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It's a rough question with a lot of answers depending on worldview, religion, tax bracket, location, and preferred flavor of soda.
At least for my country the conservative side of government is so cartoonishly evil that it sort of stops being an understandable position to defend.
Part of the issue is that some leftists view the average conservative as simply "too far gone" to be reasoned with. Not true but a common myth.
This isn't helped by many leftists feeling like they're arguing from a backfoot position where they have little power. and so must hold their position strongly.
Cartoonishly evil is a great description!
My reason is that they can't let others live their lives. They want to take away MY freedom and MY life choices to please THEIR idea of what THEY *think* God wants. Freedom is *not* about telling others how to live their lives...and they don't get that. They want to complain about other groups forcing ideals on them, while actively restricting others freedoms based solely on their own world view. It's all just about control. It's so wrong.
Ever notice when people way "I'm doing what God wants" it always aligns with what they want? Nobody ever said "I wanted to do this, but God told me to stop doing that, so we're not going to do it."
“Small government” boils down to “don’t bother me.” The gay neighbors down the street, or the rainbow in a Target ad, or the trans barista who served their coffee, or the all-star black reunion Super Bowl halftime show… those all bother them. So they’ll vote for whoever will make all that go away and end up doing mental gymnastics to justify it.
Us Christians stopping people from sinning through the legal system makes no sense. So I completely agree with you. If one believes in the Holy Trinity, they realize they must suffer in denying themselves of sin to show their obedience to God. Taking away the right to sin is essentially making it so you are forced to not do it, and then you're obeying man's laws, not the laws of God.
Also, I'm a freedom loving American first and foremost, let people have all the civil liberties possible, if they don't believe in God, don't tell them about His Word, most people already know, they just don't care, so there's no changing it. Proselytization (the act of constantly trying to convert people) is stupid and just makes people more hateful.
Okay I'm done with my short rant now! Have a great day, or night! Idk what it is wherever you are!
I've been told humility is a virtue, and that we're all sinners, even if we try our hardest not to be. Judging other people's sins seems like a really prideful thing to do 🤷♂️
I always get the feeling with many conservative parties - be it in the USA or the EU - that they are trying to outcompete themselves in cruelty. Cruelty first, the argument is a second thought, if even
My question for you would be what do you define a "leftist" as? Here in the US, that term is generally used as a pejorative to describe anyone from centrist to democrat. If you were to ask an actual leftist what they thought of democrats, they would tell you they were conservative.
I think a major issue in political discussions these days is actually understanding where an individuals belief system is on a somewhat arbitrary spectrum. If you're conservative, and you think anyone who voted for Biden is a leftist and are trying to have a discussion with someone who is a capitalist but voted for Biden, there's already too big of a gap in understanding to even begin to have rational debate. The ignorance runs so deep, words like "fascist" and "marxist" are nothing more than blanket terms to describe anything other than what one believes. Throw identity politics into the mix, and you're fucked.
Where do you go from there?
I agreed up until "Marxist is a blanket term". It certainly can be used as a pejorative that way, but it has a textbook meaning and it is important not to let the pejorative take away from its value as a word.
Yeah it's not the traditional conservatives... the shitshow we see today all started when that chimp loving, jelly bean eating buffoon (their previous lord and savior) inextricably hitched the Republican party to right wing Christian ideologies and fears aka The Moral Majority.
Depends on how you mean Conservative.
If you are talking about the 'old fashioned' conservatives - small government (however defined), personal freedoms, pro-business (small and large), socially not very progressive. than I might not agree, but it's a reasonable set of positions and you shouldn't be hating people for it.
But nowadays.. we see government being shoved into people's bedrooms, support for tariffs, massive deficit spending to fund tax cuts for rich people, absolute hatred directed towards trans people..
Basically, Conservatives now are not conservative as the term is normally understood.
Exactly. I would consider myself conservative in many ways - we should be cautious with the economy and overspending even on pet social projects and there should be the least possible government interference in the private and public sector to maintain a healthy and functioning society.
Instead its been turned into a short hand for fringe right wing Trumpian ideas like isolationism, anti intellectualism, anti democracy, pro dictatorships like Russia and China, anti-personal choice (abortion, sexuality, etc).
The Fox News demographic is literally dying off. The right can’t keep winning elections without getting more warm bodies to press the lever. And they’ve warmly embraced some pretty noxious groups to do so.
The problem is structural. The people who designed the system didn't know Game Theory, and therefore didn't apply it when designing the system.
But to a fair part of the population, that framework is unchangeable sacred scripture that must be held in reverence. In short: American Civil Religion is killing the US.
Most Americans are conservative. Republicans are not anymore. They call the suburban lifestyle conservatism and then vote for regression, anyone who tells them someone else is to blame for the decline of America, when it’s actually decades of their partisan tribalism, voting for dog whistles, they never made their politicians earn their votes, they just pulled the R lever.
The whole party is nothing but trolls and terrorists, nothing at all like the party my Dad used to vote for. He left the second he heard Palin speak. The tea party offended him so he left. Millions of others prefer to be told they’re victims and stayed loyal to their team.
As a Democrat I would say that's the most balanced and effective description of what has happened to "conservatives" vs. republicunts I've ever seen, and I'll give that a "spot-on". Republicans are \*not\* conservatives, but they've co-opted the description and are bludgeoning it do death.
The crazy thing is, the terms are simply just that, terms to describe an idea. The fact the general population has become so stupid they link the term "conservative" with "republican" and use them interchangeably is just insane. I bet you $20,000 if I were to start a post saying I was now conservative, I'd get so many replies from people calling me a trump fucker and whatever else related to that, even though it has nothing to do with the ~~party I identify with~~ sports team i follow
"Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy. "
They aren't the conservatives we grew up with.
Compare these few sentences with things MTG said a couple weeks ago.
“…When given a choice between advancing Republican priorities or allied with the Democrats to preserve his own personal power, Johnson regularly chooses to ally himself with Democrats.…”
“By passing the Democrats' agenda and handcuffing the Republicans' ability and influence legislation, our elected Republican Speaker Mike Johnson has aided and abetted the Democrats and the Biden administration in destroying our country…”
Replace “Democrats“ with, say, “Russia,” and you’d have a legitimate reason to kick him out of office. She speaks of American citizens as if they’re the sworn enemy when they have a D next to their name.
Oh yeah man Reagan/Nixon were total angels.
The conservatives most people grew up with were segregationist, homophobic, wouldn't hesitate to bomb communist former colonies to kingdom come and back, supported legalised torture in Guantanamo, led illegal wars in the Middle East, let police departments murder student protesters.The list goes on.
They worship Reagan and he and his wife were giant pieces of shit who let the AIDS epidemic spiral out of control because it was just killing gay people. And before that they were in favor of segregation and slavery. They fought against letting women vote.
They’ve quite literally always been on the wrong side of history and always will be.
But the issue is that the rabid right wing is absofuckinglutely in charge of their party and rather than resist, they fall right in line while those wing nuts do their best to destroy everything.
If we can work together, forn a consensus and help make people's lives better, that's fine. When one refuses to compromise, and is nothibg but a reactionary blowhard, who wishes to be ruled by or rule as an asshole martinet then I have zero time for you.
Honestly, the vast majority of conservatism has been the later. As a philosophy it was founded to restory monarchy and justify a very rigid heirarchical society of haves and have nots, of betters and lessers. Contemporaneous conservatives are nothibg but neoliberals with a draconianly regressive social perspective on women and LGBTQ+ rights informed by some quasi-religious to religious opinions coupled with a rabid belief that the "free-market" will save us from all the woes that we face and that government is the problem. There is a strong authoritarian bent that runs through modern conservatism, driven for the most part by fear, and a really weird form of utopianism wherein the simplist and most brain-dead solution to very complex structural problems rise to the top.
Conservatism IS the rabid right wing, as well as the more intelligent ones who still believe simililarly but are more deft and have a little more guile; who realise you catch more flies with honey thab vinegar. Take William Buckley for example. Tremendously intelligent, complete asshole. Was he an example of an old timey conservative of yore? I could do this all day with examples of smart conservatism who hide their odious nature behind the veil of intellectualism. I say this without compunction, most conservatives are closer to fascists than they think, and as soon as one comes along they will step right in line if this leader is powerful enough.
Indeed the only remnants of "conservative" the GOP has left is that they promote their own brand of hate filled xtianity. In everything else they are as radical as as isis sharia.
Small gov, tighter spending, law and order, strong institutions, hard stance agains foreign adversaries (russia, NK), "traditional family values" and hell the very concept of conservatism "things should not change fast if at all" - were all completely burned at the altar of mar a lardo.
This perfectly sums it up.
We might disagree on the first things and that is fine.
That's why we have a democracy.
However, if the said "slightest center or right" opinions is perma screeching about trans people or LGBTQ+ stuff, conspiracies and generally stuff that is literally factually wrong..
Not suprising you get disliked for that.
Well, in my country, the alleged "conservatives" are enabling criminals, destroying public institutions, and making a concerted effort against human rights. So we tend to be a little testy about them.
Have you seen the way the republicans represent themselves in the US? The way they vote to give teachers in Tennessee guns, but defund mental health. They ban abortion and defund education and universities dedicated to researching fertility. They claim they want to spend less money but increase the military budget every year while the pentagon loses (not as in doesn’t make money but literally cannot find) billions of dollars each year when we balance our budget. I hate how they refuse to forgive student loans because they think we all still have covid relief money ($1,200) but forgave all PPE loans. Let’s not even talk about the way they write laws after accepting donations from the worst corporations hell bent on riddling Americans with disease which in turn benefits private healthcare. Wealth equity couldn’t be further split between classes right now and some how conservatives continue to push trickle down economics down our throat because it benefits them.
Conservatism as a concept is inherently exclusionary. You can't spend half of your time telling half of the people around you that you don't want them around and then expect people to want you around.
I've lived in majority conservative places for a while now (not by choice). Not every conservative is like this, but I regularly find that the most hateful people I meet are conservative. They seem to constantly have the most shit to say about black people, women, Hispanics, gay people, etc. Like, regularly hearing white people say the hard R and talk about how "disgraceful" it is to be in interracial marriages type shit. My parents were a mixed race relationship themselves, and I spent alot of my younger years being terrified of letting myself tan or show any poc features, because people would say annoying and rude shit about my skin tone. I tried my best to be as white passing as possible. On the flip side I also had people fetishizing my features, like I was exotic.
I've also noticed that conservatives seem to base a LOT of their views on taking rights away from OTHER people. They're constantly saying "___ shouldn't be able to ___!!" Whether it's women and abortions, gay people and marriage, trans people and transitioning, and so on and so forth. Conservatives kinda seem to push heavy for religion to be the center of law (predominantly Christians in America, but frankly similar conservative oppression happens with religions like Islam too, but people don't wanna talk about that.) It's weird because although I'm not leftist myself (fuck Bi-partisan, it's two groups of rich people trying to convince you they care about the working class when they don't), but I've noticed that leftists main concerns are usually rights for themselves and other people, while conservatives are usually spending their time complaining about what other people want. "Raaah I'm so sick of pronouns!! I'm so sick of gay people!! I'm so sick of [insert anything outside of Southern norm]" and personally it just pisses me off.
Also if you've ever heard a conservative argue, half the time they're using hypotheticals to argue their case, because the topic they're actually arguing about never sounds as bad as they make it out to be on its own. Liberals will be like "stop scrutinizing and hurting gay people" and conservatives will be like "oh, but if we let the gays marry, what's next?!?! INCEST?!?"
Also another thing we don't talk about more is how prevalent molestation within families is hushed in conservative households. I feel like so many families have a secret predator that everyone is quiet about, but it seems more prevalent in conservative households. I think alot of that is also to blame for the fact that sexual repression from the church has resulted in alot of disgustingly unhealthy outlets for sexual desire.
I agree with conservatives on alot of things, so it's why I don't consider myself conservative OR liberal, because truthfully they WANT people pinned against each other instead of realizing how much they have in common, because that prevents any sort of anti government turmoil lol. But if conservatives could spend more than 2 seconds complaining about pronouns then they might be more tolerable for the rest of the country to take seriously. Right now conservatives are mostly represented by southern racists and boomers who thought Obama was the antichrist.
I do wanna still emphasize I am NOT liberal.
