Understanding The Conservative Mindset (1 Viewer)

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    MT15

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    Obviously, I am not conservative. I have been struggling with the way a lot of conservatives are responding to the election. I do not understand their willingness to go along with obvious lies by Trump sycophants at all, and their willingness to undermine a presidential election, and by doing so, undermine our very form of government. This thread is from a former conservative journalist, well, he’s still conservative I think, but has left his positions in traditional conservative organizations. It’s a long thread but fascinating.

     
    This is for Richard, it’s a blog post from Teri Kanefield, maintaining that the current Republican Party isn’t conservative, but rather reactionary. Teri has calmed my fears before by pointing out that what Trump is generally doing is called the “strongman con”. He acts like he can do things and get away with things that he cannot. But I digress, here is a quote from her blog

    “GOP is not a conservative party. It’s a reactionary party. Let’s stop calling it “conservative.”

    True conservatives, according to NYU prof. @Jonhaidt, form a kind of yin-yang balance with liberals (or progressives).

    Liberals embrace forward-looking change.

    Conservatives value order. The conservative insight is that order is precious, hard to achieve, and easy to lose. (From @JonHaidt)

    Reactionaries, on the other hand seek rapid change—backwards to a bygone era.

    Political psychologists Capelos and Katsanidou define reactionism as “a forceful desire to return to the past.”

    Underlying reactionism is “anger, fear, nostalgic hope, betrayal, and perceived injustice.”

    The word “again” in “Make America Great Again” signals reactionist politics.”

     
    This is for Richard, it’s a blog post from Teri Kanefield, maintaining that the current Republican Party isn’t conservative, but rather reactionary. Teri has calmed my fears before by pointing out that what Trump is generally doing is called the “strongman con”. He acts like he can do things and get away with things that he cannot. But I digress, here is a quote from her blog

    “GOP is not a conservative party. It’s a reactionary party. Let’s stop calling it “conservative.”

    True conservatives, according to NYU prof. @Jonhaidt, form a kind of yin-yang balance with liberals (or progressives).

    Liberals embrace forward-looking change.

    Conservatives value order. The conservative insight is that order is precious, hard to achieve, and easy to lose. (From @JonHaidt)

    Reactionaries, on the other hand seek rapid change—backwards to a bygone era.

    Political psychologists Capelos and Katsanidou define reactionism as “a forceful desire to return to the past.”

    Underlying reactionism is “anger, fear, nostalgic hope, betrayal, and perceived injustice.”

    The word “again” in “Make America Great Again” signals reactionist politics.”


    Fascinating take. Thanks.
     
    The current debate/issue in the family.

    Little brother is a Republican politician in a large city.

    Today, my little sister sent me pending legislation that he authored.

    The party believes that business is leaving the city because of litter and the homeless. He drafted legislation that would require people to register with the city before every donation that takes place outside of private property.

    I gave the scenario where I drop off boxes of coffee and doughnuts for another union that is on strike.

    His answer is that it would be a $500 fine if we didn't register ahead of time. It would also be a $500 fine if we did register but litter was present after the donation. I drop off Dunkin Doughnuts and Subway wrappers are blowing around = $500 fine.

    One of his examples was mattresses and human waste. If I donate the doughnuts and somebody dumps a mattress? My fault. $500 fine. If a trucker tosses a jug of urine out of his window, my fault.

    If I hand out hats and gloves to homeless people at a park? $500 fine unless I had registered and then I am responsible for cleaning the entire park.

    The conservative mindset, in this instance is to punish those who need help or attempt to provide that help. To monitize the suffering of others. To assign blame for their failures on others.
     
    The current debate/issue in the family.

    Little brother is a Republican politician in a large city.

    Today, my little sister sent me pending legislation that he authored.

    The party believes that business is leaving the city because of litter and the homeless. He drafted legislation that would require people to register with the city before every donation that takes place outside of private property.

    I gave the scenario where I drop off boxes of coffee and doughnuts for another union that is on strike.

    His answer is that it would be a $500 fine if we didn't register ahead of time. It would also be a $500 fine if we did register but litter was present after the donation. I drop off Dunkin Doughnuts and Subway wrappers are blowing around = $500 fine.

