The "Conservative" mind must be terribly complex because I don't

[BOSSHOG]

understand them.

Back in the 70s and 80's they hated homosexuals for their hedonistic lifestyle (as if only gays had hedonistic lifestyles.) Now gays want to settle down and get married and "conservatives" hate them even more. That complex mind loses me.

They, by gawd, want evil drug abusers to be locked up. But when their drug abuser is outed, they pray for him and wish him well and are quite happy when he does not go to jail. Incredibly complex.

They want to impeach a president for getting head and yet a president who lies and thousands and thousands end up dead because of that lie gets their love and support.

And on and on and on. What's really strange is that if you look at them, they don't appear to be complex.

[AndyA]

1. Not that complex, they're just hypocrites.

As long as you don't hold them, personally, to anything they've said, it's OK. They can condemn, hate, discriminate, abuse drugs, have affairs outside of marriage, etc., but no one else can.

Not complex at all, just hypocritical.

[Southsideirish]

23. Great post! Too true in that the extent of their hypocrisy is mind

boggling to progressives/liberals as we are so honest - we would never have the gall to be duplicitous as they are every minute of every day.

[dmkinsey]

2. Simple looking

aren't they

[texastoast]

3. Here are a couple of terms to explain them

Utter hypocrites who have absolutely no integrity

"Selective liberals" (witness Dick Cheney and his gay daughter, Nancy Reagan screaming for stem cell research, etc.)

[Stephist]

4. I don't get the Conservative mind either.

:shrug: For all the reasons you mentioned plus their constant misery and their firm belief that everyone and everything else in the world is out to screw them over. :shrug: I don't get it either.

[BOSSHOG]

5. Good for us

I'd "hate" to go through life hating and looking for things and people to hate. And their total lack of understanding of the constitution and constitutional liberties is mind boggling.

[havocmom]

11. Been thinkin on all their hate. Have decided it is themselves they hate

They just project that onto others.

It is the projection thing that gives them away. They accuse others of doing what they are doing themselves. They do this over and over.

And it is the neocons who are most adroit at this shit.

[patrice]

6. Scratch an absolutist and find a relativist.

Moral Absolutes for you.

Moral Relativism for themselves.

It is a common place in psychological research that when explaining the short comings of others, people usually come up with intrinsic weaknesses - but - when explaning their own short comings, their answers are about transitory situational factors.

[BOSSHOG]

8. I like the idea of surrendering to victory

Keep your weaknesses on the front burner so that you can work on them every day in an effort to do away with them. One finds incredible strength in humility.

[patrice]

31. Yes! - Strength - from recognizing weakness - isn't that ironic?

And, as you say, it is "victory" because you can perceive so much more, since you're more open to reality.

[Bob3]

7. Actually the Conservative mind is terrifyingly simple

What we do GOOD
What they do BAD

And that's pretty much it.

example:
We torture: GOOD
They Torture: BAD

the rest is just intellectual window dressing.

[BOSSHOG]

9. Ya mean like

I swing by the gay bath houses when I'm on business trips - good. Homosexuals - bad??

[AndyA]

10. By George (pardon the pun), I think you've got it BOSSHOG!

Republicans/conservatives believe: Do as I say, not as I do, for I have a different standard and ethic than the rest of mankind.

[Jade Fox]

26. I've come to the conclusion that.....

Conservatives give themselves infinite credit for "meaning well". Look at how much slack they cut Bush--a lifelong failure with a very spotty past. They see themselves in him. So when Conservatives screw up--well, they didn't mean to.

I think Conservatives prefer a redeemed fuck-up to someone who was always smart, competent, and honorable. I'm convinced Clinton hatred is rooted in that fact he was born with major class limitations, yet succeeded anyway. Clinton challenges Conservatives. Bush forgives them (while screwing them over).

[Sinti]

12. The conservative mind is quite simple

Thinking about this at length, it seems to me what they really hate is empathy, and any one who suffers from it. A hating, soul-less drug abusing criminal is just fine with them -- hating and soul-less are the keys here. Same with a hateful gay person - look at Mr. 8 Inches Cut, they love him. They hate people who care about other people. They hated Clinton the most because of the whole "I feel your pain" thing, IMO.

[Warpy]

13. Actually, they're quite simple

They're terrified of change. That is at the root of the mindset.

A recent article detailed a long term study of children into adulthood, and found out the whiny, clingy, fearful children turned into conservatives as adults.

They want the certainty of being in the majority, being on the winning side, and of making sure the world doesn't change so that they can cope with it the way they always have.

They adore the easy answers found in fundamentalist, literalist religion and the fact that everything was spelled out for them thousands of years ago, immutable and not open to interpretation.

Now they're having to cope with the fact that their heroes have totally fucked up (no nice way to put that) and that their majority is rapidly becoming a minority and that they're facing losing everyting on such a scale that even cheating can't assure a victory.

They're trying to preserve all of their icons on their pedestals, even when confronted with the perversions, frauds, hypocrisies, and breaking the law those icons have done. They're desperate to preserve the illusion, because the illusion is all they have left.

Thus they crow for Rush's rich man's sweetheart treatment while wanting every thirteen year old kid caught with a joint locked up for life.

