# Why do conservatives (in the US) hate the left so much **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [June 28, 2026, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-conservatives-in-the-us-hate-the-left-so-much/1031251 "2026-06-28T19:14:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**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 2, 2026, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-conservatives-in-the-us-hate-the-left-so-much/1031251/61 "2026-07-02T16:39:48Z")
> [@Sigene](#): > > Conservatives don’t answer here because they are tired of their true feelings being denied as legitimate concerns A “true feeling” does not mean the feeling has any basis in truth. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2026, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-conservatives-in-the-us-hate-the-left-so-much/1031251/62 "2026-07-02T17:16:03Z")
The sense I got was “white males aren’t allowed to complain.” So they might experience the vanishing middle class as a person, but their white maleness prevents them from having that concern taken seriously. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2026, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-conservatives-in-the-us-hate-the-left-so-much/1031251/63 "2026-07-02T17:22:15Z")
I take seriously anyone’s complaint about the disappearing middle class (or other economic anxities). I know many such people (as I said, I’m from West Virginia). But if they tie it in with being White and/or male, I quit taking them seriously. And I’ve never heard anyone tell (say) a 50 year-old disabled coal miner, “What’s your problem? You’re a _White male!_ Get your resume around, and you’ll soon be working on Wall Street”. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2026, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-conservatives-in-the-us-hate-the-left-so-much/1031251/64 "2026-07-02T17:29:39Z")
The decline of the middle class is indeed an issue- but why do so many of them persist in voting for the party that keeps cutting taxes for the elite as well as fighting to destroy Social Security for past 80 years? ---
**Author:** ![Sigene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sigene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigene)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2026, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-conservatives-in-the-us-hate-the-left-so-much/1031251/65 "2026-07-02T18:44:51Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > A “true feeling” does not mean the feeling has any basis in truth. This is correct, but how do you respond to a person who says they feel discriminated against? Does it matter to you what gender they are or color of their skin or sexual orientation? And if it does, at what point do you think this has ‘basis in truth’ or not? If a woman says she was victimized, do you accept it on face value as being truthful? And if a man says he was victimized, do you accept on face value as truthful…or do you automatically think that it doesn’t have basis in reality? I’ve been taught to always believe the victim. But I’ve also been taught that men who claim to be a victim are not really victims and are being overly dramatic or are untruthful for effect. ---
**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 2, 2026, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-conservatives-in-the-us-hate-the-left-so-much/1031251/66 "2026-07-02T19:10:37Z")
> [@Sigene](#): > > This is correct, but how do you respond to a person who says they feel discriminated against? I would ask, “In what way?” and respond accordingly. If you are willing to listen to them, but they are not willing to listen to you, you are not “meeting them halfway”-You are wasting your time. By the way, changing the conversation from conservatives hating the left blindly to women being victimized by men (for which there is more than enough documentation) seems like an attempt to minimalize and divert the conversation. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2026, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-conservatives-in-the-us-hate-the-left-so-much/1031251/67 "2026-07-02T20:06:57Z")
No, but that’s not what conservatives usually see liberals as. They don’t look at liberals and think “Those people who are wanting to help the poor and needy, just like Jesus said.” They think, “Those people who want to push for homosexuality, transgenderism, communism, abortion baby murder, illegal immigration, racial double standards, Islam, and softness-on-crime.” And before someone says, “That’s a straw man of liberalism” - I’m saying, that’s what they _see and think._ ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2026, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-conservatives-in-the-us-hate-the-left-so-much/1031251/68 "2026-07-02T20:25:35Z")
Then they’re misinformed, at best. And that doesn’t explain the “why the hate?”. ---
**Author:** ![IkesAcolyte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ikesacolyte/32/19012_2.png) [@IkesAcolyte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IkesAcolyte)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2026, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-conservatives-in-the-us-hate-the-left-so-much/1031251/69 "2026-07-02T20:29:22Z")
This. Fox News and other conservative media outlets caricaturizes anyone on the Left from the Blue Dogs to the Commies as the same “blue hair baby killing monsters.” In all fairness the Left does the same thing to an extent with depicting anyone in the GOP as “gun toting redneck fascists,” but this is a larger problem with the growing divide between the two parties. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2026, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-conservatives-in-the-us-hate-the-left-so-much/1031251/70 "2026-07-02T20:38:23Z")
But it does explain it. If you view your opponent as supporting moral perversion, baby killing, softness on crime, etc. then it’s not at all hard - indeed, fully logical - to hate them. It may be misinformed, but the hate-logic is totally understandable. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2026, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-conservatives-in-the-us-hate-the-left-so-much/1031251/71 "2026-07-02T20:38:51Z")
