Yeah, I understand that they're a different set of values.... but they're pretty straightforward about those values being subservience to the rich, rejection of logic (not in the sense that they're stupid but that they deliberately reject logic...), and forfeiting the lives of anyone who gets screwed by bloodthirsty competition or isn't otherwise useful to the rich. This isn't even reading between the lines. It's pretty straightforward.
If that's how you see it, I'm fairly certain you've never been a conservative.
Capitalism is Fair PlayConservatives do not see themselves as subservient to the rich. Conservatives don't see themselves as subservient to
anyone, nor would they accept such a position as theirs. Conservatives see capitalism as a meritocratic system where moral and hard-working people naturally rise to the top while profligates and criminals naturally sink to the bottom. To them, everyone is afforded what they "deserve" in life naturally through economic freedom. As much as people generally deride conservatives as cynical, they have a pretty idealistic view of how society works. Conservatives see the efforts of liberals to reduce economic freedom and equalize society as an effort to steal from the best of us to help the worst of us and end class mobility in the name of political correctness and unrealistic views of human society. To them, the efforts of liberals are completely and utterly asinine, as well as naively expressing the idea that the underclass could really exist unless they basically chose to be an underclass or did evil things that brought their own downfall.
And the worst part of it all is that they think like this because, when conservative politicians were young and impressed upon the world, well, this wasn't actually too far from all being true. A simple factory job could feed your family and put you through college. You could start a tiny shop, grow it into a chain, and even a corporation if you did well enough. There were still problems with their viewpoint even then, sure, but wasn't divorced from reality.
Conservatives didn't change. That they don't change is the whole point. The world changed instead.
Liberals are Change IncarnateLiberals, on the other hand, went with the flow of the world's change. Do you know why young people are always more liberal than old people? Its because the young are brought into the world without a past of their own and can see it free from preexisting bias in a way that older people never can. They can see what must be done to fix a modern situation, clear as day, while their parents sit mired in the memories of their own youth and must reconcile past reality with present reality. Conservatives increase with age because of a failure to modify the most basic truths of your perception. It isn't easy to do that. You can't really fault people for falling behind the times. To prevent that they must change. Change is scary.
And so are people who change. Conservatives don't reject
logic, they reject
liberals as crazy for trying to make the world something it isn't. To them, the world of their childhood still exists, but in reality it does not. To conservatives, we live in the best of all possible worlds. Liberals trying to make a new world scares and angers conservatives on a fundamental level because they are certain that the new world will be worse than the old one. How can you ever improve on perfect?
Deus VultConservatives see the world as having a framework not created by humans, but existing as a consequence of the world existing at all. For most conservatives, this is reasoned as being so due to the will of God. The idea of a will of God is really the driving force behind Social Conservatism. To them, without a framework, there is only chaos. People cannot be trusted to control themselves. Trusting people to control themselves is what got humanity thrown out of Eden. People cannot be pure unless a force makes them so. Abortion has to be illegal or women will abandon their responsibilities as mothers and kill their children. Gay Marriage has to be illegal or we will lose our moral high ground and God will curse us as sexual promiscuity infiltrates all of society. Our religious enemies want to kill and enslave all of us and will do so the first chance they get unless we maintain strict national security. The liberals and their fucking
weakness are going to be the death of us all. This isn't crazy talk to conservatives. This is
real. Can you imagine that, for a second? Living in a world where all of that is a real, legitimate threat to the people of the nation? To you? To the people you love?
It's terrifying. In reality it's delusional, but to conservatives it is an existential threat, and they do the things they do because the Way Things Are is the only way. Not even the only good way. The only way.
Author
Topic: Occupying Wallstreet (Read 297071 times)