All in on the Big Lie (The Conservative Mindset)

[Demeter]

http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/06/05/con06176.html

All in on the Big Lie

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION

by Eric Harrington

You know, I have some very dear friends who are staunch conservatives, and a few have had the courage (or anger at my progressive blitzkrieg) to actually joust with me about virtually everything that divides the two ideologies. And I just have to scratch my head sometimes, because no matter how much damning evidence comes out, no matter how many times I reiterate the numerous changes in the party line about why we went to war, no matter how many times I demonstrate the lies for what they are, these "Conservatives" either avoid the hard questions, or change the subject. It is odd that they almost seem to not care about the lies. But tonight I finally got it. They are all in on the Big Lie. They all have fallen into a twisted reality where the ends justifies the means, so that it doesn't matter what the Bushevik Hawks told us in the rush to attack Iraq. "Saddam had to go!" The reasons are only for the wussy Liberals. And if actually confronted with really damning lies, they will throw out the universal smoke screen. "Show me PROOF they lied and I will not support them." Even polls repeat this, suggesting that a significant portion of "Conservative" Americans would be really mad and maybe even start listening to the Al Franken Show if they had proof Bush lied. But this again is all one big lie. Everyone knows it is all but impossible to get concrete proof of lies when the liars control the information. Oops, sorry, that's classified!

But the bottom line is, it really doesn't matter to the neo-conservatives, because deep down inside they don't care if the Republicans and the talking heads lie. That's why Rush Limbaugh is still on the air when he is caught in blatant lies and gross exaggerations virtually every day. They are willing to be complicit in the big lie, if it's for something they believe is right. It's why they are not fazed by the suggestion that the election was stolen in Ohio and Florida, because who cares? We're right, and whatever it takes to win is OK. To them the Republican double-speak isn't insidious propaganda, it's poetry -- rich double entendre with a potent subtext of ideological victory. UCLA should start a new major, Political Theater.

And it's where all that Stepford smugness comes from, too. Because they know this "truth" stuff is all just a game. Results are all that matters. Ending the liberal scourge is worth a few little lies, a little ballot tampering, and maybe a bit of good old fashioned slander. It's why the Ann Coulters of the world continue to spew without the slightest neo-conservative rancor, while every neo-conservative I know replies, "Oh she doesn't represent real conservatives," wink wink, nudge, nudge. But just mention Clinton and watch them rant. I'm reminded of the timeless movie, "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," except instead of the horrible screech, it's feigned outrage. It's why they still vote for Bush, even though his campaign viciously slandered a relatively honorable and reasonably authentic conservative, John McCain. And all in the name of "Decency" and "Values," it is the ultimate irony.

The fact is, these working class (that is the fools at the bottom who don't actually reap the booty of the corporate plunder) are all so enamored with being on the inside of the joke, as it were, and being able to laugh at the whiny little Liberals who cry about there being no fairness or grace in politics. But in private, amongst themselves, the talk goes something like this: "Fairness and grace, my ass, this is war. The US lied to Nazi Germany every chance they got, and so will we!" And war it is, and they are the unwitting foot soldiers of a new Fascist movement.


Eric Harrington
Ojai, CA

READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE--ALL GOOD AND SUCCINCT!

[Maat]

1. Good rant!

Thanks for the post!

[lvx35]

2. A good read, but I take a more taoist approach.

I have learned with conservatives to embrace the nationalism, insofar as it is well intended....Because with many of them it is. The top level guys lie to them because they HAVE TO, because if the roots really knew what was going on they would flip. So when it comes to things like remembering 9/11 or loving our country, I side with them. I validate that love. Then I show them things being done by Bush that violates those principles. I turn their convictions against the bad stuff rather than going to war with them. Of course the people behind the lies, yes. They are criminals, don't care about the rules, and should be dealth with as such.

[Iblis]

3. Great essay!!!

Nice.

I've been telling people about this idea for a while. My parents are a great example of this. They fully believe in "Invade their countries, Kill Their Leaders, and convert everyone to Christianity".
Check my sig. Heck, my mom will even dispute facts, ie "Who says that your facts are more correct than what the president says? If you don't believe the president then you're not patriotic."

I don't need to state that she didn't have this opinion when 10 years ago.

In the mindset of a shocking amount of people I live and work with everyday, if you are not white, Christian and American, you not only do not count but don't deserve to live, unless you are serving some sort of servile function...

[pretzel4gore]

4. i love the way they use god, esp. jesus!

conservatives are stupid. i know that this just provokes many who know and even like 'conservatives' but they are stupid from the getgo, according to the very basis of their ideology. And they know it. The fact is, the 'right' and the 'left' define 2 separate approaches to the world's wealth, and how it's shared out. The rightwing say the privileges of the few take priority over the needs of the many, the left say the needs of the many should trump any privilege. Since adam and steve, humanity has been dominated by the rightwing - women only got the right to vote within past hundred or so years, for example. Of course, the 'right', or 'conservatives' as they call themselves, simply pretend history started yesstiday, and the 'magna carta' etc was ancient history, when people ate each other and rats wore hats. Almost everything humanity has done that's worth anything, it has done collectively (though the rightwing tried to claim all the credit). For example 250 thousand people worked on the NASA part of the moon program, using things developed by society - it's said, there are 2 million bill gates in India, many of them starving or so on...
Conservatives xians think that as long as they individually are 'saved' then hallelluia; they claim Jesus died for them individually, but as anyone can see, what with global warming and george bushjr, if they're right about it, then god is a fukking creep, and that suggestion is provoked by the very people who god might consider responsible for provoking such disrespect for Herhim in the first place, as they claim familiarity!

"no freeman shall be seized, or imprisoned,, or dispossesed, or outlawed, or banished, or in any other way destroyed, nor will we sit in judgement upon him, nor will we pronounce sentence upon him, except by the legal judgement of his peers, and by the law of the land"- 39 article of Magna Carta, 1215 AD

[tired of the right]

5. I am not sure that they are stupid, but they do tend to be

mean-spirited, greedy and hypocritical. And heaven forbid you should tell a conservative that. The thing that is hardest for me to figure is how someone could be so greedy and still think of themselves as Christian. It must be the ultimate in mental gymnastics.

[agincourt]

6. Spot on

Not only do they think they have the right to lie, but they also get belligerent if you don't believe their lies. Lying and forcing people to believe their lies is considered their god given right.

[yurbud]

7. I don't think they are in on the joke--they're the butt

The racism angle that is barely covert when Bush speaks is overt in pundits like Rush and Coulter, and close to Rwandan in their audience.

There is a hard core that will stay even after the religious right falls away. The John Birch Society types that fear the foreign and the free exchange of ideas.