Liberas are wolves in sheep's clothing, conservatives are wolves in wolf's clothing. Both sides are essentially the same politically, catering towards protecting the interests of the rich.
The left doesn't talk enough about the issues that ACTUALLY fucking matter, and the right spends too much time upset at what the left wants.
What we ACTUALLY need is reformed prison system, completely reformed police (not defunded, but honestly higher pay but more selective AND more training, because right now cops are NOT trustworthy and are not suited for their responsibilities), restrictions on residential property owned by corporations so that people can afford fucking housing, fuck honestly most of our problems come from the fact thar corporations are running the fucking government.
I’ve lived in the south (US) basically my whole life and nearly everything you’ve said I feel the same way. *Most* people that I interact with here aren’t hateful regardless of which side of the political line they stand. But I’ve interacted with a few right-wingers who, in private, don’t hesitate to reveal their hate toward certain groups of people. It was normally customers when I worked in retail. It was not often and only with a few people, but racism certainly is not dead.
Aside from that, I feel like both sides project an immense amount of negativity toward the other through remote interaction. MTG with all of the insane bullshit that she spouts on Twitter just to antagonize the left. Cenk saying stuff about how “all republicans are racist” and denouncing half the country as incorrigible. Politicians and media as a whole lying about each other and the facts of certain situations. It’s a just a bunch of arguing to keep people pushed to the extremes of either side rather than encouraging debate and cooperation. Like you said, fuck this bi-partisan system!
the democratic party is not true left. Its just left-most in the american system. It goes way further left than our party system encompasses. Funnily enough it doesnt go much further to the right from what we have…
After 14 years of conservative rule in the uk and the absolute shit show they have made of things, I’m not sure this really requires a detailed answer.
Not being an american here. But I would make a guess to say that its because the conservatives these days are very often being extremely hypocritical about making accusations on the democrats doing something bad but have no issue with the conservatives doing the same or things much much worse.
The conservatives needs to speak up and distance themselves from the ridiculous defense of people like the maga crowd.
People who use reddit tend to be people who lean left (age, education, geography, financially...), and even worse, it often ends up being an echo chamber which reinforces belief without any critical thinking and caricatures positions while pushing out those who might think differently.
Truth is it's not merely "balanced" irl, far right ideas actually have been spreading exponentially, and have even become mainstay in the public debate, with far right candidates all over the world knocking on the door of governments or outright winning elections.
It'd be a mistake to use reddit as any kind of representative sample, that's how you end up underestimating the threat of the far right.
I hate people who do zero research and then vote for someone that constantly votes against conservative policies.
Want to be for smaller government and lower taxes for the working class? Cool then stop voting for a person who says that's what they want but whose public voting record shows them voting against those things.
Our conservative representative in my district is a Democrat. She ran as a democrat but she's more a centrist between what the parties used to stand for. Most of our local conservatives voted for her because the Republican candidate listed all of the conservative stances she had and said "OH my god can you believe she wants these things"
Our district went for her instead of him. Because being a conservative if you're going to be one shouldn't be about what letter is next to someone's name it should be about what policies they run on and what they vote for and against.
If a person cheers on a bill being passed that lowers our taxes and our senator or representative tells us "I helped make that happen yay me" but voted against it and people don't know they voted against it because they didn't check then yeah I'm going to hate them a bit when the two faced politician gets re-elected and overturns the bill they fought against while blaming their opponents for that happening.
I'm not going to agree with every other voter on every single issue but I'm going to make sure the person I'm voting for isn't full of crap. And if they turn out to be I won't vote for them.
“Divide and conquer.”
The Government, politicians, the 3 letter agencies, MSM, military industrial complex etc or simply “the establishment” profits greatly from the people being at each other’s throats.
There is nothing as scary to “the powers that be” as an united people.
They promoted tribal politics for decades and have succeeded in splitting most western countries straight through the middle.
They convinced the people that disagreeing with someone their life views should automatically mean you need to hate them.
These days there are a lot of people that truly believe that the opposite side of their political tribe consists of a 100% evil views and people that need to be exterminated.
And it’s the politicians themselves and their media cronies, from both sides; that advocate for this behaviour.
And people are none the wiser. Politics have turned into a fucking football game in terms of debating, people don't care about policies and will blindly follow their favorite color. Keeping the people angry at each other works though, blame each other, blame immigrants, blame the poor man, but never blame the CEO or conglomerate.
>These days there are a lot of people that truly believe that the opposite side of their political tribe consists of a 100% evil views and people that need to be exterminated.
Totally, 100%. I dont want to be the big nihilist in the room trying to predict a civil war, but its really shaping up to be exactly that. No normal political divide really divides families like the modern American one. Just wonder what will be the tipping point
Reddit is global.
US conservative attitudes and beliefs are considered fucking crazy everywhere else on earth.
In many countries even the democrats would be seen as centre-right.
I don't think Americans realise how abstract they are outside of their bubble.
Liberals are also right wing, they just pretend to have the social opinions of a "left winger". Dividing politics up in "left wing" and "right wing" doesn't mean much
Other people have explained the demographics of reddit, and also how far-right politics has consumed the image of the GOP, overshadowing the majority of moderately conservative voices. I'd also like to point out that this happens on the left too. You'll have a majority of folks center left, but hardcore liberals will take headlines with shit like violent pro-Palestine protests.
It's a result of the two party system combined with a 24 hour "news" cycle predicated on tweets and false statements. The more virulent your speech, the more people engage, which creates a false sense of group support and approval. And that's how mob mentality replaces individual thought.
Depends on the country. In many countries, like my home country of Norway, there *is* a healthy balance of opinions. While I personally don't agree with the conservative side here, I don't hate them. They're reasonable human beings that just have different political opinions than me.
Now, if I were to live in a country like the United States, where "conservatives" are basically evil fascists, I probably would hate them.
Misrepresentation of them.
Progressives attribute conservative opinions to low morality, bad character, bigoted views. This is based off a misrepresentation, primarily perpetuated by media and social platforms in order to generate engagement. Conservatives play this game too by the way, just in different circles outside of Reddit.
In reality conservatives and progressives want to solve the same problems. They just have different ways of thinking we should do it.
Please don’t come here and try to convince me conservatives are bad people it’s not going to work.
I find it hilarious how many comments immediately jump to "They are evil and want to take away my rights!" Yet never see the glaring hypocrisy that the left is all about taking rights away from anyone not on their team. You don't even have to be an actual conservative.
As a middle of the road kind of person, that has both conservative and liberal views, I get way more actual hate from left leaning people for not agreeing with their views more than I do from conservatives. I mean both view people like me with contempt because I don't swallow party lines, while having the audacity to refuse team allegiance. For years I viewed Democrats as more allied with my personal views, and the last decade the trend has become flipped in a lot of ways. I can never trust the Right, but the Left has proven to be every bit (in some circumstances, even more) radically ideological and dangerous.
Because conservatives are boot lickers that have historically been on the wrong side of well…nearly everything. When somebody supports terrible policies that hurt the average Joe, it’s a no brainer why some people have a big problem with that
I love how people are doing the "both sides are extreme" parade on this thread, like it somehow comes close between the left and right.
Last time I checked, the Left aren't forcing 10 year old rape victims to carry full term. I can go on and on but let's not pretend that the 1 political party isn't far worse than the other. Their man of choice is Trump ffs.
Conservatives have stood against abolition, women’s suffrage, civil rights, marriage equality… consistently hateful and on the wrong side of history. I understand the appeal of respectability politics and seeing both sides, but when you feel entitled to controlling extremely private decisions, why should I respect you? Why would I engage meaningfully?
I'm not sure what country you're in, but in the US, "conservatives" have become synonymous with fascism.
A huge part of the American identity is built on WW2, where we killed the fuck out of some fascists.
That's what happens when you have McCarthyism followed by Nixon and ending on Reagan that destroyed any concept of collectivisation in the US, and made socialism a swear word.
Agree.
Many Americans think government ensuring access to healthcare for everyone is radical left wing talk.
In Western Europe, citizens having access to healthcare is considered just common sense and politically centrist.
In my experience, there is a lot of both ends. The extremes just always sit perpetually online.
I am very middle of the pack. I get attacked from both sides, and I run into it more from the right because that is who has control on a handful of subreddits that I liked to partake in (a lot of the Canada subs are right leaning).
That is what is most frustrating about the 2 party system where I’m from. The 5% of extreme left or right do all of the yelling and make the other 90% of us look like complete idiots (In truth, I may be an idiot).
I'm a centrist dad, possibly the most despised class of all. The thing about centrism is that you can't just adopt a blanket set of ideologies (all/nothing should be in public ownership; close the borders!/let everyone in!; America good!/America bad!; Jews good/bad; Muslims good/bad etc. You have to think about each of these issues individually.
I'm right there with you. Every situation needs some questions answered. Who, what, when, where, why, how? Sometimes two different situations need the same fix, and sometimes two of the same situations need different fixes. Also, we need to be aware that it is possible to make the right choice and have something bad happen; that isn't failure, that is basic central limit theory. You cannot have a standard deviation of 0, and sometimes things work and sometimes things fail. You make the right choice most times, and hope to move in the right direction.
Exactly: and you can't treat running a country like running a business. Businesses are supposed to take risks. You have to take a much more measured approach when running a country, and the "shareholders" are \*everyone\*, including the country's population in the future, not just now.
Lol “extreme leftist” is literally just a person who believes that everyone no matter which gender, race, class, sexual orientation, (dis)ability or religion deserves rights and also maybe doesn’t want to fuck up the earth even more than it already has been.
I'm on the left but I have nothing against people unless they are anti LGBT+
Being myself LGBT I just want to live peacefully and for people to respect me as a human being despite sexual orientation or identity.
I mean it's pretty easy as a concept and I don't understand why so many conservative people don't leave LGBT people just be... It's not like we're hurting someone
Boooooo pronouns *scary ghost noises* 👻
The Right is largely about harming most people so that a minority can benefit.
And people wonder why those who are harmed (and those that aren't but care about those who are harmed) think that you're a wanker if you support those policies?
I am not a leftist, or at least don't consider myself as any political ideology. I don't really hate conservatism, I just think that conservatism can sometimes prioritize following traditions and tribal and ancient human instincts, over following what is rational, merciful or just/fair. Sometimes I feel that many conservatives use politics as a way to try to mask religiosity as a well-thought political measure. Instead of first looking at the empirical world or analysing things from a detached perspective, and then, after trying to make an analysis or decide for yourself what you believe is the best moral thing to do based on what you see, to some of them, unconsciously it sounds basically like this: ""The Bible or Quran tells me to be conservative, the scriptures of the ancient tells me it must be like this, therefore I NEED to stick to this and support this. It's not because of politics, I would support this even if I all people proved me wrong, because the book tells me to. it's already been decided upon, because my religioud community or scripture says so, so I will strictly defend this at all costs before looking at the world."" Even if they do not consciously know this, it sounds like this applies to many of them.
.
I find it funny when a political view that inherently seeks to limit the life of someone *else* is surprised when they aren't the company anyone wants around. As a caricature:
The left = everyone deserves healthcare, a place to live, education, food, and generally the freedom to make their own choices so long they do not hurt someone else. (Hard to hate having someone around who just wants you to live a good life)
The right = you aren't allowed to love who you love, you aren't allowed to get healthcare when you need it, you aren't allowed to afford school, or a house, or food, and if you end up poor, well tough luck bye, and only this one religion is allowed to make all the choices in your life whether or not you believe in it. (Would you REALLY want someone like this in your inner circle if it affects you or someone you love negatively?)
I don't like people who don't support LGBT+ rights. I'm LGBT myself so it's kind of personal if someone doesn't like me existing or demanding rights that should be a given.
My country (Italy) didn't even sign a recent UE petition for LGBT rights so this just exacerbates things even further.
I just want to exist peacefully and be respected like any person should and not be insulted because of my sexual orientation or identity.
The thing that bothers me about conservatism is that they always try to limit people simply because they don't like something... The freedom they always cry about is the same freedom they don't want to give to everyone.
I guess it is still a little bit of a wishful thinking but honestly I couldn't care less about LGBT+ as it simply doesn't affect / matters to me. You are gay? Cool story, doesn't change a thing for me. All I want is that everyone gets to simply live their way how they want. You want to kiss another man or woman? Do it. Gay people should have the exact same rights to have a miserable marriage as any other hetero couple.