That’s basically what I did in response to your post. “Can you provide some examples?” I notice you haven’t responded, other than to continue to offer this “discrimination” as a given. ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2026, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-conservatives-in-the-us-hate-the-left-so-much/1031251/72 "2026-07-02T20:41:12Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > … They think, “Those people who want to push for homosexuality, transgenderism, communism, abortion baby murder, illegal immigration, racial double standards, Islam, and softness-on-crime.” … And for the _religiously_ conservative, there’s the fear that any or all of these (fictitious) desires will provoke the Old Testament God to deliver the US, if not the world, into the toils of Satan. So these issues — and their proponents — must be suppressed with righteous fury. At least that’s the message I get from my fundie relatives. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2026, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-conservatives-in-the-us-hate-the-left-so-much/1031251/73 "2026-07-02T21:11:17Z")
No, it doesn’t. It lays out some mostly intolerant beliefs, but in no way explains why someone who disagrees should be hated. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2026, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-conservatives-in-the-us-hate-the-left-so-much/1031251/74 "2026-07-02T23:39:51Z")
Because relentless propaganda _tells_ the viewer to hate all those things (caricatured leftist ideas) and everyone advocating for any of them. ---
**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:** [July 2, 2026, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-conservatives-in-the-us-hate-the-left-so-much/1031251/75 "2026-07-02T23:46:32Z")
> [@Sigene](#): > > I respectfully submit that this is nothing more then mental maturation to reinforce an idea that conservatives are inherently evil without actually getting data from a wide range of conservatives to provide evidence that they as a whole or widely ‘hate’ the left so much. They _are_ “evil” by any reasonable standard, and we have plenty of evidence for it. Worldwide, any faction that self-describes as “conservative” can be relied on to be, _at best,_ cruel, tyrannical and selfish. Always. And that’s when they aren’t outright murderous. There’s no such thing as a good conservative. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2026, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-conservatives-in-the-us-hate-the-left-so-much/1031251/76 "2026-07-02T23:54:07Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > There’s no such thing as a good conservative. This is both unhelpful and dangerous us-and-them thinking, as well as untrue. I think you vastly underestimate the number of people who espouse an ideology without putting even a droplet of thought into it. People who love their families, work hard, contribute to their communities, and simply don’t think about any of the stuff we in this thread are thinking about beyond voting “R” consistently. Their actions support evil, but as Americans, we all do, just maybe a little less directly at the ballot box. There’s no purity available, no matter what’s in your heart. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2026, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-conservatives-in-the-us-hate-the-left-so-much/1031251/77 "2026-07-03T00:11:17Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > They _are_ “evil” by any reasonable standard, and we have plenty of evidence for it. Well, look, I’m not disputing that I’m _evil._ But isn’t this about being _hateful?_ ---
**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:** [July 3, 2026, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-conservatives-in-the-us-hate-the-left-so-much/1031251/78 "2026-07-03T00:35:16Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > This is both unhelpful and dangerous us-and-them thinking, as well as untrue. > > I think you vastly underestimate the number of people who espouse an ideology without putting even a droplet of thought into it. People who love their families, work hard, contribute to their communities, and simply don’t think about any of the stuff we in this thread are thinking about beyond voting “R” consistently. No, that is what’s dangerous to believe. That’s how a lot of people get hurt, when they assume a conservative is “just like anyone else” and surely they wouldn’t, say, turn on a friend, sibling or their own child if they find out that they are gay or transgender, or the “wrong” religion, political party or atheist. Then the conservatives do just that, because a blind, ravening hatred of _everyone and everything else_ is what being a conservative is all about. We have an epidemic of homeless gay youth because they trusted their conservative parents and came out to them. Conservatives don’t love their families, or like their friends, or care about their neighbors. They just care about their hatred and cruelty, and they will sacrifice everything else to it. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanubv.2/32/3260_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUBv.2)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2026, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-conservatives-in-the-us-hate-the-left-so-much/1031251/79 "2026-07-03T01:47:40Z")
But that does explain it. The intolerant beliefs that @Velocity listed _is_ why (some) conservatives hate the left so much. They are incapable of accepting anyone who doesn’t share their narrow views and, imo, are hateful people. ---
**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:** [July 3, 2026, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-conservatives-in-the-us-hate-the-left-so-much/1031251/80 "2026-07-03T12:54:18Z")
Yes; that’s what “intolerance” is all about, hating the people you are being intolerant _of._ If somebody is intolerant of Group X, then they are going to _hate_ Group X; that’s just how it works. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-conservatives-in-the-us-hate-the-left-so-much/1031251.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-conservatives-in-the-us-hate-the-left-so-much/1031251.md?page=5)