# 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:** 3
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-such-dicks/505657/41 "2009-08-07T18:52:12Z")
> [@HoboStew](#): > > 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. I might call that being a dick. Though I think the _real_ dicks under discussion here aren’t your casual noncompassionate conservative casually opining on how the hippies should go get a haircut. It’s the frothing mad ones that seem to be running the party now. ---
**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, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-such-dicks/505657/42 "2009-08-07T18:56:30Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > The difference is they are not benefitted by affirmative action policies as are the poor people of the proper ethnicities. They’ve never had to compound their poverty with racial discrimination. ---
**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, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-such-dicks/505657/43 "2009-08-07T18:58:43Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > 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? [http://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/20/nyregion/in-wake-of-attack-giuliani-cracks-down-on-homeless.html](http://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/20/nyregion/in-wake-of-attack-giuliani-cracks-down-on-homeless.html) \<----Of course you’ll say that there is no evidence of beating up on homeless. As for raping minorities - Abner Louima He shut down a whole hell of a lot of nightclubs and parties were being shut down pretty constantly. Bars got in trouble for having people dance without cabaret licenses. [http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2008/07/13/2008-07-13\_dance\_til\_you\_drop\_\_after\_bloomberg\_repe.html](http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2008/07/13/2008-07-13_dance_til_you_drop__after_bloomberg_repe.html) > [@](#): > > There are 181 licensed cabarets in New York, according to Consumer Affairs, and most are limited to techno-thumping clubs in Manhattan. > During former Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s quality-of-life campaign in 1997, police cracked down on venues without a cabaret license and the law became a quick way to shut down out-of-control nightclubs. > But dancers have long complained the license process squeezes out small venues that might offer swing and salsa and even sued the city last year to reverse its Prohibition-era ban on social dancing. > > Read more: [http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2008/07/13/2008-07-13\_dance\_til\_you\_drop\_\_after\_bloomberg\_repe.html#ixzz0NWbhv9MY](http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2008/07/13/2008-07-13_dance_til_you_drop__after_bloomberg_repe.html#ixzz0NWbhv9MY) How many of those parties that were shut down happened in Upper-East Side ballrooms I wonder? Giuliani cracks down on Taxis. > **[Giuliani's sorry crackdown on New York cabbies.](https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2007/12/giuliani-s-sorry-crackdown-on-new-york-cabbies.html)** > > When he is not billing himself as the 9/11 candidate, Rudolph Giuliani bills himself as a law and order candidate. But when he was mayor of New York,... Giuliani cracks down on food vendors [http://www.nytimes.com/1998/05/24/nyregion/giuliani-to-bar-food-vendors-on-144-blocks.html](http://www.nytimes.com/1998/05/24/nyregion/giuliani-to-bar-food-vendors-on-144-blocks.html) > [@](#): > > 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. Not quite as bad as Hitler, maybe a little worse than de Sade. 😉 ---
**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, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-such-dicks/505657/44 "2009-08-07T18:59:46Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > They’ve never had to compound their poverty with racial discrimination. Umm yes they have. There are not affirmative action programs to lift them out of poverty. That is racial discrimination, BY definition. You have to be of the appropriate race to receive that sort of benefit. ---
**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, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-such-dicks/505657/45 "2009-08-07T19:01:01Z")
What a load of horseshit. ---
**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, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-such-dicks/505657/46 "2009-08-07T19:04:58Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > What a load of horseshit. That’s how I feel about what you’ve been spouting. ---
**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, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-such-dicks/505657/47 "2009-08-07T19:07:18Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > The difference is they are not benefitted by affirmative action policies as are the poor people of the proper ethnicities. Overwhelmingly affirmative action programs have benefitted the middle class. I’ve not seen a lot of evidence of the poor of any ethnicity being particularly helped by AA. It’s one of the reasons I support affirmative action based on socio-economic stratification. ---
**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, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-such-dicks/505657/48 "2009-08-07T19:09:28Z")
Oh, I see, **mswas**. You’ll be amending your rant against Giuliani to reflect that he wanted police to get homeless people off the streets, i.e. _"(Police Commissioner) Safir said the homeless would first be offered services. If they refuse, he said, ‘‘We will either summons them or arrest them. If they’re blocking people’s access to property, we’ll move them along.’’_ Plus he got _some_ nightclubs shut down (at least temporarily), and during his administration some cops brutalized an arrested man (in stark contrast to other administrations, where police misbehavior was unknown). Doesn’t read quite as forcefully as your original rant, but hey, accuracy is costly. As I said, I’m not a fan of Giuliani, but having grown up in NYC and lived there into the mid-70s, it doesn’t appear to me that the city was in vastly worse shape during his time in office as mayor. A case could be made that the place became quite a bit more liveable. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-such-dicks/505657/49 "2009-08-07T19:11:23Z")