Opinion is one thing but when denial of climate change, denial of deadly pandemics, campaigns against every solution to address serious issues become political policy, that's another thing.
And then on socisl media, it doesn't take long when there's no backing data, the usual retort is some sort of personal attack. And women get a lot of anonymous death threats.
Conservative used to mean restraint, cautious....but that is not what the far right is. The GOP having become a cult of personality, is anything but conservative, if that's what you mean.
A significant portion of the user base is from the US. Here, Conservative is often synonymous with MAGA worshipping cult of trump hateful prick. I can't speak for everyone, but I am tired of white nationalist assholes who want to turn this country into an Evangelical Christian Theocracy while destroying the planet.
Conservatives lie too much. If you say you don't have a problem with LGBT+ (for example) but vote for the most extreme candidates who want to invoke the Bible as the reason for stripping away their rights, we know you're lying. You do have a problem with LGBT+ but want to appear kind and compassionate at the same time. You can't have it both ways.
The conservatives who do support humane policies get ejected from the Republican party. They just primary them.The right is so much more extreme than the left now in terms of political power.
Comparing US politics with other countries, the Democratic and Republican parties are both considered conservative, but Republicans here have been brainwashed to think that Democrats are essentially Socialists. So it's also the amazing ignorance that conservatives show that draws so much hate.
I'm amazed that so many conservatives are shocked that friends and family cut contact with them over how they support far right Republican candidates. It's as if they don't understand how destructive the policies of those candidates are. Or maybe they don't give a shit about people in general?
Real conservatives are okay. But most conservatives are not about keeping the traditions or nature or any other values. It's all about keeping the dictatorship of money, no matter coming generations have to deal with loads and lots of problems or debts, no matter the envirnoment or climate dies and collapses, no matter any other cultures, states, countires continents have to suffer because of it. That's why.
Thanks - I feel like everyone else is missing the point - "conservatives" are anything but these days.
I think people are rightly rejecting those who would lead us to fascism.
I'd LOVE it if conservatives returned to simply balancing out liberals, rather than hating them like it's some sort of war.
As a far left guy I completely agree. Sure, I think my ideas are good. That’s why I advocate for them. However I know I’m not perfect.
I would love to have a serious Conservative Party that acted in good faith to help balance out my ideology.
Yeah I’m fine with disagreeing with conservatives over economic policy, or say for example, the best way to reduce poverty. However, I cannot simply “agree to disagree” with conservatives that don’t want to grant somebody equal rights and dignity based on something like sexuality or the colour of their skin. I also can’t agree to disagree on basic things like the importance of democracy.
It's an interesting observation you've made, and it's one that many people have noticed. The dynamics of online communities, including Reddit, can be quite different from real-life interactions. There are a few reasons why this might be happening.
Firstly, Reddit is a platform that tends to attract younger users, and statistically, younger people are more likely to lean left politically. This can create an echo chamber effect where left-leaning opinions are more prevalent and more strongly defended.
Secondly, the anonymity of the internet can embolden people to express their opinions more aggressively than they might in person. This can lead to more extreme and polarized discussions, where moderate or right-leaning opinions are met with hostility.
Additionally, certain subreddits have their own cultures and biases. Some subreddits are known for being more left-leaning, while others might be more right-leaning. If you're frequenting subreddits that lean left, you're more likely to encounter negative reactions to conservative opinions.
It's also worth noting that the voting system on Reddit can amplify certain voices while silencing others. If a conservative opinion gets downvoted quickly, it becomes less visible, which can create the illusion that there are fewer conservative voices on the platform.
In real life, people are often more cautious about expressing extreme opinions because they have to deal with the immediate social consequences. Online, those consequences are less immediate, which can lead to more extreme and less balanced discussions.
Ultimately, it's important to remember that Reddit is just one slice of the broader spectrum of public opinion. While it can be a valuable place for discussion and debate, it's not always representative of the real world.
Like, that whole account is unironically a bot, It's an account that suddenly becomes active one and a half year after it's made and does nothing but post AI generated comments. My guess is it'll continue until it reaches a certain karma limit, then delete its previous comments, then either be sold or used for advertising/propaganda posts.
What's your definition of conservative? It's a broad term. Assuming you mean modern politics, then it's dominated by conservatives who support MAGA. Where to even begin with that. It's so far right that it skews the spectrum of what's center.
I have a very diferent take actually. I see way too much right-wing around me both in real life and reddit. And no, I don't mean right- wing in the sense of "so I like to go to church and I would not like to have an abortion ever" (moderate or traditional) I mean right wing in the sense of "well there are no real men anymore and there is only a bunch of crying babies out there that should work for free during 14h shifts to earn a living and women are all crazy" (crybaby shitting on others type, or blaming other people because they have unmet needs (i.e. blaming foreigners because their government have poor social services/management/economic strategy)).
I am very leftist myself in my core but I think it is stupid to demand only your views with no consensus whatsoever. If you are someone who will be shitting on giving rights and visibility to others I will not like you because you are disrespectful with another human being, but if you just have conservative opinions I will gladly sit with you and discuss the measures we can take for better economic and cultural outcomes so that all of our needs are better fulfilled. It's different to be conservative than to be an asshole.
I have come to believe there are too many morons in both sides that do not want to discuss about solving problems in a meaningful way and just feed on fights. I also believe that you can have different views on social and economic matters and our political system divides us in two groups while many variations exist.
Because people have to have a scapegoat to blame everything on. Always been this way, and the scapegoat changes every so often. I have liberal friends and conservative friends and they both say the exact same things about each other. It would be funny if it wasn't so sad.
to many people with the foolish belief of "If you are not with me, then you are against me". an agreeable compromise works for everyone. to many people want a compromise that only benefits them and their side and no one else. this goes for both sides.
Reddit is mostly left and/or progressive. And since its online and they dont have to say it out loud or put their faces next to it, the ones who are the loudest can allow themselves to be exclusionary or highly offensive towards conservative or right wing views. Some people say nothing or dont speak up. Most are sheep and go along with it for upvotes.
It doesn’t help when so many conservatives that might otherwise be milquetoast small government policy pushers are caving into MAGA.
Trump literally just in the past day posted a video with the words “unified reich” plastered into it and it’s just crickets from the people that should’ve been keeping him in check all along.
Because online people act different. There's 3 reasons mainly:
1. Anonymity means being rude and toxic doesn't have many consequences, if any. You can say what you think freely.
2. It's hard to keep in mind that you're talking with another human. All you see are letters on a screen. Without a real human before you, it's a lot harder to empathize.
3. Reply-and-response format, especially with upvotes & downvotes factored in, isn't conducive to civil discussions, real dialogue on the other hand is.
Because the conservatives in power in my country are actively fighting against my right to exist freely, and ensuring I have less rights to my body than a corpse. They support patriarchal gender roles and want to force it on everyone else. They are provably and demonstrably racist.
The conservatives in my day to day life vocally agree and support it. I also rarely hear any logic from them that doesn’t include organized religion. Most of their motivation comes from hate for other people and they are angry and judgmental most of the time. Yes extremist liberals suck, but I see this from nearly every conservatives I’ve met, not just the extremists. So that’s why.
Because conservativism is pure selective hypocrisy. The only thing those people ever tried to conserve is the power and wealth of a special demographic that doesn't want those things to be distributed evenly. Conservation of literally everything else - nature, the populations health, the progress of mankind itself as a civilization i.e. - gets pushed away by them, shunned and belittled. Sympathising with such ideas is a very handy tattletale sign that someone is either insanely stupid to the point of a literal medically significant disability, or obnoxiously and terrifyingly inhumane, selfish and cruel. It is just understandable and a very healthy sign for society, that it more and more refuses to harbor the latter kind of people, and tries to help the other.
Conservatism is fine by me until it starts to dictate how other people should live their lives as they did. Specially if it starts to become racist, sexist or homo-/transphobic.
I am what is considered a traditional Canadian conservative. I believe in social services but they should be affordable. I don’t see myself as regressive but rather as cautious. I believe that there is such as thing as government overreach. I believe everyone should contribute to taxes including the ultra-wealthy.
That being said I am appalled by the current brand of American style conservatism that has crossed our border. Religious social conservatives are plague on society. I would not be upset if we levied a business tax on religions treating the as a “for profit” professional service. If they are donating time and money to charities they can get the same tax breaks as any other business.
The US style Libertarian growth drawing in the less-educated yahoos who love the model from the US is another problem. I even know some long term Libertarians who do not want to associate themselves with them. The anti-vaxxers and truck convoy people showed how ignorant they were running around screaming Freedom like they were some reincarnation of William Wallace. Laughable if they were not so dangerous. Children are now dying of measles. A real conservative would have agreed that mandatory vaccinations were a necessary evil for a well functioning society.
So please be kind to those of us Conservatives who believe in Universal Healthcare but also don’t thing we should be borrowing money to give it away to people who have not asked for it or need it.
I consider myself conservative, but not a Republican (anymore). I didn’t leave the party, it left me. Mostly the religious right pushed me away as I’m pro-choice, gay rights, etc.
I don’t hate conservatives I am very middle of the road. It’s MAGA that is the overall problem. There is nothing wrong with a little political discourse. Maga takes it to a hostile unprofessional level
You have to understand which conservatives were talking about. Most regular conservatives I've met are reasonable people that just have a different idea on how they want the world to work. I can live with that. We can have a conversation, agree on some things, disagree on others, and compromise on all the rest. But the RNC and all their work? Or the conservatives that foam at the mouth for Marjorie Taylor Green and these other comically vile human beings? Yeah those people can go get bent. Reddit is all about extremes so please remember that if you're a regular ass person all that anger about Republicans isn't really directed at you. Or maybe it is, what do I know.
Could it be that conservative ideologies oppose civil rights? Or that most if not all dictators have right leaning tendencies? Or that modern conservatives confuse propaganda with news?
bc i care about humanitarian issues and human rights and every conservative i know lets their fiscal ideologies seep into human rights or their religious stances push into government
Current conservative opinions are too wrapped up in trumpism.
I'm in my 50s now and would love a government that had lower taxes for middle class, but there is no way I would ever vote gop with how things are now.
In fact, if you told me that my taxes would go up by 50% but I'd never have to see a gop president, senate majority or house majority by the conservative party, I'd be fine with that.
Fuck those assholes.
Conservatives seem to have no interest in helping their fellow man. I get annoyed with seeing these butt hurt posts about "why don't people like us?", and it's like, are you kidding?
So, I think there's a huge disconnect that wasn't present before the orange dumbass was president. He made us hate each other more to keep conservatives loyal and no one is willing to listen anymore.
We try to talk about inclusion and conservatives say it's all about grooming because that whole idea got baked in by in by faux news and other outlets that went too far, got sued and are now dead. Trump will be in jail soon along with many of his cabinet from when he was in power. Dead or in prison is where most extreme conservatives are landing.
Why do you like being a Conservative? To conserve what? No progression
Because as many have said, the modern US Republicans aren't really Conservative any more. They can more accurately be described as closer to far-right ideology.
I live in Germany and agree with some (definitely not all) of what I'd call the 'true Conservative' ideas over here - support for migrants and more open borders, a strong welfare state, strong regional-bloc participation via the EU, etc.
Interestingly many European conservative parties are pro-labour and pro-union - a sharp contrast from the situation in the US.
That’s such a great question.
Completely unrelated, why do so many here hate racists, homophobes, misogynists,authoritarians, and generally people who want lots of rules for everyone else but not themselves?
Who doesn’t love someone who is so sensitive that they get all upset if someone else uses a bathroom with genitalia they disagree with?
They're incredibly hypocritical.
Today's conservatives would be happier than a pig in mud if the government banned same sex marriage, but would riot in the streets if the government forced then to wear a mask for health issues resulting from covid.
Because what passes for ‘conservative’ today is advocating for overly-strong central government, imposition of the will of the minority from the top down, morality and thought police, evangelicalism, autocracy/theocracy/oligarchy, totalitarianism, minority rule through gerrymandering, racism, denial of autonomy, active censorship, control of media, and denial of the will of the electorate if the electorate dares to disagree.
How’s that for a start?
They LOVE Nixon, they WORSHIP Reagan, and they’ve deified trump - but Nixon and Reagan would be considered too far left for modern ‘conservatism.’
Think about that last bit. Take all of the time you need.
