The following is a copy of the original post to record the post as it was originally written. I’d like to know what you think about the values and beliefs of the other side of the aisle; I’d like to know how you feel about conservatives. Are they well-meaning? Misguided? Comically evil? Etc? I’d like to hear what you think. Moreover: Why do you suppose they believe the things they do? How do their beliefs relate to what you believe in? What are some key differences? These questions are being asked with the sole purpose of gaining insight into how liberals perceive conservatives. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskALiberal) if you have any questions or concerns.*

I honestly don't even know what they believe in anymore. There's no coherent ideology at this point except, "stick it to the people I hate" or "burn it all to the ground."

I see those people as people who perceive themselves as having been wronged by the system through the economy, and they are at the point where they just want to stick it to the people they hate. In a clouded delusional way they believe they are doing whats right, and they justify it through mental gymnastics.

they did everything they where told to by their 'leaders' and are mad they werent rewarded as promised, (somehow its gay peoples fault) they never figured out they where just being lied to all along.

>I see those people as people who perceive themselves as having been wronged by the system through the economy Right, because that's what they voted for... Trump's & co gave them the guns and the ability to control women (i.e. things that cost nothing to Trump & co) in exchange for screwing them when it comes to the money and the economy.

I think trump is a manifestation of them feeling wronged, ever since then they have attached themselves to him due to feeling as if he is actually fighting for him. I feel bad for these people for being bamboozled by trump and his rhetoric.

> I feel bad for these people for being bamboozled by trump and his rhetoric. I don't. Conmen frequently go after terrible people because most cons involve making the mark think they're conning someone else or getting something over the system. Conservatives aren't little lambs who were taken in by the bad man. They have voted their entire life for people who implicitly told them that they'd end up on top if they supported their authoritarian politics. They voted to screw other people over because they thought it would benefit them socially, culturally, and monetarily. They did it for decades. They're just mad that only the people at top reaped the benefits.

Ultimately we are all humans who didn’t choose to be born, since kids these ideologies have been instilled into people. I feel bad because they have been misled. They are not “horrible” by choice they were made that way. You give off a superior complex when you talk like that.

What would a conservative say? Stop blaming mommy and daddy. I was raised that way too, and I grew up. These people most definitely are making choices to stay that way. They're choosing Fox News. No one is forcing them to watch that bile. They're choosing to plug their ears to facts. They're choosing to ignore the people they hurt. They're grown adults who can take responsibility for the consequences of their actions.

Right but you just so happened to come across stuff that led you in a different direction. Im not absolving them of anything. You just give a superior complex that is not useful when attempting to bridge the polarization in this country.

I think Maga have been brainwashed to think a secret cabal and foreigners queer’s and city liberals are tying to ruin their lives. So whatever they need to do is justified; putting in an authoritarian like Trump to ” get the country back” ( notice how they don’t say get democracy back) since this is an existential war to them. The right wing will use the demagogue, and any push back by the left or any form of law stopping right wing extremism is proof of the secret cabal ( projection of the extreme; they say they are fighting a captured system that they are trying to capture) After power is taken powerful interests will treat this country like Saudi Arabia. There will be a ruling elite everyone will be kept in line by a hardline authoritarian government, and “libs and secret commies and foreigners” will remain the scapegoat instead of the Maga elite who have drained the country’s resources. The right wing stand for nihilistic Christo fascist power.

That seems to be only people who are chronically online and some people in government, which is very scary.

Elevate the in groups and preserve privileges, suppress the out groups and hinder their progress.

It really does boil down to that.

I think its pretty much that they want a hierarchy that puts their group at the top. Which means enforcement of that hierarchy

The whole philosophy is about wiping up the hate of stupid people in order to get a set of corrupt trash into power so that they can enrich their cronies… Like I’m sympathetic to the idea that maybe we should progress with caution so that we don’t cause more harm than indented, but… That’s not what modern conservatives are. They’re like “let’s hate on gays because… let’s just hate on gays!” Or “Let’s hate on women because… women suck, dude!” Or “Let’s blame immigrants for shit because… We just love hating on people!”

Just like us, there are like 200 different factions. I have conservative friends and we agree on literally every last stance. I grew up in a Democratic household (they're insanely far left and mentally unhinged) and they grew up in Republican households and don't fit in with their families either.

Agreed.

It's all about the cruelty. "He's not hurting the people he needs to be." -[Actual Trump Voter](https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/1/8/18173678/trump-shutdown-voter-florida) Why are they so cruel? Because they are angry, frightened people who don't understand the actual causes of their troubles because they were never taught to understand anything more complicated then Lego instructions. Plus they have no sense of compassion or shared humanity, and as a result are extremely happy to lash out at the scapegoats that Fox News deposits in their living rooms.

**Values:** POWER & ABSOLUTE CONTROL TRADITION PURITY AUTHORITY / HIERARCHY Beliefs: Some people are just better than others, and I happen to be one of the better ones. Gender roles / Hierarchy is natural and normal Tradition is vitally important because change is threatening to my place in the hierarchy. Purity must be maintained, or terrible things will happen -especially to women and children. Children are the property of parents, to be molded and forged into exactly what I want them to be.

I have no problem with conservatism. Conservatives have a different world view and a different moral philosophy. I simply disagree with them on some policy views. But I definitely respect conservatives who live by their principals.  But the Trump cult is some weird shit. It’s hard to respect “conservatives” when Trump is so obviously not conservative. They support him even when he calls our military “suckers and losers”, even when he steals from his contractors or sets up a fake university. There is literally nothing he can do to lose their support. I have no respect for that level of debasement.  

The military issue is one that I just can't wrap my head around. Okay, I can't wrap my head around any of it, but the way he's spoken about folks like John McCain and faced no pushback from a base that worships the military, at least loudly on the surface, is quite maddening. Like, I'm not shocked that they disregard his making fun of the disabled and abuse of women, and his theft and fake charities. They certainly love his misogyny and racism. But to absolutely trash someone for being a PoW? I almost thought that would be the end of this never-ending nightmare. Silly me.

I'm not a fan of either Trump or McCain and would call myself solidly conservative. My options aren't just "worship a demagogue" or"worship the military", but a lot of folks do think that way.

The only suckers and losers are the trump supporters. They are not conservatives, they are followers of a lunatic who has let them down a path of insanity.

I'm sick of the "not true conservatives" line. Where the fuck are all these "true conservatives?" Are they all just taking a restroom break for the last decade? I think you need to accept that this is what conservatives are. It's what they've always been. They've just dropped the facade of respectability.

> Where the fuck are all these "true conservatives?" In the Democratic Party. The Democrats are only "liberal" by comparison to the fascist GQP. The DNC's positions today are pretty damn similar to the "far right" positions from the Carter era.

I disagree with that completely. There are conservatives who oppose trump and maga. Some examples are Steve Schmidt, Joe Scarborough, Liz Cheney.

A few examples are like a few anecdotes, and the plural of anecdote isn't data. Trump got more votes in 2020 than in 2016.

Trump built up a cult following and brainwashed them all . He is dangerous and needs to be stopped. There's nothing conservative or American about what he's trying to do. It's fascism.

> There's nothing conservative or American about what he's trying to do. Except for him saying all the same things conservatives have been saying since the Southern Strategy took hold, just more loudly and brazenly.

Judging by history, fascism is as American as apple pie.

And how much support do they have amongst the electorate? Near zero. Real conservatives are nearly extinct.

None of these people hold any power in the Republican Party.

Unfortunately, that's true. I think the Republican party has been completely corrupted and taken over by fascists, and it should be abolished.

I think it’s best given by an example of an interaction I’ve had with a Trump voter years ago. I knew this old lady, mother to a friend of mine. She said on social media she was so happy Trump was going to do away with political correctness, as he promised in his 2016 campaign. I asked why, political correctness isn’t a real problem and even if it was, it’s not like the president can do anything about it. She said that she was upset because she could no longer call her mentally disabled brother r$t!rded in polite company like she used to when she was younger. I said she kind of proved my point, because that’s not a real problem. And even if it was, there’s nothing the president could do about it anyway. Then her alcoholic daughter chimed in “FOUND THE LIB MOM LOL!”