I have to agree with **Der Trihs** on this one. Conservativism isn’t a nice ideology. Its focus is mainly on getting itself into power by promoting slogans they don’t believe in such as personal responsibility and smaller government, at least that’s what it seems like in the last few decades. And conservatives have always, ALWAYS been on the wrong side of morality. Their dickishness, to me, reflects a systematic collective fear of losing power that causes them to lash out. They know the world is getting more liberal; I’d be shocked if most Western civilizations still have anti-gay laws on the books in 50 years, or stringent policies over fairly harmless drugs like pot. This causes anxiety and increases their bigotry by making them band together in like-minded groups. Whereas a single conservative may be easy to talk to, open-minded, and not a dick, get a group of them together and you’ll be sure that they’re going to yell at you. I like to look at the positives of this conservative dickishness. Its a sign that their ideology’s in danger and that is a positive thing. ---
**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, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-such-dicks/505657/50 "2009-08-07T19:21:25Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > I disagree completely. There are no organizations like the NAACP and no affirmative action for the poor whites. Has it occurred to you that this might be because there doesn’t need to be? Not a lot of people are pulled over for “driving while named Bubba.” A poor person can put on a shirt and tie and look middle class. Poor people move out of their socioeconomic position all the time. Black people do not become white. ---
**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, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-such-dicks/505657/51 "2009-08-07T19:22:43Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Has it occurred to you that this might be because there doesn’t need to be? Has it ever occurred to you that you have absolutely no clue what you’re talking about? > [@](#): > > Not a lot of people are pulled over for “driving while named Bubba.” A poor person can put on a shirt and tie and look middle class. Poor people move out of their socioeconomic position all the time. Black people do not become white. You really have no clue what kind of grinding poverty I am referring to. ---
**Author:** ![Deeg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deeg/32/2955_2.png) [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-such-dicks/505657/52 "2009-08-07T19:25:51Z")
The party out of power carps about the part that is in power. One group isn’t any more dickish than the other. The Democrats dragged Palin’s kids through the mud, for crying out loud. ---
**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, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-such-dicks/505657/53 "2009-08-07T19:33:42Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Oh, I see, **mswas**. You’ll be amending your rant against Giuliani to reflect that he wanted police to get homeless people off the streets, i.e. > > _"(Police Commissioner) Safir said the homeless would first be offered services. If they refuse, he said, ‘‘We will either summons them or arrest them. If they’re blocking people’s access to property, we’ll move them along.’’_ > > Plus he got _some_ nightclubs shut down (at least temporarily), and during his administration some cops brutalized an arrested man (in stark contrast to other administrations, where police misbehavior was unknown). > > Doesn’t read quite as forcefully as your original rant, but hey, accuracy is costly. I wasn’t just talking about the big night clubs that grabbed headlines that you are talking about. I am talking about lots and lots of parties. But hey, don’t discontinue your views on my account. You could do the research if you wanted and find out about how much it affected nightlife in New York. We’re talking about regular shutdowns from loft parties to east village bars who had a couple of people get up and dance spontaneously. Well you’d need to actually do even the most cursory of research into things that happened twenty years after you left. I can off the top of my head name half a dozen clubs that were shut down and put out of business. Limelight, Tunnel, Palladium, Coney Island High, Lunatarium. Twilo and Sound Factory were shut down but they came back to life. Twilo eventually got shut down because the Draconian laws led to a tragedy. Someone overdosed on XTC and they got taken to a secret room and died there. They were shut down because the room wasn’t on the plans in the city’s records. This of course wouldn’t have happened if they didn’t make a law that said that clubs were responsible if their patrons OD’d on drugs as though the club has any power to stop people from taking drugs. I of course loved being strip searched whenever I wanted to go out on a Friday or Saturday night, that was great. Sure, there was some excesses and I kind of understand why they went after Limelight and the Tunnel and Palladium all Peter Gatien’s establishments. > [@](#): > > As I said, I’m not a fan of Giuliani, but having grown up in NYC and lived there into the mid-70s, it doesn’t appear to me that the city was in vastly worse shape during his time in office as mayor. A case could be made that the place became quite a bit more liveable. Yea, that’s true, he made it more livable in some ways but that doesn’t mean he didn’t do some nasty and underhanded shit to achieve it. He made the city much more liveable for the wealthy. For the poor they had to move further and further out, and the neighborhoods they still live in are about the same as they always were. I know A LOT of people who lost their jobs because of the anti-club hysteria. Don’t get me wrong though, I am happy I am not getting mugged on the subway. ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-such-dicks/505657/54 "2009-08-07T19:34:45Z")
> [@Deeg](#): > > The party out of power carps about the part that is in power. One group isn’t any more dickish than the other. The Democrats dragged Palin’s kids through the mud, for crying out loud. Really? Who, specifically, did this and how did they do so? ---
**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, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-such-dicks/505657/55 "2009-08-07T19:37:49Z")
> [@Deeg](#): > > One group isn’t any more dickish than the other. Ah, one of the conservative Old Standards. “The Republicans aren’t any worse than the Democrats”. Which fails both because it’s practically an admission that the Republicans don’t have any virtues worth mentioning, and because it’s wrong. We’ve had many years worth of lessons of just how much worse the Republicans are the Democrats, and it’s still going on. Thugs, bigots, fools, religious fanatics, warmongers, greedy pigs; those are who the Republican party represents, and the kind of people who make it up. The Democrats are just another political party; the Republicans on the other hand are a collection of the scum element of American society. ---