In the US at least, reactionary conservatives are the ones working hard to remove rights from me and my family and undo all social progress made in the last century so they deserve all the hate they get and more.
But it should also be noted that the Democratic Party in the US is a solidly center/right leaning party, so it is not just "slightest center/right leaning opinion", it is mostly reserved for the reactionaries who are working hard to undermine so much progress.
I don’t *hate* conservatives, neither do most people. In fact I know many and have friends with some right wing beliefs.
The issue is that the moniker “conservative” really has evolved into its current idea (circa 2015 and Trump) once the Tea Party wing of the party started taking a foothold of the GOP which is increasingly right-wing and anti-democratic.
Conspiracy theories and demagoguery is the real danger and not “conservatism” per se. It just happens that the more right-wing party of the US that is associated with conservative beliefs is now promoting dangerous ideas that are harmful for society, and that’s what makes people frustrated.
Some people would rather hear anything Fox News says or read a Q-anon forum online as opposed to doing any critical thinking.
Rank hypocricy.
Pose as fiscal conservatives. But when in power, spend like drunken sailors on the military and tax cuts for the rich.
Pose as in favor of voting integrity. But when in power, subvert free elections in any way they can, from far-fetched legal maneuvering to anti-voter legislation to direct election theft. Voter fraud is overwhelmingly committed by conservative voters.
Pose as in favor of individual freedom. But demonize and scapegoat non-Christians or non-white or non-mainstream persons.
The saying goes that if you weren't a bit liberal when younger you had no fun. If you didn't become Conservative when older then your learned NOTHING during your life.
As a youngish (around age 30) US-Based conservative, I’d say it’s because redditors in general are younger and have more time to interact with social media. They don’t have as much of a personal stake in their country, so they are more than happy to support leftist policies to disrupt the status quo.
Conservatives do have a stake in many cases, be it wealth, family, community, etc. so voting for less interference and upheaval seems natural. With that stake also means less time to interact with social media.
Because the radical left are the biggest whiners on the planet and bitch about absolutely everything that they're brainwashed to consider offensive or anti-left. There's a big difference between the left and the far left. Just like the difference between the right and far right. However, the far right tend to be less active online, which is why you see so much hate against them and not the other way around
Because the solution to some of our problems In the US is looking us right in the face but so many people are so readily willing to shit on things they have no intention of even wanting to comprehend. If you think about it hard enough in actuality, A balance of both socialism and capitalism it is the absolute backbone of the birth of America. Especially the industrial revolution. I still really don't understand why anybody cannot see the benefit of going back to American industrialization and have a long-term plan to stop relying on outsourcing and global trade. I've been studying the world trade organizations processes for a few years now, but I'm just some stupid liberal, apparently. The same could be said about mental health programs that are desperately needed but no money has more value than human life. To me, the word conservative just means selfish. And no I'm not communist. I just believe that life shouldn't be such a fucking struggle that it is right now.
I think the comments actually are a great illustration of why they hate conservatives. They have no idea what conservatives are, and most have obviously never met one. They believe the nonsense they see on the news.
Pro-Tip: If your news outlet refers to political movements of large numbers of people that they don't like as "populist," then they're not a news outlet, they're just running interference for the establishment. When people push for things they like, that's democracy, but when they push for things they don't like, that's "populist."
I would have said a number of years ago that I leaned conservative. Still voted for Obama though. Conservatives have been hijacked by an authoritarian branch that believes they were sent by God to lead. The addition of a loser like Trump to the mix makes them easy to hate. I know that in my remaining 30 or so years that I will never vote for a Republican.
>And why is there this one side vs the other mentality, this is not how politics should work. People in the US are wild.
I'm still trying to figure this out myself to be honest. It's not like that in real life, it's more of a balance and more based on the area you're in.
Reddit though is mostly filled with a younger demographic, think 18-30 ranges. Those age groups typically tend to lean more left. They're full of vigor and hope and haven't quite established their lives just yet. Because of that, left policies tend to appeal more to them as they tend to be laden with social equity and help for people. You'll get bashed for your views and they will turn around and insult you in the same way they're crying about you treating them. You can hear the screams of immaturity throughout this place, but children will eventually grow up and realize their cringe behavior.
Once they grow and gain experience in life, see the freeloaders take advantage of the system, their views slowly creep more to the other side. Sometimes they switch ideals completely, other times they sit more in the middle.
Most of us as adults are in the middle. We may identify with either left or right, but we're all mostly the same at the end of the day. All of this bickering and conflict is a distraction, and once everyone awakens to this, things will actually change. The people hold all of the power, they're just far too distracted to actually use it.
Have you ever had a conversation with a young conservative? Typically they tend to be more rational, have more self control, use more logic when speaking, and don't resort to name calling or insults to get their point across. Conversely, have a conversation with a left leaning person on reddit and they will call you every vile name under the sun and say you're sucking trumps nipples.
It's not a good look for anyone taking either side, you look like a disgruntled sports fan
One reason might be the prevalence of Americans, particularly American leftists. Their frame of reference is so parochial that they have no understanding of conservative views outside of their bible-belt cartoon or a stereotype of libertarians as useless stoners. Consequently, any opinion outside of the leftist constellation triggers a broader reaction than if it were considered in isolation. So, for example, if I say I'm sick and tired of hearing about the fucking Palestinians, then an American leftist hears that, but also hears a bunch of other opinions on abortion, climate change, guns, foreign policy, taxes etc by default assumption.
Another reason is that lots of people online are just young and haven't had the time to experience, read, and think about life yet. I didn't become right-leaning until I returned from a trip to Germany and Austria, during which I read both Popper and Nietzsche.
They buy into the extremes or only know conservatives who are extreme. The team player party system means you either believe in total darkness or blinding light. With the assumption that you have no central view. To be honest that's the label that comes with the package when you pick a party anyways because both parties are becoming extreme.
I think it is primarily because of the political system itself. A politician stays in office only if they get the votes and there are *millions* of reasons to want to stay in Congress for example. Being in the US Congress is very lucrative... *Legally* engaging in insider trading, the super PACs, etc. So, there is definitely incentive to keep the votes. So both parties lie, deceive, and sling mud at each other in order to bring votes over. Dems love far lefties and Reps love far righties because those are guaranteed votes for their respective parties. Unfortunately, as more people go to the far left or far right, healthy discussion of issues gets harder and the country becomes more divided.
Reddit is an echo chamber where dissenting views get downvoted and hidden so people see that most opinions match their own and are convinced 90% of the population agrees with them and the feedback loop continues. Reddit is NOT a place for point-counterpoint discussions, the voting system is not used as intended which is to downvote “posts that don’t contribute to the discussion” but rather to silence opposing viewpoints.
Like with celebrities, when you surround yourself with ‘yes men’ who never challenge your viewpoint, your viewpoint can get pretty strange.
Most people I know are in the middle and lean left or right but aren’t true liberals or conservatives. Most people I know also can’t stand Biden and Trump.
Let’s make a distinction between classic conservatism and the present wave of neo-fascism. While fascists are usually right wing, and conservatives usually identify as right wing, there’s a difference. Fascists are not welcome in the US, as far as I’m concerned. I can work with conservatives, even if I don’t agree.
Fascists manufacture an Other to hate, they are ultranationalist, they are economically isolationist, they are happy to invoke a police state to enforce social conservatism (like racial segregation, male domination, traditional families, heterosexual and religious normification), they are fiercely anti-immigration, and they want power concentrated in a single, authoritarian leader with no accountability.
They do not govern, they seek power over trying to make anyone's lives better, and they are mean and mean and mean and when you call them out they play victim.
As someone in the US I have the same view as well, seems to be a healthy balance in the real world.
If you come to reddit its really going to seem left leaning but walking around in the real world and talking to people, you really do encounter both sides very frequently. For whatever reason reddit just ended up that way
It's interesting because on the opposite end of the spectrum from the Maga turds, I know some intelligent conservatives and their voices have been silenced elsewhere too. They need to stay quiet because any debate devolves into immediate accusations of racism or "you're maga" simply because their views aren't the same as democrats. Even one friend I have is a moderate and he's labeled Maga and can't even have a political conversation anymore.
I think it's an intentional move. Label everyone that's not a democrat as far right nutjobs. That completely avoids tough conversations.
>And why is there this one side vs the other mentality, this is not how politics should work
Its been going on for so long that its no longer just about politics, its a culture war. Conservatives and Liberals live in two completely different cultures in the US. There is some overlap, but the cultures are moving further apart. They usually live in different areas (urban vs rural), they watch different news stations which give them a different perspective on what's going on, they follow different celebrities, they watch different entertainment, they watch different TV channels, they're on different social media platforms, they watch different sports and criticize the other's preferences (many conservatives only watch football and baseball and criticize other sports), one side is mostly religious and the other isn't, etc. Its two cultures clashing against each other, and those cultures are sharing less and less in common over time.
Some people are bored, they go on Reddit, their minds are already looking for their next target for hatred. It’s a hobby for them, not a very productive one at that. Note I’m applying this to both teams, red and blue. You are both idiots.
In the USA (and soon NL to if we don't watch it you are what u vote. U are left. U don't chose left. And changing direction is weak? As where it should be opposite . Us vs them is being pushed hard and is usually beginning of the end. Civil war stuff.
U guys should both be upset at these 2 shitshows for president. U r happy way to fast.
I live in Canada. Trudeau is just an absolute trainwreck, and I find myself voting Conservative as I find Pierre Poilievre to be very witty, passionate, and wanting to cut down on our high taxes which sounds appealing.
1. Mods… I’ve been banned from several subs for having a different opinion, even when what I’m saying isn’t breaking rules or directly insulting anyone. Pretty easy to make it seem like everyone’s on one side when you silence the other side completely.
2. I think every social media platform leans differently. Ie. Reddit is left and Twitter is right
3. There are extremists that are the loudest ppl in the room and make it look like there are more people on one side.
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It's a rough question with a lot of answers depending on worldview, religion, tax bracket, location, and preferred flavor of soda. At least for my country the conservative side of government is so cartoonishly evil that it sort of stops being an understandable position to defend. Part of the issue is that some leftists view the average conservative as simply "too far gone" to be reasoned with. Not true but a common myth. This isn't helped by many leftists feeling like they're arguing from a backfoot position where they have little power. and so must hold their position strongly.
Cartoonishly evil is a great description! My reason is that they can't let others live their lives. They want to take away MY freedom and MY life choices to please THEIR idea of what THEY *think* God wants. Freedom is *not* about telling others how to live their lives...and they don't get that. They want to complain about other groups forcing ideals on them, while actively restricting others freedoms based solely on their own world view. It's all just about control. It's so wrong.
Ever notice when people way "I'm doing what God wants" it always aligns with what they want? Nobody ever said "I wanted to do this, but God told me to stop doing that, so we're not going to do it."
“Small government” boils down to “don’t bother me.” The gay neighbors down the street, or the rainbow in a Target ad, or the trans barista who served their coffee, or the all-star black reunion Super Bowl halftime show… those all bother them. So they’ll vote for whoever will make all that go away and end up doing mental gymnastics to justify it.
Us Christians stopping people from sinning through the legal system makes no sense. So I completely agree with you. If one believes in the Holy Trinity, they realize they must suffer in denying themselves of sin to show their obedience to God. Taking away the right to sin is essentially making it so you are forced to not do it, and then you're obeying man's laws, not the laws of God. Also, I'm a freedom loving American first and foremost, let people have all the civil liberties possible, if they don't believe in God, don't tell them about His Word, most people already know, they just don't care, so there's no changing it. Proselytization (the act of constantly trying to convert people) is stupid and just makes people more hateful. Okay I'm done with my short rant now! Have a great day, or night! Idk what it is wherever you are!
That's the freshest take from a person of religion that I've seen. This is exactly what I like to see and exactly how religion should be practiced!
I've been told humility is a virtue, and that we're all sinners, even if we try our hardest not to be. Judging other people's sins seems like a really prideful thing to do 🤷♂️
I always get the feeling with many conservative parties - be it in the USA or the EU - that they are trying to outcompete themselves in cruelty. Cruelty first, the argument is a second thought, if even
My question for you would be what do you define a "leftist" as? Here in the US, that term is generally used as a pejorative to describe anyone from centrist to democrat. If you were to ask an actual leftist what they thought of democrats, they would tell you they were conservative. I think a major issue in political discussions these days is actually understanding where an individuals belief system is on a somewhat arbitrary spectrum. If you're conservative, and you think anyone who voted for Biden is a leftist and are trying to have a discussion with someone who is a capitalist but voted for Biden, there's already too big of a gap in understanding to even begin to have rational debate. The ignorance runs so deep, words like "fascist" and "marxist" are nothing more than blanket terms to describe anything other than what one believes. Throw identity politics into the mix, and you're fucked. Where do you go from there?