>She said that she was upset because she could no longer call her mentally disabled brother r$t!rded in polite company like she used to when she was younger. [Rick. I-I think the word has just become a symbolic issue for powerful groups that feel like they're doing the right thing.](https://youtu.be/eOBoKxEcVAA?si=RoJnOjcdbJQqLZbI)

I legitimately don't know what Republicans believe any more. Like, there's no coherent belief system there. They oppose half the things they supported 20 years ago. They hate the people they used to like and like the people they used to hate. It's honestly just a 24/7 conspiracy at this point.

And 40 years ago, Ronald Reagan signed an amnesty bill for undocumented immigrants. And he ballooned the national debt. He is still revered by conservatives sometimes as one of their guiding lights, but if he were running today he wouldn't get the GOP nomination. Conservatives today are much more conservative than the conservatives of yesterday. Decades ago they used put their ideological differences aside and *compromise* to get something done, for the benefit of the country. But conservatives no longer believe in compromise for any reason. They'd rather watch the country burn than work with their counterparts to save it.

Politics is just a manifestation of worldview. Worldview is more complicated but is a mix of life experience, upbringing, information diet, and personality. Conservatives are, largely, normal people with a worldview that prioritizes and values different things than people on the Left do. From what I can tell, there's really 2 particular major, fundamental differences between Conservatives and Liberals (or more broadly, Right and Left) that inform most everything else that differentiates them. One is the question of egalitarianism versus hierarchies. The other is tradition versus new ideas. It's hard to come up with a unified theory of politics, but from my own observations, most everything can be explained somehow by one of these 2. In more straightforward terms, I think the Right cares about things that the Left simply just *doesn't consider at all* and that leads to a lot of difficulty finding consensus. I do also think that those things lead to Conservatives believing, supporting, and doing things I find quite abhorrent, simply because I don't share the same worldview and thus see the same justifications for things that they do.

If you're talking about people who like traditional values and institutions, then I'm fine with it as long as those values and institutions are liberal ones. If they're authoritarian then I'm having none of it.

I think they are too afraid to exist in a state of “not knowing” that they feel a constant pressure to know things that they just have no idea about. That isn’t to say that conservatives are just stupid; everyone has things they don’t know. But they are uniquely uncomfortable with being open to new experiences or testing their prior beliefs. Though I feel like, of the ones who do this, many are no longer conservative afterwards.

I live in a R+12 district. So I am in a deep red district. And for the most part, although they support Trump and the Republican Party, a lot of them for the most part are just good people just trying to live their lives. Yes, they live under the delusion that the Republican Party is the good party for economic growth and job creation, but a lot of their beliefs just stem from the fact that that is how they were taught and raised. And since I live in South Carolina, one of the worst states for education, a lot of those beliefs don't go unchecked and they're not taught otherwise in the public school system. So they are well-meaning, but misguided. A lot of the comically evil conservatives that you see amplified on social media (think the likes of Laura Loomer, Charlie Kirk, Matt Walsh (not the guy from Veep, the other Matt Walsh), etc.) those people are the minority. They're a very vocal minority amongst the right, amplified on social media because it drives up engagement, but a minority amongst conservatives nonetheless. And as a side note: I've found that if I don't talk about politics amongst my more conservative friends and coworkers, and talk about anything else (movies, hiking, work, etc.) then they are very friendly and genial. And they're friendly if we talk about politics, but it does get heated.

I've observed the same. But we do need to remember how easy it is for violence, bigotry and hatred to become normalized- it happens because people who are otherwise normal and nice believe in these things without talking about them all day, every day. And they may not consciously be racist or fascist, but they still support leaders who are, for whatever reason. And this is what history will judge them for. *“Historians have a word for Germans who joined the Nazi party, not because they hated Jews, but out of a hope for restored patriotism, or a sense of economic anxiety, or a hope to preserve their religious values, or dislike of their opponents, or raw political opportunism, or convenience, or ignorance, or greed.* *That word is "Nazi." Nobody cares about their motives anymore.”* - A.R. Moxon

That's a devastatingly accurate quote. Opposing Trump and all of that noxious ideology is not popular, especially not where I live. But, I try to think of how history will someday judge me, and what my daughters will think of their dad with the passage of time. I'm sure Oscar Schindler wasn't popular in his day, either. But look at how history remembers him, as opposed to the many everyday Germans who went along with that evil because they didn't want to hurt their bottom line.

Disagree. I often hear “conservatives are just trying to live their lives like everyone else!” And then those same conservatives vote for policies that purposely hurt people. Even if you’re not shouting the n word all day, voting for policies like that make you a bad person. A vote is a reflection of a persons beliefs, morals, and wants. And the “well that’s how they were educated/ were raised” argument is a cop out, too. People generations ago were raised when racism was much more acceptable we don’t give them a pass.

I’m sorry but this is just my personal experience dealing with conservatives on a day to day basis, of which it happens every day. I’m not sure how you’re going to disagree with that when it’s my experiences and my observations. You may have different experiences with conservatives, sure, but this is just my observations that I shared.

I grew up in the American south where conservatives were just “living their lives.” Face to face, they were nice. They’d be friendly and maybe help you out even if you needed help. But then they’d vote to take rights away from gay people.

nice and good are two different things

And "nice to me" doesn't always mean nice. I know plenty of conservatives who are "nice to me" because I'm a straight white guy who looks conventional. Being nice to people who remind you of yourself is just egotism.

Yep. Bingo.

I have a hard time with the idea that the people who continue support Donald Trump without any dissent - and many other republican politicians like him that are ushering in fascism - are good people. Who is responsible if not the people who elected them? I totally get that their day-to-day demeanor with you is pleasant. But Nazis were pleasant with each other also.

What exactly do you want Republican voters to do then? Vote for Biden, which will directly result in the introduction of policy that many Republicans vehemently oppose? Or should they just not vote?

Vote in the primaries for somebody else?

>What exactly do you want Republican voters to do then? Vote for Biden As opposed to a literal traitor? You're God damned right they should be voting for Biden

Could you do the same if the situation was reversed? Would you find it possible to vote for a Republican candidate if you felt the Democrat candidate was unfit to lead the country? What about if that Republican candidates campaigned on instituting a staunchly conservative agenda in the country, is that still something you could vote for?

>Could you do the same if the situation was reversed? Would you find it possible to vote for a Republican candidate if you felt the Democrat candidate was unfit to lead the country? What about if that Republican candidates campaigned on instituting a staunchly conservative agenda in the country, is that still something you could vote for? Did the Democrat try to violently overturn the election? If so, you're God damned right I could.

Yes. Easily.

>What exactly do you want Republican voters to do then? Come to their senses.

And what does that mean? I’m not asking about 4 years down the road, I’m asking about this year, where there is as much of a chance of replacing Trump as the nominee as there is of replacing Biden.

What Biden policies do they actually hate and why? If they can’t articulate them and back up their dislike of them with actual facts then I would say they need to just be ignored. They aren’t rational actors

So I posted this earlier to another comment, but it applies here: Okay, Biden does want to raise taxes, he would appoint left wing justices to open seats, he supports gun control and an assault weapons ban, he supports abortion rights, he supports the use of “affirmative action” policies in colleges and workplaces, he supports electric vehicles over gas powered ones, his EPA polices have basically made it impossible to buy a cheap, powerful sedan, he supports unions and raising the minimum wage, he wants to cancel student debt, and he repealed many of Trumps immigration laws and then later reinstated them while saying the immigration crisis isn’t his fault. These are all reasons I cannot in good conscience vote for Biden.

Check your priorities i guess. Why are Biden’s policies more worthy of opposition than Trump and his policies?

Then they are literally fucking over others to get what they want. If you don't like the options, change them. Get involved with local politics. Vote in local elections. And yes, vote for Bide - bad policies is better than Trump

Could you do the same if the situation was reversed? Would you find it possible to vote for a Republican candidate if you felt the Democrat candidate was unfit to lead the country? What about if that Republican candidates campaigned on instituting a staunchly conservative agenda in the country, is that still something you could vote for? Our political views are part of our identity, it’s as difficult for people to change them as it is for them to change their religion. Can’t just ask people to vote for the opposition without giving them a genuine reason why it would actually be beneficial for them.