[Jade Fox]

28. You might be interested in ....

this:

http://www.philipslater.com/index.htm

or this (been around for awhile)

http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2003/07/22_politics.shtml

[librechik]

14. "What is Conservatism? And what is wrong with it" Great article

my kid sent me from a professor of information technology at UCLA--discusses history and origins of conservatism, answers your questions and sets out a plan of action. Long, but great stuff

http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/pagre/conservatism.html

a sample:
"* the 1990's

In the 1990's, American conservatism institutionalized public relations methods of politics on a large scale, and it used these methods in a savage campaign of delegitimizing democratic institutions. In particular, a new generation of highly trained conservative strategists evolved, on the foundation of classical public relations methods, a sophisticated practice of real-time politics that integrated ideology and tactics on a year-to-year, news-cycle-to-news-cycle, and often hour-to-hour basis. This practice employs advanced models of the dynamics of political issues so as to launch waves of precisely designed communications in countless well-analyzed loci throughout the society. For contemporary conservatism, a political issue -- a war, for example -- is a consumer product to be researched and rolled out in a planned way with continuous empirical feedback from polling. So far as citizens can tell, such issues seem to materialize everywhere at once, swarming the culture with so many interrelated formulations that it becomes impossible to think, much less launch an effective rebuttal. Such a campaign is successful if it occupies precisely the ideological ground that can be occupied at a given moment, and it includes quite overt plans for holding that ground through the construction of a pipeline of facts and intertwining with other, subsequent issues. Although in one sense this machinery has a profound kinship with the priesthoods of ancient Egypt, in another sense its radicalism -- its inhuman thoroughness -- has no precedent in history. Liberals have nothing remotely comparable. "

[BOSSHOG]

15. Thanks very much for the good read

[Lexingtonian]

16. I find

the best way to understand conservative "thinking" is to get really drunk. Then it all makes, uh, sense.

And then you know why conservatives are such loathsome, vile, empty, pigheaded creatures.

[BOSSHOG]

17. Great point

when it comes to "conservatives" I think more clearly after a couple of beers.

[Rocknrule]

18. The conservative mind:

Me hate liberals! Me hate fags! Me like Bush cuz he strong like bull! Me good you bad!

[BOSSHOG]

19. I wonder if ZZTop was referring to "conservatives"

in their song "Me So Stupid." Its on their latest CD "Mescalero." Not their best work. Not near their best work. Not in the ballpark.

[Catherine Vincent]

20. They're a paradox. n/t

[tom_boy]

21. rock headed

thats what they are

[ForrestGump]

22. They are f***wits

Plaina nd simple.

The intransigent ones, anyway. Not all conservatives or Republicans are, but the more extreme right-wing neocon dupes sure are,a nd they are servicing an evil agenda. They're the kind you tend to see online more, and I only hope that their actual presence and influence on the real (offline) Americna and global landscape is far less than they'd beleive or that their presence in this ether world of the Internet might suggest. The world would be better off without them.

[BR_Parkway]

24. They aren't really "conservatives" in the first place, they claim the

name/label but their actions are totally opposite of true conservatives. The actual true conservatives have already fled from Shrub - hence the 32% Backwash still hanging in there - those are the Faith Based Cultists. The one's who are so caught up in the marketing & packaging of Bush=Savior, that they are willing to totally overlook any inconsistencies.

In every instance where they are presented with reality that doesn't jibe with thier beliefs, they deny or simply attack the fact based person and stop listening.

Saddam had WMD, we found them - no, but they won't listen
Saddam equals Al Queda - no, but they won't listen
Bush is legal on wiretapping - no, but they won't listen
Bush did everything he could to save New Orleans - no, but they won't listen
Bush will fire anyone who leaked Plame info - no, but they won't listen

and on and on and on.

These are the same exact people who live their lives on faith in a church setting that is frequently inconsistent and actually 180 degrees opposite of Christ's messages

Thou shalt not kill - no, but they won't listen
Feed the poor - no, but they won't listen
Don't pray publically or you've already had your reward - no, but they won't listen

and on and on and on.

These are people who need a cult, who need someone else to control what they think. KKKarl recognized it, tapped into it, and with the heightened fear after 9/11 - was able to cement it in their mind that Shrub was a strong, decisive leader who, as a good Christian, was going to lead this nation back to it's former glory as God's chosen land.

[Blue_Tires]

25. the list goes on

I still remember when conservatives champoined the causes of term limits, balancing the budget, sound fiscal policies, etc

[ComerPerro]

27. Its called "doublethink". The entire conservative ideology is a lie

A complete lie, perpetuated by feel-good talking point BS like "I believe in a small government" and "I believe in individual liberty"

[flaminbats]

29. using facts based on their opinions..

The Republican Party is like a black hole, once something goes in..it never comes out. Many Republicans I know agree with me on healthcare reform, agree that gerrymandering needs to stop, and agree with me on immigration.

but they blame 9/11 on Bill Clinton and every Muslim on the planet. They say the deficit would only be higher if the Bush tax-cuts had not passed. They say that criticizing Bush or this Republican Congress is un-American and unpatriotic. They say that 9/11 makes Bush a hero, that Bush has improved our education system, and that Gore is only a tree hugging sore loser. Strangely enough..Republicans still blame Carter for causing stagflation, Perot for electing Clinton, and JFK for Castro's rise to power. Many Republicans still believe that Newt balanced the budget, Reagan won the Cold War, and poor Nixon just never had a chance! But when I ask Republicans how they plan to vote in the next election..they can never tell me.

[leftofthedial]

30. they believe in gods and demons, none of whom exist

[opihimoimoi]

32. The Conservative Mind is one thats been Stolen/Kidnapped/abducted

by Forces they don't uderstand....

They have been Scammed/Conned and don't even know it...Swallowed the Kool Aid they did...

Dats the lower ranks...but the hierchy is where the deceptions are at...They pretend to be good while the results are all bad,,,except for them in power... The live by Lying and getting their followers to Lie also...

[AtomicKitten]

33. Actually their ideology is quite simplistic.

They are perfectly content to turn on the radio or Faux News and let Limbaugh or Hannity give them their opinion. And they will argue the talking points de jour not having a clue what they are talking about, but they would rather die than yield much less listen to an opposing point of view.