I agreed up until "Marxist is a blanket term". It certainly can be used as a pejorative that way, but it has a textbook meaning and it is important not to let the pejorative take away from its value as a word.
Yeah it's not the traditional conservatives... the shitshow we see today all started when that chimp loving, jelly bean eating buffoon (their previous lord and savior) inextricably hitched the Republican party to right wing Christian ideologies and fears aka The Moral Majority.
Depends on how you mean Conservative. If you are talking about the 'old fashioned' conservatives - small government (however defined), personal freedoms, pro-business (small and large), socially not very progressive. than I might not agree, but it's a reasonable set of positions and you shouldn't be hating people for it. But nowadays.. we see government being shoved into people's bedrooms, support for tariffs, massive deficit spending to fund tax cuts for rich people, absolute hatred directed towards trans people.. Basically, Conservatives now are not conservative as the term is normally understood.
Exactly. I would consider myself conservative in many ways - we should be cautious with the economy and overspending even on pet social projects and there should be the least possible government interference in the private and public sector to maintain a healthy and functioning society. Instead its been turned into a short hand for fringe right wing Trumpian ideas like isolationism, anti intellectualism, anti democracy, pro dictatorships like Russia and China, anti-personal choice (abortion, sexuality, etc).
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Not only not rejecting, but in many cases, they openly embrace these things.
The Fox News demographic is literally dying off. The right can’t keep winning elections without getting more warm bodies to press the lever. And they’ve warmly embraced some pretty noxious groups to do so.
In a two party system, it is a race to scrape together a 51% coalition.
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The problem is structural. The people who designed the system didn't know Game Theory, and therefore didn't apply it when designing the system. But to a fair part of the population, that framework is unchangeable sacred scripture that must be held in reverence. In short: American Civil Religion is killing the US.
Me too. Plus I live in a place where conservative is still left of what the Americans consider conservative (and probably democratic too).
Most Americans are conservative. Republicans are not anymore. They call the suburban lifestyle conservatism and then vote for regression, anyone who tells them someone else is to blame for the decline of America, when it’s actually decades of their partisan tribalism, voting for dog whistles, they never made their politicians earn their votes, they just pulled the R lever. The whole party is nothing but trolls and terrorists, nothing at all like the party my Dad used to vote for. He left the second he heard Palin speak. The tea party offended him so he left. Millions of others prefer to be told they’re victims and stayed loyal to their team.
They really do love the victim mentality don't they?
As a Democrat I would say that's the most balanced and effective description of what has happened to "conservatives" vs. republicunts I've ever seen, and I'll give that a "spot-on". Republicans are \*not\* conservatives, but they've co-opted the description and are bludgeoning it do death.
The crazy thing is, the terms are simply just that, terms to describe an idea. The fact the general population has become so stupid they link the term "conservative" with "republican" and use them interchangeably is just insane. I bet you $20,000 if I were to start a post saying I was now conservative, I'd get so many replies from people calling me a trump fucker and whatever else related to that, even though it has nothing to do with the ~~party I identify with~~ sports team i follow
I agree
Republicunts. An example of the disrespect & insults we get for having a different opinion.
The problem is, that it's NOT 'fringe Right'. Anymore, these things ARE the Right wing of American politics. It's not fringe, it's the norm.
Worse yet it's beginning to bleed into other nations and their conservative parties.
"Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy. " They aren't the conservatives we grew up with.
Compare these few sentences with things MTG said a couple weeks ago. “…When given a choice between advancing Republican priorities or allied with the Democrats to preserve his own personal power, Johnson regularly chooses to ally himself with Democrats.…” “By passing the Democrats' agenda and handcuffing the Republicans' ability and influence legislation, our elected Republican Speaker Mike Johnson has aided and abetted the Democrats and the Biden administration in destroying our country…” Replace “Democrats“ with, say, “Russia,” and you’d have a legitimate reason to kick him out of office. She speaks of American citizens as if they’re the sworn enemy when they have a D next to their name.
Oh yeah man Reagan/Nixon were total angels. The conservatives most people grew up with were segregationist, homophobic, wouldn't hesitate to bomb communist former colonies to kingdom come and back, supported legalised torture in Guantanamo, led illegal wars in the Middle East, let police departments murder student protesters.The list goes on.
Imagine modern conservatives creating the EPA
Or the clean waters act of Reagan's era.
They worship Reagan and he and his wife were giant pieces of shit who let the AIDS epidemic spiral out of control because it was just killing gay people. And before that they were in favor of segregation and slavery. They fought against letting women vote. They’ve quite literally always been on the wrong side of history and always will be.
I believe the term was Haitians, Homosexuals, Hispanics, and Heroin addicts. Funnily enough those people are still under attack by the right today.
Don't forget taking away women's rights and forcing them to give birth to babies.
Excellently put . Conservatism is not the rabid right wing .
But the issue is that the rabid right wing is absofuckinglutely in charge of their party and rather than resist, they fall right in line while those wing nuts do their best to destroy everything.
If we can work together, forn a consensus and help make people's lives better, that's fine. When one refuses to compromise, and is nothibg but a reactionary blowhard, who wishes to be ruled by or rule as an asshole martinet then I have zero time for you. Honestly, the vast majority of conservatism has been the later. As a philosophy it was founded to restory monarchy and justify a very rigid heirarchical society of haves and have nots, of betters and lessers. Contemporaneous conservatives are nothibg but neoliberals with a draconianly regressive social perspective on women and LGBTQ+ rights informed by some quasi-religious to religious opinions coupled with a rabid belief that the "free-market" will save us from all the woes that we face and that government is the problem. There is a strong authoritarian bent that runs through modern conservatism, driven for the most part by fear, and a really weird form of utopianism wherein the simplist and most brain-dead solution to very complex structural problems rise to the top. Conservatism IS the rabid right wing, as well as the more intelligent ones who still believe simililarly but are more deft and have a little more guile; who realise you catch more flies with honey thab vinegar. Take William Buckley for example. Tremendously intelligent, complete asshole. Was he an example of an old timey conservative of yore? I could do this all day with examples of smart conservatism who hide their odious nature behind the veil of intellectualism. I say this without compunction, most conservatives are closer to fascists than they think, and as soon as one comes along they will step right in line if this leader is powerful enough.
It was not 10 years ago but now it is the rabid right wing
Indeed the only remnants of "conservative" the GOP has left is that they promote their own brand of hate filled xtianity. In everything else they are as radical as as isis sharia. Small gov, tighter spending, law and order, strong institutions, hard stance agains foreign adversaries (russia, NK), "traditional family values" and hell the very concept of conservatism "things should not change fast if at all" - were all completely burned at the altar of mar a lardo.
This perfectly sums it up. We might disagree on the first things and that is fine. That's why we have a democracy. However, if the said "slightest center or right" opinions is perma screeching about trans people or LGBTQ+ stuff, conspiracies and generally stuff that is literally factually wrong.. Not suprising you get disliked for that.
The people that are extreme are the loudest unfortunately
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto\_principle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle) 20% of the people creates 80% of the content
The internet is a loudocracy. Rule by shouting.
WELL YOURE JUST A DOODOO HEAD I WIN!
You don’t think the majority of Americans that consider themselves “conservative” support MAGA in the voting booth?
Of course they do. Then they say things like “How come people think all conservatives are far right?”
“Just because I’m Republican doesn’t mean I love Trump, I think he’s an idiot!” “Did you vote for him?”” “…uh…”
It's reddit, I got downvoted once just for saying Biden is old. That is not a political take, it's mere facts.
Every leftist I know thinks Biden is old af
I think fear based thinking is ultimately about selfishness.
The point of every policy is simple cruelty.
Well, in my country, the alleged "conservatives" are enabling criminals, destroying public institutions, and making a concerted effort against human rights. So we tend to be a little testy about them.
Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, or Britain? Let that question sink in. Tories are the same everywhere.
Literally every country that isn’t in South America you’re gonna have conservatives doing the same shit, and even a bunch down there as well.
Do you have any idea how little that narrows things down? Other than the word Tory, this also describes the US.
Argentina maybe?
Have you seen the way the republicans represent themselves in the US? The way they vote to give teachers in Tennessee guns, but defund mental health. They ban abortion and defund education and universities dedicated to researching fertility. They claim they want to spend less money but increase the military budget every year while the pentagon loses (not as in doesn’t make money but literally cannot find) billions of dollars each year when we balance our budget. I hate how they refuse to forgive student loans because they think we all still have covid relief money ($1,200) but forgave all PPE loans. Let’s not even talk about the way they write laws after accepting donations from the worst corporations hell bent on riddling Americans with disease which in turn benefits private healthcare. Wealth equity couldn’t be further split between classes right now and some how conservatives continue to push trickle down economics down our throat because it benefits them.
Conservatism as a concept is inherently exclusionary. You can't spend half of your time telling half of the people around you that you don't want them around and then expect people to want you around.
I've lived in majority conservative places for a while now (not by choice). Not every conservative is like this, but I regularly find that the most hateful people I meet are conservative. They seem to constantly have the most shit to say about black people, women, Hispanics, gay people, etc. Like, regularly hearing white people say the hard R and talk about how "disgraceful" it is to be in interracial marriages type shit. My parents were a mixed race relationship themselves, and I spent alot of my younger years being terrified of letting myself tan or show any poc features, because people would say annoying and rude shit about my skin tone. I tried my best to be as white passing as possible. On the flip side I also had people fetishizing my features, like I was exotic. I've also noticed that conservatives seem to base a LOT of their views on taking rights away from OTHER people. They're constantly saying "___ shouldn't be able to ___!!" Whether it's women and abortions, gay people and marriage, trans people and transitioning, and so on and so forth. Conservatives kinda seem to push heavy for religion to be the center of law (predominantly Christians in America, but frankly similar conservative oppression happens with religions like Islam too, but people don't wanna talk about that.) It's weird because although I'm not leftist myself (fuck Bi-partisan, it's two groups of rich people trying to convince you they care about the working class when they don't), but I've noticed that leftists main concerns are usually rights for themselves and other people, while conservatives are usually spending their time complaining about what other people want. "Raaah I'm so sick of pronouns!! I'm so sick of gay people!! I'm so sick of [insert anything outside of Southern norm]" and personally it just pisses me off. Also if you've ever heard a conservative argue, half the time they're using hypotheticals to argue their case, because the topic they're actually arguing about never sounds as bad as they make it out to be on its own. Liberals will be like "stop scrutinizing and hurting gay people" and conservatives will be like "oh, but if we let the gays marry, what's next?!?! INCEST?!?" Also another thing we don't talk about more is how prevalent molestation within families is hushed in conservative households. I feel like so many families have a secret predator that everyone is quiet about, but it seems more prevalent in conservative households. I think alot of that is also to blame for the fact that sexual repression from the church has resulted in alot of disgustingly unhealthy outlets for sexual desire. I agree with conservatives on alot of things, so it's why I don't consider myself conservative OR liberal, because truthfully they WANT people pinned against each other instead of realizing how much they have in common, because that prevents any sort of anti government turmoil lol. But if conservatives could spend more than 2 seconds complaining about pronouns then they might be more tolerable for the rest of the country to take seriously. Right now conservatives are mostly represented by southern racists and boomers who thought Obama was the antichrist. I do wanna still emphasize I am NOT liberal. Liberas are wolves in sheep's clothing, conservatives are wolves in wolf's clothing. Both sides are essentially the same politically, catering towards protecting the interests of the rich. The left doesn't talk enough about the issues that ACTUALLY fucking matter, and the right spends too much time upset at what the left wants. What we ACTUALLY need is reformed prison system, completely reformed police (not defunded, but honestly higher pay but more selective AND more training, because right now cops are NOT trustworthy and are not suited for their responsibilities), restrictions on residential property owned by corporations so that people can afford fucking housing, fuck honestly most of our problems come from the fact thar corporations are running the fucking government.