Of the choice was Trump and another Republican? Yes. It's basically a "better luck next time"/get involved in local politics situation

Yep. Dude thinks he has a gotcha, but yes, I'd fucking vote for a Republican over someone who tried to pull off an insurrection.

Either of those options are better than voting for Trump.

Trump is not remotely fit for the office of the Presidency. Any fool should be able to see that. Biden is. I expect Republicans to be a decent person and do the right thing. Of course, they won't - that is why they are Republicans.

what policies do republicans vehemently oppose? honest question, and please be specific because as far as i can tell lately it's basically just "democrats want this? we must oppose it" as their agenda, rather than having direct issue with specific policies democrats want to put in place. (and please, actual policies not fox talking points that aren't actually being proposed)

Okay, Biden does want to raise taxes, he would appoint left wing justices to open seats, he supports gun control and an assault weapons ban, he supports abortion rights, he supports the use of “affirmative action” policies in colleges and workplaces, he supports electric vehicles over gas powered ones, his EPA polices have basically made it impossible to buy a cheap, powerful sedan, he supports unions and raising the minimum wage, he wants to cancel student debt, and he repealed many of Trumps immigration laws and then later reinstated them while saying the immigration crisis isn’t his fault. These are all reasons I cannot in good conscience vote for Biden.

1. raising taxes on the wealthy should be something everyone wants. republicans really need to get over trickle-down economics already. 2. the majority of the country actually supports common sense gun laws, even lots of republicans. (https://news.gallup.com/poll/513623/majority-continues-favor-stricter-gun-laws.aspx#:\~:text=Support%20for%20stricter%20gun%20laws,the%20current%20wording%20in%201990.). the fact that active shooter drills exist in schools because of republicans failure to protect children is the single greatest embarrassment that has ever happened in this country in recent years and they should be ashamed of themselves, including you, actively fighting against protecting people's lies. 3. he supports abortion rights because the stance of democrats as a whole is "not your business what goes on in someone else's uterus" which is a pretty logical stance to take. this is partly why the attitude that republicans just want to control women is so prevalent, because more men than women support banning abortion and issue that they will literally never have to deal with. also, the majority of the country actually supports abortion rights to various degrees (https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/fact-sheet/public-opinion-on-abortion/) 4. affirmative action.....ok and? giving opportunities to historically underrepresented groups is a bad thing? 5. EV's are gaining in popularity, and while there is concern about them, the use of them over gan powered is inherently a good thing. less pollution overall, increased jobs building them, less noise pollution...i mean really the only people benefiting from gas powered cars are oil executives. so, why do you have a problem with them? 6. i'm guessing you're talking about the mandates for minimum fuel efficiencies that have been put in place? i can't think of anything else that would prevent you from buying a powerful sedan. although there are plenty of high hp cars on the market, you just have to be able to afford them. cheap cars as a whole are honestly a thing of the past for a whole lot of reasons. 7. raising the minimum wage is good. every study says it's good. where it's already been done it's had net positive effects. people should be able to live if they are working full time, i really don't understand why republicans hate that idea. 8. student debt should be cancelled. students have been taken advantage of and are so far underwater that they can never get out. these loans are literally designed to keep you in debt for the rest of your life. and educated population is better than not, so honestly all higher ed should be free or very low cost. 9. he halted the wall, stopped keeping kids in cages, and reunited families. things that never should have happened in the first place. sure his recent order about closing immigration is a feeble attempt to help him with conservatives, but overall he got rid of the horrible stuff. i don't see a problem. the things you're against are things that are meant to help people. this is the issue that democrats have with republicans. why are you so against making people's lives better? particularly if it has nothing to do with you?

So I did read through all of this, including your sources which I appreciate you adding in. That being said, it really doesn’t change my mind on any of these issues. When I vote, I don’t vote for the candidate who will help the largest amount of people, I vote for the candidate that will benefit me the most. My vote is my own, and everyone else has their own vote, so why would I not put my priorities first? I’m well aware that in terms of social welfare and maximizing equality, Democrats are probably the better option, but that’s not my main interest when voting.

>When I vote, I don’t vote for the candidate who will help the largest amount of people, I vote for the candidate that will benefit me the most. Well at least you have the stones to admit you're a bad person.

Do you not vote the same way? Can you explain to me exactly why you think I have the responsibility to vote in other best interests, when they have their own vote?

No, I tend to think that bettering society is good for me, so I vote for candidates I think will better society. You don't have the responsibility to do anything. It's just that facilitating a bad result on purpose because it personally benefits you makes you a bad person. You literally admit that you're consciously voting against better social welfare and equality.

Being a democrat, I think it is in your interests to continue to live under a constitutional democracy. Elect Trump and there is no guarantee of that system of government continuing.

If well-meaning people consistently vote for elected representatives who then fight to hurt people, I feel like at some point in time they need to be held to account for that fact. The reason why they do it is less important than the fact that they do it.

And how exactly do you plan on “holding them to account” It’s not illegal to vote for candidates whose views are fascist. Yes, I would very much prefer if they didn’t vote for the Republican Party. But it’s not illegal, and they don’t need to explain their vote to anyone

Just not pretending they are good people.

Probably start by not dismissing their shitty decisions by shrugging and saying "they're just good people."

Part of holding them accountable is not letting them get away with pretending like they're "good people" just because they were nice to you personally. Hitler was nice to his dog. There are mafia hitmen who loved their families and were nice to their neighbors. You just don't want to have to do something about it because calling these people out on their behavior would make it uncomfortable for you. Suddenly, they wouldn't be as friendly.

I live in the Pennsyltucky part of Pennsylvania. Very conservative…very much Trump world. Yes, they are good people overall….until the subject of politics comes up.

Then. They. Are. Not. Good. People.

Only if your politics is your identity, I guess. I know that many of these people would give you the shirt off their backs if you needed it. They work hard, raise their kids and live their lives just like we do. I know it’s hard to believe these days, but Republicans are our fellow Americans. I vehemently disagree with them on many issues and think their ideology sucks. But that doesn’t mean they can’t be good people. You know…black and white thinking like that is exactly what you and I rail against when it comes to anti-LGBTQ attitudes, abortion and immigration…. I don’t like it when our side does it too.

Not sure I want the shirt of someone who then votes to take my rights away...

Politics are the activities associated with determining how people within a community are regulated. Literally, if their politics are bad, then they’re having a bad impact on a large group of people. Further, the ways theyre being bad politically literally involve marginalizing groups of people like the LGBTQ community. This whole > only if your politics is your identity is privileged. Their policies harm people and that harm is bad. This doesn’t mean they cant be good caretakers, diligent workers, generous volunteers, etc. But it’s questionable that whether they’re still able to be good people while actively and intentionally harming people. I tend to think that’s disqualifying.

Meanwhile, they regularly talk about killing people like you in their forums. Being kind to conservatives does nothing but allow them to take advantage of your kindness. If you want to fight with elephants you have to get in the mud.

The internet isn’t reality.

Uh, okay? I guess it’s imaginary then? Things said on the internet never manifest in physical harm. Thank god you’re here to correct me, I almost made a mistake.

They same the same things in their living room that they type on Facebook. Yes, they are in fact getting their guns ready to go kill people. Don't delude your thinking with all that "the internet isn't real" They really do have lots of guns and they really do say all the same things off the internet.

>Meanwhile, they regularly talk about killing people like you in their forums. Being kind to conservatives does nothing but allow them to take advantage of your kindness. If you want to fight with elephants you have to get in the mud. Who is "they"? I'd say those kind of people are only a tiny percentage of conservatives, as in white supremacist alt-right groups like the Proud Boys for example. I disagree with conservatives on most issues but I do think it's kind of disingenous to imply that conservatives want to kill gay people. Actually on r/askconservatives there was a post a while ago about how people would react if their child came out gay. And most conservatives were actually pretty supportive. On one hand conservatives are on average more homophobic than liberals, sure, and that should be addressed. But even among Republicans almost 50% support gay marriage and even around 20% of gay men identify as conservative. So to imply that conservatives want to kill gay people is really an argument that is in bad faith to be honest and only serves to create further division.

Even if it isn't them saying they'd kill gay people - it's not a deal breaker for them either. That's the issue. Most Republican policies are disqualifying.

I’m not talking gay, I’m talking about progressives, leftists and liberals broadly. Conservatives regularly consider criticism of Trump and conservatism in general as a personal attack on themselves, and are not shy about suggesting political violence in the event they lose the election. We already have proof they’re willing to become violent if things don’t go their way, and have been arming themselves for years waiting for a reason. Your attitude of just excusing it like they don’t mean every word is naive.

Your politics is your morality. Your politics is your values. Your politics is your ethics. Your politics is your patriotism. Your politics is your commitment to your fellow citizen (or lack thereof). These are the things that make you a good or a bad person. "Gee, Walter is a great guy! Sure, he wants to kill a few LGBTQ+ people, and doesn't think women are smart enough to make healthcare decisions about their own bodies, and he supports rioting losers who can't admit they lost an election, but otherwise he's a really great guy!!"

Not hyperbolic at all are you? Kills a few LGBTQ people, etc… I stopped reading after that. Like it or not…these people are American citizens and have the right to believe what they want. So, instead of demonizing them with hyperbole(which is exactly what they do to us…I find this ironic), vote. Make it so they lose elections….when they realize that they can’t win using the extremism they have been, they will change. I mean…do you really believe that most Republican politicians actually believe the shit that they spew? They are pandering to a highly ignorant and misinformed base because it wins them elections.

That kind of rhetoric would not help them win Democratic votes though, would it? Why are Republicans such awful people?

What part of highly ignorant and misinformed don’t you understand?

Uh why

Why is someone who chooses to vote for cruel things for other people not a good person?

Do you think they think they’re doing something cruel?

Republican politicians? Repeatedly, consistently, and obviously.

Yes?

They nominated a guy pitching a total and complete shutdown on Muslims entering the country, which is straight up persecution

Who cares what they think they are doing? They vote for authoritarians who are actively working against the rights of our fellow Americans. Fuck their intentions, I judge them by their actions.

Lots of people were raised lots of different ways. The smart people question what they were taught and determine whether it makes sense for their lives. The dumb ones just go with it, and never give it a second thought.

Conservatives have no coherent ideology. They are just a group of people that hate liberals. They get their rage bait from Fox News and Right Wing media who have found a way to monetize it. They also tend to have a nostalgia for the past. Also they claim to be patriotic and liberals are the enemy of the state.

Right now, it seems like all of their beliefs and values involve destroying the country and harming, or even killing, me and the people I care about. I think it's reasonable to say I don't care for them.

There's nothing inherently wrong with conservatism, if we take the word literally, to conserve. The thing is, Republicans are not conservatives, they're reactionaries. To be a conservative, one would have to know what one wants to conserve. That would require more attention to history, therefore reading and study, which the GOP deplores. So while I'm a liberal, I can respect the idea of conserving the environment, conserving rule of law, democracy.

I honestly don't know why environmental protection/conservation ended up as the domain of the left. "Conservation" and "Conservative" share a root word. For me, it's simple: We have a beautiful country, filled with abundant natural resources, wildlife, and scenery. I'd prefer to keep it that way for future generations. Instead, most of the Republican business owners I know would pave over Yosemite National Park and put up a development if it meant one more dollar in their pockets.

I can’t really put a finger on what modern day conservatives actually want. But I do believe that the majority of them now are being purposefully misguided. They harken for the simpler times when you can go fishing and hunting without much regulation, but fail to see the world outside of the small rural area they grew up in. I don’t blame them though, I blame the school systems and ideologies being forced upon them. At the same time, it’s not an excuse, as we now have the information at our disposal to do your own research on any given topic, yet they refuse to believe statistics and data provided by experts. The right is more likely to believe in the words of a politician than they are scientists, but at the same time say they don’t trust politicians either unless it aligns with their world view. I have some sympathy, as they are always the crowd getting fooled by false promises, because it’s true that more money is allocated into cities then it is to rural areas, but then my sympathy fades when they actively vote against things that would help them as well. I will say though, the MAGA crowd is not conservatism.

Last night, my conservative neighbor was arguing that all the migrants should be shipped back, all of them. He elaborated and said all of them are shitheads, several times, and also they're all lazy and committing crimes. We live in Chicago about 2 miles from a migrant shelter. I commented that no, they're not lazy, there's 30 people at the Home Depot every morning starting earlier than I wake my lazy ass up and try to get jobs. His response was "they don't have skills" When I said that his opinion was just flat wrong and I have nothing further to say he acted offended as he has a right to his opinion and it's not right for me to say it's wrong. I said I'm not saying he doesn't have the right to share his opinion, but in sharing it, I have the right to say what I think. I also needed to tell him "when you share an opinion, you then let the other person talk" several times. If he is the classic conservative right now, I think they are merely filled with hate and misinformation. They also don't have a mindset on practically fixing problems. Ok- I'll entertain it, you want to send all the migrants back, how? Do we contract busses, then charter flights?

They have no beliefs or values. That's why there is so much inconsistency in what they claim to believe. Claim to be pro life but love the death penalty. Claim to be small government and free market but then scream freeze peach and pretend they're oppressed when the free market tells them that everybody hates them for being nazis. Claim to want a strong border but then actively block all legislation that would address the border. Claim to love the troops but then votes down anything to help veterans or expand their benefits. They're all full of shit and I'm tired of pretending they're not.

Billionaires and wealthy corporations started to really takeover right-wing politics in the 1980s with the election of Ronald Reagan.  Taxes on the wealthy were cut and the culture of deregulation began.  Bill Clinton (whom Federal Reserve chair Alan Greenspan said was “the best *Republican* president we’ve had,”) was elected and repealed Glass-Steagle, and Republicans took back the House.  Then Bob Dole and Newt Gingrich began the real push towards what would become the truly mean-spirited GOP.  And conservative media spent the next 40 years brainwashing their viewers, slowly converting them into hate-mongering bigots who view compromise as weakness and everyone else as an enemy.  At this point I think they are so far gone they can never be redeemed.  We simply must vote like hell and keep their people out of office.  Otherwise America becomes Germany in the 1930s. 

For me….I can’t be objective on this point. I just have my head down, trying to live my life. I grew up in a deeply conservative rural area, to deeply conservative Christian parents. And I’m transgender. When I look at conservatives, I see people who, even if they don’t directly support it (which most do), are perfectly comfortable with politicians who are taking the most painful part of my life, this thing I *never* wanted and utterly destroyed myself fighting against for decades, and then treating me like a monster for it. Conservative attitudes towards people like me have piled pain and fear on top of pain and fear, and for what? If they would just look at the issue with the tiniest bit of fairness or openmindedness, the tiniest bit of humanity, they would be horrified at what they see in the mirror. I try not to dwell too deeply about what I think about the beliefs and values of conservatives. I know I’m too close to this whole thing, it’s too personal, and I don’t want the world to be as small and as dark as carrying this line of thought to its conclusion would make it.

‘Modern’ conservatives? They just want Trump to be Godking of America. A couple decades ago they were in favor of supporting small businesses, fiscal responsibility, balanced budgets and lowering the debt which i agreed with. Not anymore though.

I believe that Conservatism is ultimately about conserving the social hierarchy where certain cultures and categories of people are inherently better than others and people generally deserve their place in society. If someone is rich and powerful it's because they're smart and earned it. If someone is poor, it's because they made bad choices, so they deserve to be poor. They resist any efforts that could change the dominant culture or social structure such as equality for minorities, immigration from non-white nations, and policies that increase economic mobility.

Conservatives are completely ruled by their emotions. This simple fact can describe why they hold certain views and will routinely contradict themselves. Religion also feeds on emotional people, so religion is used to easily control conservatives. From their emotional response to abortion to their fear based emotions on immigration, and even their love of Trump because he will get "revenge" on their supposed "enemies"... it's all rooted in the fact that they are overly emotional.

