Monday, March 16, 2009

Comrade Stuck Ponders the Conservative Mind

Question posed by Comrade Jake -- I struggle to understand their worldview at times, and so I find it interesting when it’s defended intelligently


Comrade Stuck responds

I’m convinced that much of their worldview is a contrived amalgam of contrarian ideas often taken to extreme to set them apart from so called liberals.

Why would they do this? The better question might be what is it that motivates your average wingnut, more than anything. I think it’s a need to control that comes from a kind of systemic innate permeating fear. And what do people who are always afraid about everything do to compensate? They need to control their external world, and if they can pull that off, then they can not be afraid.

We live in a democracy where people vote for their leadership and offer solutions to make people feel secure and well off. So any party or group that wants to strike at that deepest primal need of feeling safe and secure will likely get more people to vote for them. Some of these folks are sincere in their beliefs and longing for a more controlled and ordered society. But many are nothing more than huckster charlatans who covet power.

A large number of us see this onerous tactic for what it is, and will likely never buy in. But there are those who are at times susceptible, and give in to let these people into power, and they do things like wiretap, torture, subvert science and mold the constitution into all sorts of means to further control and to enhance their power.

Up until GWB/Cheney, the country had chosen mostly people on the right who don’t necessarily have this perverted worldview, at least to a significant degree. We made a mistake but luckily have woke up and threw the bastards out of power, but the damage and legacy remains of a party geared to this sort of crap, mostly derived from southern ideology, with leadership and punditry frantically trying to keep it alive. We must not let them and work relentlessly to kill the beast, or at least send it into political oblivion.

End of sanctimonious rant.