# Why Are Conservatives So Evil? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 19, 2001, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-so-evil/82655 "2001-09-19T19:57:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2001, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-so-evil/82655/81 "2001-09-20T21:11:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Milossarian \* > \*\*My apologies, wring. > > Is it too late for me to suggest that he dip his hemmorhoids in lemon juice and jam them in an electric socket with an unclean butter knife? \*\* Ahh, that’s better. You just got that in uder the wire. ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2001, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-so-evil/82655/82 "2001-09-20T21:29:00Z")
I’m wondering: Why is “evil” considered the same as “bad”? I’m proud of being evil, dammit. Darth Vader was evil. Emperor Palpatine was evil. Don Knots was evil. I think we evil Conservatives are in good company… we’ll be the guys running the show with an iron fist while all the weenie lil’ Liberals are screaming in terror and clutching their bongs in a fit of panic. Beware our stormtroopers, Liberal bastards! Soon, our conquest of the globe will be complete, and we’ll require EVERYONE to own a gun! Bwahahahahahaha!!! ---
**Author:** ![John\_Corrado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a88e4f/32.png) [@John\_Corrado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Corrado)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2001, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-so-evil/82655/83 "2001-09-20T21:41:27Z")
Now, hold on a goddamned minute. Don Knotts was not evil. He was merely misguided. (Did anyone else see the Entertainment Weekly interview with him shortly after _Pleasantville_ was released? He was wearing a black suit and a camel hair coat, and the article was titled, “The Last Don.” The image was priceless.) ---
**Author:** ![SuaSponte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/67e7ee/32.png) [@SuaSponte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuaSponte)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2001, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-so-evil/82655/84 "2001-09-20T21:49:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Scylla \* > **Yeah! Look at Rudolph Giuliani, that Conservative Mayor from New York.** Point of order - Giuliani is definitely not a conservative according to American usage of the term. He is distinctly moderate to liberal on most social issues. Heck, he even ran for Mayor both times on both the Republican and the Liberal ticket. As their is a Conservative Party in NYC, Hizzoner is actually the large “L” Liberal Mayor of New York. 😉 Of course, the extraordinary work he has done this past week has nothing to do with either his party affiliation or his political views. Sua ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2001, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-so-evil/82655/85 "2001-09-20T22:02:28Z")
> [@](#): > > Don Knotts was not evil. Liar. He’s very evil. He kicks puppies, farts and chews gum at the same time, and never, ever, EVER flushes the toilet. He’s EVIL! ---
**Author:** ![Danimal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bb73d2/32.png) [@Danimal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Danimal)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2001, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-so-evil/82655/86 "2001-09-20T22:03:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SPOOFE \* > \*\*Beware our stormtroopers, Liberal bastards! Soon, our conquest of the globe will be complete, and we’ll require EVERYONE to own a gun! Bwahahahahahaha!!! \*\* You’re going to require everyone to own a gun? I think you need to retake that World Domination 101 course, you may have missed a few points… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2001, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-so-evil/82655/87 "2001-09-20T22:46:54Z")
Aha, but I didn’t tell you the OTHER brilliant aspect of my plan… I’m going to keep the populace pacified by providing them all with free broadband Internet access! They’ll want to set me up as a _god_ after that! See, I’m evil. Oh-so-evil. ---
**Author:** ![capacitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e47774/32.png) [@capacitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capacitor)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2001, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-so-evil/82655/88 "2001-09-21T02:54:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SPOOFE \* > \*\*Aha, but I didn’t tell you the OTHER brilliant aspect of my plan… I’m going to keep the populace pacified by providing them all with free broadband Internet access! They’ll want to set me up as a _god_ after that! > > See, I’m evil. Oh-so-evil. \*\* Nope, no godood, if half of the bandwidth is hogged by your ads. ---
**Author:** ![Philosophocles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b38774/32.png) [@Philosophocles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philosophocles)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2001, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-so-evil/82655/89 "2001-09-21T03:17:52Z")
Does affiliation with the Democratic party back in the 1940s (or even today, for that matter) make someone a liberal? As I recall, a sizable portion of the party at that time was the Strom Thurmond contingent of “Dixiecrats”. Thus, any inference that Ronald Reagan was a “lefty” is a stretch. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2001, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-so-evil/82655/90 "2001-09-21T03:26:28Z")
Andros inquired if I was being facetious when I said the Unabomber’s manifesto would not be out of place in “The Nation” or a Greenpeace pamphlet, or in any standard, mainstream left-wing publication. No, I was not being facetious. Have you ever READ the Unabomber’s manifesto? It’s NOT the kind of foaming-at-the-mouth, “let’s blow people up” screed many people expected it to be. Rather, it’s a long-winded, pompous, tedious, tiresome collection of left-wing and environmentalist cliches. It’s the work of an Ivy League academic hack (which, incidentally, Ted Kaczynski was)… and if the same article had been published in, say, “The New York Review of Books,” under the name of Garry Wills (or any other boring, predictable, left-wing hack), nobody would have raised an eyebrow. Now, does that mean that all environmentalists are wacko killers? Of course not! But if I’M to be held responsible when a fellow right-to-lifer shoots an abortionist, why shouldn’t liberals and environmentalists have to answer for Ted Kaczynski? ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2001, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-so-evil/82655/91 "2001-09-21T03:32:27Z")
