General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Have you checked out Skinner's new toy? [View all]hunter
(38,311 posts)...and I don't tend to have many problems with the not stupid.
Anyone who recognizes where their own core competence is, and where they don't know damned thing, those conservatives are fairly functional in polite society.
I'd call one of my grandfathers a "conservative," but only in a first-half-of-the-twentieth century sense. He was upset when I married, in his words, "A Mexican girl." But he got past that, after he'd dodged our Big Catholic Wedding. If he'd lived this long he'd probably accepted homosexual marriages too.
He did not entirely understand gay people but he protected them. Gay people were safe in his house, and my parents' house too. Hanging out, watching television, smooching on the sofa, other public displays of affection, okay. Sadly, my parents had to teach us as kids that what happens in our house stays in our house. Like later, Las Vegas.
During World War II my grandpa was the handsome Army Air Force officer with the big black car and driver carrying the "Get Out of Jail Free Card" for various misfits deemed essential to the war effort. His friendships with homosexuals, "Negroes" (in his words), Japanese, Italians, Jews, Germans, and various others not quite acceptable in U.S.A. apartheid society were entirely honest and straightforward. His wife was White Protestant California, born in San Francisco. His family was Wyoming and Montana, jumped ship and ran for the Wild West, probably because someone was chasing them. Somewhere in his life adventure my grandfather became a wizard of titanium. Parts of the Apollo moon landing were his, he drew them, he spec'd them, machined some, and held them in his hands.
My other grandfather was a Conscientious Objector and pacifist during World War II. They gave him a choice: Jail or building Liberty and Victory ships. He decided to build ships. He got beat up by the cops protesting the Japanese internment. His wife, my grandma too, built ships by day. After work she danced with sailors.
My mom's parents were not conservatives. They were escapees from the Utah Mormon hegemony. My grandpa knew Sally Rand. My mom, on occasion, as a little kid, got to hang out with many nice ladies. These nice ladies were her daycare providers while her parents were working as welders in the shipyards, they protected her while her mom was dancing with sailors for drinks and tips and her dad was working double shifts plus.
Anyways, I have conservative Christian (and Catholic, if the distinction matters...) family I can talk with. Not like family members, now mostly deceased who were just bat-shit racist, homophobic, misogynist, Fox News watching, hell-dwellers, no reasoning with.
My most conservative Catholic extended family doesn't always "get it" but they respect the Good Samaritans and do not hate the "other" outside their own community.