**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, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-such-dicks/505657/56 "2009-08-07T19:39:17Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Ah, one of the conservative Old Standards. “The Republicans aren’t any worse than the Democrats”. Which fails both because it’s practically an admission that the Republicans don’t have any virtues worth mentioning, and because it’s wrong. We’ve had many years worth of lessons of just how much worse the Republicans are the Democrats, and it’s still going on. > > Thugs, bigots, fools, religious fanatics, warmongers, greedy pigs; those are who the Republican party represents, and the kind of people who make it up. The Democrats are just another political party; the Republicans on the other hand are a collection of the scum element of American society. Your world would seem nice in its childish simplicity if it weren’t so fucking dark and twisted. ---
**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, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-such-dicks/505657/57 "2009-08-07T19:44:58Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > Your world would seem nice in its childish simplicity if it weren’t so fucking dark and twisted. Saying that doesn’t make it true. The Republicans cater to bigotry and religious fanatics, just spent years demonstrating how corrupt and incompetent they are, and are full of people who threaten and indulge in violence. Pretending that both sides are just as bad won’t make it true, no matter how hard you try. ---
**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, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-such-dicks/505657/58 "2009-08-07T19:45:56Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Saying that doesn’t make it true. The Republicans cater to bigotry and religious fanatics, just spent years demonstrating how corrupt and incompetent they are, and are full of people who threaten and indulge in violence. Pretending that both sides are just as bad won’t make it true, no matter how hard you try. It’s always charming how you don’t understand how you yourself are the counterpoint to just about every comment you ever make. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-such-dicks/505657/59 "2009-08-07T19:55:56Z")
> [@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. > Lately, however, conservatives have taken dicktitude to a whole new level - birther conspiracies, town hall shout downs, cries of socialism, equating Obama’s healthcare plan to the Final Solution. And that’s not even counting everything that took the place the past eight years, when daring to question the Republican president got you branded as some sort of latte-sipping, un-American pussy. > Of course this is not to say that the left doesn’t have it’s share of assholes - Michael Moore and Keith Olbermann, 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 Democratic Party as the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck do in the GOP. I don’t know what world you live in, but that’s not the world conservatives live in. The birther conspiracies - well, nutjobs abound on both sides. We had 8 years of lib nutjobs whining about how Bush was AWOL, even though that was thoroughly and completely debunked. But come on…town hall shout downs? Get real. I got your shout down, [right here](http://patriotpost.us/images/editions/09-31d-cartoon.jpg). Cries of socialism? Do you have a problem with the truth being spoken? It’s a given fact that Obama is a socialist. We’ve known it from the day after his name was first floated as a Presidential nominee, and his actions as President have more than proved it to be correct. Equating Obama’s healthcare plan to the Final Solution? I haven’t seen that. What I have seen is how Obama’s healthcare plan is massive idiocy that will completely torpedo healthcare and our economy, so in that sense, it’s a final solution, I guess. And Rush and Glenn. My, my, how you liberals do hate those two. You just can’t stand the fact that you can’t refute what they say, so all you can do is attack them personally. And then you accuse _us_ of being dicks. What a skewed, skewed world you libs live in… ---
**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, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-such-dicks/505657/60 "2009-08-07T20:05:56Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > It’s always charming how you don’t understand how you yourself are the counterpoint to just about every comment you ever make. And it’s always amusing how you like to retreat to personal attacks rather than actually trying to refute what people say. > [@Clothahump](#): > > I don’t know what world you live in, but that’s not the world conservatives live in. The birther conspiracies - well, nutjobs abound on both sides. But with the Democrats, they aren’t in charge. They aren’t getting support on the Congressional level. > [@Clothahump](#): > > We had 8 years of lib nutjobs whining about how Bush was AWOL, even though that was thoroughly and completely debunked. No, it wasn’t. And that particular accusation pretty much fell by the wayside anyway as he did things that were so much worse than that. > [@Clothahump](#): > > Cries of socialism? Do you have a problem with the truth being spoken? It’s a given fact that Obama is a socialist. We’ve known it from the day after his name was first floated as a Presidential nominee, and his actions as President have more than proved it to be correct. Nonsense; he’s nowhere near a socialist, or left wing at all. He’s a moderate corporatist, not a socialist. > [@Clothahump](#): > > Equating Obama’s healthcare plan to the Final Solution? I haven’t seen that. Then you haven’t been paying attention; even on this board we hear how it’s a plan to round up the old and kill them. > [@Clothahump](#): > > And Rush and Glenn. My, my, how you liberals do hate those two. You just can’t stand the fact that you can’t refute what they say, so all you can do is attack them personally. And then you accuse _us_ of being dicks. What a skewed, skewed world you libs live in… “Refute” what they say? Liberals do that all the time; it’s quite rare that they are ever right about anything. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-such-dicks/505657.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-conservatives-such-dicks/505657.md?page=4)