial and what a completely non-partisan debate and all. Right?
Because a quick scan only found info that was from 2003.
I’d like a list of the stupid nonsense that conservatives currently believe. I imagine the debate would be about the quality of the particulars on the list.
That gays marrying will bring the country to ruin. That corporations are kind and benevolent and if we just let them do whatever they want everything will work out wonderfully. That people on welfare are living a life of luxury and excess because why would you want to work when you can live like a queen from the hard work of real americans.
For a stimulus package to work, when people receive that money, they need to go out and use it. If they simply lock it away in a safe for “when things improve”, then you’ve simply devalued the currency and not produced a stimulus. And of course, devaluing the money creates further decline in market confidence, as well as expanding debt.
If people believe that a Keynesian stimulus won’t work, it actually won’t.
If the stimulus creates such a large debt that you depress the economy after the stimulus has taken effect, then you also haven’t really solved anything.
Ultimately, a financial stimulus is just a mind-game being played on people who are presumed to be too stupid to go out and do what’s good for themselves. Increasing or decreasing the supply of money doesn’t change actually anything except the price of stuff on the label. A shoe that costs $100 in an economy of $5 trillion is just the same as a shoe that costs $200 in an economy of $10 trillion. And on the downside, it is a bit of a gamble of whether it will actually work, if it will produce no particular effect, or if it will make things worse. The largest factor in the success is how good a job you did of selling the populace at large on its ability to fix things. If the other guy has a better ad campaign, he might well be able to kill its efficacy or even turn it to the worst. If you can convince people to stop being stupid, you produce the same effect without the gamble.
So on the one hand, Republicans are wrong that a stimulus can’t work. But on the other hand, they may well be right that it won’t.
[quote]
[li]Saddam was behind 911 (as of a few years ago at least) The most recent poll I can find with differentiated conservative / other numbers is as of 2004. However as of 2007 41% of Americans thought that. I’d say that it’s pretty likely that the lions share of those numbnuts are on the conservative side.[/li][/quote]
The majority of economists think it’s a good idea. Non economists sort of have to go by that.
How awesome. I’m willing to agree that believing Saddam was behind 911 is only optional for being a mainstream conservative.
I was trying to cover the socialist Muslim legs. I think it would be hard to find a cite for all, but certainly there is a lot of confusion and misuse of those terms on the right. Finding a cite that is solid may be impossible, but I can point to tea-party signage at least. Other than that I’m willing to say that other than a majority believing he is a socialist-muslim I can’t back up the remainder.
I’m not sure what the OP is getting at. I lean somewhat conservative, mostly with regards to wanting less government in my life, minimal taxation, a strong military and primarily, fiscal responsibility WRT government spending.
I believe in evolution, abortion, legalization of marijuana, that global warming exists (although I think the degree as to how much of it is from humans and how much is cyclical is debatable), I believe Obama is an American citizen (I voted for the guy!), I believe Sarah Palin is nuts and that the Republican Party by and large has come off the rails from overindulging on a fundamentalist and stupid voting base.
Oh it’s the scientific consensus alright. The conservative view however is that the scientific community willfully ignores evidence that evolution isn’t true out of an atheist bias. :rolleyes:
How about “if we only abandon the mistakes we made in the 60s and 70s, the glory days of the 50s will return because America is the perfect society”? :rolleyes::rolleyes:
