Rationalizations of the Right Wing American

[Beartracks]

The conservative Republican and Teapartier specializes in the simultaneous holding of incompatible beliefs and attitudes. Normally this would cause psychological conflict -- cognitive dissonance -- yet rightwingers frequently explain away or avoid new information or convince themselves that no conflict really exists. What are some examples that you can summarize in a brief statement? Let's try to identify actual commonly-spouted beliefs or talking points or rightwing "universal truths" -- not candidate flip-flops. Maybe we can develop a comprehensive list!

I'll start off with a couple...


- "Liberals are unemployed." vs. "Unionized workers are liberals."

- Republican donors: A bunch of people who HAVE EVERYTHING complaining about the supposed 47% of Americans who are just TAKERS.


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[narnian60]

1. "I love Jesus." vs. "I hate Obama, liberals. the poor, minorities, the truth, etc."

[zbdent]

2. Pro-lifers who think that there should be an equal number of bullets as there are rifles

in a firing squad ...

[zbdent]

3. They respect teachers so much

they think the teachers should do their job for no pay, just the satisfaction of doing a job well ...

[silverweb]

4. Perfectly embodied in one person I know:

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]Loves spouting platitudes around the right audience, especially, "I am my brother's keeper." Simultaneously opposes food stamps and all forms of public assistance, saying, "If you don't work ([font face="arial"]never mind why[font face="verdana"]), you don't eat."

Accepts Social Security and Medicare, but favors eliminating them for the next generation. ("That's different.&quot

Says, "All are equal in the sight of God," while most often used phrase is, "I resent."

[Beartracks]

6. Oh, yeah -- the "that's different" approach.

"Blacks are lazy and and just want free stuff!"

"What about the Higdons next door? Didn't you just tell me he got employee-of-the-month at your work?"

"Oh. Well -- they're different. They're like us."




Or...

"Poor people just need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. If they can't be bothered to work hard and earn a living, then they shouldn't be getting any of my money."

"What about the Mayers at church? You helped run the bake sale to raise money for little Timmy's operation."

"Oh. Well -- they're different! They belong to our church!"

[silverweb]

10. You nailed it.

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]That's the situation exactly.

[rock]

5. A similar thought that I have had:

RepubliCONs are congenital hypocrites and this one trait allows them to avoid cognitive dissonance.

[Beartracks]

7. The Poor you know vs. The Poor you don't.

"Little Timmy at church needs an operation. Let's try to raise money for the family."

vs. ...

"Poor people bring it on themselves. Let's stop giving them money to help with health issues."


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[thucythucy]

8. George Orwell called this "doublethink"--

the ability to hold two completely contradictory beliefs at the same time. As in:

"True democracy is impossible" and "The Party is the guardian of true democracy."

And so, for instance, Republicans consider themselves proponants of a "meritocracy" yet support inherited wealth and have as leaders aristocrats like the Bushes, Romney, the Kochs, etc.

[Beartracks]

9. The bootstrap fallacy

"Pull yourself up by your bootstraps! Too bad you can't afford bootstraps."

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