11/07/2009 10:24:32 AM EST

Conservative or *contrarian*?

posted by LudwigVan

The more crazy arguments coming from the right, the more I am convinced that the stupidity is intentional, and coming from people who are actually of more-or-less normal intelligence. They know they're wrong--and yet they chose to be wrong.

Stupid like a fox. Or stupid like FOX, as the case may be.

There's a term for this phenomenon: "contrarian". The word is often used for someone who buys or sells stock when conventional logic says otherwise, but I apply it to anyone who opposes a policy when it seems wiser to support it, and vice versa.

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They know that Sarah Palin is utterly unqualified to be President, and that's why they support her. They know that health care reform is the most noble cause right now, and that's why they oppose it. They know laissez-free free market policy would ruin us as the playing field isn't level, and for that reason, they support the free market and the un-level playing field. And they know global warming is real, evolution is well-established science, institutional racism is alive and well, and there's no reason or right for the state to prevent gay people from getting married or people to use cannabis for medical reasons, life begins some time after conception and the death penalty is unfair and overused. Even when religious fundamentalism says otherwise, and that makes it all the more attractive.

As Marshall Mathers once said: "I don't give a fuck; God sent me to piss the world off." There is an element of misanthropy involved, maybe coming from envy--I get the image of the "angry white man" from "middle America" who resents white urban liberal types (often including LGBTs) who are better off, and minorities which they think get an easy ride thanks to affirmative action. (This is part of the Randian producer/paras ite/predator narrative.) He also resents his wife and kids because he sees them as weak, and is prone to abuse them when they assert themselves in any way. And in everything, he uses the Bible (or the Qur'an, if we're in an Islamic culture) to excuse his ignorance and arrogance.

Or maybe it's just egoism, also a Randian principle that in no way originated with Rand. Of course these wannabe John Galts don't do anything but bitch and moan, unless one gets angry enough to commit a hate crime.

Or maybe it's just resisting "the herd", being edgy. Not that it's a bad thing; sometimes the herd is actually charging towards the slaughterhouse. The majority once supported the war in Iraq, but we better informed liberals knew it was a wrong move, and now we all know. But there's a difference between a rebel with a cause and one without, which leads us back to the misanthrope.

What do we do with these types? Ignore them? Fight back? There is always a time to fight and a time to walk away, but it's best to think of them as naked. (Yeah I know, gross, but context, remember.) You can't let yourself get caught in their smokescreen arguments, or you'll find yourself playing chess with a chicken. Just expose their stupidity. And it's not a low-blow ad hominem attack when it's on-topic and true, as in the case of this exchange between Kos and Tancredo.
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Conservative or *contrarian*? | 6 comments (6 topical, 0 hidden)
Yes, it's easy! (none / 0)
Who can spot the difference between a rebel without a cause:

And a rebel with a cause:


"Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious."

by opposition on 11/07/2009 10:49:02 AM EST

I think (none / 0)
I think you meant a rebel without a clue.

by marklar1 on 11/07/2009 09:03:33 PM EST

[ Parent ]
Conservative? (none / 0)
As a non-American, I'm often confounded by the use of political terms in the US. People who call themselves conservatives in the US are not seen as conservative in the rest oof the world. They are reactionary. True conservatives believe in gradual evolvement of a society, while reactionaries fight every change tooth and nail, and they are scared of the unknown.
A lot of the reactions of the Republican right resemble the reactions of the stalinists in the USSR in the 30's. As the Stalinists, these people will talk of and use revolution as a means to power, but once power is gained, nothing will change, and the power will only be used to enrich themselves and their cronies.
The Teabaggers are just their "useful idiots" as Lenin coined his unwitting helpers. 

by Zajuts149 on 11/07/2009 03:59:18 PM EST

"Reactionary". The word I needed. (none / 0)
I've been wanting to make a blog entry about that word and how our own "conservatives" aren't really conservatives.

Yeah, there's fear and loathing of the modern world here, and that leads to envy: a whole lot of people don't feel like they fit in today's reality, so they long for the past--and would have the rest of us go back with them. Part of that is a religious-based fear, that the world will only get worse until the worst comes in the form of Antichrist. (They're more Manichaean than Christian in that regard.)

I'm afraid we really are a "center-right" nation, with the Democrats dominating nationwide because the party has both a right and left wing, while the Republicans are our own Spanish Fifth Column.

by LudwigVan on 11/07/2009 08:06:00 PM EST

[ Parent ]
"Contrarian" is onto something. (none / 0)

I am coming to believe, as you do, that Conservatives must know their positions are an appalling mix of completely unprovable conspiracy theories, contradictory talking points, brattiness simply for its own sake, and blind adherance to principles that cannot be deemed sound, helpful or even self-consistent by anyone who does any thinking.  Perhaps the juvenile glee of irritating Liberals in every possible way has exploded into an entire movement whose essence is just being nihilistic jackasses for no reason other than to "punk" the country Andy Kaufman-style.

  But I think there might be an untold additional element:  this is all code.  I mentioned a few days ago that i think Republicans like having their emphatically contradictory talking points read back to them because it seperates out the evil Liberal "fact and quote police" from the True Believers.  What if that is the case with everything?  They know that the correct adjective for the last 170 years has been "Democratic Party", but they _all_ use "Democrat Party" because it is part of the code.  It is a secret handshake to the Club of the New Conservative Order.  How can a "news" network that has hired no one but Conservatives since 2007 be "fair and balanced"?  Because the term is code--no one on the Right actually believes that they give a balanced view of information.  But the Club mandates a vow of loyalty and secrecy, not unlike the Magician's Code where (almost) no one reveals how they do their tricks.

