At least you recognize that this thread isn’t really productive in terms of actually understanding how conservatives think and why they seem so filled with anger and hatred,
It’s all well and good to pat yourself on the back about how morally superior you think your ideology is. But then the question I have is if that is so self-evident, then why isn’t it simply accepted because it “works”? Where does the irrational hatred come from? America as a country tends to default to moderate conservative. It seems simplistic to just handwave away most of the population as “uneducated closeminded racists”. Even if that were true, why is that such an appealing lens for conservatives to view the world through?
So sell me on why your “blind, ravening hatred” is better? If you believe yourself to be the benchmark for the left, would you really question why anyone wouldn’t fight tooth and nail to prevent you from being in charge of ANYTHING?
I’m not “the benchmark of the Left”; the leftists I know consider me much too far to the Right for their tastes. And I’m neither in charge of anything, nor do I have the desire to be.
Which I’ll point out is where I’m better than them. The number of people I’m oppressing, beating, imprisoning, exploiting and killing is zero. Nor am I so monofocused and malice and cruelty as to be suicidal, unlike them.
If I was like them I would go buy a gun and randomly murder some Evil Right Wingers. But I’m not like them, so I don’t have a body count. I’m never beaten a child, raped a woman, attacked a random minority, or done any other of the kinds of behaviors that are core to the Right.
Its frustrating and difficult to continue to try to help and carry on with this discussion. Imagine, if you can, what it is like for someone you politically disagree with feels if they tried to enter here. Its neither welcoming, nor open nor a sliver of understanding.
Please; you can have them, or you can have everyone else. The two are mutually exclusive. It’s known as the “Nazi Bar” effect; once you let Nazis into the bar they drive everyone else out, and you have a Nazi bar nobody else visits.
Not everyone who despises the Democratic party is a nazi They aren’t all MAGA or religious or hateful. Sometimes they are even Democrats.
It is a shame that we can’t have this conversation, because figuring why people are so unhappy with the Democratic Party and what changes they can make to address that is critical for the party’s future success. Trump and the the Republicans are quite unpopular. You get the Democrats up to even neutral popularity they win in a landside. But there is no desire or ability to do any introspection. Everything is the fault of Trump or Fox News, or Social Media, and nothing is ever the Democrats fault for alienating a large swatch of the country. Instead we get is caricatures of what the left thinks all conservatives are. Latino shifting right, they must be racist. Young men shifting right, they must have found Jesus or something. No desire to understand what the actual grievances of people are and help them address it. I’m happy at least one person tried to answer the question, but was immediately assumed to be stupid or brainwashed.
If the right behaved the way you described there’d be 100 million mass shootings per year. There clearly aren’t.
I’m in agreement with Sigene; there are a few good-faith answers in this thread, but some of the replies are, as he said, no different than asking a bunch of MAGA folks, “Why do liberals hate America and support what’s wrong?”, just flipped.
It was also frustrating to have you ignore my reasonable, civilly-asked questions posts (60 and 63) about what you (and conservatives/white males) are concerned about.
IMO the concerns may stem from their lower relative status now that they have to compete with non-Whites and women. As they say, if you’re used to privilege, equality feels like oppression.
I’ve had friends and family in West Virginia who messed their lives up through substance abuse, misadventures (firearms/motorcycles), and just plain laziness. But they all blame women, minorities, and “the government” for the fact that they’re not billionaires.
I agree, up to a point, it is not “Just flipped” The right flips it based on feelings (many times following the worst angels of their nature) the moderates, the independents and liberals now flip it based on facts. (of course now they are powerless to do much, but that is why we are a democracy, and we should fight for it and the ones that are just looking the other way when corruption oozes, What is taking you guys so long to do the right thing?)
From there standpoint I think it is more that they are struggling, and one political party they perceive is telling them I don’t care you are struggling, you still are living a privileged life compared to all these other people, so I’m going to worry about helping them and not you. Very easy for them to consider that party not for them, regardless as to how liberal their beliefs are. Obviously it is not entirely a justified feeling, but it also isn’t 0% justified. There are very real gripes that many educated and informed people have with the Democratic Party.
The conservative movement is for self loathing people. Like many people with crippling low self esteem, they lash outward and pretend to be strong by clinging to childishly drawn trappings of strength. It’s also why they are so open to subservience to cartoonishly inept strongmen like Trump and his bigotry; they don’t want anyone to be happy, they want everyone to be as miserable as they are. America has produced a bumper crop of self hating morons and they’ve managed to kill the country.
Can’t speak for others, but the biggest misconception (many times made by the right wing media) is that helping the ones suffering injustice, poverty and discrimination does not help white families too. It would had helped all indeed.
The analysis in the accompanying report shows if four key racial gaps for Blacks — wages, education, housing, and investment — were closed 20 years ago, $16 trillion could have been added to the U.S. economy. And if the gaps are closed today, $5 trillion can be added to U.S. GDP over the next five years.
Racism makes our economy worse – and not just in ways that harm people of color, says public policy expert Heather C. McGhee. From her research and travels across the US, McGhee shares startling insights into how racism fuels bad policymaking and drains our economic potential – and offers a crucial rethink on what we can do to create a more prosperous nation for all. “Our fates are linked,” she says. “It costs us so much to remain divided.” https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eaCrsBtiYA4
Stop with the forced bottom surgery on seven year olds, no more kitty litter boxes in classrooms, quit supporting immigrants who eat our pets—lots of stuff.