What he said. Even Chuck Heston is in SAG. You don’t work in Hollywood otherwise. And President of SAG has traditionally been a very political position, and not necessarily a generally pro-union one. From **jackmanii** ’s much-appreciated link: > [@](#): > > As president of the Screen Actors Guild, he resisted what he considered a Communist plot to subvert the film industry. That doesn’t strike me as being particularly “lefty,” and is in keeping with my previous mention of his affection for Tailgunner. Anyone have anything more solid? ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2001, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-so-evil/82655/92 "2001-09-21T03:39:46Z")
Errr, what **philosophocles** said, that is. **Astorian** , I have read it, a couple times, and it was IMHO very obviously written by a nutjob. While you’re welcome to paint all liberals with that brush, I disagree that it wouldn’t be out of place in a mainstream left-wing publication. Or even a Greenpeace publication. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Corrado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a88e4f/32.png) [@John\_Corrado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Corrado)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2001, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-so-evil/82655/93 "2001-09-21T03:41:02Z")
**andros:** > [@](#): > > …during the campaign of 1948, Ronald Reagan worked hard for Democrats like [incumbent President] Truman and [Minnesota Senate Candidate] Humphrey. He attacked reductions in Social Security. He condemned cuts in school lunches. He called for the tough enforcement of civil rights laws, and for low-cost public housing. He was, in other words, the quintessential New Deal Democrat. From _Man Of The House_ by Tip O’Neill. Reagan was, in fact, a liberal Democrat (not a Dixiecrat, or even a conservative Democrat) up until the '50’s, when he had a change of heart. Sorry- some people do change their beliefs about the world based upon their experiences. I don’t see that as a flaw- I see that as realistic. When I was 14, I was a conservative Republican. When I was 16, I was a Socialist. When I was 20, I was a conservative Democrat. Now I’m a liberal Republican. Things learned, new points of view listened to, various changes in the political circumstances. These things happen. But Don Knotts is still merely misguided. It was Don _Martin_ who was evil incarnate. Fwoomba. [Edited by John Corrado on 09-20-2001 at 10:43 PM] ---
**Author:** ![DPWhite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d26b3c/32.png) [@DPWhite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPWhite)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2001, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-so-evil/82655/94 "2001-09-21T03:47:58Z")
Reagan was not a Strom Thurmond type of Democrat, but a New Dealer lefty. Nor would he have been considered a racist by moderates at any time during his public life, which Thurmond certainly was and is, that being what the Dixicrats were all about. He wasn’t particularly pro-civil rights, but he wasn’t much in their way either. The closest he came to racism was his constant bashing of “welfare queens”, done more to drum up support than out of conviction. Now, I know that those on the left consider this a coded appeal to racism, but I think that Reagan did it cynically rather than from baser motives. He was SAG president once, although so was Charleton Heston, but I don’t think that makes him a liberal. It was more his support for FDR. I haven’t read the biographies (and probably won’t), but after he divorced Jane Wyman and married Nancy Davis, his politics changed. Conservativism has no correlation to either evil or stupidity (well I really can’t say that as I have no citations), but I have any number of conservative friends who are clearly not evil or stupid. Same with liberals. ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2001, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-so-evil/82655/95 "2001-09-21T04:08:39Z")
Thanks JMCJ and dpwhite. But John, come on: > [@](#): > > Sorry- some people do change their beliefs about the world based upon their experiences. I don’t see that as a flaw- I see that as realistic. You should know me better than that. I’m not complaining about it, or surprised, or see it as a flaw. I simply didn’t know. I do know, thank Cecil. floosh, fwang ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2001, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-so-evil/82655/96 "2001-09-21T05:19:35Z")
I stand by my assertion that Don Knotts is evil. I once saw him watch a Pauly Shore/Adam Sandler marathon, and he enjoyed it. ---
**Author:** ![anya\_marie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ebca7d/32.png) [@anya\_marie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anya_marie)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2001, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-so-evil/82655/97 "2001-09-21T10:31:53Z")
Really? Without getting high or drunk?? ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2001, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-so-evil/82655/98 "2001-09-21T18:33:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by LateComer \* > \*\*Check out these gems: > > > [@](#): > > > > **Susan Coulter** > > Hillary claimed preposterously in the Talk magazine interview that she discussed policy with Bill while cutting his grapefruit in the morning. > > She just couldn’t resist a personal attack on the former First Lady/Current Senator Clinton. > > > [@](#): > > > > **Susen Coulter** > > We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. > > Yeah, this might work. If only these guys were Christians I think they might have flown planes into Abortion clinics and ACLU headquarters and Jerry Falwell would have rejoiced. \*\* The woman’s name is ANN, not Susen Coulter. ---
**Author:** ![december](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/838e76/32.png) [@december](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/december)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2001, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-so-evil/82655/99 "2001-09-21T19:01:45Z")
In his book, “From Beiruit to Baghdad,” NY Times columnist explained how American newsmen stationed in the Middle East distinguished between political parties, when their differences had nothing to do with our ideas of liberism and conservatism. He wrote, the good guys were called the “left” and the bad guys were called the “right.” I found out how general this rule was, when my daughter insisted that the Russian Communists were the _right_ and the more free-market reformers were the _left._ ---
**Author:** ![december](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/838e76/32.png) [@december](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/december)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2001, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-so-evil/82655/100 "2001-09-21T19:04:06Z")
That is, NY Times columnist **Thomas Friedman** [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-so-evil/82655.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-so-evil/82655.md?page=6)