Sarah Palin is perfect for a wink and a nod from True Believer to True Believer.  Her credentials are indisputably laughable.  Her temperament makes her abjectly unelectable.  Her public persona is one of stunning flightiness, incompetence, shamelessness, vapidness and the exploitation of everyone around her.  She couldn't even accurately speak of either McCain's or her own record during her interviews in 2008, let alone speaking accurately about international issues, American civics, American history, the economy--even Alaskan issues.  And she quit.  And she was filmed in front of a turkey getting slaughtered, which is only the most unbelievable of her 35 major public embarrassments over the last 14 months.

Why do the True Believers love her more and more every day?  Because everyone else sees Palin as clear as day for what she is.  And if we are all going to see something as one way, the secret Club Code dictates that they must absolutely solemnly swear (wink) that it is the opposite.

Intelligence has long since left the Conservative movement.  But brainpower hasn't.  It is just more fun (or something) to be knowingly on the wrong side of history on every single point.  Always.  All the time.  Every single f*cking point.  (Secret handshake to the Club.)  

by Milltycoon on 11/08/2009 12:30:02 AM EST

A sense of Entitlement we are ALL prone to... (none / 0)

It shines laxidasical to me when people forget the past. Regardless of our superficial affiliations (Liberal, Conservative, Other...) I feel it is important to remember the core truth of it all. Everything was once Nothing. 

As a Republican I can undoubtedly say that I have almost never come across a person more uninformed and unadaptable than former gov. Sarah Palin. If it is outside her bubble of comfort than there is no way possible she can even try and work with it. What makes the story sad is her position within the Rep. Party and the fame she gets for acting the idiot. That is not to say she is intelligent, but when you get paid as much as she does AFTER quiting your job there's no way you are stupid. 

However, that persona is not held succinctly by only her, the Rep. Party, or the Conservative-base. A few years ago I came across a story, which I am unsure if ever got National media-service, about a Liberal lobby for the "de-racialization" ; of the Weather service; particularly regarding the naming of Hurricanes and Tropical Storms. Now whether or not there was/is racism in that system, I do not know or care, but that fact of the matter is the "fight" existed. But what the hell were the Dem's fighting for? So that the next and possibly worst Hurricane in history could be named Latoya, rather than Debby? That's insane. Just as crazy as voting for Palin was. And there is no justifying it. 

The fact of the matter is people fight for what they feel they are "entitled" to, regardless of logical or sense. The truth is, no one is entitled to anything at birth. 

We are all the same. Weak, fragile, beautiful, smart, terrible, and (most importantly) pure. Wants, desires, and material objects come later. 

If life was truly and unequivocally fair, we would all start out equal; alone, with a blank slate as a universe, and with all the same capabilities. Just like a video game.

But its not. We all start off differently; with or without parents, with or without money, with or without freedoms. We all live differently; with motivation or without, with love or without, with certain skills and talents or without. 

That is the truth. 

So to say that anyone is simply Entitled to what they get, or they Deserve what situations they are presented with, is simply absurd and derogatory. 

Pulling this back firmly into the Political realm of this thread, it is in turn just as foolish and hurtful to the Nation to say that, "Liberals" (or "Cons.") know whats right.

To use an obvious case, the War in Iraq. I did not agree with the war, nor do I agree in general with the premise. However, I also understand that the President of the United States' job is to look out for the U.S. That's it. I don't like it when my friends from Bahrain get hurt and bullied by ignorant bigots who have no idea that their home country exists. So I don't allow it in my presence without a fight (verbal or otherwise). Yet, I also know that the oil procured through the efforts of soldiers will be used to provide my descendants with easier access to gasoline (and other oil products) in the future. Any other country in the world would do the same.

Is it right (no), is it fair (hell no), but thats reality. You do not survive and thrive by waiting for someone to come and give you the keys to success. You go and make them, and along the way you take the unfairness of life and try to make things more equal.

I do not believe that Utopia will happen in my lifetime, so I plan for the next generation accordingly.

This is what I believe many, definitely not most, of those on either side of the political fence are doing. They realize that if tomorrow you just ripped down any mainstay system, without anything just as encompassing already in place, then you'd have anarchy. Imagine if you woke up tomorrow and there was NO health care system, but you needed a hospital. Go back only 150 years in history and that's what most people lived with daily.  

If you want it. Go ahead and take it. I'll join both sides in overtly using the "useful-idiots" (thanks above) to make sure that the system doesn't fail, regardless of what the nut-jobs in the Ex-wings are touting. 

 In conclusion, the "Conservatives" are just as necessary as the "Liberals" because without the unfortunate balance that comes from putting a `fiercer, if not as logical or knowledgeable` bull against a `less focused, but larger and just as self-righteous` bull, there would be nothing but one foolish animal aimlessly walking to its own eventual death. 

I welcome the fight, the debate, the unfairness. Because it makes me try everyday, and reminds me when I get lazy that I have earned nothing but what my own accomplishments have proven I own. 

As to the title I say, `We are all Contrarian. If only because our ideals cause us to continuously bicker within our own minds.`

by Rocoda on 11/09/2009 03:16:19 AM EST

[ Parent ]
Conservative or *contrarian*? | 6 comments (6 topical, 0 hidden)
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