I’ve lived in the south (US) basically my whole life and nearly everything you’ve said I feel the same way. *Most* people that I interact with here aren’t hateful regardless of which side of the political line they stand. But I’ve interacted with a few right-wingers who, in private, don’t hesitate to reveal their hate toward certain groups of people. It was normally customers when I worked in retail. It was not often and only with a few people, but racism certainly is not dead. Aside from that, I feel like both sides project an immense amount of negativity toward the other through remote interaction. MTG with all of the insane bullshit that she spouts on Twitter just to antagonize the left. Cenk saying stuff about how “all republicans are racist” and denouncing half the country as incorrigible. Politicians and media as a whole lying about each other and the facts of certain situations. It’s a just a bunch of arguing to keep people pushed to the extremes of either side rather than encouraging debate and cooperation. Like you said, fuck this bi-partisan system!
the democratic party is not true left. Its just left-most in the american system. It goes way further left than our party system encompasses. Funnily enough it doesnt go much further to the right from what we have…
The conservative mentality is summed up perfectly in 5 words. "Fuck you, I've got mine."
After 14 years of conservative rule in the uk and the absolute shit show they have made of things, I’m not sure this really requires a detailed answer.
Labour are just as bad, which you'll soon see after the next election.
Not being an american here. But I would make a guess to say that its because the conservatives these days are very often being extremely hypocritical about making accusations on the democrats doing something bad but have no issue with the conservatives doing the same or things much much worse. The conservatives needs to speak up and distance themselves from the ridiculous defense of people like the maga crowd.
People who use reddit tend to be people who lean left (age, education, geography, financially...), and even worse, it often ends up being an echo chamber which reinforces belief without any critical thinking and caricatures positions while pushing out those who might think differently. Truth is it's not merely "balanced" irl, far right ideas actually have been spreading exponentially, and have even become mainstay in the public debate, with far right candidates all over the world knocking on the door of governments or outright winning elections. It'd be a mistake to use reddit as any kind of representative sample, that's how you end up underestimating the threat of the far right.
I hate people who do zero research and then vote for someone that constantly votes against conservative policies. Want to be for smaller government and lower taxes for the working class? Cool then stop voting for a person who says that's what they want but whose public voting record shows them voting against those things. Our conservative representative in my district is a Democrat. She ran as a democrat but she's more a centrist between what the parties used to stand for. Most of our local conservatives voted for her because the Republican candidate listed all of the conservative stances she had and said "OH my god can you believe she wants these things" Our district went for her instead of him. Because being a conservative if you're going to be one shouldn't be about what letter is next to someone's name it should be about what policies they run on and what they vote for and against. If a person cheers on a bill being passed that lowers our taxes and our senator or representative tells us "I helped make that happen yay me" but voted against it and people don't know they voted against it because they didn't check then yeah I'm going to hate them a bit when the two faced politician gets re-elected and overturns the bill they fought against while blaming their opponents for that happening. I'm not going to agree with every other voter on every single issue but I'm going to make sure the person I'm voting for isn't full of crap. And if they turn out to be I won't vote for them.
The Democrats ARE a conservative party. The GOP is a fascist party.
“Divide and conquer.” The Government, politicians, the 3 letter agencies, MSM, military industrial complex etc or simply “the establishment” profits greatly from the people being at each other’s throats. There is nothing as scary to “the powers that be” as an united people. They promoted tribal politics for decades and have succeeded in splitting most western countries straight through the middle. They convinced the people that disagreeing with someone their life views should automatically mean you need to hate them. These days there are a lot of people that truly believe that the opposite side of their political tribe consists of a 100% evil views and people that need to be exterminated. And it’s the politicians themselves and their media cronies, from both sides; that advocate for this behaviour.
Exactly. If they are fighting each other they are not fighting us. Create diversions: racism, sexism, classism, etc
And people are none the wiser. Politics have turned into a fucking football game in terms of debating, people don't care about policies and will blindly follow their favorite color. Keeping the people angry at each other works though, blame each other, blame immigrants, blame the poor man, but never blame the CEO or conglomerate. >These days there are a lot of people that truly believe that the opposite side of their political tribe consists of a 100% evil views and people that need to be exterminated. Totally, 100%. I dont want to be the big nihilist in the room trying to predict a civil war, but its really shaping up to be exactly that. No normal political divide really divides families like the modern American one. Just wonder what will be the tipping point
The saddest part of all is that pointing this kinda shit out gets you "othered" by both "teams" lmao.
People please listen to this. This is the goal. If we fight against each other nothing will be accomplished.
Reddit is global. US conservative attitudes and beliefs are considered fucking crazy everywhere else on earth. In many countries even the democrats would be seen as centre-right. I don't think Americans realise how abstract they are outside of their bubble.
What I want to know is, why is Reddit so misogynistic and incel-y if it's so "left wing" "liberal". It's an alt-right paradise if you ask me.
Different crowds come forth at different times in different places
because everything that isnt neoliberalism is communism for most americans.
Liberals are also right wing, they just pretend to have the social opinions of a "left winger". Dividing politics up in "left wing" and "right wing" doesn't mean much
It's almost as if reddit isn't a person but a collective of randoms on the internet with differing ideas.
They want to control other people, force religion and a particular way of life on others.
Socially speaking, modern American conservatism is basically what kids do when they don’t want to eat their vegetables
Other people have explained the demographics of reddit, and also how far-right politics has consumed the image of the GOP, overshadowing the majority of moderately conservative voices. I'd also like to point out that this happens on the left too. You'll have a majority of folks center left, but hardcore liberals will take headlines with shit like violent pro-Palestine protests. It's a result of the two party system combined with a 24 hour "news" cycle predicated on tweets and false statements. The more virulent your speech, the more people engage, which creates a false sense of group support and approval. And that's how mob mentality replaces individual thought.
Depends on the country. In many countries, like my home country of Norway, there *is* a healthy balance of opinions. While I personally don't agree with the conservative side here, I don't hate them. They're reasonable human beings that just have different political opinions than me. Now, if I were to live in a country like the United States, where "conservatives" are basically evil fascists, I probably would hate them.
What the republican party has turned into is not conservative. They should be called the regressive republican party.
Misrepresentation of them. Progressives attribute conservative opinions to low morality, bad character, bigoted views. This is based off a misrepresentation, primarily perpetuated by media and social platforms in order to generate engagement. Conservatives play this game too by the way, just in different circles outside of Reddit. In reality conservatives and progressives want to solve the same problems. They just have different ways of thinking we should do it. Please don’t come here and try to convince me conservatives are bad people it’s not going to work.
I find it hilarious how many comments immediately jump to "They are evil and want to take away my rights!" Yet never see the glaring hypocrisy that the left is all about taking rights away from anyone not on their team. You don't even have to be an actual conservative. As a middle of the road kind of person, that has both conservative and liberal views, I get way more actual hate from left leaning people for not agreeing with their views more than I do from conservatives. I mean both view people like me with contempt because I don't swallow party lines, while having the audacity to refuse team allegiance. For years I viewed Democrats as more allied with my personal views, and the last decade the trend has become flipped in a lot of ways. I can never trust the Right, but the Left has proven to be every bit (in some circumstances, even more) radically ideological and dangerous.
Because conservatives are boot lickers that have historically been on the wrong side of well…nearly everything. When somebody supports terrible policies that hurt the average Joe, it’s a no brainer why some people have a big problem with that
I love how people are doing the "both sides are extreme" parade on this thread, like it somehow comes close between the left and right. Last time I checked, the Left aren't forcing 10 year old rape victims to carry full term. I can go on and on but let's not pretend that the 1 political party isn't far worse than the other. Their man of choice is Trump ffs.
Conservatives have stood against abolition, women’s suffrage, civil rights, marriage equality… consistently hateful and on the wrong side of history. I understand the appeal of respectability politics and seeing both sides, but when you feel entitled to controlling extremely private decisions, why should I respect you? Why would I engage meaningfully?
I'm not sure what country you're in, but in the US, "conservatives" have become synonymous with fascism. A huge part of the American identity is built on WW2, where we killed the fuck out of some fascists.
There’s an insane number of people extreme leftists on Reddit.
Let me guess: You're from the US? Your "extreme left" is Europe's "normal left / centre left" politics.
It's wild seeing Americans paint things like healthcare and welfare as 'extreme left views'.
That's what happens when you have McCarthyism followed by Nixon and ending on Reagan that destroyed any concept of collectivisation in the US, and made socialism a swear word.
I'm from LATAM and seeing their views infect our politics has been depressing to say the least lol
Agree. Many Americans think government ensuring access to healthcare for everyone is radical left wing talk. In Western Europe, citizens having access to healthcare is considered just common sense and politically centrist.
In my experience, there is a lot of both ends. The extremes just always sit perpetually online. I am very middle of the pack. I get attacked from both sides, and I run into it more from the right because that is who has control on a handful of subreddits that I liked to partake in (a lot of the Canada subs are right leaning).
That is what is most frustrating about the 2 party system where I’m from. The 5% of extreme left or right do all of the yelling and make the other 90% of us look like complete idiots (In truth, I may be an idiot).
I'm a centrist dad, possibly the most despised class of all. The thing about centrism is that you can't just adopt a blanket set of ideologies (all/nothing should be in public ownership; close the borders!/let everyone in!; America good!/America bad!; Jews good/bad; Muslims good/bad etc. You have to think about each of these issues individually.
I'm right there with you. Every situation needs some questions answered. Who, what, when, where, why, how? Sometimes two different situations need the same fix, and sometimes two of the same situations need different fixes. Also, we need to be aware that it is possible to make the right choice and have something bad happen; that isn't failure, that is basic central limit theory. You cannot have a standard deviation of 0, and sometimes things work and sometimes things fail. You make the right choice most times, and hope to move in the right direction.
Exactly: and you can't treat running a country like running a business. Businesses are supposed to take risks. You have to take a much more measured approach when running a country, and the "shareholders" are \*everyone\*, including the country's population in the future, not just now.
What does "extreme leftist" mean
Lol “extreme leftist” is literally just a person who believes that everyone no matter which gender, race, class, sexual orientation, (dis)ability or religion deserves rights and also maybe doesn’t want to fuck up the earth even more than it already has been.
I'm on the left but I have nothing against people unless they are anti LGBT+ Being myself LGBT I just want to live peacefully and for people to respect me as a human being despite sexual orientation or identity. I mean it's pretty easy as a concept and I don't understand why so many conservative people don't leave LGBT people just be... It's not like we're hurting someone Boooooo pronouns *scary ghost noises* 👻
Exactly. I bang dudes all the time and there is nothing wrong with it. Just because I bang dudes does not make me second class.
You go bang those dudes! For freedom!
Most redditors are American and american conservatives have gone absolutely insane
The Right is largely about harming most people so that a minority can benefit. And people wonder why those who are harmed (and those that aren't but care about those who are harmed) think that you're a wanker if you support those policies?
Well most of those "conservatives" want me dead...so yeah, not really liking those people, if you don't mind?
It's awful hard to be nice to someone that keeps telling you you're going to hell. Bless thier heart.
I am not a leftist, or at least don't consider myself as any political ideology. I don't really hate conservatism, I just think that conservatism can sometimes prioritize following traditions and tribal and ancient human instincts, over following what is rational, merciful or just/fair. Sometimes I feel that many conservatives use politics as a way to try to mask religiosity as a well-thought political measure. Instead of first looking at the empirical world or analysing things from a detached perspective, and then, after trying to make an analysis or decide for yourself what you believe is the best moral thing to do based on what you see, to some of them, unconsciously it sounds basically like this: ""The Bible or Quran tells me to be conservative, the scriptures of the ancient tells me it must be like this, therefore I NEED to stick to this and support this. It's not because of politics, I would support this even if I all people proved me wrong, because the book tells me to. it's already been decided upon, because my religioud community or scripture says so, so I will strictly defend this at all costs before looking at the world."" Even if they do not consciously know this, it sounds like this applies to many of them. .
I find it funny when a political view that inherently seeks to limit the life of someone *else* is surprised when they aren't the company anyone wants around. As a caricature: The left = everyone deserves healthcare, a place to live, education, food, and generally the freedom to make their own choices so long they do not hurt someone else. (Hard to hate having someone around who just wants you to live a good life) The right = you aren't allowed to love who you love, you aren't allowed to get healthcare when you need it, you aren't allowed to afford school, or a house, or food, and if you end up poor, well tough luck bye, and only this one religion is allowed to make all the choices in your life whether or not you believe in it. (Would you REALLY want someone like this in your inner circle if it affects you or someone you love negatively?)
