# Why are conservatives such dicks? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 7, 2009, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-such-dicks/505657 "2009-08-07T16:54:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-such-dicks/505657/21 "2009-08-07T18:03:40Z")
> [@Spiff](#): > > Marginalized? Yes. The _most marginalized group in American history_? It is to laugh. > > Blacks and Native Americans are the first two obvious examples that come to mind. Ok lets change that to ‘the past half century’. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-such-dicks/505657/22 "2009-08-07T18:09:57Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > Ok lets change that to ‘the past half century’. Still gotta vote for black people. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-such-dicks/505657/23 "2009-08-07T18:12:26Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Still gotta vote for black people. I disagree completely. There are no organizations like the NAACP and no affirmative action for the poor whites. A friend of mine who is a black history studies professor says he likes to floor his sociology classes which consist mostly of minorities by talking about the disenfranchisement of poor whites in areas like Appalachia. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-such-dicks/505657/24 "2009-08-07T18:13:54Z")
Women have a pretty good claim too, as do poor people in general. Also GLBT people. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-such-dicks/505657/25 "2009-08-07T18:15:47Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > I disagree completely. There are no organizations like the NAACP and no affirmative action for the poor whites. A friend of mine who is a black history studies professor says he likes to floor his sociology classes which consist mostly of minorities by talking about the disenfranchisement of poor whites in areas like Appalachia. Poor white people are certainly disenfranchised by rich white people. All poor people are. ---
**Author:** ![emacknight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ec8ea/32.png) [@emacknight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emacknight)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-such-dicks/505657/26 "2009-08-07T18:16:54Z")
Wait, what are we debating now? Blacks have bigger dicks than women? Hillbillies are bigger dicks than Native Americans? I thought we were bashing Rush Limbaugh. ---
**Author:** ![Sinaijon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@Sinaijon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sinaijon)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-such-dicks/505657/27 "2009-08-07T18:22:04Z")
Conservatives will probably continue being dicks as long as you keep referring to people with different values than yourself as ‘dicks’. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-such-dicks/505657/28 "2009-08-07T18:24:17Z")
> [@Sinaijon](#): > > Conservatives will probably continue being dicks as long as you keep referring to people with different values than yourself as ‘dicks’. News Flash: Nobody’s done that. It’s not brain surgery. Try to keep up. ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-such-dicks/505657/29 "2009-08-07T18:25:17Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > I disagree completely. There are no organizations like the NAACP and no affirmative action for the poor whites. A friend of mine who is a black history studies professor says he likes to floor his sociology classes which consist mostly of minorities by talking about the disenfranchisement of poor whites in areas like Appalachia. Been to many Indian reservations? Has your black history studies professor? -Joe ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-such-dicks/505657/30 "2009-08-07T18:28:21Z")
I actually find plenty to admire about the traditional liberal worldview - helping the community, staying out of each other’s personal lives, etc. I think many rational people can identify with those principles. Lately, however, liberals have taken pussiitude to a whole new level - “free” insurance for all, everyone needs a new car. And that’s not even counting everything that took the place the past eight years, questioning the Republican president at every turn about every issue and yet not leveraging congressional power to do anything against him. Of course this is not to say that the right doesn’t have it’s share of assholes - O’Reilly and Savage, I’m looking at you. But those assholes don’t set the agenda in the same way nor do they have the type of sway within the Republican Party as the likes of Pelosi do in the Democratic party. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-such-dicks/505657/31 "2009-08-07T18:30:00Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Poor white people are certainly disenfranchised by rich white people. All poor people are. [Disenfranchised?](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disfranchisement) No they’re not. Regards, Shodan ---
**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:** [August 7, 2009, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-such-dicks/505657/32 "2009-08-07T18:37:42Z")
Besides the other reasons mentioned : > [@joebuck20](#): > > I actually find plenty to admire about the traditional conservative worldview - small government, strong military, emphasis on personal responsibility, etc. I think many rational people can identify with those principles. Thing is, those aren’t conservative _ **principles** _; they are conservative _ **slogans** _, except for the strong military part. They don’t and never have actually meant them. A “small government” for example is in direct conflict with the very idea of conservative values; values which require a powerful, intrusive government to enforce. And “personal responsibility” is just a noble sounding way of saying “screw you”; it just means they feel no obligation to help others, not that they feel any moral responsibility for anything _ **they** _ do. “Personal responsibility” is about responsibility the way a “People’s Republic” is about the people. Conservatism simply isn’t a nice way of looking at the world; therefore conservatives are not nice people. And not just recently, and not just in America; conservatives nearly always are and always have been on the wrong side of any moral question. Women’s rights, slavery, homosexuality, you name it. ---
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-such-dicks/505657/33 "2009-08-07T18:39:45Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > [Disenfranchised?](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disfranchisement) No they’re not. > > Regards, > Shodan Not really much of an argument you are putting forward here. Unless we are expected to think “because **Shodan** says so, it must be true.” The definition to which you post includes the following: > [@](#): > > Disfranchisement (also called disenfranchisement) is the revocation of the right of suffrage (the right to vote) to a person or group of people, _ **or rendering a person’s vote less effective** _, or ineffective. (emphasis added). It doesn’t have to involve removing someone’s vote. The way the political system is structured, especially the role of campaign financing, gives those with cash extra infuence. This system was desinged, and has been sustained, by rich white people. It’s a perfectly legitimate argument that therefore rich white people have made the votes of poor whites less effective, and therefore have disenfranchised them. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-such-dicks/505657/34 "2009-08-07T18:46:12Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > Rudy Giuliani is part of the reason the Republican party is in shambles, he’s not an old school conservative like Reagan and Bush… > > This is the guy who ran for President and had nothing to say but 9/11. So beating up homeless people, raping minorities with mops, trying to push out taxicabs and food vendors from their lines of work, shutting down every party thrown by someone who isn’t rich, decimating the international tourism business of NYC by shutting down the night clubs. Your last (non) sentence is puzzling. Rudy beat up homeless people and raped minorities? And he shut down all the nightclubs and made it illegal for anyone but rich people to have parties? Why didn’t we hear about these nefarious activities? Could you enlighten us with relevant cites? I wasn’t a Giuliani fan before, but wow, it seems he’s a veritable Hitler and the Marquis de Sade wrapped up into one. Oh, and regarding the OP: despite all their excesses, stupidity and self-inflicted wounds, the Republicans will make a comeback, likely starting in 2010. Their chief opponents, after all, are Democrats. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-such-dicks/505657/35 "2009-08-07T18:46:32Z")
If you see the right wing commentators on TV or hear the radio righties ,you would think it is a technique they believe in. Insulting and shouting over the person who calls or comes on TV has become their trademark. They have long ago abandoned polite discussion. Manners are for the weak. Fox TV has all commentators using the same buzzwords each day. It is orchestrated to prevent input from the weak lefties who are far too polite to force their opinions over the yelling of Beck and Rush. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-such-dicks/505657/36 "2009-08-07T18:46:50Z")
_Thought experiment_ /Rounds up all poor white southerners and drives them onto reservations. Infects them with a suite of epidemic diseases that kills 90% of their population. Prevents them from voting – hell, treats them as subhuman for 100 years or more. /Rounds up all Native Americans. Brings them off reservations, gives them access to a network of jobs and support, devotes the dominant national political party for the last 2 decades to pandering exclusively to their tastes and interests. Oh, and resurrects the ones killed off by epidemic disease. Experiment continues for 100 more years. **Looks like a tie!** Oh, wait, the Poor White Southerners isn’t the derogatory name of a football team in the nation’s capital. Going to have to give the prize to the native Americans. Again. ---
**Author:** ![HoboStew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/f17d59/32.png) [@HoboStew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoboStew)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-such-dicks/505657/37 "2009-08-07T18:47:20Z")
Conservatives aren’t dicks. One thing I have noticed about them in general (mainly from studying my dad and his friends, conservatives all) is that conservatives are much more likely to be blunt and uncaring in their views. They are far more likely to say things like “tough shit, get a job” rather than “I understand that economic times are difficult, perhaps you might benefit from attending a job training seminar.” You might call that being a dick, he would call it cutting through the namby-pamby bullshit. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-such-dicks/505657/38 "2009-08-07T18:48:32Z")
> [@Sinaijon](#): > > Conservatives will probably continue being dicks as long as you keep referring to people with different values than yourself as ‘dicks’. You mean as opposed to “socialists,” “fascists,” “nazis,” “pals of terrorists,” “antichrists,” “America haters,” etc? And that’s just the mainstream conservatives. The ones with TV shows and elected offices. If you look what they say on the internet, they don’t bother to hide the racism. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-such-dicks/505657/39 "2009-08-07T18:51:19Z")
In fairness, the OP should have probably phrased the thread title differently. It _is_ a “have you stopped beating your wife” type of question. It would have probably been better to ask why the dickish element has taken so much control over conservative politics. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-such-dicks/505657/40 "2009-08-07T18:51:26Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Poor white people are certainly disenfranchised by rich white people. All poor people are. The difference is they are not benefitted by affirmative action policies as are the poor people of the proper ethnicities. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-such-dicks/505657.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-such-dicks/505657.md?page=3)