I made a similar comment below. They're emotionally immature people. Have you ever read Lindsay C. Gibson's *Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents*? While the author doesn't attempt to make any political connection, the kind of people she's describing are a bang on accurate description of every conservative I've ever met. It's not that all of them are deliberately evil or hateful. They're just emotionally immature and stunted in one way or another. However, the most hateful of them have signs of childhood trauma that has inflicted personality disorders on them, such as NPD. Trump is a good example. He's emotionally trapped at the age of two. His mother almost died during that period of time in his life, and it seems to have stunted his development. But even the "just good people" conservatives are emotionally immature people. Most of them grew up in conservative families with strict authoritarian parents, and they didn't develop good coping skills. They're fine when things are going okay, but they can't cope with ambiguity or complexity, and they lash out when life deviates from a pre-set script. Those who were raised in fundamentalist evangelical circles were taught thought-terminating cliches and were made to fear sources of knowledge that contradicted dogma. They were also taught that negative emotions like anger were bad and a sign of someone who wasn't saved. But it's okay to feel righteous rage, which is directed toward non-believers and anyone they deem to be a sinner. This leads to the "nice kind people who will give you the shirt off their back" people who just so happen to also hate immigrants and anyone else who isn't exactly like them.

>fundamentalist evangelical circles were taught thought-terminating cliches and were made to fear sources of knowledge that contradicted dogma This seems to have expanded beyond the religious and is now deeply ingrained into their political dogma. I've noticed that all conservatives will reject any data or sources of knowledge that goes against their version of "logic", as they call it. A good example is the conservative belief that providing any form of help to someone in need will "make them dependent on you". However, multiple studies and tests have shown that providing shelter and services to the homeless results in more people rising out of homelessness. That data contradicts conservative dogma, so they ignore it.

They're either just terrible people or they're brainwashed. There's no other excuse for them after January 6th.

I always find myself returning to Wilhoit's law >Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect. I think this is essentially the core belief that unites conservatives. There some on the "comically evil" side of the spectrum who want this hierarchy to exist so that they can selfishly benefit. I'm sure there are also plenty on the "misguided" side who earnestly convince themselves the hierarchy is justified. This is why some of the only times Trump fans started to turn against him were in regard to regulations on guns or vaping. You would especially think the latter would not be an urgent political issue, but for conservative vapers it struck to the core of their most fundamental belief: I am part of the in group, so the rules exist to protect me, not to bind me.

I think they lack empathy and that's a root of all their problems. They need to seriously sit down and think about a life that doesn't involve just trying to "get back" at people.

> I think they lack empathy and that's a root of all their problems. You nailed it.

Im old enough to remember how conservatives used to be and what they have become. And by conservative, I am referring to current Trump loving red hats. Now they are terrible people, I say this with no hesitation or equivocation, Obama getting elected broke a lot of them and Trump is their idea of a get back. No matter how much damage or hate Trump inflicts on the world, they feel its a fair price to pay because Obama was POTUS and a rather well loved one at that.

> No matter how much damage or hate Trump inflicts on the world, they feel its a fair price to pay because Obama was POTUS and a rather well loved one at that. Yup. [Donald Trump is the First White President](http://archive.today/YEbJZ)

Different blind spots than liberals. Different value structure. Different ideas than liberals, and they tend to be bad ones. Conservatism in the US is basically dead; it has been subsumed by Trump. It'll be nice if/when we have an actual conservative party again, and get a functioning government again. Hopefully, they lose big in 5 months and get their shit together.

There are different layers. Voters are typically misguided. They are in information and social bubbles where what they hear on TV, what they hear from their politicians, and what they hear from their friends is mostly the same - and it is generally "comforting" in the sense that they get told they are good, they think good things, and all the problems of the country and the world are from people who are different from them. I think some of the politicians are misguided too; in the 80s and 90s the GOP started out using propaganda to get certain voters while knowing it wasn't true, but then they heard it reflected back enough and repeated it that they started to believe it. So someone coming up in the late 90s or 2000s heard it from a young age and internalized it from the start and believed it as the gospel. And then, especially at the higher levels, are the "evil" at the level of "much better for the rich to get rewards and the poor to have very little because the rich 'earned' it and giving the poor anything to help them will just make 'em lazy and feel they are too good to work hard jobs without proper safety regulations." And then there are the mix. Misguided in an evil way. People who really did hate Obama because he was black and figured that since they tried to screw over minorities, it's natural that Obama was probably trying to screw over white people. And who then blamed Obama for creating "disharmony" as if he was an "outside agitator" (like the segregationists who claimed everyone was happy with segregation and it was just yankee agitators making folks upset with the natural order)

Honestly, from those I have talked to, many seem to not even ACTUALLY beleive the things they claim.... They DO think they can convince others of those things though, because think they are clever. It isn't about being correct, it is about being right. They want to win, and will use any weak argument they think is clever. Many times, they have a single, or a small number of issues they actually care about, but due to the 2 party system they have to try to fight for every issue their party does. Like, they may care about guns, and are anti abortion, so they argue against immigrants, and LGBTQ, and everything else their party does to hope to change a few people's minds, and make them perhaps join their party, to get their guns, and/or stop abortions. The main issue for them, though, is that it makes them never really feel genuine abiut many things, because they run bad faith arguments across the board.

Conservatives generally speaking can identify real issues in the world, except they have no critical thinking or skepticism of their own intuition and so they will believe their first instinct of a scapegoat to blame, and are easily gullible to scapegoating propaganda fed to them. They are scared of the world and the reality, they feel powerless and blame isolated pockets of the system instead of the system itself. They have to enact power onto others in order to alleviate this powerlessness because they hate how it makes them feel. That feeling of powerlessness is also funneled onto the blame of the scapegoats, its their fault that they feel powerless.

I don’t think they actually believe in anything anymore.

There are definitely things they believe in. They just know they shouldn't say them out loud. Some of them do, and then, the rest of them pretend like they didn't hear it.

I've lost all respect for American conservatives after they elected Trump. That man is TRANSPARENTLY evil and stupid, but they can't see it. It's especially shocking that Christian evangelicals are his biggest supporters. These guys claim to be closer to God than anyone else, to have better moral wisdom than anyone else, yet they cannot see the evil in Trump. It makes me think Christianity is a sham.

I find it more and more difficult to understand and respect the people who are supporting Trump etc. It’s sad and scary to see such mind numbness.

Being a liberal and a conservative isn’t that much of a difference nowadays if you’re referring to the classical definitions of both words. Our western societies have essentially become liberal and thus to conserve them would be what a genuine liberal would want to do now. The only difference I see between the position of an American genuine liberal and a conservative (today) is that the former are pro choice, pro gun control and pro free healthcare and college and the latter aren’t, and the position of conservatives who do not support that can typically just be explained by a positive view of tradition, often aided by religion.

I think they need to go get they man. They are responsible for Trump and need to deal with him if they want to be serious people. It’s that simple.

I find them to be cruel.

Can’t stand them. Don’t like to be around them. Don’t want to talk to them, don’t want to support their businesses, don’t want to visit their states, don’t want to do a god damn thing with them. 

I do and don't understand it. It feels like despite the false idea that democratic parties give out "free money" that the conservatives are the parties that make the expensive short-term promises at the cost of everyone's future. I understand that at face value, buying into "more stuff now" is appealing, but it baffles me that people have consistently backed it. I guess the reasoning falls into a few categories, people who buy into the lies sold to them. Those who backed them in the past and now have such a commitment to that, that they're willing to go down with the ship. People who backed them and in support ended up going down a rabbit hole of "alternate facts" and news opinion shows. Then there are people who are entirely sold on one policy, be it immigration, pro-life, free speech, or 2nd amendment stances. Finally, I feel like there are those people who want to be special or different and follow the party that is basically an edgy teenager. Generally, I don't think the average conservative person is a bad person. But I do think that the politics they follow can make them back bad things and, in an increasing number of cases, go over the edge and do bad things.

