Do you ever get the feeling...

[frostfern]

that a lot of hard-core conservative ideologues aren't interested in world as it actually exists but simply want to project their "rugged individual" identity by wearing their politics on their sleeves. Even if they are poor and depend on government programs themselves they still bash others for "wanting handouts" and vote against their own interest as a way to prop up their own self-esteem. In their mind it is deeply shameful to have to receive help from government. Faux Nooze and Hate Radio manipulate these people by placing shame on them. Therefore if they collect food stamps they'd rather bash Democrats or Obama for supposedly creating the economic conditions in which they are lead to feel helpless. It's like conservatives have to protect their own ego by refusing to admit that they might actually be dependent on this thing we call "society" which also includes government.

So in summery their political beliefs aren't about the real world but about preserving their own sense of self-esteem which they get through that feel-good American Pie attitude "hard work", "honesty", and "pulling yourself up by your bootstraps". Because their political beliefs are really all about their own personal philosophy they don't get why other people who live in reality and realize the world is complex and interconnected find their simplistic ideas insulting and dismissive. If you express that you think the real-world consequences of their ideology are deeply immoral they don't even think you're sincere. They mistake liberal outrage as arrogance against them. It's just so hopeless trying to reason with people in this country and it scares me how irrational they are.

[NRaleighLiberal]

1. they are Stepford Americans. Incapable of critical thinking.

[frostfern]

3. But that's not how they see it from their perspective...

They really think it's all Obama's fault and if government just got out of the way they would be doing just fine again. America is inherently prosperous and good just because it's America. They seem to think having a good standard of living just magically happens when people "work hard" in a capitalist economy. Wealth is automatically and endogenously created as long as people are "free" and government stays out of the way. Prosperity has absolutely nothing to do with complex things like technology, global trade, and institutions that promote economic well-being.

Nevermind that there are people living in third world dumps around the world who are just as good and hard working as Americans but see no reward for it. That's why the "just world fallacy" crap pisses me off so much.

[edgineered]

2. But ... but ... but ... (insert any stupid or false objection) ... but ... nt

[patrice]

4. I think you're right; the heart of it is their defensiveness about their own vulnerabilities & about

the kinds of self-hate that they acquire from various entities, such as Faux Nooze, as you observe, but also from some churches and other institutionalized forms of status.

Vulnerabilities are various degrees of things like: ignorance, wide & deep, but most especially ignorance of some of the simplest, most basic facts and skills; economic vulnerability; emotional vulnerabilities; vulnerabilities in intelligence . . . .

Over-reaction is a sure sign that there is a weakness of some type.

[ChoppinBroccoli]

5. I've Found That The Brainwashed Can Always Justify Their Own Hypocrisy

For example, I have a friend who is Rush Limbaugh lapdog, and basically just parrotts back everything he hears on right-wing radio. Many times I've heard him rail against "moochers" and "welfare queens" and people of all stripe who receive government assistance. Well, one day a while back, I found out that he's receiving government assitance and food stamps while he goes to school for his PhD. I SOOOOOOO wanted to throw his previous comments back in his face, but I'm certain I would have heard about 18 different justifications for why HE was different and didn't belong in the same category as the moochers and the welfare queens. Something about, "Well, I'm going to school trying to educate myself so I can get a better job," or, "I'm WILLING to work; I just CAN'T right now," or some other such nonsense. As if HE'S the lone exception out there who actually does need assistance for a legitimate purpose.

Whenever you confront a right-winger about not "walking the walk," they'll always have some cooked-up reason why it's different for THEM and why they shouldn't be lumped in with everyone else. It's how they sleep at night when their worldview conflicts with their reality.

[frostfern]

8. Like saying they can't find work because of "Obamacare".

Either that or they blame unions. If not for the greedy "union goons" all those jobs over in China would be shipped back. Of course they'd probably have to get rid of the minimum wage as well but...

[kentuck]

6. Well, we don't want to generalize, but...

Surely all Democrats are not on handouts??

[frostfern]

9. Well...

you could argue that since the top 10% of earners pay 50% of all federal income taxes the bottom 90% must be moochers.

I just made up a new meme. I bet right-wing radio would gobble it up.




































































Shhhhhhh.... Don't fact check me! I just made up that statistic because I don't have the time to look up the actual figure. Don't worry, right wingers will repeat it enough times and it will become true just like every other load they spew.

[mick063]

7. Two different categories often confused

Category one:

Democrats and Republicans

Category two:

Those that receive direct federal aid and those that don't receive direct federal aid.




They are subsets of each other with no subset being mutually exclusive.

[Populist_Prole]

10. Could be the cognitive dissonance is killing them

Which is to say that they've so conspicuously painted themselves into a corner so long that they see that they more or less have to stay the course, lest they admit to themselves, much less publicly to others, that they were suckers.

Tribalism is a very powerful force. I like your opening sentence: "that a lot of hard-core conservative ideologues aren't interested in world as it actually exists but simply want to project their "rugged individual" identity by wearing their politics on their sleeves" To them, it's cool to be a conservative republican. If you get burned by being so much of a team player, then you're a wuss. Throughout the 80's and 90's, I was one of those people. Yes, a real Rush listening, Tom Clancy reading, soundbite quoting neocon. I was also younger and more stupid. I didn't like what my "team" was doing, so I quit. Some can't do that. They'd rather sink with fire in their belly than swim with an ugly truth.

Great example: Heard a usual right wing loudmouth at work complaining about gasoline prices, and naturally it was all the democrats/liberals/Obama's fault; using the usual canards about how refineries aren't being built due to tree huggers blah blah blah. ( like I said, I used to be a dittohead, so I know all their lame talking points ) A few others chimed in ( which surprised me ) about how oil companies were reducing production due to demand to maintain higher pricing, and I brought up how they were selling oil to overseas markets; further tightening supplies here. Said right wing loudmouth got all haughty and pro-capitalist as he grandstanded at how those oil companies had a right to seek higher profits....world economy....blah blah blah. At this point we were like: "So now you're not mad at oil companies and paying more for fuel because you're some capitalist ideologue? Two minutes ago you were bitching about the price of gas!"

THAT is cognitive dissonance. In this case, he couldn't handle it. Some see their own hypocrisy on their own. Some need it pointed out. Some do both but would rather go down with the ship as "rugged individuals".

[frostfern]

11. Damn that pisses me off though...

I mean, I can deal with the older conservatives who are the religious "values" voter type because they are at least decent people underneath. What I can't stand is the under 40 pricks who do seem to think it's "cool" and not being a conservative is being a "wuss". Complaining about gas prices really takes the cake. I also love how they bitch and moan about "future generations having to pay down the deficit" when they have no conception that we may have much bigger problems down the road, like the fact that cheap energy is a fucking limited resource and the entire world is eventually going to have to adjust to this fact. They don't get that our economic situation isn't even going to be sustainable globally in the long run. I sometimes feel that such proudly ignorant people don't deserve to bring others into this world. They shouldn't reproduce. "Rugged individualism" will be the undoing of our civilization a hundred years from now if these people can't get over their own cock and wake the fuck up. I can understand older people who tend to be set in their ways but people of my generation (genX and genY) who fall for the reactionary crap just irritate the shit out of me.