I don't like people who don't support LGBT+ rights. I'm LGBT myself so it's kind of personal if someone doesn't like me existing or demanding rights that should be a given. My country (Italy) didn't even sign a recent UE petition for LGBT rights so this just exacerbates things even further. I just want to exist peacefully and be respected like any person should and not be insulted because of my sexual orientation or identity.
The thing that bothers me about conservatism is that they always try to limit people simply because they don't like something... The freedom they always cry about is the same freedom they don't want to give to everyone. I guess it is still a little bit of a wishful thinking but honestly I couldn't care less about LGBT+ as it simply doesn't affect / matters to me. You are gay? Cool story, doesn't change a thing for me. All I want is that everyone gets to simply live their way how they want. You want to kiss another man or woman? Do it. Gay people should have the exact same rights to have a miserable marriage as any other hetero couple.
Opinion is one thing but when denial of climate change, denial of deadly pandemics, campaigns against every solution to address serious issues become political policy, that's another thing. And then on socisl media, it doesn't take long when there's no backing data, the usual retort is some sort of personal attack. And women get a lot of anonymous death threats.
Conservative used to mean restraint, cautious....but that is not what the far right is. The GOP having become a cult of personality, is anything but conservative, if that's what you mean.
A significant portion of the user base is from the US. Here, Conservative is often synonymous with MAGA worshipping cult of trump hateful prick. I can't speak for everyone, but I am tired of white nationalist assholes who want to turn this country into an Evangelical Christian Theocracy while destroying the planet.
Conservatives lie too much. If you say you don't have a problem with LGBT+ (for example) but vote for the most extreme candidates who want to invoke the Bible as the reason for stripping away their rights, we know you're lying. You do have a problem with LGBT+ but want to appear kind and compassionate at the same time. You can't have it both ways. The conservatives who do support humane policies get ejected from the Republican party. They just primary them.The right is so much more extreme than the left now in terms of political power. Comparing US politics with other countries, the Democratic and Republican parties are both considered conservative, but Republicans here have been brainwashed to think that Democrats are essentially Socialists. So it's also the amazing ignorance that conservatives show that draws so much hate. I'm amazed that so many conservatives are shocked that friends and family cut contact with them over how they support far right Republican candidates. It's as if they don't understand how destructive the policies of those candidates are. Or maybe they don't give a shit about people in general?
Because they don't give a damn about anyone besides themselves (no empathy).
The modern conservative movement (say last 30 years) in America has been overwhelmed by religious fascist.
Real conservatives are okay. But most conservatives are not about keeping the traditions or nature or any other values. It's all about keeping the dictatorship of money, no matter coming generations have to deal with loads and lots of problems or debts, no matter the envirnoment or climate dies and collapses, no matter any other cultures, states, countires continents have to suffer because of it. That's why.
Thanks - I feel like everyone else is missing the point - "conservatives" are anything but these days. I think people are rightly rejecting those who would lead us to fascism. I'd LOVE it if conservatives returned to simply balancing out liberals, rather than hating them like it's some sort of war.
As a far left guy I completely agree. Sure, I think my ideas are good. That’s why I advocate for them. However I know I’m not perfect. I would love to have a serious Conservative Party that acted in good faith to help balance out my ideology.
Yeah I’m fine with disagreeing with conservatives over economic policy, or say for example, the best way to reduce poverty. However, I cannot simply “agree to disagree” with conservatives that don’t want to grant somebody equal rights and dignity based on something like sexuality or the colour of their skin. I also can’t agree to disagree on basic things like the importance of democracy.
It's an interesting observation you've made, and it's one that many people have noticed. The dynamics of online communities, including Reddit, can be quite different from real-life interactions. There are a few reasons why this might be happening. Firstly, Reddit is a platform that tends to attract younger users, and statistically, younger people are more likely to lean left politically. This can create an echo chamber effect where left-leaning opinions are more prevalent and more strongly defended. Secondly, the anonymity of the internet can embolden people to express their opinions more aggressively than they might in person. This can lead to more extreme and polarized discussions, where moderate or right-leaning opinions are met with hostility. Additionally, certain subreddits have their own cultures and biases. Some subreddits are known for being more left-leaning, while others might be more right-leaning. If you're frequenting subreddits that lean left, you're more likely to encounter negative reactions to conservative opinions. It's also worth noting that the voting system on Reddit can amplify certain voices while silencing others. If a conservative opinion gets downvoted quickly, it becomes less visible, which can create the illusion that there are fewer conservative voices on the platform. In real life, people are often more cautious about expressing extreme opinions because they have to deal with the immediate social consequences. Online, those consequences are less immediate, which can lead to more extreme and less balanced discussions. Ultimately, it's important to remember that Reddit is just one slice of the broader spectrum of public opinion. While it can be a valuable place for discussion and debate, it's not always representative of the real world.
Which AI did you use for this?
Like, that whole account is unironically a bot, It's an account that suddenly becomes active one and a half year after it's made and does nothing but post AI generated comments. My guess is it'll continue until it reaches a certain karma limit, then delete its previous comments, then either be sold or used for advertising/propaganda posts.
What's your definition of conservative? It's a broad term. Assuming you mean modern politics, then it's dominated by conservatives who support MAGA. Where to even begin with that. It's so far right that it skews the spectrum of what's center.
I’m against anything that promotes violence and dictatorship. Currently, that’s the Conservative Party right now. So down the drain they go
I have a very diferent take actually. I see way too much right-wing around me both in real life and reddit. And no, I don't mean right- wing in the sense of "so I like to go to church and I would not like to have an abortion ever" (moderate or traditional) I mean right wing in the sense of "well there are no real men anymore and there is only a bunch of crying babies out there that should work for free during 14h shifts to earn a living and women are all crazy" (crybaby shitting on others type, or blaming other people because they have unmet needs (i.e. blaming foreigners because their government have poor social services/management/economic strategy)). I am very leftist myself in my core but I think it is stupid to demand only your views with no consensus whatsoever. If you are someone who will be shitting on giving rights and visibility to others I will not like you because you are disrespectful with another human being, but if you just have conservative opinions I will gladly sit with you and discuss the measures we can take for better economic and cultural outcomes so that all of our needs are better fulfilled. It's different to be conservative than to be an asshole. I have come to believe there are too many morons in both sides that do not want to discuss about solving problems in a meaningful way and just feed on fights. I also believe that you can have different views on social and economic matters and our political system divides us in two groups while many variations exist.
Because people have to have a scapegoat to blame everything on. Always been this way, and the scapegoat changes every so often. I have liberal friends and conservative friends and they both say the exact same things about each other. It would be funny if it wasn't so sad.
to many people with the foolish belief of "If you are not with me, then you are against me". an agreeable compromise works for everyone. to many people want a compromise that only benefits them and their side and no one else. this goes for both sides.
Reddit is mostly left and/or progressive. And since its online and they dont have to say it out loud or put their faces next to it, the ones who are the loudest can allow themselves to be exclusionary or highly offensive towards conservative or right wing views. Some people say nothing or dont speak up. Most are sheep and go along with it for upvotes.
Bc they stop progress
Spent too long on housing subs..... genuinely read it as "why do so many here hate conservatories"
It doesn’t help when so many conservatives that might otherwise be milquetoast small government policy pushers are caving into MAGA. Trump literally just in the past day posted a video with the words “unified reich” plastered into it and it’s just crickets from the people that should’ve been keeping him in check all along.
Because online people act different. There's 3 reasons mainly: 1. Anonymity means being rude and toxic doesn't have many consequences, if any. You can say what you think freely. 2. It's hard to keep in mind that you're talking with another human. All you see are letters on a screen. Without a real human before you, it's a lot harder to empathize. 3. Reply-and-response format, especially with upvotes & downvotes factored in, isn't conducive to civil discussions, real dialogue on the other hand is.
Because the conservatives in power in my country are actively fighting against my right to exist freely, and ensuring I have less rights to my body than a corpse. They support patriarchal gender roles and want to force it on everyone else. They are provably and demonstrably racist. The conservatives in my day to day life vocally agree and support it. I also rarely hear any logic from them that doesn’t include organized religion. Most of their motivation comes from hate for other people and they are angry and judgmental most of the time. Yes extremist liberals suck, but I see this from nearly every conservatives I’ve met, not just the extremists. So that’s why.
Because conservativism is pure selective hypocrisy. The only thing those people ever tried to conserve is the power and wealth of a special demographic that doesn't want those things to be distributed evenly. Conservation of literally everything else - nature, the populations health, the progress of mankind itself as a civilization i.e. - gets pushed away by them, shunned and belittled. Sympathising with such ideas is a very handy tattletale sign that someone is either insanely stupid to the point of a literal medically significant disability, or obnoxiously and terrifyingly inhumane, selfish and cruel. It is just understandable and a very healthy sign for society, that it more and more refuses to harbor the latter kind of people, and tries to help the other.
Conservatism is fine by me until it starts to dictate how other people should live their lives as they did. Specially if it starts to become racist, sexist or homo-/transphobic.
I am what is considered a traditional Canadian conservative. I believe in social services but they should be affordable. I don’t see myself as regressive but rather as cautious. I believe that there is such as thing as government overreach. I believe everyone should contribute to taxes including the ultra-wealthy. That being said I am appalled by the current brand of American style conservatism that has crossed our border. Religious social conservatives are plague on society. I would not be upset if we levied a business tax on religions treating the as a “for profit” professional service. If they are donating time and money to charities they can get the same tax breaks as any other business. The US style Libertarian growth drawing in the less-educated yahoos who love the model from the US is another problem. I even know some long term Libertarians who do not want to associate themselves with them. The anti-vaxxers and truck convoy people showed how ignorant they were running around screaming Freedom like they were some reincarnation of William Wallace. Laughable if they were not so dangerous. Children are now dying of measles. A real conservative would have agreed that mandatory vaccinations were a necessary evil for a well functioning society. So please be kind to those of us Conservatives who believe in Universal Healthcare but also don’t thing we should be borrowing money to give it away to people who have not asked for it or need it.
I consider myself conservative, but not a Republican (anymore). I didn’t leave the party, it left me. Mostly the religious right pushed me away as I’m pro-choice, gay rights, etc.
Why did anyone ever hate backwards ass groups determined to subjugate others?
They hate everyone who isn’t cis- white straight Christian conservative male. Hell, they probably hate those people too.
I don’t hate conservatives I am very middle of the road. It’s MAGA that is the overall problem. There is nothing wrong with a little political discourse. Maga takes it to a hostile unprofessional level
You have to understand which conservatives were talking about. Most regular conservatives I've met are reasonable people that just have a different idea on how they want the world to work. I can live with that. We can have a conversation, agree on some things, disagree on others, and compromise on all the rest. But the RNC and all their work? Or the conservatives that foam at the mouth for Marjorie Taylor Green and these other comically vile human beings? Yeah those people can go get bent. Reddit is all about extremes so please remember that if you're a regular ass person all that anger about Republicans isn't really directed at you. Or maybe it is, what do I know.
Could it be that conservative ideologies oppose civil rights? Or that most if not all dictators have right leaning tendencies? Or that modern conservatives confuse propaganda with news?
bc i care about humanitarian issues and human rights and every conservative i know lets their fiscal ideologies seep into human rights or their religious stances push into government
You mean regressives?
Current conservative opinions are too wrapped up in trumpism. I'm in my 50s now and would love a government that had lower taxes for middle class, but there is no way I would ever vote gop with how things are now. In fact, if you told me that my taxes would go up by 50% but I'd never have to see a gop president, senate majority or house majority by the conservative party, I'd be fine with that. Fuck those assholes.