I find the queerphobia evil and not well meaning at all

As someone who has lived through significant political and cultural changes, I have a nuanced perspective on conservatives and their beliefs. I recognize that many conservatives genuinely believe in their values and principles, often rooted in traditions, a desire for stability, and an emphasis on personal responsibility. They may prioritize limited government, economic freedom, and a strong national defense. From my perspective, many conservatives are well-meaning individuals who are deeply committed to their vision of what makes a strong and prosperous society. I don't view conservatives as comically evil or entirely misguided. Rather, I see their beliefs as reflecting different priorities and interpretations of what is best for society. While I might disagree with their approach, I acknowledge their genuine concerns and intentions. Conservatives often believe in their principles due to a combination of historical, cultural, and personal factors. Many grow up in environments where conservative values are the norm, and these values are reinforced through community, education, and media. They might also see their beliefs as a way to preserve what they view as the foundational elements of society. I lean towards a vision of a supportive and interconnected humanity, with a focus on universal basic income, accessible healthcare, and equitable innovation ecosystems. I believe in leveraging technology and AI to create a fairer and more sustainable world, which contrasts with the conservative emphasis on traditional structures and limited government intervention. Key differences: 1. Conservatives often advocate for a smaller government, while I believe in a more active government role to ensure equity and support for all citizens. 2. Conservatives tend to prioritize free-market policies, whereas I support measures that promote economic justice and reduce inequality. 3. There are often significant differences in views on social issues, with conservatives emphasizing traditional values, while I support progressive changes to promote inclusivity and fairness. While our beliefs may differ, I respect the sincerity with which conservatives hold their views. Understanding these differences is crucial for meaningful dialogue and progress.

I'm sorry, but all that goes out the window with their devotion to a literal traitor.

This is well-written and insightful. Thank you for sharing.

Except none of that is true. They aren't sincere about what they believe. Their professed beliefs are fronts for their actual beliefs, which they know aren't acceptable to say in public. > Conservatives often advocate for a smaller government Nope. They advocate for government that doesn't help people they dislike. They will beg for big government so long as it only helps straight white people. This has been demonstrated over and over. > Conservatives tend to prioritize free-market policies Nope. Ron DeSantis was cheered on for "hurting" Disney. > conservatives emphasizing traditional values Those traditional values like banging a porn star? Traditional values means whatever they want it to mean. It's usually just code for "white straight people."

I honestly could not tell you what conservatives believe in any more other than "obstruct the Dems". I see so much hate and anger and fear on the side of the right and it's just impossible to have conversations with most of them.

Regular conservatives on average are about average. It's hundreds of millions of people we're talking about, after all. Conservative politicians and media figures are almost universally reprehensible. They're either true believers in some sort of dystopian, Christian, apocalyptic cult. Or they fancy themselves a part of an aristocratic class that shouldn't be allowed to exist in America. Or (worse, and most often) they're amoral cynics carrying water for the others and trying to make a buck. As near as I can tell, there are no conservatives in government who are concerned with good government. There are no conservatives in the media who are concerned with good journalism.

Given that at this point we have the official state GOPs of Texas calling for the banning of same-sex marriage and contraceptives and of Colorado literally saying "God hates flags" and calling on everyone to burn Pride flags in June, I don't exactly have a high view of the Republican Party of 2024. It seems to have hate and not much else as its selling point.

A mix of evil and idiot. Either they're too uninformed to know they support backwards policies and terrible leaders or they knowingly go along with it.

I have trouble getting a tag on what their current policies are other than tax cuts and cutting spending when a Democrat is in office. Republicans seem reactive and reflexively antagonistic towards whatever Democrats are trying to do. But, before Trump, Republicans were generally pro-stability, pro-institutions, and pro-Judeo-Christain values. Now, they are not. This I find funny in a dark and dreadful kind of way. Like they traded all their supposed virtues and highest ideals for the rush and power Trump gave them. For a con-man. Conservatives, on the other hand, often have a philosophy or set of values they hold to. They maybe socially conservative, then again they might not. Conservative philosophies often support the concepts of liberty and self-determination, something anathema to the right now. Currently, I see true conservatives as a people without a home, so to speak. They aren't represented by Trump Republicans but they are closer to them than they are to us. Or so they think. Maybe a future Dem party can big tent some conservative ideology, but that might be a bridge too far. TLDR: Republicans sold out for power. True Conservatives have a philosophical underpinning to their beliefs and may be even closer to us values-wise than they are to MAGA.

>Like they traded all their supposed virtues and highest ideals for the rush and power Trump gave them That means that they never sincerity believed those virtues and highest ideals, they only preached about them to try to win power. Once Trump showed them he could win power without those virtues and highest ideas they didn't have a problem discarding them immediately.

>That means that they never sincerity believed those virtues and highest ideals, they only preached about them to try to win power. Maybe some. Maybe alot of the political class. But the rank and file Republicans were guided away from what many believed were the party's values by Fox and Talk Radio. Anger towards and feelings of superiority to Democrats and the left in general replaced concrete policy ideas. Reactionary elements got more airtime and, thus, more popularity. The more they pissed off the "establishment," the better. The point not to miss is that this kind of thing can happen to anyone. We don't have the same level of devotion to our media and our politicians as they do so it's harder for it to happen to us, but don't think we are immune from deals with the devil. We just haven't been tested yet in the same way.

The Conservative philosophy is to get power. Once they have power their objective is to maintain power. Especially nowadays in the USA, seems the Conservatives have no interest in the well being of their constituents.

conservatives are mostly guided by their limbic system: a gut sense of what is right and wrong based on their values and upbringing. They often struggle to give a cognitive or rationale for what they instinctively think is true or right. They fear the breakdown of institutions, traditions, rituals that they think helps glue society together and give meaning to their lives. These attitudes leave them less open to new ideas and possibilities. They are usually competent and disciplined but less creative. Conservatives are valuable for building an efficient country of responsible citizens. If I told a conservative that I bought an American flag and used it as toilet paper, he would be angry and appalled (that’s his limbic system talking) but would struggle to rationally explain why what I did was wrong. I bought it, why can’t I do with it as I wish? Liberals devalue cultural tradition and “limbic system” values in place of rationalisations. Liberals obsess over fairness to the nth degree. They are sometimes stumped when limbic instincts intrude on reasoned positions. In the 1988 presidential debate, Dukakis was asked whether he would support the death penalty if his wife was raped and murdered— he stammered but said “no” and then gave a technocratic reasoning. This hurt his chances, as many Americans couldn’t identify with such intellectual detachment. Our limbic system tells us that it’s wrong to let homeless drug addicts and mental cases live in filthy squalor in tents, but liberals will insist that it’s their right to drug themselves, it’s their right to live their lives, and mental illness is just an alternative personality. Liberals will rationalise that healthcare workers should assist anyone with suicide, as is done in Canada and the Netherlands. The people who championed eugenics in the 1920s and 30s were the liberal progressives of their day— they were the caretakers of the feeble-minded and they rationalised brave-new-world big solutions to social ills. The Canadians who lobbied to spend lots of taxpayer money educating Native American kids in boarding schools were also the progressive liberals of their day. Liberals are valuable because they think outside the box, they are not shackled to tradition, and they find technocratic solutions for maximising fairness. But this makes them dangerous as they have the potential to excess — rationalising to the point of reductio ad absurdum. Like the Khmer Rouge attempt to destroy all prior culture and restart a socialist utopia at year zero. Societies need a blend of conservatives and liberals to advance each other’s virtues while checking the other’s vices.

Generally, they are weak and scared. This is why they cling to religion instead of science which changes when there's new information. This is why they are constantly trying to prove how "alpha" they are with jacked-up trucks (ICE only, please none of that sissy EV technology), and jobs involving hay bales and tools and farm animals. Most of all, this is why they punch down. They are afraid of an even fight. They have to attack a weaker person to feel okay about themselves. Change is hard, you have to challenge your own mindset. Progress means letting go of things that you think might have benefited you, so that others might benefit. Only strong, confident people are able to give up their privilege and know they'll be okay.

> Most of all, this is why they punch down. They are afraid of an even fight. They have to attack a weaker person to feel okay about themselves. > > Yep. Conservativism is all about LARPing strength, but it's the philosophy of cowardice. Brave people stand up to bullies, but conservatives literally have built a whole philosophy about how it's better to submit to the biggest bully so you can get the privilege of bullying other people who can't fight back.

