Conservatism is Brain Damage
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/16238450
Conservatism is Brain Damage
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/16238450
Conservatism is Brain Damage
it never ceases to amaze me how capable conservatives are at recognizing how bad conservatism is, as long as you dont tell them its conservatism they are recognizing and criticizing.
once you do, suddenly the brain shuts off and all that bad shit transmogrifies into sunshine and lollypops
"Conservitism" to them is synonymous with capitalism first and foremost. In their dichotomy, everything that isn't that is communism and therefore (since big communist regimes are fascist) fascist.
It’s almost as if he’s doing mental gymnastics to avoid coming to the obvious conclusion… who’d ever do that about their political beliefs?!
I think the problem is "normal" right-wing politics and conservatism aren't necessarily the same thing.
The rational definition of conservatism is the maintaining of the status quo. No radical change. Don't rock the boat.
As a political philosophy, it's boring. It's safe. Just keep things the way they are.
Fascism is a radical right ideology, demanding swift authoritarian change. Throw the immigrants in jail. Mass arrests of the opposition. Invade your neighbors.
That's not very "conservative."
My favorite politician was a conservative and he would not be recognized by a modern day Republican. Tom McCall, governor of Oregon from 1967 to 1974.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_McCall
He put the "Conserve" in conservative. Preserving public ownership of Oregon beaches:
https://www.opb.org/news/article/history-oregon-tom-mccall-public-beaches/
Which also had the hilarious unintended consequence of putting the state highway division in charge of whale removal:
Fed up with litter carpeting the state, McCall pushed for a bottle deposit to encourage cans and bottles be returned for recycling.
https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/beverage_container_act_bottle_bill/
“I want to make it very clear that there will be no quid pro quo in the form of relaxation of my commitment to put a price on the head of every beer can and pop bottle in the United States."
He was the driving force in cleaning up the Willamette River, one of the major rivers running through the state:
But the #1 thing he is remembered for is his attempt at controlling growth:
https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/mccall_thomas_l/
“We want you to visit our State of Excitement often. Come again and again. But for heaven’s sake, don’t move here to live. Or if you do have to move in to live, don’t tell any of your neighbors where you are going.”
All of this in service of preserving... conserving... the things that make our state great.
When I was growing up, the difference between the American left and right was understood like this (at least by me):
In my adult life, I am aware that that was never really true. The American Right has always wanted to restrict individual liberties, and implement a caste system, going all the way back to 1776.
The rational definition of conservatism is the maintaining of the status quo. No radical change. Don’t rock the boat.
As a political philosophy, it’s boring. It’s safe. Just keep things the way they are.
If the way things are is cruel and unjust, then what is it to fight to maintain that state of things?
Outside of a utopia, "keep things as they are" is unlikely to be the highest of moral grounds.
fascism is a reactionary position against radical change and conservativism is a strain of that
If it looks like shit, and smells like shit, how do you know it's shit and not mainstream conservatism?
Consider their law strategy: instead of targeting bad behavior, they target people they don't like.
He might not be able to understand a word being bad because of the actions ascribed to it. "So if Bernie did those things you'd call him a fascist?" "Uh yes, that's not a gotcha."
He's more likely to think something like "fascism isn't actually a bad word because it just means conservatives and that's my team"
I used to follow a subreddit called SelfAwareWolves that was dedicated to this. It was pretty amazing.
Why can't I find papers that don't list the symptoms of my side being the bad guys so succinctly?
-This guy
Fascism is a very hard to define term, just look at what a mess the definitions on the Wikipedia page for "definitions of fascism" are:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definitions_of_fascism?wprov=sfla1
