If you're a liberal, you are certainly replying but the conservatives do the same thing!
Actually, no. The hate from the right is different, as I'll explain. The fact that liberals think conservatives express hate in the same way as they do is part of the general trend of liberals having their heads up their arses and be unwilling to understand in the slightest how much of the rest of country thinks. As I've said, most liberals don't want to understand conservatives. Generally they just want conservatives to shut up, go away, and die.
My working thesis is that generally conservatives hate the leaders of the opposition, whereas liberals generally hate the followers.
There are plenty of exceptions, of course, and I'm still refining this rule, but I think it explains a lot at first glance.
For example, most conservatives truly loathe Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Al Gore, among others. They also loathe media figures---t.v. pundits, actors, musicians, etc.---whom they see as the bobble-headed idiots who curate the public dialogue to make liberalism seem cool.
Yet, in this era, surprisingly conservatives generally don't really hate common-folk liberals. There is certainly bigotry among folks on the right, but not in the way, or to the degree, that most liberals imagine. Most conservatives lately know they are outnumbered, and they think liberals are, in varying measure, misguided, immature, out-of-touch, and in the thrall of a rigid and dangerous utopian ideology that severely warps their view of reality all the while claiming to have no other bias than being "reality based."
To conservatives, when a liberal "sees the light" and adopts a conservative viewpoint, it is a sign of maturation and being grounded in the reality of world. All is forgiven. No lasting rancor against individuals. Welcome to the cause, brother. The hate conservatives express is focused instead on the leaders, which of course very much disturbs liberals, who instinctively shunt such examples of extreme conservative rancor into bins of "-isms" that validate their view of conservatives as being hopelessly bigoted in some fashion (which some are). In this way, liberals re-enforce their view of their own righteousness through ongoing obvious "proof."
On the other hand, liberals actually don't really loathe the leaders of the conservative movement. They might think that they do, and act like they do, but such rancor is generally fleeting and forgivable. Liberals will eagerly adopt an ex post facto admiration for conservative politicians of yesteryear, so long as it can be used to shame current conservatives. They love playing the "hypcrisy game", trotting out one-time villains whom they used to hate, but who now can serve as a cudgel against their current enemies. Dwight Eisenhower and Barry Goldwater are practically liberal icons now. Reagan, who was hated by liberals like no one else, regularly appears in my Facebook feed posted by a liberal source, with a quote aimed at demonstrating how far the current GOP has drifted from its roots.
I've seen liberals praise Dick Cheney as a wise statesmen to whom the Republican should use as a model instead that current dude, who is so much worse. If only the Bushes could come back, many of the are thinking now. If only good old Paul Ryan could restore some sanity. [edit: right on cue, after Ted Cruz's non-endorsement speech at the RNC, a post proclaiming his wisdom has rocketed to the top of Reddit. Hilarious].
Part of this admiration for conservative leaders, I believe, comes from a secret love by many liberals for hard-asses. They like the knuckle-crackers who enforce their way in politics. Fans of Hillary Clinton love this part about her, for example. They just want those folks to be on their side.
The conservative leaders that liberals loathe without mercy tend to be the populist, unrefined ones. Sarah Palin, for example, drives them bonkers. She is unsophisticated and thus repulsive to them, reflective of everything they hate about "America out there." Tea Partiers. Uggh. Need I say more?
Which brings me to my last point, that although liberals may readily forgive some of the leaders of the Right, at least after an election cycle or two, liberals really, really hate the common folk of the conservative moment. Among themselves, many liberals permit and encourage a constant, unwavering siege of hatred against the conservative proletariat, with the idea of driving these people out of the public sphere entirely. There is no such thing as too much hatred for the haters. YOU THINK YOU CAN HATE, WHITE BOY!? I'LL SHOW YOU HATE, MUTHAF@CKA!!!
In a dream liberal world, all the common-folk conservatives would just go poof and disappear, leaving the "common-sense" conservative leaders behind, who, being now liberated from the obligation of serving the whims of their disgusting unwashed Amerikkkun base, can turn their business-friendly talents to serving the ideal Progressive State as it emerges from the constraints of opposition. Liberals generally believe we are inevitably moving towards this society, and their counterparts in Red America are simply standing in the way of what could be an awesome world, shared by all of us. Why the f@ck are they slowing it down? Only an idiot would do that.
Personally I think this self-enclosure by liberals, which caught them so blindsided during this election cycle, is why they are going down the drain so fast now. One can feel the panic starting to set in. The intensity of hate is ratcheting up on the sigmoid curve, as they see the entire dream of Permanent Progressive America slipping away.
Eventually, after a few arse-whoopings at the ballot box, they will figure out a new way to advance their agenda. Until then it's going to be a bit ugly.
Really, dude? All that being plugged into America and you didn't see it coming at all? What validity do any of your observations have, if you were so blind?
No comments:
Post a Comment