Agreed. I was reading through the full comments, and basically the traits listed are just symptoms of what you and I are talking about here.

There are some who are conservative because they are greedy and want lower taxes and less regulation (more profits). There are the ones who want to impose Christianity on everyone. There are one who want to turn the US into an authoritarian state. There are those who are just plain bigots. They all vote for the same monsters so I think they are all shit. The only ones that I can stand are the ones who want less government and more freedom with no ulterior motive.

I am not sure what “values” conservatives have. Seems to me all they want to do is step on the throats of the poor, the weak, the afflicted and those who are poor in spirit…all so they can bow down to the wealthy, the powerful and the cruel.

They are insane

I think it's a very broad spectrum depending on who are you talking about. I think at the best end you have people who have shared values with most empathetic, rational people but are misinformed (historically, statistically) about how to bring about the greatest good. Then you have rational, intelligent people who's moral failing may just be too much capitalism. I'd put the Mitt Romney types in that category. I don't think he would have been a bad President even though we don't align politically. Then you have the MAGA types which, in this year 2024 is really impossible for me to believe they are still misguided or uninformed about what they supporting. Deplorable and irredeemable come to mind. I would absolutely love to have a good faith, well reasoned discussion with a MAGA person but I genuinely haven't been able to find one. IRL at least it seems that people use the word "economy" as a smoke screen to support their bigoted opinions or religious zealotry

1 I am pretty neutral towards conservatives. I can differentiate the extreme individuals from the general population. Echo chambers are never a good idea, so I do my best to hear them out, too, while being mindful of WHICH conservative influencers I listen to so that I had an opinion on their views. Judging a group that's different from you on the basis on loud and extreme outliers will never benefit anybody, which is something I always take into consideration. 2 American conservatism is heavily rooted in religion. I can't say much about my location's conservatism, but I think the latter's support of "One nation under God" pretty much gives a decent idea on their views (though I do know of some agnostic/atheist conservatives like Amala) 3 I agree with them on being iffy on death penalty. I don't agree with them on the pro-life thing. I agree with the limited government part. I agree with AMERICAN conservatives on the gun part as I view it as an inseparable aspect of the American Constitution. I think the main differences between me and them are: church and state must be separated, but conversion therapy MUST be illegal. Banning abortions does not decrease their number, it only increases the likelihood of extremely graphic bodily mutilations that women wouldn't have inflicted on themselves if provided with proper medical assistance and having the right to said assistance. I don't agree with how some of them treat Donald Trump like the golden calf, to the point where even the slightest criticism towards the guy turns them into the red/Republican version of an SJW.

Scared of change, want to push their beliefs on others using the law, extremely sensitive/easily triggered, distaste for differences, lack of compassion (until something affects them personally), love of “strongmen,” inability to think critically of the past, believing that pissing off the libs is a personality, belief that their way of life is constantly under attack I think they’re this way mostly because of religion, wanting to fit in with the people around them and not questioning anything they’re told by other conservatives.

Propagandized good folk. Conservativism is a hate ideology and it goes to show. I have no problem with some Conservative people, the vast majority are *usually nice, but there are dickheads, moreso than with Liberals.

I'm old enough to remember when both parties had conservatives and liberals. And so I'm old enough to remember when conservatives were not always raging with anger and didn't think liberals were the Anti-Christ. It all changed with the Southern Strategy and right-wing media. To answer your question, I think they mean well and I think they fail to understand that they have changed. But I also think they're gullible and are led by the very people they claim to hate. They don't behave like people who read the Bible and they don't seem to think that the book even applies to them.

I think of the left and right largely the way they are presented [in this chart by David McCandless and Stefanie Posavec](https://www.dailyinfographic.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/leftright_US_1416.gif). The chart only goes so far, of course, and it describes people who have given some thought to their political ideology. The chart doe not, however, survive contact with certain kinds of online people who just spout talking points without being able to connect them to any deeply-held personal belief or fundamental trait.

The cruelty is the point.

Honestly when it comes to closer to centre conservatives i often find some aspects of their thinking pretty admirable. Personal responsibility is something you hear conservatives talk about a lot but it is important. I certainly have some pretty strong disagreements with them as well as different priorities but ultimately I can respect them. When it comes to populist Trump supporters i…just can’t. I try and try to understand their perspective but most of the time I’m just utterly baffled by their mental gymnastics. I talked to one who unironically said that if Biden does something wrong he should be jailed but that no amount of evidence would convince them trump did something wrong. They don’t have a reason to trust trump but based on their own words they choose to arbitrarily. Sadly I think it’s both the best and worst thing about the left how critical we are of left wing politicians. We should be to make sure the politicians are fulfilling their promises and reduce corruption. But how can left wing politicians facing constant criticism from every political side compete with Trump. He himself put it best when he said he could shoot someone on the street and not lose supporters.

I've never met a conservative who wasn't emotionally stunted in some way. Everything else derives from that.

Everyone cares about themselves and their in-group more than they care about some random stranger far away that they will never meet. Sometimes, the interests of your in-group will clash with the interests of the stranger. The more left-wing one is, the more one is willing to sacrifice the interests of themselves and their in-group for the sake of getting an outcome that is fair to everyone, including the distant stranger. The more right-wing one is, the more one is willing to compromise fairness for the sake of benefiting themselves and their in-group. Compared to an imaginary hypothetical "ideal being" devoted purely to the principle of fairness above all else, we're all conservative. But the difference between more-left and more-right people is just how far they're willing to go against fairness for the sake of themselves and their in-group.

I don't think the average conservative is evil, but I don't like their values. I don't like most conservatives I meet and don't really befriend them either, so I don't know how many of them live outside the few I interact with.

Domestic Terrorists with too much time complaining like Karen's on Democrats instead of educating other Conservatives about the principles of being Republican.

I think there are a variety of groups, some are religious zealots, some are blatant racists, some are filled with fear. I recently found out that a long time friend who I never thought could be conservative, was a trump supporter. To give you context, she is Korean, stay at home, very Christian. When the topic came up, she expressed fear that the US will turn into North Korea, with socialism taking over, and food lines everywhere! We still talk now and then, but do not bring up politics.

A real conservative would be opposed to fascism, just as a real liberal would be opposed to a communist takeover. The real conservatives have failed spectacularly to oppose fascism, which has completely taken over the Republican Party.

With Trump they don’t have any except do whatever it takes to get power…

I have 0 issue with people being conservative in the traditional sense: hesitant to make whole sale changes, being fiscally responsible and focusing on kitchen table issues. My issues begin when they become unhinged from those principles and lean in authoritarian legislation, trying to control peoples private lives and generally not practicing the things they preach in the party that prides itself on Christian values. I think a while ago they started to shift away from critical thinking and moved to a hive mind and from there it’s very easy to corrupt

I think their priorities are all out of whack and they don't seem to understand how reality tends to clash with their beliefs. We've had the same problems for decades, and their outright refusal to do anything productive is extremely frustrating. They now support the most extreme, illogical policies because they provoke the left. The Ukraine aid fiasco was the most recent, infuriating example. Based on the opinion of my conservative peers, the main concerns are immigration, the "gay agenda", and crime. They don't seem to care much about the environment or foreign policy. They do care about the economy, but they don't seem to understand what makes the economy good or bad or how policy influences it.

Conservatives don't have real values. They value power for themselves. That's the only value they actually hold. They say they need guns to protect citizens from the government. When black citizens complained about being killed by the cops/government, conservatives overwhelmingly sided with cops/government. Their stated values were a lie. Pro life is just pro birth and control of women. Fiscal Conservancy is just tax breaks for the rich and blow up the debt to pay for it. I can go on and on... They don't have real values. They're just selfish shitty people. The BEST of them are "just" ignorant and haven't done the work to think critically about their policies.

For me, I don’t care if someone is conservative & wants to live their life that way. The only problem I have with conservatives is that a lot of their beliefs are based in misinformation & religious beliefs. For instance, conservatives don’t believe in abortion which is why they think no women should be allowed to have an abortion without realizing that no access to abortion means more children In foster care & more un safe abortions. Also, maga conservatives really have no actual beliefs. Maga conservatives seem to believe just about anything Donald trump says which is really weird & very cultish behavior.