    One of his examples was mattresses and human waste. If I donate the doughnuts and somebody dumps a mattress? My fault. $500 fine. If a trucker tosses a jug of urine out of his window, my fault.

    If I hand out hats and gloves to homeless people at a park? $500 fine unless I had registered and then I am responsible for cleaning the entire park.

    The conservative mindset, in this instance is to punish those who need help or attempt to provide that help. To monitize the suffering of others. To assign blame for their failures on others.

    You need to go smack some sense into your little brother. But then, I'm sure you've been there and done that, :hihi:.
     
    The current debate/issue in the family.

    Little brother is a Republican politician in a large city.

    Today, my little sister sent me pending legislation that he authored.

    The party believes that business is leaving the city because of litter and the homeless. He drafted legislation that would require people to register with the city before every donation that takes place outside of private property.

    I gave the scenario where I drop off boxes of coffee and doughnuts for another union that is on strike.

    His answer is that it would be a $500 fine if we didn't register ahead of time. It would also be a $500 fine if we did register but litter was present after the donation. I drop off Dunkin Doughnuts and Subway wrappers are blowing around = $500 fine.

    One of his examples was mattresses and human waste. If I donate the doughnuts and somebody dumps a mattress? My fault. $500 fine. If a trucker tosses a jug of urine out of his window, my fault.

    If I hand out hats and gloves to homeless people at a park? $500 fine unless I had registered and then I am responsible for cleaning the entire park.

    The conservative mindset, in this instance is to punish those who need help or attempt to provide that help. To monitize the suffering of others. To assign blame for their failures on others.

    The cruelty isn't a bug, it's a feature.

    It'd be less hassle to just have the cops go around using a cattle prod on everyone they find asleep on public property.
     
    The cruelty isn't a bug, it's a feature.

    It'd be less hassle to just have the cops go around using a cattle prod on everyone they find asleep on public property.

    I'm conservative, it's not a feature or even a bug with me. If you're speaking to Trumpism, fine. But Trumpers don't speak for all conservatives.
     
    You need to go smack some sense into your little brother. But then, I'm sure you've been there and done that, :hihi:.
    It's frustrating because we had the same mother but at different times.

    She was 17 when I was born and, thanks to mental illness, we were homeless by age 22. Mid 1970's America was very different from today's America. We spent a lot of time in a car. We got our clothes from the basement of a Church, and I remember her shoplifting bologna while buying a loaf of bread. We got clean water and bathrooms at forest preserves that had well pumps and publuc bathrooms. We finally acquired housing after she was able to use her dad's address to get a job. She would struggle to work up first and last month's rent for a new place before we would be evicted. You can't get away with most of that now.

    Mom was 37 when he was born. His dad developed a drug addiction after injuring his back in an accident. Mom left her husband but ended up disabled and refused my help. He grew up in a house, but dependent on social security, medicaid, food pantries, etc.

    When I was younger I believed that people were homeless because they refused to do what was necessary to avoid it. I saw my mom make one irrational decision after another as well the other people who I saw in our situation.

    When I got older I became aware of how mental illness was handled in this country and I gradually changed how I looked at the problem.

    My brother grew up with government assistance. He thinks that you can use that same government to punish people (even the mentally ill) into compliance. He never walked in their shoes.

    I don't think that he'll grow out of it. He's surrounded by like minded colleagues and supporters. He has been the subject of some local protests and he's totally into it. He's proud. He doesn't see it as a reason to do some soul searching. Arguing just makes him dig in. Our sister argues with him. I make the mistake of commenting on what she says and I get dragged into it.
     
    You need to go smack some sense into your little brother. But then, I'm sure you've been there and done that, :hihi:.

    There is now a rule that smacking sense into someone results in a $500 fine, and if some sense WERE to be had by the person as a result of being smacked, that is also a $500 fine
     
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    I'm conservative, it's not a feature or even a bug with me. If you're speaking to Trumpism, fine. But Trumpers don't speak for all conservatives.
    I hope I'm wrong but I feel your kind are vastly outnumbered within the GOP.
     
    Another feature of the modern Trump conservative movement: dissent, even if based on objective professional standards, is never tolerated. It is a feature of all authoritarian movements. Step out of line and you’re now a pedophile.



    I can't stand Tucker, but I might have to watch him Monday just to see what he's gonna say about all this mess going down.
     

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