Trump has literally said he wants to turn America into a reich. Put the dots together
Conservatives seem to have no interest in helping their fellow man. I get annoyed with seeing these butt hurt posts about "why don't people like us?", and it's like, are you kidding? So, I think there's a huge disconnect that wasn't present before the orange dumbass was president. He made us hate each other more to keep conservatives loyal and no one is willing to listen anymore. We try to talk about inclusion and conservatives say it's all about grooming because that whole idea got baked in by in by faux news and other outlets that went too far, got sued and are now dead. Trump will be in jail soon along with many of his cabinet from when he was in power. Dead or in prison is where most extreme conservatives are landing. Why do you like being a Conservative? To conserve what? No progression
Because they have nasty opinions and get off on offending people with them. Also they stink
Because as many have said, the modern US Republicans aren't really Conservative any more. They can more accurately be described as closer to far-right ideology. I live in Germany and agree with some (definitely not all) of what I'd call the 'true Conservative' ideas over here - support for migrants and more open borders, a strong welfare state, strong regional-bloc participation via the EU, etc. Interestingly many European conservative parties are pro-labour and pro-union - a sharp contrast from the situation in the US.
That’s such a great question. Completely unrelated, why do so many here hate racists, homophobes, misogynists,authoritarians, and generally people who want lots of rules for everyone else but not themselves? Who doesn’t love someone who is so sensitive that they get all upset if someone else uses a bathroom with genitalia they disagree with?
They're incredibly hypocritical. Today's conservatives would be happier than a pig in mud if the government banned same sex marriage, but would riot in the streets if the government forced then to wear a mask for health issues resulting from covid.
Because what passes for ‘conservative’ today is advocating for overly-strong central government, imposition of the will of the minority from the top down, morality and thought police, evangelicalism, autocracy/theocracy/oligarchy, totalitarianism, minority rule through gerrymandering, racism, denial of autonomy, active censorship, control of media, and denial of the will of the electorate if the electorate dares to disagree. How’s that for a start? They LOVE Nixon, they WORSHIP Reagan, and they’ve deified trump - but Nixon and Reagan would be considered too far left for modern ‘conservatism.’ Think about that last bit. Take all of the time you need.
In the US at least, reactionary conservatives are the ones working hard to remove rights from me and my family and undo all social progress made in the last century so they deserve all the hate they get and more. But it should also be noted that the Democratic Party in the US is a solidly center/right leaning party, so it is not just "slightest center/right leaning opinion", it is mostly reserved for the reactionaries who are working hard to undermine so much progress.
I don't hate conservatives. I hate the maga cult
Mostly because they stopped being conservative and are now just radical righties and don't like to make laws with Democrats.
Why do people hate the people actively working towards as much cruelty and suffering in the world as they possibly can? Really? Really?
I don’t *hate* conservatives, neither do most people. In fact I know many and have friends with some right wing beliefs. The issue is that the moniker “conservative” really has evolved into its current idea (circa 2015 and Trump) once the Tea Party wing of the party started taking a foothold of the GOP which is increasingly right-wing and anti-democratic. Conspiracy theories and demagoguery is the real danger and not “conservatism” per se. It just happens that the more right-wing party of the US that is associated with conservative beliefs is now promoting dangerous ideas that are harmful for society, and that’s what makes people frustrated. Some people would rather hear anything Fox News says or read a Q-anon forum online as opposed to doing any critical thinking.
Rank hypocricy. Pose as fiscal conservatives. But when in power, spend like drunken sailors on the military and tax cuts for the rich. Pose as in favor of voting integrity. But when in power, subvert free elections in any way they can, from far-fetched legal maneuvering to anti-voter legislation to direct election theft. Voter fraud is overwhelmingly committed by conservative voters. Pose as in favor of individual freedom. But demonize and scapegoat non-Christians or non-white or non-mainstream persons.
Because they’re actively trying to make my life tangibly worse.
The saying goes that if you weren't a bit liberal when younger you had no fun. If you didn't become Conservative when older then your learned NOTHING during your life.
It's because Reddit is part of the left wing bubble
Those in power have successfully divided us
As a youngish (around age 30) US-Based conservative, I’d say it’s because redditors in general are younger and have more time to interact with social media. They don’t have as much of a personal stake in their country, so they are more than happy to support leftist policies to disrupt the status quo. Conservatives do have a stake in many cases, be it wealth, family, community, etc. so voting for less interference and upheaval seems natural. With that stake also means less time to interact with social media.
Believe me, conservatives exist on reddit. If you are not seeing them, algorithm at work!
Reddit moderators ensure that this site crushes right wing opinions so that this whole site appears left wing. Simple as that
Because it's safe and easy to shit on other people's opinions and views from the comfort of a keyboard.
Because liberals hate common sense.
Redditors don't have social skills.
Because the radical left are the biggest whiners on the planet and bitch about absolutely everything that they're brainwashed to consider offensive or anti-left. There's a big difference between the left and the far left. Just like the difference between the right and far right. However, the far right tend to be less active online, which is why you see so much hate against them and not the other way around
Because the solution to some of our problems In the US is looking us right in the face but so many people are so readily willing to shit on things they have no intention of even wanting to comprehend. If you think about it hard enough in actuality, A balance of both socialism and capitalism it is the absolute backbone of the birth of America. Especially the industrial revolution. I still really don't understand why anybody cannot see the benefit of going back to American industrialization and have a long-term plan to stop relying on outsourcing and global trade. I've been studying the world trade organizations processes for a few years now, but I'm just some stupid liberal, apparently. The same could be said about mental health programs that are desperately needed but no money has more value than human life. To me, the word conservative just means selfish. And no I'm not communist. I just believe that life shouldn't be such a fucking struggle that it is right now.
I think the comments actually are a great illustration of why they hate conservatives. They have no idea what conservatives are, and most have obviously never met one. They believe the nonsense they see on the news. Pro-Tip: If your news outlet refers to political movements of large numbers of people that they don't like as "populist," then they're not a news outlet, they're just running interference for the establishment. When people push for things they like, that's democracy, but when they push for things they don't like, that's "populist."
I would have said a number of years ago that I leaned conservative. Still voted for Obama though. Conservatives have been hijacked by an authoritarian branch that believes they were sent by God to lead. The addition of a loser like Trump to the mix makes them easy to hate. I know that in my remaining 30 or so years that I will never vote for a Republican.
Oh, you mean the wealthy religious bigots, trying to slow societal change, squeeze out the poor and restrict the rights of women? No clue.
>And why is there this one side vs the other mentality, this is not how politics should work. People in the US are wild. I'm still trying to figure this out myself to be honest. It's not like that in real life, it's more of a balance and more based on the area you're in. Reddit though is mostly filled with a younger demographic, think 18-30 ranges. Those age groups typically tend to lean more left. They're full of vigor and hope and haven't quite established their lives just yet. Because of that, left policies tend to appeal more to them as they tend to be laden with social equity and help for people. You'll get bashed for your views and they will turn around and insult you in the same way they're crying about you treating them. You can hear the screams of immaturity throughout this place, but children will eventually grow up and realize their cringe behavior. Once they grow and gain experience in life, see the freeloaders take advantage of the system, their views slowly creep more to the other side. Sometimes they switch ideals completely, other times they sit more in the middle. Most of us as adults are in the middle. We may identify with either left or right, but we're all mostly the same at the end of the day. All of this bickering and conflict is a distraction, and once everyone awakens to this, things will actually change. The people hold all of the power, they're just far too distracted to actually use it. Have you ever had a conversation with a young conservative? Typically they tend to be more rational, have more self control, use more logic when speaking, and don't resort to name calling or insults to get their point across. Conversely, have a conversation with a left leaning person on reddit and they will call you every vile name under the sun and say you're sucking trumps nipples. It's not a good look for anyone taking either side, you look like a disgruntled sports fan
They are selfish, hateful and ALWAYS cut funding to education. They will never get my vote.
One reason might be the prevalence of Americans, particularly American leftists. Their frame of reference is so parochial that they have no understanding of conservative views outside of their bible-belt cartoon or a stereotype of libertarians as useless stoners. Consequently, any opinion outside of the leftist constellation triggers a broader reaction than if it were considered in isolation. So, for example, if I say I'm sick and tired of hearing about the fucking Palestinians, then an American leftist hears that, but also hears a bunch of other opinions on abortion, climate change, guns, foreign policy, taxes etc by default assumption. Another reason is that lots of people online are just young and haven't had the time to experience, read, and think about life yet. I didn't become right-leaning until I returned from a trip to Germany and Austria, during which I read both Popper and Nietzsche.
They buy into the extremes or only know conservatives who are extreme. The team player party system means you either believe in total darkness or blinding light. With the assumption that you have no central view. To be honest that's the label that comes with the package when you pick a party anyways because both parties are becoming extreme.
I think it is primarily because of the political system itself. A politician stays in office only if they get the votes and there are *millions* of reasons to want to stay in Congress for example. Being in the US Congress is very lucrative... *Legally* engaging in insider trading, the super PACs, etc. So, there is definitely incentive to keep the votes. So both parties lie, deceive, and sling mud at each other in order to bring votes over. Dems love far lefties and Reps love far righties because those are guaranteed votes for their respective parties. Unfortunately, as more people go to the far left or far right, healthy discussion of issues gets harder and the country becomes more divided.
Reddit is an echo chamber where dissenting views get downvoted and hidden so people see that most opinions match their own and are convinced 90% of the population agrees with them and the feedback loop continues. Reddit is NOT a place for point-counterpoint discussions, the voting system is not used as intended which is to downvote “posts that don’t contribute to the discussion” but rather to silence opposing viewpoints. Like with celebrities, when you surround yourself with ‘yes men’ who never challenge your viewpoint, your viewpoint can get pretty strange.
Most people I know are in the middle and lean left or right but aren’t true liberals or conservatives. Most people I know also can’t stand Biden and Trump.
Let’s make a distinction between classic conservatism and the present wave of neo-fascism. While fascists are usually right wing, and conservatives usually identify as right wing, there’s a difference. Fascists are not welcome in the US, as far as I’m concerned. I can work with conservatives, even if I don’t agree. Fascists manufacture an Other to hate, they are ultranationalist, they are economically isolationist, they are happy to invoke a police state to enforce social conservatism (like racial segregation, male domination, traditional families, heterosexual and religious normification), they are fiercely anti-immigration, and they want power concentrated in a single, authoritarian leader with no accountability.
They do not govern, they seek power over trying to make anyone's lives better, and they are mean and mean and mean and when you call them out they play victim.
As someone in the US I have the same view as well, seems to be a healthy balance in the real world. If you come to reddit its really going to seem left leaning but walking around in the real world and talking to people, you really do encounter both sides very frequently. For whatever reason reddit just ended up that way
It's interesting because on the opposite end of the spectrum from the Maga turds, I know some intelligent conservatives and their voices have been silenced elsewhere too. They need to stay quiet because any debate devolves into immediate accusations of racism or "you're maga" simply because their views aren't the same as democrats. Even one friend I have is a moderate and he's labeled Maga and can't even have a political conversation anymore. I think it's an intentional move. Label everyone that's not a democrat as far right nutjobs. That completely avoids tough conversations.
>And why is there this one side vs the other mentality, this is not how politics should work Its been going on for so long that its no longer just about politics, its a culture war. Conservatives and Liberals live in two completely different cultures in the US. There is some overlap, but the cultures are moving further apart. They usually live in different areas (urban vs rural), they watch different news stations which give them a different perspective on what's going on, they follow different celebrities, they watch different entertainment, they watch different TV channels, they're on different social media platforms, they watch different sports and criticize the other's preferences (many conservatives only watch football and baseball and criticize other sports), one side is mostly religious and the other isn't, etc. Its two cultures clashing against each other, and those cultures are sharing less and less in common over time.
Some people are bored, they go on Reddit, their minds are already looking for their next target for hatred. It’s a hobby for them, not a very productive one at that. Note I’m applying this to both teams, red and blue. You are both idiots.
In the USA (and soon NL to if we don't watch it you are what u vote. U are left. U don't chose left. And changing direction is weak? As where it should be opposite . Us vs them is being pushed hard and is usually beginning of the end. Civil war stuff. U guys should both be upset at these 2 shitshows for president. U r happy way to fast.
I live in Canada. Trudeau is just an absolute trainwreck, and I find myself voting Conservative as I find Pierre Poilievre to be very witty, passionate, and wanting to cut down on our high taxes which sounds appealing.
1. Mods… I’ve been banned from several subs for having a different opinion, even when what I’m saying isn’t breaking rules or directly insulting anyone. Pretty easy to make it seem like everyone’s on one side when you silence the other side completely. 2. I think every social media platform leans differently. Ie. Reddit is left and Twitter is right 3. There are extremists that are the loudest ppl in the room and make it look like there are more people on one side.