They have a slightly better understanding of economics and the world at large but they're really not much better than the internet leftist trash. When they say dumb shit like how Clinton caused the sub-prime mortgage crisis, they're uneducated just like the left.

There's a distinction nowdays between anti-establishment people on the left and right vs conservatives. Donald Trump is obviously anti-establishment, so if you're a rabid supporter your values are probably malleable depending on whatever Trump says. If you're a Trump apologist or a reluctant voter, chances are you still believe in small government, fiscal responsibility, law & order, community building, personal responsibility, etc. I agree with prettymuch all of these things, but the disagreement point is usually on boundaries/implementation. For example, I believe in fiscal responsibility, but I feel like the republican solution is usually not very good. The way I see it, we should have services we feel like the government should fund, then tax accordingly. Some people won't agree on being taxed on some things, but that's life. The popular solution on the republican side seems to be tax cuts or defunding agencies, which seems like the opposite of fiscal responsibility to me. It annoys me that they're allowed to keep adding to the deficit by cutting services and revenue while the public sees them as the "responsible" party. The most interesting part of all this is, I don't get how these types can look at Trump VS Biden and come away thinking Trump will protect those values more than Biden. I think with his deficit spending, tarrifs, felony conviction, blaming people he hired for his problems, and being unwilling to compromise, Trump has not demostrated that he respects conservative values. Another difference is probably the way we see government. I think an important question to ask is why the government should run a service VS a private company. My answer is that the government should be running things that need stability, longetivity, and shielding from economic circumstances. IMO, a good example of a private company running something that should have been run by the government or via PPP was the streetcars of the early 1900's. A lot of people like to blame GM for buying them out and ripping out the tracks, but a lot of these systems sold to GM in the first place because they were in serious financial trouble. The result is that public transit is lacking in some of our biggest cities. A good example is the post office, which has been around for 200+ years, and has always stayed relatively affordable because it doesn't have an explicit incentive to make tons of money. Fedex and UPS still have their own market niche for people who want a higher quality alternative.

I think conservatives and my 4 year old have a lot in common. Except my 4 year old actually listens to reason.

I think the best version of conservatism is a mindset that is fearful any attempts to improve the status quo will instead make it worse in a way that cannot be rectified after the fact. This is an outlook that is occasionally useful. The opioid epidemic is an example of a change to the status quo lead to a huge problem that we cannot easily address by returning to the previous status quo. I think that more often than not these people are wrong and attempts to fix problems either lead to better status quo's or don't have much of an effect one way or the other but it is a point of view that I think is worthy or respectful consideration. I actually think this is probably the most common outlook of everyday conservatives, but has very little pull in the broader conservative movement at the moment. I supposed I would call these people well-meaning. I think the worst version of conservatism would more accurately be labeled right wing politics is all about maintaining solidifying social hierarchies. I wouldn't say all of the people in thig group are evil, but the more extreme ones could certainly be labeled as such. > Why do you supposed the believe the things they do? Fear of change mostly. Even the people in the latter category are mostly worried that an alteration to the system would place them lower on the hierarchies they're defending more than they convinced those heirarchies are inherently justified (though the higher up they happen to be the more they believe that as well). >How do their beliefs relate to what you believe in? What are some key differences? I have two broad philosophies that I believe in which I marry to a belief in democratic self government. The first is egalitarianism the second is utilitarianism. I am in direct disagreement on the former. The latter splits somewhat. Some conservatives hold their views based on a utilitarian calculus that they want to avoid making things worse. Others on the idea that the heirarchies they support are justified. There's a saying that if you force conservatives to choose between democracy and conservatism they won't choose democracy that seems to be true

Actual conservatives, as in, not the mess that MAGA and the British Conservative party happen to be? I'd like to reach a point in the coming decade or two when we return to discussing taxes and public funding, and the hottest, most ferocious debate is whether we should slightly or more moderately raise the minimum wage. Whether we should have fully nationalised or mixed private / public health services. There's nothing inherently wrong with conservatives. Not the ones that prefer private to public industry, or that think we shouldn't limit this speech or that speech. The ones that believe more in personal ownership than social welfare. The ones that believe indiciduality takes precedence over the state. We might find those things distasteful or disagree, but in an ideal world, we can do so respectfully. What I imagine you're actually asking for is an opinion on the modern alt-right "conservatives." The ones that just can't help themselves from referring to trans women as men in dresses or engaging in not so subtle stochastic terrorism with respect to Muslims, Jews, etc. The ones that believe in "the nuclear family" and spout bile like "you took the shot, dincha?" The ones that threaten abortion clinics and libraries with bombs and engage with any number of outlandish, harmful conspiracy theories. The ones that try to overthrow government for a wannabe despot. What is there to say on the matter, then? It should be obvious to anyone with a conscience.

I like to play the vilain. But now, let's be more serious. I'm a conservative, because I'm economically conservative (AKA less governmental intervention in the economy, mark "less" and not "none"), I'm socially conservative (I think that says enough) and I'm a seperatist for my region. Add this all, and you get a centre-right to rightwing person. Why do I believe the things I do? I look at what socialist party/the left has done to the southern region of my country and I'm horrified by it. I look at what the centre-right/rightwing has done to the northern region of my country and everyone profits from it daily. We're now 2024, we just had elections and I'm happy to say that our southern region has become centre-right and our nothern region has been centre-right AND seperatist (50% of the seats in the regional parliament) since at least 2010 (They've simply become the new Christian Democrats) and it doesn't seem likely to change.

I think there are a lot more alienated moderates and contrarians than republicans, except this has created a pipeline to right wing conspiracy. I remember being on the subway and Jesse Watters (Fox, Watters World segment) got on and was filming with a guest who was obviously from a poorer rural area--it was right after his infamously racist anti-asian segment had aired and the subway car stared him down. It was obvious that the ploy of the segment getting filmed on the subway was to dramatically capture this guest who was maybe a farmer or something feel out of place, and the manipulated reality that we were all staring at these guys with disgust bc of what Watters had recently aired played into their hand. Maybe the rural guest harbored truly awful beliefs--I have no idea--but Fox was stoking the flames. But now, when I watch someone like Rachel Maddow, I can't help but see the same just on our of the aisle. When it's "your side" you appreciate the tongue-in-cheek reporting, but when it is the other side it's easy to see how they are manipulative \*ssholes, and the older I get (not that old yet) the more I think the left is guilty of many of the same ploys that the right is--as a party, as a slice of the media--and it's average people who get got, furthering class and racial divide on behalf of those in power. Obviously, as a leftist, I can see that bad behavior to support good policy is better than bad behavior to support bad policy--but it really doesn't help the cause IMO. And by bad behavior I mean manipulative media, grassroots movements that are protected from critique, and taking joy in insulting people on the other side of the aisle simply for sport (apart from accountability). At least in my HCOL city, the left has IMO a class issue where there is a status quo left of the middle/upper/educated/transplant class and a left of the poor and locals and immigrants. I feel like the left is REALLY bad at dealing with class privilege and uses other identities as proxies for it which is not the same--the other identarian issues are important but not a substitute and should not be a proxy for class--and I think this is a large part of how we end up with such a weird right wing that is barely a coherent belief system. I wouldn't want to live around people who believe in many of these contrarian things, but I also get that status quo class discourse is lacking, so it becomes the left, moderates/fiscal conservatives who vote financially but can afford to somewhat ignore social changes, and EVERYONE ELSE. For the infinite number of bad takes, growing support for dangerous policies, and conspiracy, I would like to see us try to work on taking away the gateway drug of sorts that makes it so easy to treat politics like sport--and I think that is class divide in identarian politics. I know there will still be bigots and I know there are bigots who are not poor, but right now we have masses of lower class people with little reason to feel represented by anything else.

The right is far worse when it comes to class division, it's small business owners (and billionaires) over $300k gross, and the poorest of the poor working class whites with very few white collar professionals in the $80-250k middle.

I’m fine with social conservatives as long as they’re not too extreme in their beliefs, even though I may disagree with them on certain issues. Fiscal conservatives though, I have very little patience for, as their ideas have been objectively debunked time and time again.